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 us, a three hour cruise. Unlike Gilligan,we came back:-).

Because G and O are supporters of the restoration work on the ferry, they had tickets that allowed us to upgrade our passage to First class - upper deck and special dining room. What else would we expect? The thunder and rain had worn itself out overnight and we were treated to sun the whole way. We could see the various towns from the water, and got a different perspective on the vineyards where we had walked the day before.

Everywhere we looked on land there were flowers. In pots, in gardens, in parks, on balconies. Gorgeous! I wonder what they will look like in winter?

The steamer took us from Lausanne to Pully, Lutry, Cully, Rivaz-St-Saphorin, Vevey, Clarens, Montreux, Chateau de Chillon then back.

Lunch in the grand dining room was special, surrounded by a superb restoration of the timber inlay and mirrors that made up the walls. The food was very good.

On disembarking we went up to see the spectacular cathedral of Lausanne, originally Catholic but since the reformation a state church, as far as we could tell from the French signs we read. A feature of the beautiful Gothic building was that it is used for a range of purposes besides worship. It is currently hosting a display of popular art images of Christ, and it is regularly used for concerts, so that half the chairs are set up to face the massive pipe organ at the rear, not the altar area. Some of the art was downright irreverent and some was hugely funny and some was both, like today's cover pic.

Into town to a cafe opposite the town hall where we watched people for a while, including a wedding with six bridesmaids. The couple looked like they had African and Middle
eastern connections, and simply walked towards their reception. There was no drumming, but lots of ululating.

The autumnal cuisine continued at Chez Bjustrom/Stehli with a tarte des pruneau. (Plum Tart). This was followed by some cheese and sweet Swiss bread. Another early night.