Our latest adventure had us taking an hour-and-a-half flight from London to Geneva Switzerland where we took a forty minute train to our destination of Lausanne Switzerland. Lausanne is known for being part of the Switzerland Riviera where the steeply sloping land down to Lake Geneva is covered in terraces of grape vines. For us, we were in Lausanne for Bryan to run his sixteenth (? I've lost track) marathon. In the midst of all our sightseeing, Bryan ran a 3:07 marathon, a minute off from his PR but still an excellent time.
One thing we learned from our trip is that the Swiss produce wine. It's not well know since they consume nearly all of it, unlike the nearby French who sell their wine. We tasted a few of the local wines and found they were all really good, much like the better known wines from France's Cote Du Rhone region.
Another thing we learned was how easy and extensive the train system is in Switzerland. We even took a narrow gauge engine up to Rochers De Naye. Our biggest issue was accidentally sitting in first-class and having to upgrade. It wasn't extremely expensive to upgrade. The problem was that Switzerland's first-class is not nearly as nice as first-class on a train in the UK! On a positive note for the train system, the last train we took back to the Geneva airport even had a small playground to keep the kids happy. Merci beaucoup to the young man at the train station who pointed out this wonderful feature.
The other interesting thing about Switzerland is that they allow the members of their army to keep their weapons at home. No big deal, you think until you're on a train with fifty of them and they're all carrying around their machine guns. One even had it in the overhead luggage rack, sticking out so that you could hang a coat on it. A little unnerving!
The other thing that I found interesting was the language. The part of Switzerland that we visited is in the French speaking part. Now, when we visited Paris, we found quite a few people who spoke English and spoke it well. We never had a problem communicating. It was quite different in Switzerland with very few people who spoke English, at least willingly. When you walk in a store and you don't know the language, you feel like you're underwater and can't breath. I had to remember French from my high school French classes and I think I did my teacher proud. By the end of the weekend, I was remembering some words and phrases that fifteen years should have erased. I now know what phrases and words you should know prior to visiting somewhere a foreign language is spoken.
After visiting for five days, we've now made our way back to London. We certainly enjoyed our time in Switzerland but are happy to be home. Less than a month till we head out on the next adventure--Rome! I need to get our copy of Italian for Dummies!
One thing we learned from our trip is that the Swiss produce wine. It's not well know since they consume nearly all of it, unlike the nearby French who sell their wine. We tasted a few of the local wines and found they were all really good, much like the better known wines from France's Cote Du Rhone region.
Another thing we learned was how easy and extensive the train system is in Switzerland. We even took a narrow gauge engine up to Rochers De Naye. Our biggest issue was accidentally sitting in first-class and having to upgrade. It wasn't extremely expensive to upgrade. The problem was that Switzerland's first-class is not nearly as nice as first-class on a train in the UK! On a positive note for the train system, the last train we took back to the Geneva airport even had a small playground to keep the kids happy. Merci beaucoup to the young man at the train station who pointed out this wonderful feature.
The other interesting thing about Switzerland is that they allow the members of their army to keep their weapons at home. No big deal, you think until you're on a train with fifty of them and they're all carrying around their machine guns. One even had it in the overhead luggage rack, sticking out so that you could hang a coat on it. A little unnerving!
The other thing that I found interesting was the language. The part of Switzerland that we visited is in the French speaking part. Now, when we visited Paris, we found quite a few people who spoke English and spoke it well. We never had a problem communicating. It was quite different in Switzerland with very few people who spoke English, at least willingly. When you walk in a store and you don't know the language, you feel like you're underwater and can't breath. I had to remember French from my high school French classes and I think I did my teacher proud. By the end of the weekend, I was remembering some words and phrases that fifteen years should have erased. I now know what phrases and words you should know prior to visiting somewhere a foreign language is spoken.
After visiting for five days, we've now made our way back to London. We certainly enjoyed our time in Switzerland but are happy to be home. Less than a month till we head out on the next adventure--Rome! I need to get our copy of Italian for Dummies!
