We did it!
Now that we all survived my first business trip, we decided to try something even more critical: a night away together in a hotel. Since we've found it's hard to go anywhere in the car because she needs to eat so frequently, we decided to try and find someplace accessible by a direct train from Basel, far enough to feel like we were getting away, close enough not to spend our whole weekend on the train, and preferably someplace we'd never been. On top of that, since cold and rain were forecast for most of Switzerland we figured we should go someplace with a nice enough hotel that we could hang out if need be. Friday afternoon we finally settled on our getaway option: Lausanne.
We had visions of taking ferries around Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneva), wandering aimlessly around the old town, perhaps visiting the Olympics Museum, etc. Instead, since it only stopped raining for a few hours we only managed to wander aimlessly around the old town trying to find a place to eat, then taking a bus down to Ouchy, where we walked around the lake for a little while until dark clouds threatened. By the time we got back to the hotel the rain had started again and that was it for our exploring.
Best of all, we all survived our night in the hotel! She let us eat dinner (despite Gretchen having to go feed her a couple of times), the neighbors never had to call the front desk to complain about her crying, and she even stayed calm enough to let Gretchen go swimming. She refused to sleep in the little travel bed that we brought, so we've still got some things to work on, but overall it was a huge relief to go away for a night and all come back no worse for wear. (Although we also learned how much crap you have to haul around when you have a baby...you'd have thought we were going away for two weeks instead of one night.)
Anyway, some additional random impressions of Lausanne:
--Nothing there is flat; residents must have thighs and lungs of steel.
--The historic center looked really nice, so it's too bad the rain chased us inside before we could see more than the main shopping streets (this is the view from our hotel room--is it too much to ask that construction cranes be taken down on the weekends so as not to interfere with pictures?).
--French is so much easier on the ear than German.
--Mmmmmmm...crepes.
--One block of Lausanne had more style than all of Basel combined...but we still managed to see enough bad teenage fashion (think tight white jeans) to remind us we were still in Switzerland.
--Sometimes there's nothing quite like splurging on a nice hotel. We got a last-minute internet deal, plus figured that since we haven't traveled in months and wanted to be comfortable for feeding, etc, so we decided to go all-out. It was still overpriced, but it was kind of nice to feel pampered for 24 hours.
--The bus ride from the old town down to the lake at Ouchy was insane--we were flying around turns, people were being thrown around the bus, pedestrians were fleeing in terror...but everyone seemed to take it in good humor and people were even joking with the driver about it. If that happened in Basel I'll bet people would have been calling the police from the bus and taking the driver's name to report to his superiors.
--We really need to get out on a ferry sometime.
We had visions of taking ferries around Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneva), wandering aimlessly around the old town, perhaps visiting the Olympics Museum, etc. Instead, since it only stopped raining for a few hours we only managed to wander aimlessly around the old town trying to find a place to eat, then taking a bus down to Ouchy, where we walked around the lake for a little while until dark clouds threatened. By the time we got back to the hotel the rain had started again and that was it for our exploring.
Best of all, we all survived our night in the hotel! She let us eat dinner (despite Gretchen having to go feed her a couple of times), the neighbors never had to call the front desk to complain about her crying, and she even stayed calm enough to let Gretchen go swimming. She refused to sleep in the little travel bed that we brought, so we've still got some things to work on, but overall it was a huge relief to go away for a night and all come back no worse for wear. (Although we also learned how much crap you have to haul around when you have a baby...you'd have thought we were going away for two weeks instead of one night.)
Anyway, some additional random impressions of Lausanne:
--Nothing there is flat; residents must have thighs and lungs of steel.
--The historic center looked really nice, so it's too bad the rain chased us inside before we could see more than the main shopping streets (this is the view from our hotel room--is it too much to ask that construction cranes be taken down on the weekends so as not to interfere with pictures?).
--French is so much easier on the ear than German.
--Mmmmmmm...crepes.
--One block of Lausanne had more style than all of Basel combined...but we still managed to see enough bad teenage fashion (think tight white jeans) to remind us we were still in Switzerland.
--Sometimes there's nothing quite like splurging on a nice hotel. We got a last-minute internet deal, plus figured that since we haven't traveled in months and wanted to be comfortable for feeding, etc, so we decided to go all-out. It was still overpriced, but it was kind of nice to feel pampered for 24 hours.
--The bus ride from the old town down to the lake at Ouchy was insane--we were flying around turns, people were being thrown around the bus, pedestrians were fleeing in terror...but everyone seemed to take it in good humor and people were even joking with the driver about it. If that happened in Basel I'll bet people would have been calling the police from the bus and taking the driver's name to report to his superiors.
--We really need to get out on a ferry sometime.
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