Oh wow - another beautiful day. The urge to explore is great but we must resist, we are committed to catching up on our postings. Our stomachs are grumbling so we can venture out just a little. The hotel is near the old town area, in one block we see stores and restaurants on both sides of the street. The menu boards guide our decisions as we weave down the street looking for lunch. We decide we don't want to spend a lot of time eating and the prices are high so we opt for a take-away place. A slice of pizza for Dave and Monique gets a salami sandwich.
The steps of a large building make a fine spot to eat - many others are doing the same thing. On our left are a whole bunch of pigeons eating bread crumbs and bird feed that someone left for them. Scaffolding and tarps cover the building across the street so its identity is hidden. At noon the bells begin to ring. It must be a clock tower or church because it loudly rings twelve bells. And then it goes crazy ringing super loud over and over - about 5 more minutes. Ok we get it, it is lunch time.
We walk back to the hotel and get into the work groove. Dave uses the tablet to write the rough draft of the main paragraph. Monique downloads the pictures from our cameras and we both review and choose the best for each day. Monique adjusts the file size and begins the process of loading the images to the blog site. When Dave finishes the draft, Monique edits and posts the copy then writes the captions under each picture. Post and repeat.
In the afternoon we need a break so we walk in the other direction away from the town center. There’s a nice little Chinese restaurant that we may try for dinner. A little farther up we find a grocery store with perfectly ripe avocados - that is the snack we need. Okay, can we get all the ingredients we need for guacamole? We find a small onion, tomato, lime, a clove of garlic and some chips - Voilà. On our way back we stop at a smaller store that had cold beer and buy four tall cans - this is go-juice. The blog work continues - we are making progress!
Our stomachs tell us it’s time for dinner, Monique has been craving soup - our hotel restaurant is dead - so we go to the Chinese restaurant we spied earlier. There are very few people eating there, we hesitate for a second but decide, what the heck. The menu is in Chinese and French - we laugh because we still don’t know what they serve, but we have picked up a few words along the way so we make a good guess. Monique picks a special but is told it is all finished for the day. Our waitress is Chinese, she is in Switzerland to learn french and does know how to speak some english so we can make out some of what she is saying. Would you like “something, something, noodles?” - sure why not. Guess what comes, a very large bowl of soup with noodles. She looks at me and says “you can’t always get what you want but you just might find you get what you need.” The place has a lot of fishtanks that are remarkably clean so we watch the fish swim as we eat. The food is good so we are happy.
Back to work. Dave sends the text for two days ago at 11pm then falls asleep. At 3:22am he awakes to see Monique giving herself a pedicure and asks what she is doing up so late. “I’m getting things done” she says. Strange, but I don’t question and fall back asleep. Monique got us caught up on postings - that’s what she was getting done :)
The urge to explore is great - we see this tower and find out the Tour de l’Ale is the last major remaining medieval fortification in Lausanne. Its size – 21 metres to the top of the roof and 8 metres in diameter – makes it one of the most spectacular sites in town. Built in 1340, its first role was to defend the suburb of Ale, a district standing outside the city walls, which at the time extended out from the Saint-Laurent gate. It also served as a keep, a self-sufficient fortified refuge. There is history around every corner in Europe!
Guacamole fixins and "go-juice"
Bon appetit
A bowl of mushroom soup with noodles - it does a body good :)