Switzerland

Lutry

Hunter served in Lausanne during his mission, but our Airbnb just happened to be in Lutry.

Side note: For seeing Europe, Airbnb is the way to go!  For our large group of 8, it was cheaper everywhere we went to get an Airbnb than to get hotel rooms.  Even in Paris, there were rentals as low as $50 a night.

We were totally thrilled to find that we were a short walk from lake geneva!  Once we got going in the morning, we drove down and parked.  

 After the stench of Paris (sorry, Paris smells bad.  It really does.) and even the other French cities, the air up in the Alps was incredibly fresh and clean.  The water was beautiful.  We hadn't even seen it in daylight before Tyler declared it was his favorite place of the whole trip.

 The water was just a stunning blue.  The lake is right on the Swiss/French border, so the other side of the lake is the French city of Evian.  Yes, the Evian.

 We all brought our swimsuits for this very day.  It was a cool-ish morning, and the water was pretty brisk.  Tyler and I had walked down to the lake the night before, and I may have mis-represented the temperature of the water in my efforts to ensure all the group would get in the water with me!

 We had planned to rent paddle boards and paddle boats, but the rental place was only open on weekends and Tuesdays!  How sad is that?

 Well, we all had our swimsuits on and had brought them for this very day, so there was nothing to do but swim out to that diving platform.

It doesn't look that high but it was at least 15 feet!  We all stood at the top trying to gauge if it was safe, and Tyler just took a leap off the edge.  After that, Hunter, Haley, and Logan all went in.  I took a little more time... it was high enough that I was a little jumpy!  I did jump in eventually, and even my dad swam out and jumped!

There was a cement walkway out the the platform - it was under a half foot of water, which meant it was covered in algae and extremely slick.  All of us slipped on the stairs at some point.

 We lounged around and soaked up the sun for a bit.  There were a handful of topless women out sunbathing.  It's hardly without seeing at least one topless woman, right?

 Eventually, we changed out of our swimsuits and drove over to Lausanne to see about riding a ferry.

Lausanne

 Finding parking in Lausanne was miserable.  Besides that, I can't recommend it enough!  It's a beautiful city.  We made arrangements for a little boat cruise across the lake instead of the ferry.

The docks were really fun.  Tyler taught Haley how to play chess and they got compliments from another tourist walking by.  We don't know what she was saying but she kept applauding and smiling, so that seems like a good sign.

We had lunch at a cafe on the lake front.  I got a delicious smoothie that everybody proceeded to taste.  Get your own smoothie next time, people!

 The only other thing of note was that Tyler ordered shrimp, which came peeled but with the head, legs, and tail still on!  They were so freaky looking.  Once he peeled them, I didn't mind having a taste and oh. my. word. It was the best shrimp I have ever had.

After lunch we grabbed ice cream - it was a yummy treat, but definitely not as good as Haagen-Daaz.

 Finally, we boarded our little boat and started our cruise.  We wen't pretty slow, so we got to soak in the lake and mountain vistas.

  Looking North to the Alps

 Looking across to France

 Looking back at Lutry and Lausanne

After our pleasure cruise, it was more driving to get to Bern.

Bern

We arrived late (again) and finding parking was miserable (again).  We were in a cute little studio apartment - we all had our own beds, but we were all in one room, which was actually kindof fun. (See it here if your curious)

 We had dinner at a restaurant on the street below our apartment, and it just happened to be one of the best-rated places to get fondue in Bern.  I was totally excited to try fondue, so that is what I ordered!  Logan ordered escargots (something he has had before and actually likes), and Tyler ordered veal.

 Regrettably, my fondue was awful.  Everyone who tried it agreed.  Tyler suspects it's because we don't like the taste from the beer that the cheese is melted with.  Who knows?  Haley and Tyler both tried the escargots and liked them fine.  Tyler loved his veal but I thought the texture was so gross.

It was a funny meal where we all tried something new.  The best food, by far, was the roasted chicken that Hunter and Mom ordered.

 The next morning, Tyler and I got up before everyone else so we could walk down to the river.  It was a short, but pleasant, walk and the river was ice blue and beautiful.

 Our main attraction in Bern was the Temple.  It was the first temple to use a film for the Endowment, and has six languages that it uses regularly in addition to others.  It's one of the oldest LDS temples, the 9th one built.  Once we got back from our walk, we helped everyone load up the cars and out we went.

 Haley did baptisms by herself and the rest of us did an Endowment session.  The celestial room was probably my favorite of the fourteen I have seen - it was painted in pastel pink and blue, which made me think of the clouds at sunrise.  I loved it.

 When we got out, we did a little more photo taking.  We wandered around trying to find somewhere to change, and thankfully someone let us into the little chapel on the property so we could put on some more comfortable clothes for the drive back to Paris.

 We had lunch in a little pizza parlor and it was sooo good.  After that, we had to drive seven hours back to Paris!

 We slept a little, but my favorite part was jamming out to some classic rock (my dad's favorite) and disney music.  Tyler was a boss and drove the whole seven hours for us.

The french countryside was so pretty.  We drove by this awesome castle, but we have no idea what it was.  I wonder if someone lives there!

When we arrived in Paris, we had a hard time finding our next Airbnb.  We were staying on a houseboat!  (see it here) We wandered around in the dark for a while before running into someone our host had sent to check us in.

We were all excited about the idea of a houseboat.  It was the roomiest place we stayed and the only place where we had two bathrooms (ah, the luxury!).  Alas, while the boat itself was fine, we were all horrified to find it completely infested with spiders.  Really, the whole river bank was infested.  These huge, scary spiders were everywhere.

Inside the house boat, we sent the boys on a spider raid.  In our room, I made Tyler pull back the curtains, the art work, anything and everything that could harbor a spider.  He claims he only killed eight spiders that night, but I feel like it was more.  I bet combined our group killed at least 20, and that was only below deck. We didn't even tackle the nightmare above deck.

Regardless of the spiders, we all managed to get to sleep.  I woke up during the night coughing from a tickle in my throat.  For a millisecond it occurred to me it was probably a spider.  I just swallowed and tried not to think about it.  But I'm pretty sure it was a spider.  

Trip Part 1: Paris
Trip Part 2: Southern France
Trip Part 4: Paris again