Zurich to Lausanne, Switzerland: July 24-26

Caught the mid-day train from Zurich to Lausanne. Pro-tip: always bring ziplock bags to the buffet breakfast in a European hotel. Especially in the German or Austrian areas, as they love their meat, cheese and bread for breakfast — which in our terms makes a lovely train lunch. Not to worry, look around the breakfast tables at the hotel, you’ll see others (even the snobby French) doing the same. Here’s photographic evidence of our crime. (Lest you think we’re gluttons – we ate only a small portion of this haul, saving the rest for later.)

We arrived at the Lausanne train station late afternoon and as pre-arranged, met up with our exchange partners accompanied by their daughter and boyfriend (the latter speak excellent English). We walked over to a little cafe, had a drink, exchanged keys, information, chatted for bit and then our exchange couple dashed for their train to Geneva to fly to San Francisco. (I think MI5 may not be as adept as the 6 of us were at this involved arrangement.) The daughter and boyfriend drove us up to our exchange apartment, showed us the appliances (whew what a bonus!) and made sure we felt at home. We shared a quick glass of wine and swiss cheeses that had been left for us, exchanged contact information and thank you’s and we were all set.

This is a new 5-floor apartment building and the apartment is a great pride of our exchange partners who just purchased it earlier this year. This is the view of Lake Geneva from the deck:

Just below this spanking new complex is the village of Pully – which we explored the next day (Saturday) so as to test drive our exchange car (photo of car included for you Dad – husband says to tell you it’s an Opal.) We stopped on the way back up the hill to do some grocery shopping. Exchange folks left us a lasagna so we got salad makings and a baquette to complete a nice dinner that evening. Click on photos to view larger.

Sunday was overcast, with a chance of rain (a relief from the 90 degree heat wave Switzerland has suffered for the last 3 weeks) so we drove down the hill to Ouchy area which circumvents the lake. Parked in a 5 hour permit area and walked down into the town, found a open market and enjoyed our first taste of the Lausanne. Again, click to view larger.