Lausanne, Geneva, Biel, Bern

Lausanne is a nice town-and-a-half on a few steep hills. The old town is up top, and seaside Ouchy is below, the gap filled with largely nondescript but pleasant buildings and parks. A metro rail, which just opened, joins the two. It's a lovely place; I'm sure I'll go back to explore some more.

Likewise, Biel seemed pretty nice, all things considered. Judging by the map, the city is fairly small, and green hills rise rapidly at the borders. Looking down the streets, you see a nice juxtaposition of styles, majestic old buildings sidling up to glass and steel. But they are tasteful, and complemented by the canals and green space, the downtown feels balanced ... small but lively.

After arriving in Geneva I took a few minutes to turn on the GPS, wait for it to find itself, throw on some sunscreen, and take a photo of a city map. Having oriented myself, I headed down the hill towards the water.

A few blocks later, I noticed someone sitting on the sidewalk near a bed sheet with random household goods piled upon it. At first, I thought that the side street, which was blocked off, was being used by some local peddler taking advantage of a festival to offload some crap. There wasn't much interest -- only a few dozen people were in the street -- but I wanted to see why the road was closed, so I turned.

Next to the first sheet there was another, again filled with thrift store goodies, and another, and another, all the way down. Maybe everyone got the memo that festival side streets are good for vending?

Oh no. The entire "festival" is actually a yard sale. It's probably 12 square blocks, covering both sides of the streets, spilling into the parks, and even filling the spaces under playground slides with old clothes, as Timmy and Sarah (er ... Pierre and Marie) frolic above. Only food booths and the occasional performers could hold back the tide. It's something else.

Ah, and I left the best for last. God save you if you ever get stuck in downtown Bern.

Downtown Bern is a dreary, depressing, soulless city. By mandate all buildings are the same gray, blocky institution. Those familiar with California drainage channels would find similarity here, the tall rectangular faces broken up only by columns encroaching on the cobblestone roadway and the characteristic long eves, built to protect the very sandstone that likens the city to a storm drain. The town is in serious need of a designer. Instead, they have fountains.

Bern's quaint fountains, like little bows, gave the artists something to do after the reformation put them out of work. There's a bagpiper, lady justice, some bears dressed as knights, and even some more colorful ones, including a statue of an ogre, eating children.

My favorite fountain is a recent, modern addition, a piece of particular controversy amongst the Bernese. It's essentially a steel pipe a few feet across with a plate at the top. Water descends through channels attached like a screw to the outside of the pipe, spiraling down. These same channels also harbor dirt and moss, so now the top of the fountain has patches of grass and moss growing on it. It's awesome. I'm closer to posting pictures, but still not there yet.

Also, for those following along at home, it seems other people decided to go traveling this weekend, too. So Paris is the new Florence.

That's how I roll.

This weekend, I took a spin around Switzerland. The trip was a great success, but not without it's transportation and other mishaps, which tend to happen when you don't plan at all. So here's what happened on Saturday. Pictures and more notes will follow.

Monday / Tuesday: After last weekend's transportation failures, resolve to leave Zurich for the 19th/20th.

Wednesday: Met Renee, a bald dude from Amsterdam, at the Wednesday meetup. His favorite city in Germany is Munich, which also happens to be close. Bonus.

Thursday: Lengthy reading of travel books and viewing of train schedules. Florence, Berlin, Paris, and Munich are on the not-Switzerland list, Lausanne, Geneva, and small nearby towns (e.g. Zug) are on the local list. Having waited this long, chances of a TGV ticket are small, and overnight tickets would be difficult, since I have to do laundry on Friday morning, and getting those reservations relies on going to Zurich HB (Hauptbahnhof / main station), which would probably take an hour.

So, Munich? Nope -- Oktoberfest starts this weekend! This is awesome, but there are no vacancies. Also, I suspect Oktoberfest is a festival best shared. Next year. I go to bed thinking about Lake Geneva.

Friday: Up early, doing laundry and working from home. In between, I give a hostel in Lausanne a call, thinking I could stay two nights and do some day trips. "I'm sorry, all hotels in Lausanne are fully booked." Fascinating. Oh well, time to go to work.

I take off from work around 6, ready to try out my crazy new online banking card and to make some real travel plans. What about ... Bern? It's in the book. 1 hour away by train, online reservations, done. Bern on Saturday. In fact, I go so far as to scribble the following "Itinerary of awesome" on the back of an envelope:
0) Rock out in Zurich Friday Night
1) Lausanne 6:00 train (~2h)
2) Rock out in Lausanne.
3) Lausanne -> Bern train (~1h)
4) Hostel in Bern.
5) Check out Bern & Environs (a.m.)
6) Geneva for festival (1h?)
7) Check out Geneva PM.
8) Geneva -> Zurich train (3h) Late.

See? That's organized.

Now that's done, time to walk off the day. I run some errands, hoof it around town for a spell and check out a few places, and make it back early (9 ish). Then I whittle away 3 hours, and crash at around midnight. By this point, I had copied down copius train schedules between Geneva, Bern, and Lausanne in my pocket notebook, enough to ensure I wouldn't miss the last train and could also visit those cities in any order. I'd also selected my departure train, a 6:04 to Lausanne through Biel / Bienne, and observed I could get to Zurich HB on time by taking the 05:41 S2 from Wiedikon.

I think Saturday is best described as a timeline. So here we go.

• 05:15: Awaken. Get dressed. Dilly-dally a bit, thinking that I needed to leave at 05:46.
• 05:41: Leave the apartment.
• 05:42: Curse, realizing that 05:46 is actually the arrival time of the S2 at Zurich HB. Start walking briskly to the nearest tram stop.
• 05:46: Arrive at tram stop. Observe an 05:50 #9 and a 05:56 #14. Lament that the #9 doesn't go to Zurich HB and the #14 won't make it in time. Ponder.
• 05:47: Start walking briskly to Bahnhof Wiedikon.
• 05:51: Arrival at Wiedikon. Lament that the next train departs at 06:16. Exit Wiedikon to see the arrival of the #9. Board.
• 05:53: Transfer to a #3 at Stauffacher. While on the #3, decide that I'll just take the next Lausanne-bound train, which leaves at 06:30-something.
• 06:00: Arrive at Zurich HB. Become sad that all the effort writing down the train numbers in the book was for naught, as the magic flippy board doesn't include them. Moreover, there are two trains leaving at 06:04 in the same direction. Choose wisely.
• 06:04: Both trains leave Zurich HB. I'm on the correct one.
• 06:4x: The smell of magic smoke fills the air. A minute later, train slows to a halt. We sit for a spell, and then go.
• 07:0x: At the following intermediate stop, we hang out for a few minutes while the train is repaired. I remove my map to see that the line through Biel is not the same as the one through Bern.
• 07:30: Arrive 17 minutes late into Biel, having missed my 07:16 connection.
• 07:35: Walk around Biel, which is pretty empty at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Enjoy a cappuccino and a croissant.
• 08:16: Resume Lausanne-wards.
• 09:15: Arrive in Lausanne. Buy an OJ and some AAs for the GPS. Snub the metro busses and hike up the hill to old town. Pull out Switzerland Through the Back Door and start walking the One True Path of Rick.
• 10:45: Taking a break from the orientation walk, hang out in a plaza near the Cathedral.
• 11:00: City History Museum opens, and I check it out.
• 11:50: Done with the museum. Finish the orientation walk.
• 12:00: Stumble upon a street market and a bunch of people looking at a cuckoo clock built into the front of the building. Observe the cuckoo clock display. Frown in disappointment. Check out the street market, the M2 concert festival sound check ("hey hey un deux un deux yesssss yesssss"). Have some pretty good doner kebab at Traiteur Bosphore.
• 12:59: Take a Ouchy-bound Metro train after having waited 15 minutes on a pink carpet. Rejoice that I can participate in opening-weekend festivites for the Metro without having suffered through its construction.
• 13:15: Arrive Ouchy. Wander about. Head over to the Olympic Museum, which turns out to be awesome.
• 15:15: Finished with the museum. Next stop: Chateau de Chillon. Wander back to the center of town, pondering whether to fight the line to take a metro back up. Decide not to. Start climbing.
• 15:30: Arrive Lausanne bahnhof. Based on departure board, decide to take a local train. (Versus an express train to Montreux, followed by a bus.)
• 15:33: Depart Lausanne on a local train bound for Villeneuve.
• 16:00: Arrive Montreux, right on schedule. Observe Chateau de Chillon is the following stop; stay on train.
• 16:03: Pass Chateau de Chillon at high speed. Curse.
• 16:05: Arrive at Villeneuve.
• 16:06: Observe map, noting that the S3 local train skips Chillon, and the S1 does not. Observe next departure is s1 at 1624. Mill about for ten minutes to decide whether to walk or train. Spend several minutes messing with the GPS to find out how far the walk would be.
• 16:15: Realize it's faster to wait. Take some pictures and board the train.
• 16:24: Depart Villeneuve.
• 16:26: Arrive Chateau de Chillon.
• 16:30 - 17:30: Tour Chateau.
• 17:52: Board bus 1 to Montreux. Grow uncomfortable as unsympathetic locals direct me to the ticket machine at the rear of the bus. More long glances as I drop a coin.
• 18:00: Arrive downtown Montreux. Walk around for a bit.
• 18:19: Depart Montreux to Bern, transferring at Lausanne.
• 19:56: Arrive Bern.
• 20:20: Check in to Backpackers Hotel Glocke. Notice that it's awesome. Clean up.
• 20:55: Arrive at Restaurant Vatter, recommended by the Good Book. Notice it closes at 5 P.M., not 11 P.M. Rick Steves: You're on notice.
• 21:00: Dinner at a nearby Italian place, instead. The charming Hungarian waitress speaks 4 languages and makes a strong spritz. The Calzone Italia actually looks like a pizza with just the side rolled up, and curiously all the toppings (spinach, tomatoes, salami, olives, and some cheese) are kept separate. It's tasty, though.
• 22:00: Tour through town.
• 23:00: Crash.
  

Ironically, one of my favorite pieces of advice is, always have a plan, but be ready to change it at a moment's notice. Well, I'm halfway there.

By comparison, Sunday was much less surprising. I checked out Bern in the morning (more on that later), headed over to Geneva in the afternoon, and took an evening train back to Zurich. I'll have more once my camera recharges and I get some sleep.