Lausanne, Switzerland: Part 3

Posted on March 17, 2024  •  18 minutes  • 3784 words

After the last place, this place was a welcoming sight. It was small, but it was really nice…and we could see a playground from the kitchen window. Kids do what they do every time we get to a new place…run around a check out every nook and cranny, like a dog at a new place that needs to smell everything. Kids claimed the big room and Dan was having none of it. They finally won the argument that there are three of them and only two of us. And they needed extra space for a kid to sleep on the floor, since they HAD to sleep in the same room and not one on the couch. Fair. I sided with them in the vote. We then had more of a lunch. I made sandwiches, which the whole family agrees I’m really good at making.

I have always prided myself on my sandwich making abilities, able to make one with having lots of things around or not. And most of the time, having them be amazing. A little of everything in this one.

Dan then took the car back and I put things away. We did a quick ‘check out the park’, some reading and had an early dinner. Being a Sunday, more or less all supermarkets are closed in Lausanne on Sundays, we were lucky that Dan had gone a bit crazy buying food at the market in Gruyeres (or near there). He also ran over to Yuhao’s house to get the bike and our other bag…since we weren’t moving Airbnbs anymore in Lausanne. I treated myself to some peace and quiet while Dan was out.

The night before, there had been macaroni and cheese on the menu, but we convinced the kids to try something else. After that, they were set on me making it for them. I looked up a recipe and it seemed simple enough…make macaroni, make cheese sauce and combine. I tried, but the cheese wouldn’t melt in the heated milk, so I went for dumping some milk, grated cheese and macaroni all together. Totally worked! Kids were so happy.

On Monday we were invited to a dinner the lab was having at a Chinese restaurant. Food was so amazing and Yuhao took care of it all! What’s better than eating good food? Eating good food that keeps appearing in front of you that you don’t have to order. We tried so many things and it was SO nice to socialize with others. Super nice group and super nice to feel included.

Note to self: get photo from Jaime

The next couple days were much in the same. School, park, lunch, wait for Dad to get home, school, park, lunch, wait for Dad to get home. Sam and Max coloring Ben’s country book

Park behind our house that we frequented.

On Wednesday, we decided to walk to EPFL (where Dan was ‘working’) to see the lab and have lunch with Dan. The walk was about 45 minutes and felt down the whole way. We even got to walk a little through a mini city forrest.

After lunch with Dan, we did the obligatory photo in front of the sign.

We then checked out the Rolex center, inside and out. It was a massive building for student to lounge, study, gather, etc. An architect had a lot of fun with the design.

We then looped back to the lab. Kids saw Dan’s office and what was the most exciting part? The white board. To be fair, all the cool robots were in the lab.

We saw Jaime, the lab’s PI, and she was so happy to see us. I say this with such happiness, she had a giant smile on her face when she saw us and seemed SO genuinely happy we came by. We also picked a day that a Serbian news crew was videoing the lab so all the robots were up and running. Dan said, that usually this is not the case. The kids got a full tour and it was awesome!

They even got to try some out. This one could replicate tactic sensation for different objects, using air pressure. I am sorry to Mete if I just butchered explaining his project. Sam did it with his eyes closed and guessed them all right. I did not.

They saw one that used two different plates to transfer or flip or fold something. The kids did seem a bit more interested in touching the object, that looked like soft playdough.

Against my best judgement, the kids were allowed to use the joystick to operate the third arm.

And again, worrying something would break, the kids got to touch another robot, the pouch actuator, that replicates the tactile sensation of something changing…like a heart beat. He was able to draw patterns on the screen and then you could feel the pressure change in the robot. Proud to report, no robots were damaged while kids were in the lab.

We then got a tour of probably the most exciting part, the lab hang out area, that had a table full of candy. Alihan, from Turkey, had even brought in some Turkish Delights, much to the delight of the kids. :) We then went to another building to see the last stop on the tour, a program that allowed you to ‘ski’ down a mountain. You steered by shifting your weight and behind you was a pad that was tilting and vibrating, based on what was happening currently with the terrain. The idea, I believe, was eventually combine the controller pad and the moving pad so you could feel all the feels you would if you were skiing, minus the crashing.

We wrapped it all up, said our bye and thank yous and decided to walk down to the lake. Dan had some time and it did sound pretty nice. The sun was out and it really felt warm. There were some students jumping in the water. It really was such a nice day and so nice to just sit with Dan take in the view while the kids played.

Dan headed back right about when Sam decided he wanted to go swimming. It was sort of perfect for it, so really quickly I had two kids in their underwear running to the water. Ben is like I was as a kid…can’t stand to get wet if there isn’t a way to dry off 100%.

It worked out so well. Ben was making up games where the other two had to collect samples from the lake bottom and bring them to the lab for testing. This went on for quite sometime and it took everything I had to not close my eyes and fall asleep. You could tell they were starting to get cold, because they were coming out for longer and lying on the rocks to warm up.

We stayed there for quite sometime, with no rush to leave such a pretty place. Max eventually showed signs of being visibly cold, so I gave the 5 minute warming. Attempted to dry off kids a bit with their long sleeve shirts, which were no longer required over the short sleeves and ordered an Uber to take us home.

Some more school work, a show for a break, tickle fight with Dan, dinner and bed…with extra reading because Ben and I were dying to find out what happened with Henry the Hippo in a new series (FunJungle) we are loving.

For some reason, Sam was making us all extra special napkins for breakfast.

A lot of the afternoon looked like this. I think we were worn out from the day before. That and I had work to do, so extra reading and some extra shows.

That night, Jaime had invited us to a dinner picnic by the park; Yuhao was also invited. She told us to bring nothing, but we opted for dessert and wine. We took the train, to a bus (the wrong way) and then just decided to walk the rest of the way. Not cool for a bus to pick you up, looking like it’s going in the right direction, then go into a roundabout and make a U-turn. One stop and we hopped off, then walked to the lake. It was so beautiful AND there was a playground.

Kids went right to that, while Dan and I found a place to sit and take phots of the setting sun.

See, no kids! This is what happens when there’s a playground. Or really anything these days: dirt patch, puddle, rock wall, sticks. The weather was so perfect and the views were stunning in every direction.

Jaime and her partner, Cyril, went all out and it was amazing. We had some young goat cheese that I couldn’t stop eating, against Jaime’s best efforts to remind me there was a lot more food. Cyril’s sister in law (I think, or maybe brother) is a chef and gets them cheeses that you can’t find in supermarkets.

We kept snacking, drinking wine and chatting away. We had roast beef for dinner with carrot salad and cabbage salad. The appreciation for home cooked meals (not by me) when traveling is incredibly high! It was so pleasant and fun, we didn’t want to leave. It had been pitch black for a bit and finally Sam came over saying it was too dark to play. I checked my watch and it was almost 9pm! It really was totally dark. We wrapped up, planned to grab the bus that was waiting there to leave in a couple minutes. As we were hugging goodbye, 5 meters from the bus door, it took off! Really? It was so clear we were going to board and the guy couldn’t wait 15 extra seconds. Almost comical. We decided to walk, not wait for another.

Not going to lie, the trip home was painful. We got off at the wrong stop, or the app wasn’t working to tell us which next bus to take. Instead of a bus to a bus, that we thought, we ended up doing a bus, walked 15 minutes (after the original 12 minute walk to catch the first bus) to get to the train station to miss the train we were hoping to catch. Everyone was grumpy and it was 10pm by the time we got home…WAY to lake to expect any of out kids to be functioning. But it really was worth it.

Kids actually slept in a bit. This guy though, was getting into the habit of coming into our room when he woke up…and it always felt 30 minutes too early. But how to you say no to his cuteness? Well, Dan can, I can’t.

After so many nights eating in, due to the craziness of prices in Lausanne and not finding places we were so excited to go, we decided to eat out this night. Dan had walked past a Turkish restaurant, and we are still huge fans to say the least. We ordered it all: la macun, cacik, manti, corba, sarma, kofta, doner and pide.

Yeah, we ordered too much, but I happy to have leftovers.

The next day was Saturday and we decided to take a boat across the lake to France. There were two town to choose from and we went with Evian. The plan was to take a bus to a bus to get us to the ferry port. After the debacle of the other night getting home from the park, I decided a little checks and balances was in order. I also believe in a little extra walking if that equates to less transfers. Why do an extra transfer if you can just walk 5 extra minutes? Well, it was a very stressful, bickering trip to say the least. We did get there and got seats next to the window.

It was very windy and bumpy, with water splashing up on the windows on the 2nd level. Kids loved it and wanted to go below to see even more water splashing up. Fine by me, the lower we were the less rocking I was hoping to feel.

We arrived about 30 minutes after departure. It was a perfectly sunny day, but very windy…especially right on the water. We walked to a statue while Dan double checked tickets for the ride back. Kids were excited to be in a different country after just a short ride.

I had read there was a sort of walking tour that you could follow by following bronze water droplets in the sidewalk. We found one right away and tried to follow them backwards. We just assumed the tip of the droplet was pointing you in the direction to go.

We walked on and found another and another and another, but then the just stopped. We went in different directions looking for them, but came up with nothing. We did find lots of flowers though.

We then picked a direction to go and hoped to find more. We seemed to be walking along a little pedestrian street and then the water droplets were everywhere. Kids were running around and ahead trying to find more. Unfortunately, Max was a little slower and didn’t ‘find’ as many first.

And this guy!

We had zero plan and soon came to the end of the walk, not really knowing what to do. We did know we’d need food soon and even though we had a recommendation of a sushi restaurant, it wasn’t what we really wanted. Dan did some searching while the kids and I hung out by tons of flowers.

We found some bakeries, but it took a few before we found one that had enough options for lunch food. We got them to go as there wasn’t much room to sit and we did want to take advantage of the sun.

And dessert.

Full bellies, we walked to the spring where the famous Evian water comes from. It’s free flowing and there for anyone to drink or fill up bottles. We saw some locals filling up bottles and bottles. I did tell Dan that if we lived there, that would probably be me too. The water was so delicious. And maybe part of that was in your head, but it tasted like hiking in the mountains.

Just a spout in the side of a hill with some decorated tiles around it…so inconspicuous you could have almost missed it.

Across the way was a museum about the area, but it was under construction. The outside of the building was so beautiful.

All the brown is wood! No paint, just carved wood pieces or strips arranged to make the patterns.

We decided to head to a park after this, but needed a bathroom first. The one by the pedestrian street was closed, so we ended up walking down to the water for one. An old piano turned into a flower garden.

At this point, we really wanted to explore a bit outside the central area, but everyone seemed a bit off. Nothing specifically was going wrong, but it all felt off. Dan and I seemed to have no patience with the kids or with each other. The kids were bugging each other, Dan and I were constantly telling them to leave each other alone. To be honest, we were all struggling at this point. A day where we questioned our desire to be parents and our ability to be them once there was no turning back. We kept trying to push through and really thought a park was the best idea at this point. We started walking to what we thought was a park…a giant green area on the map and found an abandoned rail line that we could walk along.

This definitely boosted spirts a bit and we had great views down to the water.

We got to a part where we had to decide about staying on the rail line or turning and heading up to check out the ‘park’. Of course kids were divided on staying on the railway or trying to find other parks. Didn’t need the argument, but we got it. The ‘park’ ended up being straight up, which usually would have been fine, but not today. Kids were struggling and we seemed to never get closer.

When we finally did get close enough, we found out it was a giant park all right, but only for guests of the big spa. We finished it with a loop that brought us down the other side of the city and found a very old building with all different typed of stones used (and now exposed) to take a photo with.

We ended up crossing the rail line again, so the child that wanted more rail walking finally got it. There really didn’t seem like there was much else to see there. Walking along the water would be nice on a non-windy day, but we froze when we were down there. It felt like a really cool area that is now in operation to fuel the giant spa that takes over the top of the city. The ferry we wanted to get on was leaving in about 45 minutes, so we decided to get some French cheese and food for dinner. The grocery store had the machine that cuts and squeezes oranges, so we got a liter of that. We had drank about 1 a day when the kids and I were in Paris. :)

We then walked down to the water and braved the cold for a bit so we could watch the boats. I just took pictures of flowers.

We made it back and let the kids play in the park right where the ferry docked. It was a pretty cool park; a wooden structure that had the feel of a sailboat with a bunch of masts.

We then took the tram home and all collapsed. We have good days and bad days. Not even bad really, just so off. But we survived and it history repeats itself, I knew the next day would probably be pretty amazing.

With zero rush the next day, it had the true Sunday feeling, Dan made us french toast for breakfast with nutella and bananas. Kids then just had the morning to do what they wanted. And what did they do? They made a board game with characters from Ben’s novels!

Sam was so proud of Ben and kept wanting to tell us all about it. Dan played, but seemed a bit confused by the rules, which was fair as they seemed to not be set in stone.

I was still mentally recovering from the day before so I kept my distance. :) I then packed us a picnic lunch and we went off to explore the forrest near Dan’s work. However, on the way we found a mini forrest which led to this park right along a stream. It was awesome! You felt like you were in the trees, you could hear running water, there were picnic tables, zip lines and a pretty good climbing structure.

My kids love the Babybell cheeses, but I usually don’t buy them because of the ratio of waste to cheese. All that wax for a couple bites of cheese. I explain this to them, so they know why I say no. So when we were in France and they saw a giant one, they argued that the waste to cheese ratio was very low so really I couldn’t say no.

A very content family today.

We played for a bit and then Max had to poop. Only downside to this park, no bathrooms. We had walked the long way there, so we ended up only being an 8 minute walk home. I said I’d take Max and once he had finished up, we decided to just stay home together and read. Dan and the boys stayed out for a bit. When they got home, we set the loose in their room to do whatever they wanted…just give Mom and Dad some quiet time to chill on the couch. Sam requested my phone and I was rewarded!

The next day, Dan went to the office and the kids and I started school work right after breakfast. They were motivated as I said we could go to the park when they were done. Back to the park, the direct way this time and they were so happy. They attempted a 3 person zip line…it didn’t go very well.

We had a repeat of yesterday’s lunch and a repeat of Max having to go poop right after.

We all walked home this time and I thought Ben was going to lose it when Max decided after peeing he was done. I told him he better really try and he succeeded. :) We then walked back to the park, luckily only about 8 minutes. This time we went to the forrest area so Ben could do some widdling.

We widdled all requests from his brothers while I walked around due to the lack of comfortable seating. It started to get cold, so I hinted we’ve be leaving soon. Ben decided he still needed to get some energy out so he made an obstacle course to complete as he sprinted down the mountain. Naturally his brothers joined.

We finally headed home. I have a strick no stick policy when we are walking on city streets. Max came out of the park looking like this, thinking it was okay because he’s hands were free of sticks.

The next day was our last full day in Lausanne. We had a lunch of left overs while Sam taught us how to make money pouches out of paper.

Dan got home on the earlier side and took the kids to the park right by our place. Ben found the kids that he had played soccer with before and joined in again.

Another meal of left overs to finish off most of the food in the fridge. We were then treated to another reading by the author. This time we had tickets, assigned seating and an usher to lead us to said seats! Super proud brother standing behind.

In the morning we did the last bit of packing, cleaned up and walked all of 2 blocks to the train station. Bad luck and it decided to rain just for our little walk. Not a big deal, but we were trying to keep the bike box dry as it still had a couple more plane rides. We made it with my rain jacket draped over the top.

Continued on Chur page…