My version of heaven: Vevey and Lausanne

In this week's "off the beaten path edition" I'm going to let you in on a couple of secret and not so secret places to visit around Geneva: Vevey and Lausanne. I visited them on Thursday while my friend Adi was in class.

A window in Lausanne (photo by Avery Cropp)

Both are very beautiful but offer something completely different.

Vevey is a picturesque little town that is right on Lake Geneva. There are lots of things that it offers to visitors, a nice walking path around the lake with fantastic views of the mountains, Musee de Alimentacion (the museum of food), several fancy old houses, and a lovely little castle that people can check out.

Lausanne is a larger city just outside of Geneva. Now, disclaimer time, I spent less time here than in Vevey, because it was one of those days that you really just wanted to relax so I don't know how great of a description you'll get from me about Lausanne. 

While in Lausanne  I had time to visit the old town center and walked TONS of stairs. It is the epitome of what you would think of when you think of a little French town. Geneva is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.  

Most of my day in these places was spent just walking around and taking pictures since I was nearing the end of my budget for this leg of my trip, but they are well worth the short train journey. Since I have Swiss friends I was able to take advantage of a pass that allows you to travel on all public transportation in Switzerland for a whole day which was really beneficial.

Vevey

I originally started my trip travelling in the direction of a place called Montreux, but when I arrived the station was all boarded up so I figured this probably wasn't the place the spend my day. So I backtracked on my line to Vevey which looked much livelier.

Lake Geneva is so blue that it looks like a sapphire and there are tons of swans everywhere. When I got there there was fog on the lake which is surrounded by the alps. It looked as though you had just entered some otherworldly place. It was magnificent and relaxing. It was wonderful to just kill some time after travelling so much for the past month.

Plus the lunch time view was absolutely wonderful as you can see below:


Not bad for a lunch spot! (photo by Avery Cropp)

By the way if you get to Vevey and you're on a budget I highly recommend a place called Babette's Sandwiches. The lunch time specials are fantastic.

After spending lunch in Vevey I then headed back toward Geneva on my way to Lausanne.






Lausanne

A woman takes a break for lunch

The city is the fifth largest city in the country with a population of over 130,000 people in the middle of what qualifies as Switzerland's wine country.

The tourism information center located in the train station was very helpful and quickly helped me narrow down what I could see in a limited time. They recommended I check out old town first and then if I had time to walk by the water.

 I saw the medieval city at the top of one of the big hills in Lausanne and also explored the city center a bit as well. For lack of a better description the places really do remind you of little towns in France. The architecture is beautiful and there's plenty of things to keep you occupied. There's a cathedral, some stairs that take you all the way down the huge hills, and lots of little shops and cafes that you can check out along the way.