Swiss cheese please
I’ve forgotten just how nice it is to be able to fly in and out of London City Airport and not to face all the travel chaos of Heathrow. Bec decided about a month ago that we needed a break away, so sourced options from London City airport only as we can just about reach up and touch the planes landing from our place. And the semi cheap flight option was flying to Geneva, Switzerland.
So off we set, but being the little internet travel research ‘queen’ that she is, she decided that after reading reviews we would stay a little further around Lake Leman (Geneva), in Lausanne. Arriving at Geneva airport we had another pleasant travel surprise. Free train tickets into the city are just beside the exit doors from baggage reclaim. As it did in Barcelona, this really makes you feel welcome, and takes a little stress and confusion away after a very early morning start. Not that the trip into town is very long. Less than 6 minutes, I think. Again, another big difference from Heathrow!
We stopped off in Geneva for a little look around and as it was a nice sunny day we spent some time walking around some of the lake, parks and local sites, then a quick spot of lunch. We hadn’t really done any research on what to see in Geneva, so we were mainly just wandering aimlessly. Apart from a huge fountain on the lake front we didn’t really find anything worth mentioning, or even taking many photos of, so we decided to head off to our destination – Lausanne – a short (45 minute) train ride up the lake side, past huge vineyards stretching right up the hills from the lake front to (seemingly) the tops of the hills. Well, I say hills, but you really wouldn’t want to walk straight up them, or have to carry a heap of grapes up them either. They were generally pretty steep! Huge amounts of work had obviously gone into constructing little stone walls to level out the slope a little bit so the vines didn’t all just fall off the side into the lake.
Arriving in Lausanne we were confronted by a lot more step hills. But luckily the walk down to the hotel was all downhill, straight down to the lake. Thankfully when you check into your hotel you are given a free travel pass for the length of your stay (again, a brilliant move by someone), and boy did we make use of it in the steep town of Lausanne. I’m not kidding it is hill city after living in London (OK we know London has no hills, but Lausanne is built on hills), and especially because we were staying right on the waterfront.
We explored quite a lot of the city on the Friday : a big Gothic cathedral with an amazing organ right out of a Dracula movie, fought our way through the street markets, lots of walking around, etc… There was a big free concert/festival thingee going on on the waterfront the whole time we stayed, so every time we’d wander past there we could have a laugh at some of those (few) who were cutting shapes (dancing) at the front of the stage.
Perhaps an unsurprising highlight of the trip was a spontaneous visit to a place a little up the road (or railway line, as we used) called Vevey. A small town with a great water front. Including a big fork stuck in the lake. More grapes galore, some old ruins etc… All good for some more aimless wandering. And a special treat! A trip up and down the hill on a funicular! Certainly beats walking up!
On the Sunday back in Lausanne we used the handy free bus pass again to get up to the top of the hill behind the city to go walking through some bush/forest and climb up a huge tower. Lovely and quiet, with hardly any people around. Then back to town for wine and cheese on the waterfront. And there was even a wee farm up the hill too with some cute animals, along with some not quite so cute ones. Pigs, cows (including cow bells), goats and rabbits… All a bit random.
Monday was a bit of a weird day, as it always seems to be on the day you leave anywhere. A really leisurely morning around the hotel and close environs, then we decided to head back to Geneva airport early. And as luck would have it Swiss Air managed to get us on an earlier flight so we didn’t have to sit in an airport for a couple of extra hours. Always pays to ask!
And that was the weekend! A nice break to rest and feel able to face London and work again for a while.