Advertisement
Published: February 7th 2010
View Of Lake Geneva, Lausanne
Another awesome vista from the top of some buildings in the city.About two days before I flew out to Switzerland my doctor had told me to avoid eating dairy products to help my sinus go away. He told me it was OK to fly, but of course I naturally didn't tell him that I was going to Switzerland...ya know, the land of cheese and chocolate?
The part of my job that I love the most is getting to go overseas on the company's expense. I was in Geneva for a two-day meeting on a Wednesday and a Thursday, so since this was my first time in Switzerland, I though I might as well take the Friday off and schedule my return flight to come back on the Sunday.
On Wednesday evening, we were taken out for a traditional Swiss fondue, which happened to be my first ever fondue. Just some cured meat for starters, and then bread dipped in cheese. Wine. Potatoes dipped in cheese. More wine. Alcoholic pear sorbet. I was absolutely dreading what kind of state my sinus would be in the next day.
So the cheese pots came out, fired by a gas fire underneath to keep the cheese fluid and as is the normal thing to do
Bern & The Aare
Taken from the Bärengraben on the east side of the River Aare. with a fondue, white wine is added to the cheese. Not sure what cheese was being used, but it stank! I was then told by my Swiss colleagues that you break your bread into very small pieces and use your super-long, special fondue fork to vigorously stir your piece of bread around the pot. It didn't seem like you were eating much, but the cheese soon filled you up. Then came the Swiss twist to the fondue; you dip your bread in
kirsch before giving it a whirl in the cheese pot.
When you put it in your mouth, you suddenly feel a hot, pungent gas rip through your mouth and nostrils - man, it was potent.
For dessert, our pear sorbets were also doused in some really strong liquor that somewhat lessened the pleasure of eating it. So in typical company style, we were all dared to scull the entire sorbet in one. Was quite thankful that I had at this stage eaten so much cheese that it lined my stomach nicely.
We continued on to a pub for another couple of drinks where I was seriously thinking about heading back to my four-star hotel bed, as I had
St. Peter's Cathedral
Geneva's oldest and largest church. had very, very little sleep in the last couple of days and there was a whole day of meeting the next day. I somehow convinced myself to carry on, and we ended up at an Irish bar (why, I don't know), our company party seeming to decrease with each successive bar we got to. Here, we got talking to the most gorgeous Swiss girl I have ever seen, who told us of a nightclub called Platinum. A few of us ventured on, spurred on by all the alcohol that we had consumed.
There was a queue outside, prompting some more of my colleagues to go home, but 5-6 of us stayed around.
It was worth hanging around, as the swanky club was nicely full, without being overcrowded.
Drinks were unbelievably expensive though - two rum and cokes and a bottle of water cost 50CHF (Swiss Francs) = £30!! Most expensive drinks ever! More expensive than Scandinavia! Scandalous!
I suppose you would have to expect that in countries where taxes are low or non-existent.
It was an awesome night though, one of those nights where you maintain a constant level of happiness without going over the edge. It also helps if
Lake Geneva
Stunning view of the lake from Lausanne. you're out with people who are willing to throw some shapes on the dancefloor and have a good time. The DJ was definitely hitting the right buttons that night - I even started to like the "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas.
We finally got back to the hotel about 5am, with our meeting starting at 9am...
Oh, it was a bloody painful day the next day. I had slept a total of about 18 hours in the last 96...I was beyond knackered.
Luckily, at the end of the day I was officially on holiday. I was definitely going
From The Ritz To The Rubble though as I went from a posh hotel and wining and dining on the company's budget to a soulless, characterless YHA hostel and feeding on kebabs in a semi-dodgy part of Geneva.
One thing I have definitely noticed about Geneva is that it is very multicultural, full of bankers and diplomats from all over the world - the world in one place with people speaking every language imaginable. Given Switzerland's constant neutrality throughout the years, it is of no surprise to see Geneva is home to organisations including the UN, the World Health Organisation and the Red
Buildings By The Lake
Geneva has some pretty pink buildings. Cross amongst others, explaining why Geneva's 180,000 population is so cosmopolitan.
At the hostel that night, all I wanted to do was sleep. During my lack-of-sleep stupor, I somehow managed to lose my locker's access card. I probably did something stupid like leave it in the the door or something. When I couldn't find it in the morning, I went into a mild state of panic. Had someone picked up my access card and taken everything from my locker? Everything I had was in that locker and all I had on me were my pyjamas. I quickly raced downstairs to reception (in my pyjamas) to get a new key. Once I got it, I raced back up and opened my locker, praying that everything was still there. And thankfully it was...except my for camera and 50CHF.
It wasn't the end of the world to lose my camera as I was going to replace it soon anyway. I could still take pictures on my iPhone and I had already downloaded all the photos from off it from previous trips - but I hated the feeling of being robbed.
There was no point getting a police report as it was probably
Geneva By Night
With Ile Rousseau on the right. gonna eat up my whole day and I speak minimal French which would have been a big hassle.
I had been thinking of sleeping in a hotel room instead of a hostel and in hindsight I probably should've - but I also realised that the thief had only taken some cash and my camera. He/she obviously only had time to grab something quickly, given the public location of the locker, so I still had my passport and credit cards - things could have been worse...far, far worse.
Anyway, it was off to Lausanne, about 50min away by train. I enjoy travelling by train - especially with the scenery being the Swiss countryside and Lake Geneva.
With a stunning backdrop against Lake Geneva, Lausanne is one of the places recommended for a visit in the French part of Switzerland. The city can be split into three parts; the old town with cobblestoned shopping streets and the sights; Flon, the old warehouse district that has now been gentrified and contains a myriad of bars and galleries; and Ouchy (pronounced ooo-schi) the old fishing village by the lake. My hostel was near Ouchy, but was a bit further out in the wops.
Ouchy, Lausanne
Quaint former fishing village on the shores of Lake Geneva. On the way, I paused for some awesome views of Lake Geneva and the Castle of Ouchy.
The hostel was actually quite funky on the inside with an atrium and arty bright green couches.
Anyway, made my way into town via a bus and then Lausanne's sloping Metro system (complete with sloping platforms) that is slow and doesn't go very far (but at least they have one) - to do the walking tour recommended by the a guide map I picked up.
Starting at the Grand Bridge, I made my way past the Eglise St. Francois and along one of the expensive shopping streets, Rue de Bourg. There are some lovely French-style buildings around this area where some have a stunning view of the lake. I then made my way into the oldest part of town where the Cathedrale de Notre Dame is. The cathedral is a lovely-looking Gothic church and the area around there still feels a little medieval with it's old-school Gallic buildings. I then walked down into Place de la Palud where the city hall is, before going for a wonder through Lausanne's very expensive-looking pedestrian shopping district. Like Vienna and Milan, the place felt very wealthy
Gothic Building, Lausanne
Nice gothic building near the Grand Pont in Lausanne. but there seemed to be a lot young people here, so it didn't feel too stuck up.
I then got to what I thought was the coolest part of Lausanne, the Flon district. All the buildings are new and modern with lots of glass and in the streets are several works of art in glass boxes. Like the old town and shopping district, the area is all pedestrianised. There is a see-through public toilet that I used - but when you close the door, the glass frosts up so you can't see anything. Really cool. Looked a bit dodgy taking photos of it though. There is a cool outdoor chill-out area underneath an artistic netting that even had free WiFi! Right next to this area is an ice rink. There were people playing ice hockey on it, except it wasn't quite ice hockey. The players were wearing normal shoes, so were slipping and sliding all over the place (which was quite amusing) and were hitting around a small, soft-foam ball with what looked like paddles with three-quarters of the paddle blade chopped off. Right next to the ice-rink was cool bar that looked like it was a greenhouse before and
Flon
Old warehouse district in Lausanne that has been revived and turned into a hub of cultural and artistic activities. was covered in cow-print. Among the other things around Flon were a cinema, more funky structures and artwork, and a funky place called Mad, which I am sure is sponsored in some way by Mad Magazine, which is like a rock club/live music venue. Would loved to have checked it out and it was Friday night, but it kinda sucks going clubbing on your own and besides, my hostel was miles away so there was no way of getting back after the public transport closes bar an expensive taxi. Plus my iPhone was running low on battery - since I was using it as my camera now as well, I was once again cursing my luck at being inconvenienced by a thief.
Overall though, I thought Lausanne was a pretty cool place.
The next day it was off to Switzerland's capital, Bern. Bern is never really mentioned as a place to visit (in fact a lot of people haven't even heard of it) so I was hoping to be surprised. Lonely Planet suggests as much, describing Bern as one of the most underrated capitals on the planet.
On the train over, I noticed that there is a clear border
Marktgasse
Main street flanked by beigy-grey, medieval, shopping arcades. between French-speaking Swizterland and German-speaking Switzerland as the announcements all became German once we went past Fribourg.
Looking out at the at the cute cottages in the Swiss countryside, I was alarmed to see that it was snowing! Geneva and Lausanne had been pretty cold, but I was not prepared for snow, with my minimal luggage. When I arrived in Bern it was freezing, almost literally. Taking pictures with gloves on is hard enough to do at the best of times, but when you're trying to work an iPhone, it meant gloves off and some very cold hands!
As I walked through Bahnhofplatz towards the old town, what greeted me was a medieval paradise. Almost all of the old town is built of a beigy-grey sandstone, giving the town an authentic sense of uniform while the medieval-ness of the place ensured that the uniformity was far from drab.
The two main streets that run through town are flanked by covered arcades that stretch along the length of the road. On top of these arcades are presumably terrace flats and apartments. Underneath the arcade are more shops, which were probably cellars before and are accessed via doors that are almost parallel
with the road.
On the way to the hostel is the landmark Zytglogge, an 800 year-old clock tower. There are also many fountains dotted all over town and the
ogre fountain that depicts a monster eating babies is just across the road from the hostel. Right opposite the hostel too, is the Bern Theatre.
So as you can guess, Bern Backpacker's Hostel is very centrally located - for sightseeing, it was brilliant. Unfortunately, I had arrived a tad early so couldn't be granted access to my room for another couple of hours. This meant that I had to brave the cold again and do some more sightseeing! I walked past the relatively disappointing Rathaus (I suppose all city halls will be disappointing once you have been to
Vienna's) before arriving at Münster, Bern's landmark cathedral.
The whole town is very compact and walkable and towards the east part of town are lots of cool little art galleries hidden away in little alleyways and beneath the arched arcades. I then came to the Nydeggbrücke bridge which was built across the River Aare in 1840. On the other side of the bridge is the famous Bärengraben, a bear enclosure that has existed
Zytglogge
Bern's famous clock tower. since 1857. The bear is a symbol of Bern and appears on the city's coat of arms. The original bear pits are now empty, but a new enclosure has just been open along the eastern bank of the Aare where the bears are now enclosed. Bears of course, hibernate in winter but I still managed to catch one sleeping in one of the many concrete cubbyholes built into the hill. From the top of the Bärengraben is a fantastic view of the city alongside the river which reminded me a lot of the view from Ponte de Dom Luis I in
Porto. I then when for a walk along the eastern bank of the Aare in the snow back towards town. There was a nice, modern and warm-looking cafe right on the river rapids that I was tempted to thaw out in, but I decided to carry on walking across the bridge, back into town past the old casino to the Bundeshaus (parliament). It is a grand building, and outside in the square in front of it was some kind of political demonstration. I don't understand German that well so I couldn't tell you what it was all about. As
Münster
Bern's towering cathedral. Undergoing restorations. if I hadn't had enough of Christmas markets in Vienna, there was another one here in Bern. I tried to find a Russian hat or an old-school pilot-style hat to warm my head with but couldn't find any I liked. I did managed to find a Mexican food stall where a Mexican mincemeat sandwich with peppers went down well. By then I was finally allowed to move into my dorm at the hostel to thaw out.
In my dorm, were two Slovenian guys, Tomas and Uros. They were nice and friendly as was the Australian girl Tara, who was also in our dorm. I chilled out for awhile before heading to an English pub (they even had London Pride on tap!) to watch Manchester United's disappointing 1-0 loss to Aston Villa, before picking up some Swiss-style grilled chicken for dinner.
Back at the hostel me and the Slovenians cracked open some beer and we were soon joined by David, a Czech who has travelled the world. We decided to move downstairs to Quasimodo, a bar/club directly under the hostel - awesome. Except it wasn't really that good and for some reason was full of cougars.
Anyway, here I was
Bundeshaus, Bern
Switzerland's parliament. feeling smug about the number of places that I have travelled to before discovering that David has been
everywhere. He was a keen climber and had already climbed in the Himalayas. He seemed very knowledgeable and quite opinionated also, which became a bit irritating. Nothing was really happening in Quasimodo, so we went upstairs to the common room where David kindly offered to share a couple of joints with us. It was a pretty big common room and there were a group of Swedish guys getting wasted on another table. One of them, Freddie, came over and started talking to us. He was already quite drunk but manages to convince me to go out clubbing with them. Uros, Tomas and David weren't too keen so they stayed behind.
I was a little tipsy, but these guys were already pretty hammered so getting to our destination was a hard slog. After a McDonalds pit stop, we managed to bundle ourselves into two taxis to take us to the Wankdorf Club, which was quite a way out of the old town. After wasting some more time talking to a couple of young local girls and getting cash out we finally made it
Bärengraben
New bear enclosure at Bern's famous bear park. in. It had a really interesting business model - basically you would pay your cover charge and then you are issued with a card. You don't actually pay anything with cash, but every time you buy a drink or check your coat in, your card gets charged - so very, very dangerous...
Anyway, the club was pumping and I have to say the girls in there were gorgeous. Freddie and his mates were trying their best to chat up the girls but unfortunately Freddie was a bit mashed to bring out his A-game. The music was electro-dancey stuff and the DJ was very good, knowing exactly when to build-up before dropping the beat. The DJ also managed to play the
Champions League anthem, of all songs. For sporting reasons, of course I love that tune, but hearing it in a club was bizarre! It was highly amusing.
I then spot a beautiful girl checking me out - so naturally I go over to have a chat. Turns out she's a local, and she's only 18!. The club closes, so I kiss her goodbye and let her get back to her friends as I have a more pressing concern - Freddie has gone
Käfigturm
Old prison tower in Bern. AWOL and he has my coat token. We find him however and we grab the token off him - he is in a really bad way. Staggering like a zombie and wrestling on the ground with another of his mates, getting him out of here was going to be a mission.
I don't like this whole pay-off-your-card-at-the-end idea - everyone in the club just wants to get home yet they're stuck in a queue for ages as everyone pays off their card. Then you got people like Freddie who have lost their cards - I guess you would have to pay some sort of set charge? It's exploitation if you ask me and inefficient exploitation at that. In saying that, though it was a pretty cool club that played some good music and even had water features.
Freddie et al are in some sort of dispute with the club staff and we wait
ages for him before being the last to leave the club. We are in middle of nowhere and there are only two cabs left to take us all back. The Swedish guys are too drunk to realise that if we don't take these cabs, we face a
Bern Theatre
Bern's opera house. long walk home in the cold - and we don't even know where the hell we are. One cab loses patience and takes off, leaving us with one cab between nine. One of the Swedish guys isn't too drunk and doesn't want to walk home either, so we both get into the cab, failing to convince any of the others to get in with us. These guys were cool, and I appreciated them inviting me out with them, but at the end of the day I don't know these guys well enough to spend the next two hours in the freezing cold trying to get home. I'm not Swedish, so I'm not used to cold. I instruct the driver to go, and then come back for the others.
The next morning, I bump into the Swedish guys again as I check out - turns out the driver never went back and they walked home. I thought that they might harbour a bit of ill feeling towards me for taking off on the taxi but they were pretty cool about it.
So it was then off to the train station and back to Geneva to catch my plane back to
No Jet d'Eau
Geneva's iconic landmark (watermark) wasn't bloody going when I visited. London.
My flight wasn't taking off til late evening, so I used the time to have a proper look around Geneva.
I walked from the train station down to the water where I passed Ile Rousseau, a small island with a memorial to the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, before making my way around the harbour to see the Jet d'Eau, perhaps the most famous sight in Geneva, a "fountain" that shoots up 140m into the air. It was bitterly cold and extremely windy and my face was numbing up as my nose ran like a tap. You'd think that you'd be able to spot a 140m high fountain, but for after all my efforts walking around the harbour and braving the cold while hungover, I arrived at the fountain to discover that it wasn't f*ckin' going. If I'd known that...
I then walked back towards the old town. At this point, with my hands and face numb from the cold, I really didn't think much of Geneva - apart from some buildings that might convince you that you were in Paris, it seemed really plain and boring. Then I went to the old town.
I've been to many a medieval
Museum Of Fine Arts, Geneva
One of Geneva's standout buildings. old town, more than I can care to remember, but Geneva's was surprisingly authentic. It probably helped that there was some sort of celebration going on that included several medieval festivities including marching flute bands, blacksmith demonstrations and knight processions - with all the people involved dressed in full medieval attire.
Before walking through the old town I walked around the Museum of Fine Arts which is a housed in a very grand building, and the buildings in the surrounding area were very pretty and French. During my tour of the old town I walked past St. Peter's Cathedral, Geneva's oldest and most impressive landmark, before walking past the International Museum of Reformation en route to Rue de la Confederation, where it had got dark enough for the Christmas lights to take effect.
Being right by the water certainly give Geneva a bit of character although the cold wind didn't make for a nice walk back to the train station. After watching Arsenal beat Liverpool in a pub, it was back to the train station, to the airport, to London.
Some interesting observations about Switzerland;
- They are famous for their watches, so there are watch billboards
everywhere.
-
Medieval March
As part of festivities that were going on in the old town. The light switches here are push buttons rather than flick switches which make more sense to me.
- I hate the coins here. They all look the same and I spend ages at cash counters trying to pay.
- You can buy
anything here at Migros - the Wal-Mart of Switzerland.
- No-one can help but notice that the girls here are HOT.
Having travelled to three different cities in 5 days, I felt like I was a proper backpacker again and it was cool to have that feeling again since all of my travels since my big trip in 2007 have been short trips away. Of the three cities, I would say that Lausanne was the prettiest, Bern the liveliest.
It did suck a little being alone though, with no-one to share your experiences with - although it did give me the freedom to do the things I wanted, when I wanted. The trip also reminded me how much I would like to learn French or re-learn my Spanish - short trips away and the business of working life mean that learning a few words of the local lingo is something I don't do before trips anymore.
So Switzerland is pretty cool. Expensive, but cool.
In ten days time, I am off to Iceland, which I am really excited about as it promises to be a trip unlike most others I have undertaken. I will be in touch again soon.
Salut,
Derek
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.03s; cc: 12; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0299s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
