Mountains

Besides chocolat, clocks and order, Switzerland is of course also well known for its mountains. Last few weekends I have been lucky enough to finally do some hiking. Good thing of Lausanne is that it is strategically located in between the rough and high Alps and the more roling and moderately high Jura mountains.
For some reason, the Swiss don't consider a mountain finished until they've built a train on it. As a happy result, I can easily reach some of the most beautiful hikes in about an hour. Needless to say I've now discovered that, and I'm intensively taking the opportunity.

So far I've been in the Alps once (4 hrs, 1400 >> 2000 meters):And in the Jura twice. Once for a hike close to the French border (5 hours, 1000 >> 1100 meters (easy)):
And last weekend for a heavy one up a large canyon (6 hours, 800 >> 1400 meters):
Good weekens spent with the hiking mates from former french-class!

Alice

Alice? Alice? Who the f*ck is Alice?


Alice is actually A Large Ion Collider Experiment (so far for cool abbreviations...) and is one of the humongous experimental installations at CERN. CERN in turn is the large particle accelerator near Geneva, which is located in an underground circle with a circumference of 27 kilometer!

A few weeks ago I was in the lucky opportunity to visit the Alice experiment. I'm not going into any details behind the science; mainly because I have no clue what it's actually doing. I can tell you though that looking down at the machine 50 meter down the ground was very impressive. Here some extra pictures for you to get an impression:

Satisfaction

The Clash already sang about it decades ago: fighting the system is pointless. Usually I try to not be bothered with bureaucracy. This week I had to act twice though. And, to my surprise: I succeeded only using the french language.



Act 1.
Situation: Mail from the electricity company, whether I can grant them permission to take the monthly payment from my Post-account.
Issue: Rather than the Post, I have a jetset bank taking care of my money.
Solution: Visit office and use my best french to ask for a replacement of the form.
Result: We got it!

Act 2.
Situation: Mail at my old apartment from the residential insurance company. They have received my change of address.
Issue: They have changed my old address to my old address.
Solution: Send email in french asking for a second attempt to change address.
Result: New policy within a day and appologies.

Ah, the sweet taste of victory. The Dead Kennedys knew very well what that was like!

Le Tour

The Tour the France is said not to stop for anyone. With that in mind I left home early this morning to head for todays finish-town; ski-resort Verbier. I was not the only one. The one hour wait for the cable-car at Le Chable should have made me suspicious: what a circus!

A preview of the finish area

This days race was one of the few mountain races, with a final ascent just before the finish of around 800 meters. For those not into cycling: this was one of the days where the final winner could make the difference (or, in cycling-terms: a day when the men would be separated from the boys).

So, after arrival, I slowly started making my way down the mountain to find a spot where I could relax and wait for the riders to pass. To put this in perspective: this was four hours before the actual passing of the Tour. Luckily I found a great little slope, with food and drinks nearby. Not too long before others noticed too!

The Norwegians sent a delegation to cheer for Thor

So after enjoying the sun for four hours, the Tour was finally there! As if the mountain was just flat, Contador raced by first. Not unexpectedly, though it was good to see my personal favourite Andy Schleck was not too far behind. Now I'll just have to wait for one more week to see who will make it in the yellow jersey to Paris. Contador clearly made his mark today.

Alberto Contador on his way to the finish

Montreux Jazz

If you're a snob, you like jazz-music. If you like jazz-music, Montreux Jazz is the yearly pelgrimage to make. Last few weeks the festival has been going on. Yesterday I teamed up with my former french-classmates, and went for a visit. The headliner for the night was Prince. Tickets were only 480 francs (around 300 euro or $450), so we skipped. Luckily, for the not-so-rich-and-famous, there's also a free program, which even more luckily consists of mainly non-jazz artists.So, that gave me the opportunity to see my first very enjoyable Swiss band, The Rambling Wheels (I'd say: Franz Ferdinand). Unfortunately, this weekend was the last for this year. Next year I'll be taking the train a bit more often.

Visitors

This weekend I had my first visitors: Wouter and Marlies were in Lausanne from Friday to Tuesday. This was a great opportunity to see the city and its surroundings as a tourist.

Conclusion: there's a lot to do here in and around Lausanne!

Luckily, Wouter brought his fancy camera along, so here some impressions for you to enjoy:

View of Cully. This village is part of the Lavaux wine-area, which is a Unesco heritage site.


The Chateau de Chillon (Chillon Castle), a very beautiful and well-conserved medieval castle. Located very close to the city of Montreux, well known for its jazz-festival.


The Olympic torch, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. The International Olympic Committee resides in Lausanne. I'll try to write some more about that soon.


Waiting for the tiny train at the tiny station in Caux to bring us up the huge mountain.


In the train, on our way to the Rochers de Naye.


On top of the >2000 m Rochers de Naye. A very spectacular mountain, and a very spectacular view; unless it's clouded.

A well deserved beer after a weekend full of activities!

End of the touristic slide show. Thanks to Wouter and Marlies for the pictures.

Recycling 2.0

A good Dutch citizen knows:

• glass goes in the glass bin
• paper is handed to charity, so they can make some money
• organic waste goes in the smelly organic waste bin
• batteries and paint are handed over at the chemical waste bus
• metal is picked up by people who tend to be a bit shady

and only what is left goes with the trash. Here in Switzerland Recycling 2.0 has arrived:No more environmental concerns when having a Nespresso now. I'm gonna get me one of those!