Vevey

I enjoy living in our little town of Saint-Maurice but sometimes it's a little too... little. We love our apartment because it's big, comfortable and was so convenient to get (I've heard it quite hard to find decent apartments in Switzerland without waiting around for months and applying for about 20 apartments until you are accepted) but when I travelled to Vevey which is right next to Lake Geneva and ever-so-close to Lausanne, I fell in love. Vevey is also the home of the Nestlé which is also an attraction for me - who wouldn't want to be right near the home of chocolate? Even though they don't actually make the chocolate there, it's just the idea of it that makes it cool. I'm not about to pack up and move to Vevey anytime soon but it would be a nice place to live.


I went to Vevey on the quest to find a swim suit so Roy and I could go to the thermal baths which are a short walk from our place. I had scoured most of the shops in Martigny looking for some kind of swimming outfit but it proved a hard task finding such a summery thing in such a wintery kind of country - especially since summer was fading away quickly. I scoured the many shops in Vevey and eventually I narrowed down my search to a sports store which was selling expensive brands like Adidas and Speedos since I wasn't having much luck elsewhere. I ended up settling on speedos which is kind of weird because I was buying an Australian brand of swimmers in Switzerland with a fairly hefty price tag. I felt rather cheated but satisfied in the fact that I could now go and spend a few hours relaxing in the thermal baths with Roy.

With my new swimmers in my bag I set off to explore the city of Vevey. Another reason for my visit to the beautiful lakeside city was to check out an openair photography exhibition called "Images". I had glimpsed large photos on the sides of buildings on my train rides past Vevey and had wondered what they were, until I found some info on the internet about the exhibition which made me want to go and have a closer look. One thing I love about Switzerland is that they don't skimp on posters, signs and brochures about local events. I found a detailed map of the exhibition in a local art gallery and set off on foot to find the exhibits scattered throughout the town, all the while exploring what the city has to offer. While enroute, I made a quick pitstop in Nestlé to pick up a few boxes of Nespresso so we could test out our coffee machine.

With my new swimmers, some Nespresso, a tin of milo and my map I continued on my merry way keeping my eyes open for photography. Along my journey I found some cool things.

A rather nice location for a relax under a tree.

Patriotic? 

I followed the directions on the map to a very large, rundown building which was the main host of the exhibition. It was such a great space. I always get mesmerised by old, decrepit buildings. I often wonder that the story is behind their rundown appearance. I think I was more interested in the building than the actually exhibit inside it. There were floors and floors of photography displays and even the old lift shafts were being used to display images.

A trip to Fribourg

As I've said many times before, Sunday's in Switzerland are fairly quiet. We hadn't realised this until we made the trip to Fribourg. An hour and a half on the train and we were in the typically Swiss looking city wondering where everyone was. We didn't let the emptiness deter us as we walked through the quiet streets exploring. We found the main street which is where most of the people were that were actually out on a Sunday. Mind you, there still wasn't that many people out. 

We came across this. I thought it was a street performer at first until I noticed that there was no upturned hat waiting for peoples loose change. No one would do that for free. I examined it further with caution, half expecting it to come alive and scare the bejeebus out of me and noticed a build up of algae in the shoes from the water. That wasn't a real person, although statues still creep me out.

A rather fancy McDonald's.

We couldn't resist walking up these stairs to have a peak in the quiet little alleyway. I did a google translation of the sign and I'm not sure that it's right because it sounds rather strange. "The quotes peas lost the original". If anyone can give me a more accurate translation it would be much appreciated.

Up on the window ledge was a statue of a man slaying a demon. Gruesome!

Secret garden?

The city has many hills so there were these great staircases all over the place. 

Beautiful weather!

I love the amount of great street art to be found in Switzerland. When we came here I was expecting to see a super-clean, regimented country but I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of free expression in the streets.

Fountains of drinkable water everywhere. I wouldn't be worried about lack of drinking water in Switzerland. The water is so beautiful and oh-so-cold.

A nice, lazy Sunday lunch in a beautiful location. Beautiful, warm goats cheese, crouton salad with caramelised onion. Très bon!

After a surprisingly, extremely tasty lunch we walked around some more and discovered this sports ground where a local football match was happening. (Sorry all of your Aussies - I've started calling Soccer - Football)

A nice sit down with a beer in hand to watch the match.

After we watched the home team beat the visitors in the football we stumbled upon this great little Funiculaire (Funicular). It was too cute and a novelty to pass up a ride on it. We were generously helped by the operator with getting our tickets for a ride up the side of the mountain to the upper part of town.

Got to love when you spot a piece of well known street art. This piece by Invader.

Ahh I love a giant pretzel!

DOUBLE-DECKER TRAIN!

After a nice, quiet day of exploring a lovely Swiss city, we headed back home. The trip back to Lausanne is beautiful when you spot Lake Geneva and the surrounding mountains from the train. A beautiful sunny afternoon makes it even more spectacular.

The beautiful vineyards. 

Train travel is great in Switzerland. They are always on time, extremely comfortable, somewhat expensive compared to Brisbane but very worth the price considering the punctuality and the spectacular scenery they pass by. I don't think I will ever get sick of exploring this beautiful country.