I’m loving Switzerland! After an uneventful flight with a connection in Amsterdam, we landed in Geneva Sunday around 1:30 pm local time. We are staying in Nyon which is a small town about 20 minutes outside of Geneva. This is where Michelle always stays for this conference. This year she thought she may stay in Geneva, but when she found out I was coming she decided to stay in Nyon. She knew I would love it, and she was right! It’s such a picturesque town that sits right on Lake Geneva and has its own castle and beautiful terraced gardens. The mountains and towns you see across the lake are actually in France. It’s so peaceful and is the perfect place to stroll around and relax.
Sunday afternoon we just walked around Nyon and grabbed some lunch and gelato and checked out the castle. Michelle had warned me that it’s really expensive here, and she wasn’t kidding. My lunch was $50! If you go to a restaurant with table service, you’d better be prepared to pay at least $25 for an entree. Luckily the grocery stores and bakeries sell good sandwiches for a few dollars. I’ll be taking advantage of that for most of my lunches moving forward. Oh, and the wine is cheap – a major plus!
Monday Michelle had to go set up her booth at the show and I decided to take the train to some of the towns along lake Geneva. I bought a 4-day Swiss rail pass which lets me go anywhere in the country and is good on trains, buses, and boats. It also lets you get in some of the sites for free. It was $250, and I debated on if it was worth the value of if I would be better off just paying as I go. I’m SO glad I bought it. Michelle spent $70 on train tickets today and we just stayed in the Lake Geneva area. I will definitely come out ahead with the pass. Not to mention that you don’t have the hassle of buying tickets everywhere.
I started the day in Morges which wasn’t where I intended to go (wrong train) but it was great! I then met up with Michelle and we went to Montreax and the Lavaux wine region. We walked a ton and got to sample some great local wine while sitting on the bank of Lake Geneva – not a bad way to start vacation! The vineyards go straight up the hillside and there aren’t any guides/signs on where to go. Basically, you could walk through the vineyards halfway up a mountain and not really know if you are actually going to find the winery. We didn’t get very far up the mountain before we turned around and went back towards the water. We figured a safer bet was to sample the local wine in the restaurants. Our plan worked, and we got to try the wine from Cully and Lutry, the two small towns we visited.
We saw a ton and did a ton of walking – we finally made it back to the hotel at 11 pm and our legs were aching. These hills are no joke! I went to the Berner Overland region today to get up close and personal with the Alps. It was amazing, and I’ll try to post pictures of that soon!
sallysuesees.com 
May 20, 2015 at 7:23 pm
Wow what a gorgeous country! I love the stories & the pictures. I’m just going to come on out & say I’m crazy jealous right now! So glad you are having fun, and from the looks of it, enjoying good weather?