Golden Pass Express and Lausanne

The time had come to leave Esther’s Guesthouse in Gimmelwald, take one last gondola ride (thank god), and move on to the next city.

We booked tickets on a scenic train that went from Interlaken to Montreaux. It was an hour to get to Interlaken from Gimmelwald and then another 20 minutes to get from Montreaux to Lausanne. But the train ride was 100% worth it and so absolutely beautiful!

The leaves are changing, the lakes are super blue, the grass is still green, everything about this train ride was magical.

This took up a good part of the day. We arrived in Lausanne and were excited to see that the hotel was only a 18 minute walk from the train station. As we sat on the train we thought about doing a Lausanne walking tour from Rick Steves before our dinner res at 8pm.

We left the train station and it was immediately evident that this walk was going to be all uphill. The train station was down by the lake and the hotel was up, up, up. About 5 minutes into the walk, Rebecca turned around and said “executive decision, walking tour canceled”. We huffed and puffed all the way up dragging our suitcases up cobblestone hills while sweating.

Instead of a walking tour, we decided on a cocktail tour before dinner.

But first, if you have followed my blog, I know you have been wondering…but when will she go to McDonalds? The time has come for nuggies my friends. I am one step ahead and made sure I had a McDonald’s noted on the map in every city we visited, this one was conveniently downstairs from us.

The cheeseburgers were eh but the nuggies were on point.

Then we found a cute cocktail bar and had a gin madarin cocktail and then a gin and tonic before trekking over to dinner. Luckily dinner was downhill so we survived that walk. We knew we were ubering back up at that point.

Dinner was at a French Restaurant called Croix d’Ouchy which is a bib gourmand restaurant (step down from Michelin star).

Interestingly, Switzerland is really like many countries mixed together. The north is more German whereas the southeast is Italian and southwest is French. The signs and languages switched from Interlaken to Lausanne.

Dinner was awesome. We ordered a nice bottle of wine and 3 appetizers to be coursed out for us. The service was great and all the food delicious.

First, Foie gras which came with toasted bread and some onion jam.

Second, crispy goat cheese salad with a honey drizzle. This was excellent though I am still weary of cheese.

Third, beef carpaccio. So so light and delicious.

Finally, we shared a tiramisu which was amazing! The server wouldn’t let us pay until we finished it. Good to the very last bite :)

Took an Uber back to the hotel and hoped to get a good nights sleep. Unfortunately, there is no AC in the room so we had to open the window and it seems that Friday night in Lausanne is quite the party. People were partying loudly all night long, truly up through 6am. Not sure I slept really at all. Definitely missed the quiet of Gimmelwald and the alps!