Lausanne and Lake Geneva

 We are gaining confidence in our understanding of the Swiss public transportation system.  Arriving in Lausanne by train (now French-speaking announcements), we put our luggage in a locker and quickly transferred to the Metro to visit the old part of town. After walking the old city (not amazing) we took the Metro to the lakefront (section called "d'Ouchy), for a walk on the promenade and a sumptuous dinner. A goat cheese salad, a half liter of beer, and sorbet for me. Then, after retrieving our luggage, we flagged a taxi to take us to our B&B in a residential neighborhood.

Dinner at the Lausanne harbor.  Those little pancake-looking things are full of goat cheese; delicious (this is the French part of Switzerland.).  Plus a half liter of good beer.

Side paddle wheel boat built in 1910.  We cruised Lake Geneva to Montreux on this.  The Swiss Travel Pass covers all these lake transports.

Our taxi driver let us off where he insisted our B&B was located, but he was off by 1 1/2 blocks.  Given the density of multi-family dwellings and the convoluted streets, we might never have found the correct address except that a nice gentleman came out to empty trash, and we solicited his help.  We called our hostess; he provided our location; and our B&B  hostess drove to our location to guide us to her home.

We quickly learned the local bus schedule (every ten minutes) and had no further needs for a taxi.

Lake Geneva is very large, almost 50 miles long, with the southern shore part of France and the north a French-speaking part of Switzerland.  Lausanne is central to the north shore.  While here, we took two day trips.  First we took a boat trip to Montreux.  Our vessel was a 250’ long, side paddle wheeler built in 1910 but maintained in beautiful condition; a scenic way to see the entire shore.

The north shore of Lake Geneva covered in vineyards.  Note that there is very little wind.  We saw many sailboats in Switzerland, but the wind did not blow during the 16 days we were there.

Walking the Montreux promenade; it is miles long with constant flowers and artwork and statuary. This is mainly a resort town and very pretty.  The climate here is surprisingly mild with few freezing days.

The flowers were in full bloom; no sign that the season was ending.

This is a favorite area for local tourism, being near at hand and with an almost Mediterranean climate.  The hillsides show many villas surrounded by extensive vineyards.  Reaching Montreux, a high-end resort town, we enjoyed walking the miles-long promenade with its endless flowers and artist’s sculptures. We followed that with a tasty meal at a Middle-Eastern restaurant.  Then we hopped the train back to Lausanne.

Another yummy dinner with beer.  Fine dining is fairly expensive, but we were on vacation!  The weather was such that our meals were invariably taken out-of-doors.

We had planned to cross the lake to Evian (where Evian water comes from) on the French shore the following day, but when we arrived at the pier, we were informed that, as outsiders, a new Covid test would be required for us to cross the lake.  We quickly changed our destination to Nyon, a smaller town in the SW direction of Geneva, and took the train instead.  It proved to be a pleasant day.  The town is smaller but scenic.  The train station is at the high side of the town with cobblestone streets and shops cascading down a steep hill to the marina.

Nyon waterfront and marina.  The marina approach from town is rather steep; we found an elevator at a parking lot to help with the differing heights.

         A well-maintained town castle in Nyon: now a public building.

                                           Gate from the castle to its courtyard.

 I had a meal of calamari with my usual half liter of beer at a lakeside restaurant.  We shopped our way back up the hill, buying only some sunscreen (new tech and unavailable in the US), and took the train back to Lausanne.

            I couldn't leave you without showing the calamari (plus rice and vegetables) dinner and thirst-quenching beer.

In Lausanne, we transferred from train to Metro, had dessert at the harbor, then the Metro to Flon station where we transfer to a bus to Bugnon, near our B&B. Not as much hassle as you would imagine.  All these forms of transportation are interconnected by distance and schedule so that wait times are short.