It is never easy leaving an apartment. Toys, clothes, and travel papers get spread all over and it takes a while to pull them together into our luggage. Especially with two helpers, that are known to demolish neat piles, re-play with packed toys, and climb on everything and anything while we are trying to work to pack. Our best plan is to divide and conquer - have one person watch the kids while the other person packs. We were packed around 10:00. Every inch of space taken. Both duffle bags, both back packs, and even under the double-stroller was full of food.
It was quick to check-out, just a key drop off. Then we wandered through the open-air Saturday market. It had everything, each in their own market stand: olives, cheese, vegetables, fruit, meats, beer, honey, etc. Each stand was tended by some one who looked like they’d been tending that market for 5 decades. The cheese woman wore an orange scarf around her whole body and a blue scarf on her head. She lovingly cut each cheese for people who were from her same vintage. I wheeled our kids down the cobble stone road, snuggled in between the medival buildings, and just soaked up the scene. It was incedible - sort of like a summer market in France, but with a taste of practicality. Everyone had a cart on two wheels to take their stuff home with them - and everyone was chatting with everyone else - with genuine smiles and gentle nods.
After that we hiked up the hill. We had read that it is hilly, and it is hilly. Take my word for it. Dan never stops to rest, but he stopped to rest on the up hill walk to the train station three times. Granted he was hauling our 100 lbs of luggage and his own back pack, so it was quite a load. As for me, I was hauling our 50 pounds of kids, my own back pack, and all the food we were moving from place to place. I just put one foot in front of the other, hiked up the hill, took off my coat when I got hot, and fed Sara and Julia stick pretzels to keep them happy.
When we got to the train station we bought tickets, bought a blue berry muffin (that is actually what the sign said - in English! Usually things were in French, or sometimes French and German.) and went to our train track. We were about 20 minutes early, so I played with Julia (I take her minnie mouse doll and say ‘I’m going to kiss your nose!” or whatever, and I say different body parts so she learns the vocabulary and she also thinks it is very funny.)
Our train pulled into the station. A shiny, modern, double decker. A family car sped past us, so we ran down the platform so we could board that particular car. Family cars have a play area on the second level, worth it for us to be on that car.
The train was delightfully empty of passengers. (We’ve had that great luck for most of our journeys, and it makes it easy to find a seat and easy to find space for our luggage.) We went upstairs and the girls had stars in their eyes when they saw the play area. They didn’t stop smiling for 43 minutes, the length of the train ride.
The train ride was beautiful. We went past little villages with houses huddled around a church with a pointed steeple. We went past farms with 5 shades of green in their fields. All this was crowned by the mountains, rising up magistically in the background. Nothing could be prettier. Then it did get prettier. We got our first glimpse of “Lake Geneva” which is the Swiss Rivera (although France is on the other side) and WOW it was stunning. The sun made the water glisten like mercury, the mountains rising up above it were covered in sugary white snow, and the towns along the lake dotted the valley like the freckles on my arm. Dan and I were glued to the scene, Sara and Julia kept playing, but one time Sara looked over and she stopped in her tracks and stared at it as we chugged along the tracks towards our Lake Side wonderland.
We arrived in Lausanne. It was just 43 minutes, but it feels a long way away from Fribourg. This city is also very hilly. We are forgetting what it is like to walk on flat ground. Our building starts on the 3rd floor for the front entrance and dips down to the 0 floor in the back - it is that hilly. We are on the 6th floor. We are renting this place from people who leave on business travel. It has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining area, and a living room - and a literal wall of windows (like every inch is a window) that faces the Lake. Cool!
After getting a tour of our place (getting a lesson on the dishwasher, the laundry, etc) we left to get groceries. The ‘co-op’ city is in a building across the street! How lucky. We went over there, took an elevator (of course, we take elevators a lot since there are so many levels here - and it was confusing to know where the food was since co-op city is also a department store). The grocery part was nice once we found it - full of everything we could ever want - as nice as our grocery stores back home. We had a list and got what we needed (I bypassed the ‘horse meat’ in the meat section) like vegetables, fruit, some sliced roast beef, some chicken breasts, and meat balls. Another thing to buy was the city trash bags, which cost 20 CF for 10 of them. They don’t pack groceryies for you so we put them in reusuable bags and carried them to our apartment.
I unpacked quickly, then met Dan/Julia at the play area. (We all went to the grocery store, but they went there while Sara/I unpacked the food.) Both Sara and Julia were jublient to be in the playground - smiles, giggles, and “hey! Let’s play over here!” echoed in the whole area. We were the only ones there. They had a great time then it was time to get a late lunch.
Lunch
We ate near the train station (a walk down hill, and 1 elevator) at Vapiano. I got a beef tenderloin/pasta dish, and Sara and Dan both got pizza. Of my 6 slices of beef, I ate 1, since Sara and Julia kept asking (reaching out!) for more. I was happy to give it to them.
After lunch we explored, walked, wondered, and gaped. This place is wonderous. I was thinking “we should live here!” - there is a modern part of the city, there is a ‘old part’ and the stunning lake! AND for the most part we walked in pedestrian areas (no cars) so we were out with other happy people on a Friday afternoon - and it felt marvelous. We passed churches, grand squares, stores so fancy they have door men, and I couldn’t believe how neat it all was. Up, down, around, through, we traveled in a line that Dr. Suess would draw on a map.
At one point I took a video while walking. It was a faboulous scene with a fountain, shops, and happy pedestrians walking up the converging cobblestone lanes. I was bubbling with excitement that we plan to spend two weeks here - just soaking it all up.
Then drops fell from the sky. Then rain fell in buckets. Then hail pelted us. What? Where was it all coming from all of a sudden? We kept walking. We covered the girls in the stroller with their roof so they didn’t even say anything about the airborne flood. Dan and I each put our L. L. Bean hoods up and kept dry and snug. I watched the hail stones land on my jacket. They looked like large cubes of salt. They bounced on the ground, landing in the fresh puddles. I marveled at how just a couple minutes earlier I was loving the wonderful evening strolling around this town - and then the rain! It was fine, almost fun, though Dan took a few wrong turns and it took longer to find our street, and get to the warm comfort of this apartment.
Dinner
We got to the apartment and both girls looked like robotic stick figures walking with their arms and legs straight to keep their wet clothes away from their bodies. I put Julia in dry clothes and she was off to play. Dan put Sara in a “dancing outfit” (she loves to dance around the apartment, or anywhere for that matter).
After a simple dinner it took 1 second to get Julia to bed and Sara soon after. A long day, including travel, and a great one.
Quote of a day:
Quote of a day:
Sara: “Mama what does a worm do when it climbs into a meatball?”
END.
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