A Sojourn in Switzerland

One week after arriving here in Pavia, my Man's work called for him to be in Zurich, Switzerland for a couple days, so the girls and I decided to go to Switzerland as well, during the same period and into the weekend. Our family is definitely still learning about combining educational/leisure travel with work travel, as well as navigating travel by train in Italy. Language is definitely a barrier we are learning to work with, too. So in other words, it was quite a challenge to get out the door and to the platform with tickets, but once we were on the train things smoothed out considerably. We took one train from Pavia to Milan, and then parted ways. My Man got on a train with colleagues bound for Zurich, and the girls and I got on another bound for Geneva, but got off in Lausanne, near wheresome rather new friends live. It was in the evening, after dark, so we got there late at night (after a significantly delayed arrival as well). The route took us directly over and in some cases, through, the Alps, so we missed quite a bit of amazing scenery. There was very little to prepare me for what I saw when I woke up in the morning, from our bedroom window at our friend's house:

I was in the middle of the Lavaux vineyards, a Unesco world heritage site, and there was Lake Geneva expanding into the distance. Later that day the girls and I went for a walk through the vineyards, down the hill into the village.

There, at the recommendation of our host, we found a great little playground right by the lake. We had popped in to a little grocery store on the way, and had some yummy snacks to enjoy while there, including coffee flavoured organic yogurt, a big treat for me!