Lausanne, Switzerland

Paula, Nicole, Teo and I headed out for a train ride on Friday.  Teo loves trains and the chance to ride one is always a popular option with him.  We chose a destination of Lausanne - the large city just east of Morges along the coast of Lake Geneva.  Teo was checking out the scenery as we rode along.

When we arrived at the bustling train station in Lausanne, we parted ways - Nicole and Teo heading back to Morges and Monnaz (another train ride!  HURRAY!) and Paula and I striking out towards the city center.  In Lausanne this involved a steady uphill hike on walking streets for probably a mile.  Very steep.  But we had a lot of company - lots of people out shopping or walking up or downhill.

Eventually we arrived in the old part of town and after stopping for a bottle of fizzy mineral water headed for the relatively famous cathedral.  It was nice to sit for a while in it's cool quiet and recover from the climb...

 Paula and I then started to walk back down through the city.  A Swiss Army Knife store caught my attention, but having a half dozen of them already in my camping box at home, I managed to not purchase more...

Some typical European street scenes (the cow is a replica...)

A spot with both a McDonalds and a Starbucks in view...

And eventually we came across a COOP department store.  These have become a favorite of ours since they have excellent cafeterias where ordering and eating is relatively painless for non-French speakers.  We had the medium wok plates (load them up with as much as you want - fried rice, Thai fish curry, Thai chicken curry, spring rolls, and other items fresh out of the wok).

With a view of the city from the rooftop garden (with a friendly sparrow keeping an eye on us) we had a fine lunch.  The bill for the two of us came to 36.45 Francs (about the same in American dollars).  Switzerland is not cheap.

After geting lost on our way downhill to the train station (it must be down here somewhere...) we eventually found it and from there hopped on a subway train to the waterfront on Lake Geneva.

Some ice cream cones for dessert as we sat and watched the boats leaving for destinations in Switzerland and across the lake in France finished off an excellent meal.  It was also popular with some sparrows that picked up the crumbs next to Paula.  And eventually one of them grabbed the small bit of cone that was left in her hand and flew off with it!

After a relaxing time on the waterfront, we headed back - subway, train, bus - to Monnaz.