Driving to Lausanne was a scenic road following Lake Geneva on one side and vineyards on the other. I’m not sure why the GPS didn’t take us up to the highway but I enjoyed the 30 mph drive from Vevey to Lausanne. They have a nice transit system in Lausanne that you pay to park and it also provides you with public transportation tickets. This came in handy since the town is all up hill from the Lake. Lausanne is the smallest city in the world with a rapid transit system, which was a metro that takes you from the lake up into the city and suburbs.

The backwards “C” in the water is used to see the direction of the wind. There are 4 different granite blocks on land and you see which one lines up with the “C”.

This was the first day that we actually sat down and had lunch. It was still at a fast food restaurant called Holy Cow. The name was very fitting since that was the largest burger I have ever eaten. The burger came with fries and a drink. The total for lunch was around $25 per person. Switzerland is very expensive so we splurged for fast food.

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We made it to Lake Geneva and decided to visit Lausanne on our first full day here. The scenery and architecture has really changed as we have driven closer to France. Lausanne is the home of the Olympic committee and they have a countdown till the next summer and winter Olympic games. There was even a big tent setup for people trading Olympic pins. Lausanne is on Lake Geneva and across the lake is Evian, France. I enjoyed listening to the sounds of the street performers and watching the people go about their Friday.

At the very end of the video, you can see the beautiful vineyards that we drove past on the way there. The hills along the lake are full of vineyards that make the drive so beautiful.

Here is a video of the very small cute town of Gruyères.

Cailler (chocolate factory also known as Nestlè) and Gruyère (cheese factory) were both on the way from Kandersteg to Vevey. Lunch yesterday consisted of chocolate tasting followed by cheese tastings. We first stopped at the chocolate factory and at the end of the tour they let you sample as many chocolates as you want. I felt like I had to try as many as I could since they were all just sitting in front of you. After about 10 truffles and not water, I realized I needed to stop. After sampling chocolate, we headed up the road to Gruyères. We visited the cute town before heading down to the cheese factory. Stores in Switzerland usually close for a lunch break so we walked around until the cheese factory demonstrations were going again. There wasn’t much to see at the cheese demo but they did give us samples of Gruyère from different stages of the aging process.

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We left Kandersteg yesterday after saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts. I’m pretty sure I have never had a host give me a hug on my way out the door. I think we have convinced them that they need to come to Portland someday. They have sailed all over the world but they have never been to the US. Their medical insurance covered them to go anywhere in the world except for the United States while they were sailing. They said it was too expensive to be covered in the US so they had to skip it.

The drive took us through the Alps and into the French region of Switzerland. I enjoyed the green rolling hills and snow top mountains as I drive. I found a place to pull over and take a couple of pictures out my car window.

Here is a short video of what our drive looked like…including the dirty windshield.

Here is a video of Bern minus the bike accident.

You will hear the strong Kandersteg wind in this video. It reminds me of home. They actually don’t let you leave the windows open in your room when you leave because the weather can change so quickly in the Alps. In the first part of the video, you can see our silver car parked in front of the house. My favorite is the end of the video because someone is driving their four wheeler down the road. It almost seems that cars are not the normal transportation in some of these towns.

Here is a video of Oeschinensee. This really is one of the most spectacular lakes I have ever visited. We were there at the beginning of wild flower season, and I’m told that there are plenty of wild animals around as well. It was interesting to me though that they are considering introducing bears again to the area. I guess I just assumed that there were bears in the area. I wasn’t happy to learn that they do have poisonous snakes and the couple from North Carolina saw one while they were hiking to the lake.

On our way up to the Rose Garden in Bern, we needed to stop and look at a map. Maybe we were just out of breath and tired but luckily we stopped on a corner in some shade. We were walking up a steep cobblestone street that didn’t have sidewalks so the corner seemed like a good place to pull out the map. Right after we stepped there, a bike went flying by us and straight into a garage door. It was honestly like a crash dummy video where they see how much impact a body can take with certain amounts of force…except this was a real person going maybe 30 to 40 mph.

I have never seen a person crash so hard into anything. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and lucky for him he ran into a wood garage door instead of the hard stucco house. His front tire hit first and then his head and he just bounced so hard off the door and on to the ground. His head was bleeding instantly and he had two huge knots on his forehead. The cut was above his eye and his lip was huge. His shoulder was badly bruised and his knee was bleeding.

We asked if he was OK, and he said he was. He got up and was going to get back on his bike. We told him that he couldn’t go on like that. He had blood everywhere. We said he thought he needed a doctor, and he kept asking us if we were sure he should go to the doctor. I was tempted to call the ambulance from my phone but I had no idea where I was in the town not to mention I didn’t know the number. A car drove by and the kid in the front seat noticed what was going on. A minute later the mother from the car and her two sons came down to help us. She called the ambulance, and we waited there with him. Seemed like an eternity for the ambulance to get there. They checked him out, took our statement and then took him away. The lady that helped us told us that bikes weren’t allowed on that road and that two years ago somebody had died. We very easily could have been hit if we didn’t stop to look at the map.

I didn’t take any pictures of the poor kid (21 years old), but here is one of the ambulance before they left. I hope that he is doing better today and that he remembers where he had to leave his bike.

Since Kandersteg was so close, we used one of our full days to go to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. I have seen many pictures of the old town but I wasn’t ever able to find a place to get the same amazing photo. I probably enjoyed the market as much as the rest of the city. They had someone baking fresh bread and then locals would come buy a loaf out of the oven.

Albert Einstein lived in Bern for a short period. We decided to go into his former house which has been converted into a museum. Not sure I learned educational facts but I now more about his personal life after visiting the museum.

Bern also has 3 living bears kept in the Bear Park in the city. Two of them were sleeping most of the time but one was very active walking around between the different pits. From the bear pit we walked up to the rose garden to get a panorama of the city. We were a bit too early for roses but the walk turned out to be very interesting…

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