Wednesday 14 August 2013

Via Jacobi (August 15, 2013) - Day 15 Vucherens to Lausanne

Well all turned out right again...another late day wander...

First supper last night with Carine, Luc and Till was a real treat. I ate as a member of the family...corn on the cob, salad from the garden, various cheeses, potatoes, bread and ham. The highlight was dessert where Will (maybe 10) had worked for 3 hours or so (including cleanup he stressed) making fancy cupcakes. I wish I had taken a picture...they had green icing with a few pieces of fruit for decoration...he was justly proud.

Conversation about various things flowed freely...turns out Luc teaches mathematics at a teachers college...he was impressed when I mentioned the Actuarial connection in our family!

One topic of conversation were the many convents and monasteries that I had passed over the past number of days...you guessed it most are very sparsely populated these days.

Early morning view from house

Breakfast - fruit pie was delicious

Officially today was about 21 kms which should have taken at most 5 hours....I walked for 7.5 hours! I expect a good part of the overage is simply due to how they measure distances i.e. the start of Lausanne is likely close to 1.5 to 2 hours from where I presently am...the city goes on forever!

Walking was easy again in terms of minimal elevation gains and perfect weather...mid 20's by day's end.

A lot of a road walking today which makes it easy to follow the trail however can be hard on the feet after a while.

Road walking

More road walking
Going down steps in forest!



Across boards with metal grid to eliminate slipping

Forest road

As far as dangerous animal encounters...boring day

This fellow could be challenging

Canadian lapel pin giveaway....only two at separate times when some needed advice was given.

Interesting construction - concrete on metal with grass

Arrived on the outskirts of Lausanne just after 1:00 thinking I would be at my accommodation no later than 2:00. I was impressed with signage and was having no problem and then...signs and/or my ability to follow them disappeared.

The Via Jacobi simply went AWOL...so I started using Google maps and working my way to the Lausanne Backpackers Guest House where I am staying for the night.

Now balancing a mini iPad (bright sunlight is not kind when looking at the screen!) in one hand, two trekking poles in the other and ensuring one is not doing something stupid with cars all around is a challenge. Well at least it is of me!

I was not a happy camper to say the least however slowly things started to fall into place in that I found a bank (needed a few Swiss francs to sleep tonight), set up a tentative Skype date with Jeanne my daughter, found my way to the Guest House and asked two different people how to get back on the Via Jacobi tomorrow (Info centre and lady at front desk here).

We will see tomorrow morning how successful these directions are...in a big city such as Lausanne the Via Jacobi is not that well known.

Best part of the day...I had a really good Skype date with my daughter Jeanne who is back in Japan after two weeks volunteering at a school in Nepal. She flew over Everest! The picture and sound quality was by far the best of the 5 Skype sessions I have had since starting the walk. Jeanne and I agreed that walking through a country was worth around 5 new countries therefore I have now visited 23 countries to Jeanne's measly 21!

I was told by a few people that the Lausanne Cathedral is not to be missed...built in 1275 or so it is reputed to be the finest Gothic church edifice in Europe. The best part is I took the subway!

TOOK SUBWAY!!!

The Protestant cathedral was really beautiful however in stark contrast to the ornate Catholic cathedral in Einselden.




Now resting comfortably in the common meeting room...have tried my best to remedy the left heel blister situation however I expect this will be a little unpleasant tomorrow. 

Allaman is my next stop...supposedly 25 kms away.

Future Pilgrims

Lausanne Backpackers Guest House is very highly rated by TripAdvisor and has a great location by the train station. I am in a two bunk bed room...hopefully the two fellows there aren't snorers...perhaps there will a fourth! 

Unfortunately the old guy...me...get's a top bunk!

Everything seems very clean...received a free transportation in Lausanne card and a discount at a bakery for breakfast.

Total cost, with bedding is 38 Swiss francs, excluding breakfast...cannot be beaten in a large city.  I rate it highly.


4 comments:

  1. I'm sorry, I do believe you misunderstood in your old age. We most certainly DID NOT agree that walking through a country equals 5 countries!!! It's quite an impressive feat, however if you were asked to list all the countries you had visited, you would look like quite a fool if you listed Switzerland 5 times! My apologies papa. Current tally stands as follows:
    Jeanne = 21
    Papa = 19
    Je t'aime!
    Jeanne
    P.S. I think you should keep the beard. Tu parais distingué.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jeanne,

      Was wondering if you would notice! If you count Swiss cantons I have been through 8 or 9!

      Je t'aime

      Papa

      Delete
  2. Guy,
    If you do some playing around with Google Maps, once you select your destination, you can select a route to get you there. Once you have selected the route, press the start icon. A pleasant voice will give you step by step instructions to get to where you are going. She doesn't even get mad if you take the wrong turn. You could use the head phones and place the iPad in a pocket.

    Re: Math skills ... I have to agree with your daughter, since you have retired (or perhaps old age), I think the math skills are going (or perhaps it is the walk).

    Re: Blisters ... keep an eye on these as they have to potential to become badly infected (as my son rececntly experienced).

    You need to post another "selfy" ... I would like to confirm how distinguished you are looking.

    Greg A.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Greg,

    Math skills still sharp...just thinking outside the box more! You will notice from today's blog posted that I came to the same conclusion as th advice you gave me...here's hoping it get's the intended results!

    Guy

    ReplyDelete