It couldn't be sunny the whole time we were here. By Thursday (Day 27), the sky had opened right up and all the water in the world was falling on this area (or so it felt). Flooding was apparently a real problem down in the lowlands but fortunately for us we could watch the swollen river from up the mountain. (The point where the river met the lake was completely brown from all the runoff.) Feeling completely uninspired, we drove down into town to do some grocery shopping to cover us for the last few days that we'd be here. A trip to the shopping mall is usually torture for me, but at this point, it represented a warm, dry, and different place to be.
We had lunch at a self-serve restaurant called Manora in the mall, which kind of reminded me of Whole Foods back home. It was actually a really nice lunch, and we met a family from Southern California who had just moved to Switzerland for a year. He was going to be teaching at a new "branch" of Pepperdine University being set up in Lausanne. They were nice folks and made for good company. Grocery shopping afterwards was about as exciting as grocery shopping can be. Elias kicked up quite a fuss along the way, and we were sure the weather was getting to him, too. Dear Lord, please, please, please stop the rain!! (The picture above shows the house below us, and the extent of our view. Beyond this all we could see was white.)
And finally...it stopped.
Not to miss out on any opportunities to be outside, on Friday we got packed up and headed out for a bike ride in the hills above us. It was a bit cold, but we bundled Lucia and Elias up and they were happy as clams just to be outside getting some fresh air. I think even the cows were happy to be out with a bit of sunlight shining down on them.
We didn't have a long time to ride, since we had made plans to head out in the afternoon with Corinne's stepmom Colette. When she learned of our affection for blueberries, and that we were missing blueberry season back home, Colette had kindly offered to take us picking here in Switzerland. She had been keeping track of their progress and unfortunately this year's crop wasn't looking so good, due to unseasonable weather when the plants were budding. Nonetheless, we were still going to go find what we could find, as well as sample some special blueberry cake at a place she knew of.
When she arrived at the house we reconsidered, given the colder weather, the clouds in the sky, and the meagre crop. Nonetheless, for NEXT time, thanks to Colette, we are going to be prepared with some very fancy blueberry picking gadgets that rake the bushes and sift out the leaves, etc, leaving you with a pile of little blue beauties. Anything to increase the yield of blueberries earns big points in my books. Many thanks, Colette. You are too kind.
On Colette's suggestion, what we did end up doing was driving north of Lausanne to a place called Papillorama (near Morat/Murten), a sort of (mostly) indoor zoo, featuring exhibits of butterflies, insects, reptiles, birds, and nocturnal animals of all sorts. There were butterflies of all types flying around a huge dome, where a very warm and humid rainforest-type habitat had been created. I would have taken pictures there had my lenses not fogged up the second we entered. The nocturnal exhibit was every bit as interesting with all sorts of nocturnal animals (sloths, porcupines, bats, etc) busy about their business, tricked into thinking it was nighttime. It was not a little unnerving having bats flying by my (and Lucia's) head in near-darkness.
It was clear by the end of our time at Papillorama that we'd have to stop for dinner before heading home. This was OK, as we hadn't yet seen the town of Morat (French)/Murten (German), which we'd read good things about. It's yet another charming medieval town in Switzerland, with walls all around and a pedestrian center. They were having some sort of festival and there were a bunch of self-serve kiosks opening up when we got there, offering very basic fare. It wasn't the greatest meal I've had, but it was an experience. (Part of that experience was hearing Colette switch between French, German, and English while conversing with us and the vendors. Her multilingual abilities are impressive. I can't imagine how exhausted she must have been at the end of the day.)
Oh, by the way, the big pot is full of a Swiss potato dish called Rosti. (There's an umlaut over that "o", but I don't know how to put it there with this keyboard.)
No comments:
Post a Comment