Another sleep in today, our train wasn't until 11.11am, so we took our time getting organised. As we left the Novotel it started raining - Paris was crying because we were leaving!!! (Sorry, couldn't resist the bad taste schmaltz).

So, we trundled over to Gare de Lyon with our luggage and were ready to head for hall 1 where we've seen the train to Geneva for the last three days, but no, today it would be in hall 2, so we made our way there and I asked the little information man if he knew which platform it would be on. He told me that he could speak a little English, looked at my train ticket and told me I was in the happy place!! That was reassuring!! We did discover though that when the train arrived on its inbound journey they then showed which platform.

So we boarded our TGVLyria train and found our first class seats. It was very nice. The ride was incredibly quiet and smooth. It didn't seem like we were going particularly fast, until we were travelling parallel to the motorway and the cars were almost standing still as we flew by. The scenery was just beautiful. There are so many fields of canola.

We were surprised to find our fare included a 3 course meal, with wine and coffee and real cutlery and crockery. After only 3 hours we were pulling in to Geneva railway station - back in Switzerland :)

Our accommodation was only 400 metres from the station (Shannon and Jess, you might remember dad's little walk to the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas? Deja vu). Yes, we almost walked all the way to Montreux, I'm sure.

We had elected to stay in youth hostels in Switzerland (apart from one extravagance) because their hotels and food are a little expensive. On arrival at the youth hostel we found the ground floor to be a building site with a makeshift reception area, but that's okay. Our double room is on the top floor, with a balcony. It's neat and clean and we have our own bathroom. We also have free wifi in our room. So all is well. After a little rest we shall explore the area for dinner.

And so we did - we worked out the lovely tram system (using our free travel pass courtesy of youth hostels) and made out way to the centre of town and found a meal and withdrew some cash. The lovely girls sitting at the table next to us were Kiwis - one (from Dunedin) just finished working in Edinburgh for 2 years after graduation, and the other (from the North Island) doing a PhD in human geography. They're staying at the youth hostel too. And Tom and I are not the eldest people staying here - there was a couple checking in at the same time as us who'd be at least 15 years older.

Tomorrow is a quite day - just a city tour and some shopping.