Lausanne - Lavaux - Montreux - les Diablerets - Gruyère - Bern

It has been a long time since the last post on this blog ... Days have been pretty busy at CERN and in Lausanne ! And last weekend we had a visit from Susana (Laura's cousin) and Jorge, so we visited the surroundings of Lausanne (which for that matter, extended from Bern to Annecy ...)

The Lavaux wineyards
Between Lausanne and Montreux are the Lavaux wineyards, which are really nice, especially in a beautiful summer day ! We left EPFL around 4pm and started a small trip between Lausanne and Montreux.
We stopped first in the "balcony" in Pully ...

then we continued towards Rivaz for a beer-and-cheese stop ...

... with our beautiful new car !!!

  

Isn't it nice ? :-)

Montreux
Keeping the lake on the right side, we arrive in Montreux, and Château Chillon. Night was already falling.

Les Diablerets
The next day (Saturday) we felt like going a bit more in altitude, so we went to Les Diablerets, a ski resort in the Vaud canton, not very far from Lausanne. In summer time, it is a nice place for a walk, and they also have the (expensive) cable-car going up to Glacier 3000. So we did this, and the view was very nice from up there !

We actually walked on the glacier until the "Quille du Diable" ... but as we were totally unprepared, the feet were wet and cold very quickly !

  

Gruyère
We left les Diablerets towards Château d'Oex and Gruyère. Gruyère is a nice village with a castle, and is of course famous for its cheese. When we arrived, there were two weddings, so the place was quite crowded !

Bern
Finally, we decided to head to Bern, the federal capital, because it's a nice city and we had in mind to have a rösti for dinner !

Finally, back to Lausanne, where we all crashed into bed after the long day !
The next day (Sunday), we went to Annecy for the market and visit the old town, and then we did a quick stop in Talloires, before going back to Lausanne. All photos of that day are on Laura's camera, so I will upload a few of them later !

 

A Sunday in Lausanne

What should a typical summer Sunday in Lausanne be ? It should be like last sunday.

Step 1 : some sports
It started by some physical activity : Laura is involved in the Lausanne Rowing club, and they have a session on Sunday mornings, at 10. So, we just woke up early, and went there running (it's just a few km, maybe 4, probably even less). Then Laura did rowing for 2 hours, while I was enjoying the sun, taking pictures of landscape and ducks and swans, and finally we left, running again.

It's quite fun to look at ducks and swans, actually. There was this whole family of swans passing by - apparently they are always in that place.

Rowing doesn't look hard, seen from a bench on the lake side. But it's a quite physical activity, and requires a lot of practice.

Step 2 : a barbecue in Rivaz
Rivaz is a village in the Lavaux wineyards, 10-15 minutes from Lausanne by train. It is close to the lake and has a small beach (usually crowded), one of our favorite spots for barbecue and swim.

View of Saint-Saphorin from Rivaz

The Swiss-style bbq is different from the South-African one ! First, the bbq itself is very small (but consider we bring it by train, so it should be easy to carry !). So we need to make many, many rounds of grill, with meat, vegetables, etc. On the picture below, it's the first round, when everything is surprisingly well-ordered. This won't last.

Another nice thing about Rivaz is that the beach is just next to the boat stop. There are 2 boats per day, so better not miss them : when they leave, they create a lot of waves and it's fun to play there.

Usually we stay at the beach until 7 or 8 in the evening.

Back to Switzerland !

Et voilà : back to Switzerland until mid/end November, since last Saturday (Aug 20th)

Flight
The flight was as usual : boring, short night ! The plane was almost full, but I was lucky to spot two free seats close-by, so I asked to move there to have more space. A bit later, a couple with two kids (one ~3 yrs old, and a baby a few months old), asked me if I accepted to change seats so they could be together. So, I ended up in the "front seat". This has two features : 1) more space for the legs, which is good ; 2) many kids around, which makes the night even shorter. I didn't really mind : I never sleep a lot during the flight, and I don't mind the kids.
Anyway, after about 10 hours we landed in Zurich on time, and I could take the 7:40 flight to GVA, where I landed at 8:30 and Laura was waiting for me !

Breakfast and market
Arriving from freezing Johannesburg, I was quite happy to land in a place where it was a nice summer day. Very warm (30+ !), sunny, it was perfect. Since I landed early, we had time to leave the luggage in Laura's apartment, and go meet Evren and Ceren for breakfast. Then we went to the market in the city center, to buy some grocery, fruits, and cheese.
This is really one huge difference with Jo'burg : here, you just walk out of home, go to the metro without worrying because you are taking your camera or whatever, walk in the city, never mind what time you will come back, day or night, whether you will have to stop at the red traffic lights ("robots") or not. The main source of worry is weather. Don't get me wrong : I do realize that Swiss people (European people in general, but in Switzerland it's even more obvious) are lucky to live without this feeling of insecurity. Actually, even in Switzerland, some politicians play with insecurity, saying how dangerous it is to walk at night in some places. That may be true in very, very few places here. I remember during local elections they were pointing out the danger of a few young guys hanging out close to the train station in Renens (small city near Lausanne).
Anyway, even if in South Africa I did not have any problem, being here is good for the peace of mind !

Lake
Since the weather was so nice, we then met our friends in Pully to enjoy the summer day at the lake.

Evening
In the evening we tested the "new" Chez Xu close to the train station. The food was again amazing - as good as the one in Riponne. We finished at the "Bar Tabac" for a last drink (tea for the guys, amaretto for the girls), and then we left when they realized I was sleeping !

Last weekend in Jo'burg and Sunday morning visitors

It's the beginning of the "lasts" ... though of course, I'll come back here at the end of the year !
My last weekend in Jo'burg is coming to an end. Today, I went to the Rosebank mall with Doomnull, and I learned a lot of "shopping tips" ! Nonetheless, my goal today was more to buy things I'll bring back to Switzerland, so we spent quite a lot of time in the African Craft market too, where I actually could speak french with people from Cameroon, Congo or Senegal.

In the morning, I spent some time observing birds in the garden. The weavers make nice nests, like these ones on the avocado tree :

They are nice yellow birds :

That one looks different, but seemed to be "working" with the yellow ones !

I also saw other birds walking on the wall :

It's actually quite interesting to observe birds because they really seem to communicate. Also, I was sitting in the middle of the garden on a chair, so I was clearly disturbing them !

Tree in the garden.

Pilanesberg National Park (act V)

The Big Five
The "Big Five" is the name given to the 5 most dangerous animals you can find there :

•  the African Buffalo : up to 1.4m in height, 800 kg. They are herbivores, but can be dangerous if they feel threatened. They are unfortunately quite rare (150 in the Park) and we could not see any.

•  the African Elephant : the biggest "land" mammal (yeah, whales are larger, but they don't live in this place :-p ). There are 180 in the Park. It is also a herbivore, but can be quite dangerous. One should never forget that we go on their territory, and if they feel threatened in any way, they will defend themselves. And when an Elephant is close to your car, you really feel small. And when it charges, even a mock charge, you don't insist. They are not really rare in the Park, but we could not see any by day. At the end of the afternoon game view with the ranger, he got called to say they had an Elephant on the road close-by, so we went there, but it was already dark. The Elephant was indeed walking on the road (it keeps the warmth of the day), and you could see it was very humid below the eyes and between the legs. This means he is not in a playful mood (I think it is testosterone). So you have to imagine the ranger going backwards, by night, with the vehicle (which is no less than an open truck with seats !), and the Elephant going towards us (not fast, but straight !). At some point, the Elephant started screaming towards us, and that's when the ranger decided to give a quick U-turn (a performance, in this kind of road, by night, with a truck) and we left. Unfortunately, I have no picture - maybe Simon has one where we can see something.

• the Lion (40 in the park), which we were so lucky to see twice ! I don't need to say why the Lion is dangerous - though they usually don't attack humans in the vehicles. If you feel brave enough to go close to a Lion sleeping in the shade next to a kill, which is of course forbidden, you may get slapped. But slapped by a Lion can cut your throat, so, better not try.

• the Rhino, which we also saw. The number of Rhinos in the Park is not available, but we counted at least 12. There are probably much more.

• the Leopard (about 35 in the park), which is very elusive. They like to go on rocks. When a leopard is seen, it attracts many cars !

These are just a few of the cars behind us, waiting to see the Leopards

In that place, there were apparently several Leopards, but they are not easy to distinguish ... And they don't come very close, so it would have been better with a larger lens, but OK, I did what I could ! :-) It's like a big, big cat ... And it stayed there, looking at all these people taking pictures at him. We are also an attraction for him.

See the tail ?

Misc photos
What I really liked also was to see several animals just living next to each-other, and not really caring of the others.

Giraffes and Rhinos

Springboks and Ostriches

Zebras, Hippos, Gnus and Impalas

 

Conclusion
Weren't we lucky ?
I'm aware that sometimes, you go to a park and don't see so many things - I'm so happy that my first experience here was so "successful". Being with Simon, who is quite experienced in game reserves, helped a lot, and now I feel confident enough to go by myself or bring visitors, so ... come to South Africa ! :-)