Nice Days on Lake Geneva

Thanks to everyone who has been following us so far. The internet service in our hotel in Lausanne was broken last night so we took a break from email. We’re in Geneva now and seem to have a good connection.

We had a lovely drive from Bern through the mountains into Lausanne. The mountains are fabulous. We stayed in Lausanne last night on the shores of Lake Geneva. The view is across the water to snow covered mountains. Amazing. Two of my favorite things – water and mountains.

I have to say that I’ve been feeling better the last couple of days. I think it’s a combination of the peacefulness of the mountains, recovering from jet lag, and getting better at dealing with the luggage. Still, I’ll be glad to get to our home-away-from-home in a couple more days. I’m craving settling in, shopping for food to fix at home and becoming comfortable with the area. And I can’t wait to start the next round of changes to my book! I’m ready for that now. During our travels, Mike and I have found a couple of approaches to our travel that seem to work best for us. One is to pick a spot as a base and do day trips from there (like we did last year out of Cotignac). The other is to go only short distances in a day – like we’ve done on this trip. The only exception will be our drive from Geneva to Cotignac which will be five hours. Ugh.

Back to the experiences of the last couple of days. We left off in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. I got up early for a morning walk along the river front to discover farmers and merchants setting up for a big market along the main corridor. Mike was, of course, thrilled. It was the first market we’ve seen this trip and the first of many more to come. It was fun to walk through and think that in a few days, we can shop for our own meals at a market like this. Can’t wait!


Our drive took us into the Swiss countryside for two culinary adventures. The first we enjoyed in Gruyeres – the town that gives the cheese its name. We saw a cheese-making demonstration that was, well, cheesy. But the town was charming, situated on a hilltop with a castle and shops rambling down the slope. These little towns can have the most obscure museums. This one had an “alien” museum. It was put together by the man who made the movie “Aliens”. We couldn’t justify the admission price, so someone else will have to try it.
But the culinary adventure was VERY yummy. The area is known for its meringues – hard, crispy, sweets made from egg whites. (The town of Meringen is only a few kilometers away.) They are served with “double cream”. We had two meringues of which I ate almost all of both. The combination was heaven.


Our next culinary adventure was in Gstaad. Gstaad is another charming mountain town surrounded by soaring peaks. Gstaad is home to the rich and famous and you could definitely tell – Hermes, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and more. The shops were picture perfect – almost too much so.
Personally, I didn’t love the town. It was too pretentious for my taste. There was a shop called “Temporary Outlet”. It was the only one I went in thinking there might be some great bargain. Not so much. The clothes were all Valentino, Dior, Dolce Gabana, etc. The sales people glowered as I looked through the clothes. There was a nice leather Valentino jacket for 7,000 Euros – AT THE OUTLET. I decided to pass. We left and went to lunch – Swiss fondue! It was the real thing made primarily with the local gruyere cheese. Fondue is typically served with bread which I can’t have. At my request, they very nicely prepared apples and potatoes for me. And here’s the big news – I discussed my special need with the waitress all in French! It may not have been grammatically correct, but she and I got the job done. And the fondue was fabulous. Mike and I ate almost the whole pot of cheese (no – it wasn’t full).

Our drive through the mountains into the lake region was spectacular. It was a tiny road through the snow-covered mountains with dramatic drops into the valleys and mountains high overhead. As we came into the lake area, the terrain changed to a wine growing region. Vineyards were being cultivated on every possible surface. Mountainsides were terraced for the vines. They must tending the vines by hand since equipment would not be able to access the steep mountain sides and for such small patches of land. It’s a far cry from the county-sized farm lands of Texas.

Finally, we reached the southern end of Lake Geneva. It’s so beautiful with the mountains ringing the Lake. We stopped at Montreux for a cup of coffee and a walk along their promenade. Kids were everywhere on little scooters enjoying the sunshine and ice cream. It’s all so very Swiss.
You can tell because every other shop sells Swiss army knives! They are absolutely everywhere! I didn’t know they made this many types of knives and they are very expensive. Mike took a picture of what he says is the mother of all Swiss army knives. It was more than 1000 Euros! I can’t say that I understand paying that kind of money for a knife but then, I can’t imagine paying 7000 Euros for a coat either.

We enjoyed our stay overnight in Lausanne. It too is on the lake and our hotel room overlooked the water and mountains. Ideal. I took a long walk this morning along the shore and it was magnificent. Every day should start like this. When I got back, Mike was already showered and packed up! We took the bus up the big hill into the old town in search of a bakery and café.
In the process we saw the old town hall where Mozart played two concerts when he was 10 years old. They also have a magnificent gothic cathedral built in 1270. There were fruit, vegetable, cheese and meat stalls set up all around so that was fun, too. And even tortilla chips!

After our visit to the old town area, we went to the Olympic Museum. We’d both forgotten that Lausanne is the headquarters for the International Olympic Committee. And what I nice spot they picked! The museum was interesting and included all of the Olympic torches. It went through the history of the establishment of the Games. From there we headed to Geneva.

We’re staggering from the price of the food here. We decided to buy some bread, meats and cheese and eat dinner in the room. After all the meringues and fondue, I mostly skipped dinner – except for a glass wine (you can’t skip everything!). We even had leftovers for a picnic lunch today. Here’s an example of food prices in Geneva. For dinner, Mike had a pizza (a very yummy, wood fired pizza) for about $21 and I had a salad nicoise for about $20. In an upscale restaurant, the entrees alone would be between $30-50 each. I can eat a lot of picnic meals for that amount of money!

And, then there are gas prices. The prices were high in Germany but increased in Switzerland. Mike calculates that the price per gallon is $6.45. The car gets good gas mileage but, at these prices, it adds up quickly. We’re hoping the price will come down once we get to France.

We arrived in Geneva by mid-afternoon and spent some time exploring the old section of the city. Where yesterday was a stunning day with blue skies and warm weather, today was much cooler and cloudy. It made walking around less fun. But, we saw the main sights including a clock made from flowers, and the huge water jet that defines Geneva. Our room is nice so we’re looking forward to relaxing before our last day in Switzerland.