The train not taken.

In Switzerland, as in much of Europe, the train service is great. We’re getting near Lausanne, and most of our walking stages could be done in minutes on a train. This is good to know; if we could not, or did not want to, walk for some reason, we could continue on the train. So far we haven’t been really tempted, although yesterday’s walk in the rain and mud would have far easier one of the many trains we saw!

As we climbed out of Croy, passing through terraced vineyards, a drizzle began which continued pretty much all the way to Cossonay, our destination. Fortunately, we’re well equipped for rain, but we’re glad we have had so little this year.

Cossonay is a very busy agricultural town on a plateau above extensive crop and grazing fields. We had arranged to stay in a room we found on AirBnB. We didn’t know what to expect, and were pleasantly surprised to find that the room was in very old building, beautifully and recent renovated, in an apartment more elegantly decorated than anything we’d ever seen in our lives! And, between the rain and the mud, we looked like something the cat dragged in! Fortunately, our host didn’t bat an eyelash but just welcomed us in, insisting we did not even need to take off our boots!

After we got cleaned up we explored a bit and later had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. We had a selection of Lebanese food; all the usual treats. Humus, falafel, baba ghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, tabouli and others, including, of course, kibbeh. The kibbeh was great, but not as good as Carolyn Gorman’s!

This morning we took the funicular down from the plateau to continue our hike. There were workmen working on the car as we descended, but it took us down as scheduled. Karl was a little nervous, thinking he certainly would not want to fly on an airplane while it was being worked on, but he boarded anyway and it all work out!

We’re then walked to Bussigny, on the outskirts of Lausanne. For the first time we could see Lac Leman, or Lake Geneva. Tomorrow we walk to Lausanne.

By the way, it was snowing in Aosta yesterday! Sure glad we did our walk there two weeks ago!Read more