Day 27 ~ Golden P!ssed

Haha, well, the title above is a gross overstatement of how the day turned out for us – spoilers: The day turned out quite well. But the wordplay was just too good; we had to use it. Here is our day.

When we put Switzerland on the itinerary, one of the first things we looked into was the Golden Pass railroad adventure. These are trains that take you through some of Switzerland’s most breathtaking scenery, and we knew we wanted to be on them. We had already taken the Golden Pass from Interlaken to Lucerne, and it did not disappoint. Truly, the scenery was amazing, even on a cloudy day. The real jewel in the Golden Pass crown is the voyage from Zweissemen to Montreux, on the east end of Lake Leman. We had to reserve tickets and everything. It took us several hours out of our way during a day of difficult travel from Wengen to Lyon, and added a ton of complexity with several additional transfers that always endanger our ability to get where we’re going, but we really, really wanted to ride that train.

The morning went very smoothly, if very early, on a 6:13am train. We were sad our last ride on the spectacular trains between Wengen and Interlaken were in the dark, but the day was dawning as we boarded the train to Zweissemen. Here was the Niederhorn we’d loved so much:

And lovely Lake Thun in the rosy-fingered dawn.

We even got on a train that was an hour earlier that promised to get us to Lyon two hours earlier, and we were pleased about that. The train was very crowded, and we didn’t end up with the most scenic seats, which were on the other side, but we made the best of it.

We transferred in Zweissemen to the train to Montreux, which we had eagerly been anticipating. We got a few miles down the road, when the conductor who came through to check fares informed us that there had been a landslide on the tracks, and we would be deboarding halfway through and switching to a bus. A bus? Like, a city bus that would stop every half mile? How was a bus going to fit a whole train’s worth of people? Would we miss our connection to Geneva? We had lots of questions. And some disappointment to cope with – we’d gone hours out of our way to be on this train, only to find we could not take the train. Le sigh.

Dutifully we filed off the train at the appointed stop. Awaiting us was a luxurious double-decker bus with ample room for all passengers – actually, way more room than there’d been on the train. We learned that it would power straight through to Montreux. This was not a local bus, and it wouldn’t even be stopping at the towns the train would have stopped at. Can we take a moment to marvel at Swiss problem-solving? This whole arrangement really blew our expectations out of the water.

Admittedly, the ride had all the charm and dramatic scenery you’d expect from interstate travel, but I suppose it was a different way to see the countryside. Here we are arriving at Lake Leman:

We even arrived in Montreux 10 minutes early! This was plenty of time to catch our Geneva train. We were on track (pun intended) to arrive in Lyon by 3:45, as planned. Hooray!

We caught some scenery around the lake – there is a lot of grape-growing in the region, which was a surprise to us.

We had just enough time to transfer trains in Geneva, and that was it – we’d successfully made our last transfer of the day and were bound for France! Our train station was right outside this neat building in Geneva:

After about 30 minutes, Google Maps informed us that we had officially crossed into France. The landscape changed quite a bit, and quickly. The terrain was, surprisingly for Stef, dry and scrubby. The buildings took on an old-world patina that was actually more like Italy than Switzerland.

We arrived in Lyon without any further issues, and took the tram from the station to within 10 minutes of our hotel. This was it, Stef’s first taste of France! And Daniel’s first for 25 years. We were immediately charmed by the buildings; this was truly a gorgeous city. Hopping off the tram, we walked across the bridge over the Rhone, and were astonished at a blend of Napoleonic buildings and totally space age constructs. Here is what we later learned is a nautitorium swimming facility:

Not the least surprising was this wacky spaceship nestled in the 19th century buildings – which we cracked up to discover was actually our hotel!

We learned that the glass-enclosed top floor is a gorgeous bar, which we will be excited to take a spin through. We were very pleased with our room, which was sizeable, had two workspaces, and our biggest bed yet. It also has an enormous tub and luxurious shower.

You’d think we’d be wiped out from a long day of travel, but we were so energized to check out this city. We just started walking to see what we would see. The plan was to wander around close to the hotel, then head to a dinner spot 15 minutes away.

And what did we see! Lyon is a masterpiece of public spaces, each more fun than the last. Here is this delightful giant sculpture of flowers so realistic you can identify the species:

It was the culminating point of a tree-lined park that ended at the river. We walked up the park and its fountains, and enjoyed that too.

Look at this gorgeous little plant shop!

Everywhere we turned, there was a charming street. There were plenty of pedestrian-only boulevards, which we are always pleased with.

We approached one of Lyon’s rivers, which divides Vieux Lyon from less vieux Lyon, and what on earth was this at the top of the hill! We could not wait to go to Notre Dame basilica tomorrow.

We went looking for a library Stef had pinned on the map, and what a library!

The inside was actually just pretty institutional, but behold the power of tin foil to create a vision of a sci-fi future:

Here was the children’s library downstairs:

We walked by the outside of the magnificent St. Jean’s cathedral, which we resolved to come back to tomorrow. They were holding a real live event inside, and it was nice to see a church that was a community gathering spot, not just a frozen museum.

We found the ruined walls of a church that had been torn down in the Revolution, that was now being used as a playground and dog park:

We’d set out for dinner at a bouchon, certified and official Lyon eateries with a less-formal style and traditional Lyonnaise fare. Tonight’s was Daniel et Denise:

We had a real feast there – two prix fixe meals with starters of egg stew and lentil salad, entrees of pork with pasta in bechamel and a slab of beef with amazing fried potatoes, and desserts of Julia’s floating islands (a fun, eggy merengue-like concoction with rose-flavored pralines on top) and two amazing sorbets, red currant and apricot. It was a great introduction to Lyonnaise cuisine.

We staggered back to our hotel, but Lyon still had some stuff to show us. We crossed this amazingly lit-up pedestrian bridge:

The only bad news was that Stef had suspected in the morning that she’d caught Daniel’s cold, a suspicion that was confirmed by the end of the day.

And with that, the day was done. What a day! We started high in the mountains of Switzerland, and ended in the urbane embrace of wonderful Lyon. We are so happy to be here, and love this city already.