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backblip

Off we go to Switzerland, at silly-o-clock in the morning from Cambridge station.

For various reasons we've decided to do the entire trip by rail. This will be a four-centre circuit around Switzerland. First stop is Geneva, then Interlaken, Lucerne, Locarno, then all the way back.

The Swiss don't have a language, they have four(!) with the predominant one changing depending on where you are in the country - French, German, Italian, and something resembling Latin. Thankfully a fair number speak English, but more of that in future backblips. Between us, E and I have a workable smattering of French and German, and a big zero in Italian.

First stop is Geneva via Eurostar to Lille, then Lyon with fairly tight connections at both. All this requires a bit of an early start...

Yawn.

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Arrived in Geneva late-ish in the afternoon. The change at Lille had been OK but a bit odd given that two trains were marked as leaving the same platform at the same time, one with our destination, one not. Quite what was meant by that never really became clear but we arrived at Lyon OK and switched to Swiss railways - discovering that '1st Class' on Swiss rail is a bit variable in quality.

The directions to the hotel would probably have been OK (they were rather minimal) but half the station was being rebuilt and pedestrian routes closed. We eventually found the hotel, having completed at least one complete loop back to the station.

We offloaded, and went for a wander, and to find some food. We ended up at a restaurant intending to have pasta / pizza as we were feeling fairly brain-dead by then, however, we went for a traditional Swiss fondue.

I vaguely recall a craze for fondue in the UK back in the 70's (?). Essentially a bucket of molten cheese that you dunk pieces of bread in. Mildly surprised the Swiss haven't all died out with mass cholesterolisation.