(posted by John, photos by Jen)
We headed to Switzerland before the autumn weather became too cold. Lausanne was our destination city on the shores of Lake Geneva http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lausanne. Lausanne is in the French speaking portion of Switzerland (Switzerland is home to four native language regions: German, French, Italian, and Romansh). I originally traveled to Lausanne in 2004 while working for Medtronic and immediately fell in love with the city and region. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and I have been looking forward to sharing that experience with Jen and the kids.
We departed The Netherlands on Thursday, September 20 by plane and about an hour later we arrived in Geneva. We immediately boarded a train and headed to our hotel in Espresse on the shores of Lake Geneva. No car this trip, we intended to take full advantage of the Swiss transit system. Many believe train rides are the best part of any Swiss adventure http://www.swisstravelsystem.com/en/home.html
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| On the shore of Lake Geneva |
We headed into the Swiss Alps on a beautiful Friday morning. After multiple train connections we arrived at Schilthorn, a 10,000ft peak on which a rotating restaurant has been built http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schilthorn. Ryan chose this as our destination as he "definitely wanted to eat in a rotating restaurant that sits on top of a mountain.” The restaurant was featured in the James Bond movie “On her majesty’s secret service.”
The ride getting there and the destination were wonderful! Train rides through beautiful valleys with gorgeous mountain views…
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| Swiss Valley viewed from the Train |
Snow-capped mountains…
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| Switzerland at 10,000 ft. |
And a rotating restaurant!
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| A Rotating Restaurant at 10,000 ft! |
We stayed on the mountain for about an hour and a half before beginning our decent toward our hotel. Early into our journey back we had a 30 minute wait for our bus connection. As luck would have it, we were entertained by 6-7 sky-divers jumping off a cliff into the valley where we were waiting! Very entertaining indeed! Ryan’s curiosity was peaked by this display. We may have an xtreme sportsman in the making.
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| Waiting for our bus... |
We arrived back at the hotel quite late that evening but what a wonderful day it was
We awoke the next morning and traveled to Lausanne. Just a short train ride from our hotel, we toured the Olympic Museum http://www.olympic.org/museum. Lausanne is home to the International Olympic Committee and thus has a museum of many famous Olympic artifacts. Unfortunately, the museum was under construction, but they had a very nice temporary exhibit where we viewed medals, torches and memorabilia from the entire modern Olympic era.
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| The Olympic Museum |
We spent the rest of the day playing at a park located right on Lake Geneva, shopping, and eating dinner at a Lausanne restaurant famous for its cheese fondue. The Restaurant was recommended by our Swiss neighbor Sylvie and we all enjoyed it!
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| Playing at the Park |
On Sunday we took the train to Chateau de Chillon, a historic Castle located on the east end of Lake Geneva http://www.chillon.ch/en/index.cfm. The castle is located on a rock island just off the mainland shore. Believed to have been first occupied as a military outpost by the Romans, the first castle structure was built in the 1100’s by the House of Savoy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Savoy. The Castle guarded a key north/south trade route from France to Italy and thus was a tax making money machine! The House of Savoy kept control of the castle until the 1500’s when it was conquered by the Bernese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bern. The castle lost its importance as other European trade routes developed, but it still retained its strategic military importance.
Chateau de Chillon was definitely one of the better Castles we have toured.
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| Chateau de Chillon |
From the Castle we took a boat to Montreax, a lovely lake side town in between the castle and Lausanne. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the sun before boarding the train to pick up our bags at the hotel and head to the airport.
We continue to enjoy our European adventures, in many ways they keep getting better as the kids become more experienced travelers and we start to visit sites and places that are a bit off the beaten path.
We hope you are well. Take care,
John
