Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the festive period and managed to spend time with your families, I was home for a week at Christmas and managed to get lots of relaxation and eating in!
Now it’s back to work for me, and I spent New Year’s Eve at 40,000ft, somewhere between Zurich and Dubai. In this job it’s practically unheard of to have both Christmas and New Year’s Eve off, let alone 2 years in a row, so I didn’t mind working NYE since I was lucky enough to be on leave for Christmas.
My last flight before my leave was a trip to Geneva, my second time visiting in December. Since it had only been two weeks since the previous trip, I decided to jump on a train and visit Lausanne, a small town around 40 minutes away.
Luckily I even had a companion for the afternoon – Thanatip, the lovely Thai first class crew, accompanied me.
We were slightly taken aback by the price of the train ticket – 56 Swiss Francs each for a return ticket! Bearing in mind that’s about what I used to pay for a ticket from Klagenfurt – Vienna (a 4 hour train journey!) when I lived in Austria, and this was a 40 minute ride each way. Fortunately we get a generous allowance in Geneva, but still!
The weather was fairly grey and cold, but at least it wasn’t raining. We had hoped for some snow, but it seems to be taking it’s time this year!
Once we arrived at the train station, we grabbed a map from the tourist information centre and made our way up the streets towards where the Christmas market was located. It wasn’t the worst Christmas market I’ve been to but it definitely wasn’t much compared to what you can find in Germany!
Nevertheless the streets were beautifully decorated with lots of festive lights and decorations. We strolled through the town, stopping for hot chestnuts, mulled wine and freshly made churros.
It was already starting to get dark by around 4pm, but we still had more that we wanted to see. When I had looked at pictures of Lausanne most of them were taken by the lake, but we decided it was a bit of a walk from the town centre and would be better in the daylight, so we gave it a miss this time.
Our walk took us up towards the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was beautifully lit up in the evening light.
We also had to cross a bridge to get there, from which there was a lovely view across the town.
The cathedral was originally constructed in 1170, and was quite impressive, especially with all of the colourful lights.
Despite all of the chestnuts and churros consumed earlier, we were beginning to feel a bit peckish. Thanatip and I made it our mission to find a lovely traditional Swiss restaurant, preferably serving cheese fondue!
We passed by a few more pretty buildings, and even a Christmas tree market. If only I had a bigger suitcase, I would definitely have taken one back to Dubai with me!
Thanks to a quick stop outside Starbucks to use the free wifi, we managed to find a restaurant close by that served up fondue. The one we chose was called “Le Vaudois”, and if you’re ever in Lausanne I would most definitely recommend it!
We ordered a fondue to share, which came with chopped up chunks of bread and steaming hot potatoes. We could have done with some veggies or meat to dip in the melting cheese, but it seems to be that they only really serve bread and potatoes with the fondue in Switzerland.
After a delicious dinner we made our way back to the train station to head back towards Geneva. Both of us were feeling rather full and sleepy by this point, so I think we both had a mini nap on the train!
Lausanne is a lovely quaint town, so if you’re in Geneva and have an afternoon to spare, why not make the trip? Make sure to get some delicious cheese fondue if you do!
P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂
Once again a really nice post. Thanks for sharing.
Lausanne is a lovely town. I’m happy you enjoyed!
Concerning the cheese Fondue, it is only served with bread and potatoes. Nothing else…. Dry meat is served before. Every Swiss will think you are crazy if you eat it with something else 🙂
Yes trains are expensive in Switzerland but most of the people only pay half fare. You buy a pass valid one year and the you have 50% discount on all public transportation in the country. Of course it’s not worth in your case.
Best wishes fo 2017!
Author
Thanks for reading! 🙂 Haha ok good to know, maybe I should go for raclette next time then 😉 Thanks and the same to you!
Oh wow! That’s funny, as I am currently in Bern! I live in another country, but I have Swiss heritage and citizenship, and like to visit as much as possible. I love the food and wintery atmosphere. Isn’t Lausanne beautiful? 🙂
Author
Lausanne is gorgeous! Just a shame that it gets dark so early in winter as I would have loved to have seen more of the city in the daylight. Can’t beat some good cheese fondue either! 🙂