La Suisse!

Switzerland 2011

Switzerland: A nightmare for the lactose intolerant. The chocolate, the fondue, the croissants, the café au lait, the Gruyère.....delicious, but difficult to manage for those of us with sensitive stomachs. Truth is, we've eaten better here than in Italy, which we can't quite figure out. Ideas anybody?

So we took the train from Milano to Lausanne where we settled in at a hotel not far from the neighbourhood we lived in seven years ago. We spent the next day and a half wandering around all our old haunts and were all a bit over-whelmed at various points. We went to the kids' old schools, our old apartment, and even the candy store the kids used to stop at on the way home from school. We also picnicked at the lakeshore (Ouchy), where we had a better view of the French Alps and Evian than we've ever had. We went back to one of the kids' favourite restaurants, Chez Nif, which sadly is now a Starbucks, a crazy-expensive Starbucks, i.e., $10.00 for a latte!

We had forgotten just how beautiful Lausanne is, and also a number of things have changed - like they now have no smoking laws, which means that you can actually taste your food when you eat at cafés and restaurants. More things seem to be open on Sundays; they don't seem to be advertising Canadian horse meat in restaurants as much as they used to (seriously, we used to be amazed by all the "cheval canadien" that was sold here). And, the new ultra-right wing party here is in full gear advertising "Stopper L'immigration Massive" and What face do you want Switzerland to have? - depicting exclusively white European faces. Still, the city seems to actually be a bit more diverse than it was seven years ago.

We spent a lovely evening with Diane's colleague, Elisabeth, and her family at their house in the country, and then the next morning, we dropped off Aviva at the train station, as she was heading off to London, via Geneva airport, to join her troupe that is heading up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival shortly. We'll be meeting up with her there later on.

We were all set to head up into the mountains for two days of hiking, when we noticed how red and swollen Noah's right eye had become. Coincidentally our hotel was a block and a half from the Opthamological Hospital so off went Noah and Rob to get his eye checked out. What would a RANAD vacation be without a trip to the hospital? Turns out it was an infected stye, and he was given a script and we were headed out of town by noon.

We drove up to the highest altitude village in all of Switzerland, Chandolin, and stayed at a lovely inn (Plampras - say that 10 times fast). From here we did two hikes, the second of which was toward Arpitettaz. So about that hike. It was recommended to us by Elisabeth's über buff daughter, Juliette, who told us it was going to be challenging, i.e. for healthy but inexperienced hikers. She also said that we were just doing the first day of a two day hike, the second day of which would require a guide. So when we saw the signs warning "expert climbers only," we figured that only applied to day two. Wrongo!! After about an hour of very steep climbing, we hit a section of sheer rock at a 60 degree angle that required you to clamber up, pulling yourself along using these chains that were fastened to the rock. After about three switch backs like this, with much drama and tears from Diane, we arrived at the next section, which was actually at about an 80 degree angle (we are not exaggerating). Aaron and Noah were raring to go, but at this point Rob pulled the plug and said we're all heading back down. We doubled back a short bit, but then Noah found a safer alternate route, which appears to have been a goat path, as we ran into their droppings all along the steep, but grassy incline. At the top we picnicked amidst gorgeous vistas of two different glaciers. We continued on along a ridge and ran into a heard of goats (well actually they were sheep). Broken telephone moment: Diane called ahead to Aaron, "Tell Noah to be careful around the goats, if you get too close they can kick and bite." Aaron said to Noah, "Careful around the goats, if you get too close they can pick a fight."

On the way back down we met up with another group of hikers, and realized we had been taking the wrong path all along! Still, the experience was great, and from above the tree line and the clouds, we got to see the Dent Blanche, the Zinal Rothorn, and the Weisshorn.

Now we're on the TGV (high-speed train) to Paris, holy tamolly, is it ever going fast!

Talk to you later,
RANAD