Day 16 - Monday 6th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
Yesterday (...) started quite early (for us). We were up and out of the campsite by 9:30, for a stroll along Lausanne's waterfront and marinas. Along the way we read about various Olympic things on handy little information signs (Lausanne is very important in the Olympics, apparently). The views were, as expected, rather nice, though there was a lot of haze (smoke?) on the water so we couldn't see the mountains surrounding the lake too well.
After a long slog up the hill towards the town centre, we headed to the train station and caught a train to Geneva. Again, the scenery was gorgeous, but being behind two panes of glass it was difficult to get a good photo!
We arrived and wandered about for a little while before stumbling upon Tourist Information. We then set off for the waterfront. I don't know what I was expecting, really, probably a lake made of gold given the praise everyone seems to heap on it. Basically, it was a bit like Zürich's waterfront, but with a huge fountain, and lots of Ferraris surrounding it.
Pretty impressive, anyway.
The rest of the town is very nice, too; an interesting mix of architectural styles, an interesting mix of people, and an interesting mix of posh and not-so-posh. Perhaps 50 metres separated buskers and ice-cream stands from high-tech-looking banks with Mercs (complete with blacked-out windows), Lamborghinis and Ferraris parked outside (often with chauffeurs or guards nearby).
We had a nice rest in the park since it was ridiculously hot, and watched some more giant chess. We found some English people that evidently don't know a lot about chess, as arguments kept breaking out over whether the queen can move like a horse or not. We had to be the official judges for them!
We wandered back to the train station, caught the train back to Lausanne and then a bus back to the campsite (which we managed to avoid paying for!).
Dinner consisted of some kind of macaroni cheese thing, to which we added more cheese (kind of like Emmental) and some interestingly named “Knoblaunchwurst”. It turned out to be plate-lickingly delicious, much to our surprise! Lunch, which I forgot to mention, was a very thin crust pizza with deliciously expensive-looking ham on it - nice!
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