We slept well in our loft room and, besides breakfast did what all good lightweight travellers do and did a load of washing. Then we were off to the tourist office to make a few arrangements. We bought the Welcome Bologna card, booked a walking tour for 4.45 and asked them to book us a cooking class for Tuesday or Thursday - it ended up being Thursday. We began exploring the Piazza Maggiore with an audio tour I had downloaded at home, and began to get a sense o...

We started our last day in Lausanne with the customary breakfast and bid farewell to G and O's house when they drove us to the station. It has been a great way to catch up with friends whom we first met in Greece in the 80s and have somehow maintained contact with over the miles and the years, and a great way to ease into Europe this time around. Switzerland is certainly worth a visit in its own right! The wait at the station passed in having Görel's customary ...

Anne and I had another good night's sleep and another lovely breakfast. Gorel and Othmar are certainly the hosts with the mostest! Today's plan was a cruise on a restored paddle steamer called La Suisse, built in 1910 in Othmar's place of birth. We stopped en route (see how my French is improving?) at Migros to buy some bread and yoghurt and then explored the waterfront at Lausanne for a little while prior to departure. We left dead on time for, as Anne reminded...

I forgot to mention yesterday that we also had a walk in the local woodland, so different from our Australian eucalypt forests. The trees tend to be slender and straight and tall, with less undergrowth, and this woodland is tended as a source of firewood. On Friday, Gorel and Othmar had already planned a program for us, so after a fantastic breakfast including terrific home made jams, we set off on a trip to Gruyeres along the quieter back roads that took us th...

Our time in Dubai passed quickly, as did the 6 hour 777 flight to Geneva. Unfortunately Anne still didn't manage any sleep. Still, she was in great spirits. The first test of our experiment in travelling with carry-on luggage only was passed with flying colours. From landing to sitting down in the train for Lausanne took only about 30 minutes, including working out the ticket machine. Just moving around with a 7 kg bag is so much easier than the usual hassle of ...