Gruzie, Bonjour and Ciao!

14.12.2001 -15 °C

December 12 and 14, 2001

Boudevilliers, Switzerland

I have made my way to Switzerland for a few days where I am staying with my cousin, Kraig. He lives in a village called Boudevilliers, not far from Neuchatel (get out those maps!), and the Jura Mountains. La Chaux de Fonds is 5 mins drive from here and is the highest city in Europe. Cold too!! I think the local weather tonight predicted a top of -3 for tomorrow! All this cold and yet no snow! grrrr....

Since last time I wrote, I visited Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and went to a concert at La Madeline. It was free so that was great . It's strange. In many places you can go to free concerts, but you have to pay to use the toilet!

And I spent my last day visiting Centre Pompidou, (window) shopping along the Champs Elysées, and wound up heading to La Bastille in the evening with some girls from the hostel. It was pretty spectacular at night. I hadn´t made it there all week, and as Christmas is approaching the whole area was beautifully lit up and there was a Luna Park type funfair there with acrobats and markets etc.

I had a nice train ride from Paris to Neuchatel. Being a Sunday morning, the train was virtually empty. I had a seat next to a Swiss Orthopaedic surgeon who gave me a crash course in Swiss Geography, Sociology and Politics. He enjoyed learning all about Aussie slang and native animals - I told him that only 5 000 people per year get taken by sharks in Australia, but some 10 000 die from spider bites. I also warned him about drop bears that may attack suddenly whilst one is on walkabout...

It's been great catching up with Kraig (my cousin) - haven´t seen him since about 1993 when we went to Movie World, Queensland - and he is still a tops bloke. Still got a great Aussie accent and great sense of humour. He has an adorable cat called Coca, who has adopted me - cats the world over seem to gravitate towards cat lovers and Coca is no exception. It's great having my own queen sized futon, a real bath (as opposed to push button hostel showers), and being able to leave my bag unpacked every day!

On Monday, I spent a couple of hours in the village of Merton, across the lake. It's a medieval village that still has its original wall around it. Very charming place, but rather like a ghost town when I was there. Europe all over has the habit of shutting down everything on Monday so there was basically no-one walking around anywhere. I was certainly the only tourist, but then, it is the middle of winter. Merton was exactly how I imagine Provençe will be - lots of little gardens, cobble-stone streets, and town water fountains - with icicles!

Yesterday I went to Montreux and Lausanne. Montreux is like a lakeside resort on Lake Genevé. The water there was this transluscent turquoise colour.....and lots of tiny fish swimming all over the place. There were lots of Christmas markets there selling Glühwein and waffles and stuff like that. I visited the Chateau de Chillon, a castle built on the edge of the lake in (I think) the 1300s. Probably the most charming castle I have visited in Europe. Not full of all that ostentacious cacophony you find in Hofburg, Schönbrunn or Versailles. As I was walking around the lake, I came across a statue of Freddie Mercury! Apparently Montreux was his second home and he died there in 1991.

Later in the day I caught the train to Lausanne to visit the Olympic Museum. That was fantastic. It was kinda small but very interesting. It runs through the history of the ancient and modern Olympics, and has lots of memorabilia from both modern and ancient games on display - including Eric Mossambini's Speedos!! haha..... Lots of clips of Aussies there too from 2000 and other Olympic games.

Today was a lazy day as I'm coming down with bronchitis or something similarly nasty and I wound up sleeping most of the day. I didn´t even leave the house today except to walk to the busstop to check the times for tomorrow. I actually had to scrape the glass with my fingernails to get the ice off!

Tomorrow I'm off to Genevé to see the International Red Cross Museum and the headquarters of the UN HQ.

From there it's off to Lucerne, possibly for just a day, maybe for a few days. I'll decide tomorrow. Then to Provençe/Languedoc-Rousillon for a week.

At this stage, I'm hoping to head back to Paris or Amsterdam for a couple of days. There is so much to see, especially in Paris, that I didn't get time to do, and I don't know how long before I will come back. So if there is time, I'll probably head back that way for 4-5 days in a month's time. Who knows? Too many options, but the flexibility is great.

continued........14 December 2001.......Schnee!!

Ok......Well yesterday I wound up in Lucerne. I woke up at the crack of dawn.....well actually even earlier as the sun sleeps in til 8ish and thought I may as well just do a day trip there. It was snowing when I got off the train - extremely cold so i had to go shopping for some more clothes. Nothing exciting, though, just another scarf and ear warmers.

It is incredibly lovely in Lucerne. Lots of natural beauty from the mountains and lakes and the old cobble stone streets. Churches I am almost sick of, but cobble-stoned streets, especially with markets and the smell of waffles or croissants.....mmmmm. Speaking of croissants, I don't understand why there are no people with excess adipose tissue here. There are the most incredible patisseries, bakeries and chocolateries everywhere - but hardly any fat people. I guess in the Netherlands, it is because they all cycle everywhere......and perhaps because the French smoke so much (and by this I'm certainly not advocating smoking!!) Not sure about the Swiss...But still, all the cold makes me want to run into the nearest café and have hot chocolate and crépes or something sweet.

Ok...back to Lucerne. I visited a glacier museum there which was kinda interesting but without the ice sculpture garden I had read about. Also visited a Picasso museum there, which was fantastic! There was a series of photos taken by some of his colleagues that feature him at home with his family and at work on his paintings and sculptures. It's a nice change to see the artist for who he is (or at least how appears to be in moments of time), than just to see some weird and wonderful representation. He was certainly a runt of a fellow though......and he always wore really dodgy boxers when he painted! at least in these photos. I was hoping to head up Mt Pilatus (after Sus' recommendation) but the clouds were covering the peaks and I thought it may not be worth the SF80 ($AUD90) to get up there, especially if nothing could be seen.

Switzerland is incredibly expensive....just as everyone says. Using the McEconomic scale, Switzerland tops the UK for the most expensive Maccas....SF9.90 for a meal......(about $AUD11). Ouch.....and it´s all the same crap anyway! Apparently in South Africa you can get a meal for about $AUD2.50, but I guess it´s all relative.

Today I spent in Geneva.....almost contemplated not going when I got outside though as it was -10!! Didn't warm up much during the daz either which made checking out the old town challenging! Quite windyand the chill factor makes the cold very nasty.....Anyway, I really wanted to visit the UN and International Red Cross Museum and that was indoors so that was great! There was a conference on at the UN for the International Disarmament Tribunal so there were people everywhere. The Jet d'eau is switched off in the winter so I didn´t see that, and the flower clock was extremely disappointing - I guess frozen flowers don´t quite work!

We had some raclette for dinner last night- delicious! You melt cheese under this grill on the table, add onion and herbs or whatever to the top) and when it is all gooey, pour it over new potatoes.....hmmmmmm not the healthiest meal but it was delightful. All cheese is good cheese and Switzerland has a lot of it!

Tomorrow I'm heading to south to spend time in Nimes, Avignon, Arles, Aix-en-Provence and possibly Lyon. Hopefully it will be a little warmer there. The paper today said it was -2 in Nice and -1 in Marseille which is crazy for Mediterranean cities! Hopefully it warms up for me. Apparently there is also a foot of snow in Barcelona at the moment - fingers crossed it sticks around til Xmas!

Am still not 100% well. I have all but lost my voice for like the 5th time this year! But at least it isn't accompanying a cold or fever or anything...i just sound a bit daft...

Anyway, must head off to get some sleep.

Ciao

Belinda
xx