It's time to play catch-up and so I am going to cheat and chronicle the events of 3 days in one blog entry. Life's been busy here, and I think we've both grown a little camera-weary so the stream of photos has slowed down a bit, but this will probably be short-lived. We still have a few remaining trips planned to some very photogenic places.Before I get too far, the photo above is one I took on a bike ride on the hills just above the house where we're staying. What isn't obvious in this shot is that these fields are way up the mountain from Vevey. Our house is at 800 m and I had to climb a ways to get here. The little ribbon of road shown here is one of the most picturesque roads I've ever ridden a bike on. It's magic going out in the evening for a ride, hearing only the sound of cow/sheep bells.
If you've been following along, you've probably read about our trip to Rochers-de-Naye. The ridge that we walked along there is shown in the above photo, to the right of the one sharp peak (Dent de Jaman). Now for a description of the past three days...
Day 19: August 1st is the Swiss national holiday, where they celebrate the formation of the confederation in 1271. Being quite a long time ago, the tradition has obviously had a long time to develop and become what it is today. The Swiss are seemingly a very patriotic people (as evidenced by the ubiquitous Swiss flag) and they know how to celebrate a national holiday. We went down to Vevey to take in some of the festivities during the day and then returned to Mont Pelerin for the evening to see what was going on locally and to take in the fireworks show.
Here are a few of the shots we took down by the lake during the day. Nothing really specific to the holiday celebrations, but you can get a sense of what the waterfront looks like in Vevey. It's a great town.
We took a stroll down the promenade and came across some chairs mounted right on the rocks looking out at the lake. (See below - they were pretty comfey, too.) There are swimmers along the entire shoreline (right in there with the swans) and I would have been one of them if I had brought my trunks. It's a great swimming lake.
Fork in the water. Close to the mounted chairs is this unusual culinary display. There is no plaque in sight describing the significance and/or origin of this piece so it's really up to the viewer to come to his/her own conclusions. Check out the bird on top to get a sense of how big it is.
Day 21: Another "city" day, this time we chose Fribourg which is about 45 minutes north of here on the way to Bern. Our book described this town as one of the best-kept secrets in Switzerland, and on this point, we ended up agreeing. It's a small town, easily walkable, and full of the good ol' fashioned cobblestone us North Americans love to walk on when we're in Europe! See Specimen A on the left.
Fribourg is quite the photogenic place and it was really hard to put the camera down just to relax and enjoy it while we were there. The town is set on the hills running up from the river that flows through it and it takes a bit of steam to get around in it. Besides the hilly roads, there are also many staircases throughout town that connect between the various roads to get you where you want to go a little faster if you're on foot.
I've got to hand it to Lucia. For a 4-year-old, she's put up with a lot of traipsing around old towns, as Mommy and Daddy "ooooooh" and aaaaaah" at old buildings, churches, fountains, and cobblestone. On the right, you can see her climbing up one of the steepest roads in town, as we hunt for a place to get some lunch. Maybe food was a good incentive, but she's become a well-seasoned little traveler with some strong legs.
We did end up finding some lunch at a pavement cafe near the top of the hill. As usual, Lucia ordered spaghetti and Elias got the leftovers. Lucia's working on the spoon-fork noodle twirl technique, and Elias has just mastered the noodle slirp, being demonstrated on the left. It's a messy affair, to say the least.
Of note, we tried to order tap water for Lucia but were instead served a bottle of some swish Swiss mineral water. When paying the bill, we discoverd her fancy water had cost more than Danielle's wine and my beer. What do you do? I did have a taste of her water and I'm sure it was wetter than most.
We finished off our day in Fribourg with some time at a park close to the river where we had parked.
As a rule, we gravitate away from the big towns and cities when we travel and enjoy finding the hidden gems off the beaten track. Fribourg has a great vibe and is one of these hidden gems. For sheer "curbside appeal", I'd probably count it as one of my favorite towns that I've seen in Europe, up there with Bruges, Belgium. Of course, I say this without having seen even one of its museums/attractions. I could come back here.
Fork in the water. Close to the mounted chairs is this unusual culinary display. There is no plaque in sight describing the significance and/or origin of this piece so it's really up to the viewer to come to his/her own conclusions. Check out the bird on top to get a sense of how big it is.Oh, and in case you're wondering, no spoon or knife could be found nearby.
The daytime activity was interesting and worth the trip into town, but the evening held the most entertainment. Up until now, the best fireworks display I've ever witnessed was on the 4th of July down in my brother's town in Montana (by sheer volume, not organization/coordination). This all changed on the evening of Aug 1st. Mont Pelerin has a tiny little village but they put on a fireworks show that could rival that of a fairly large Canadian town/city. There were actually Parts 1 and 2 to the show, and in between was a massive bonfire lighting, which harkens back to the old tradition of lighting fires on top of mountains to use as signals. (When I say massive, I mean flames at an estimated height of 30-35 feet.) The fireworks were set off so close to us that a piece of one fell on the road behind us while it was still fizzling/sparking away. Meanwhile, we could see bonfires (they must have been at least as large on several of the mountain tops around the lake.) We had awoken Lucia to go see the show and she was enthralled. Elias slept for most of it, amazingly, but eventually the nearby explosions roused him from his slumber.
What I've described here is solely what took place on Mont Pelerin. If you can picture this event, now multiply it by about 5 - because each little village/town around the lake was having their own fireworks show. I think the last fireworks show (in Montreux) finally ended at 11:15PM. I can't imagine how much money must have gone up in smoke this night!
Before I forget, a memorable moment for me during the Mont Pelerin fireworks show was during a brief period between explosions when I heard the sheep in the little field beside me bleeting away. It was rather odd, but endearing. Only in Switzerland.
Day 20: A very rainy day spent in Lausanne. Who wants to take pictures when it's raining? Hence, we've got none to show. Lausanne gets a rave review in our guide book (which came this week from Amazon UK), but in our opinion it didn't live up to the review. It's a fine place, very hilly, with a charming old town, but it didn't inspire any picture taking on the day we were there. To be fair, it could have been the weather. We spent most of our time at a photo exhibit at Le Musee de L'Elysee, featuring the work of Leonard Freed. He took only black and white photos, mostly of people (from Hassidic Jews to African Americans living in ghettos in the US to Italians at a wedding), and the exhibit was excellent. For this alone, it was worth the drive.
Day 21: Another "city" day, this time we chose Fribourg which is about 45 minutes north of here on the way to Bern. Our book described this town as one of the best-kept secrets in Switzerland, and on this point, we ended up agreeing. It's a small town, easily walkable, and full of the good ol' fashioned cobblestone us North Americans love to walk on when we're in Europe! See Specimen A on the left.
Fribourg is quite the photogenic place and it was really hard to put the camera down just to relax and enjoy it while we were there. The town is set on the hills running up from the river that flows through it and it takes a bit of steam to get around in it. Besides the hilly roads, there are also many staircases throughout town that connect between the various roads to get you where you want to go a little faster if you're on foot.
I've got to hand it to Lucia. For a 4-year-old, she's put up with a lot of traipsing around old towns, as Mommy and Daddy "ooooooh" and aaaaaah" at old buildings, churches, fountains, and cobblestone. On the right, you can see her climbing up one of the steepest roads in town, as we hunt for a place to get some lunch. Maybe food was a good incentive, but she's become a well-seasoned little traveler with some strong legs.
We did end up finding some lunch at a pavement cafe near the top of the hill. As usual, Lucia ordered spaghetti and Elias got the leftovers. Lucia's working on the spoon-fork noodle twirl technique, and Elias has just mastered the noodle slirp, being demonstrated on the left. It's a messy affair, to say the least.
Of note, we tried to order tap water for Lucia but were instead served a bottle of some swish Swiss mineral water. When paying the bill, we discoverd her fancy water had cost more than Danielle's wine and my beer. What do you do? I did have a taste of her water and I'm sure it was wetter than most.
Here's a shot of one of the buildings in town (a town hall). Check out the archway over yet another staircase for pedestrians on the left.
We finished off our day in Fribourg with some time at a park close to the river where we had parked. 
As a rule, we gravitate away from the big towns and cities when we travel and enjoy finding the hidden gems off the beaten track. Fribourg has a great vibe and is one of these hidden gems. For sheer "curbside appeal", I'd probably count it as one of my favorite towns that I've seen in Europe, up there with Bruges, Belgium. Of course, I say this without having seen even one of its museums/attractions. I could come back here.
