I've done the touristy thing, and the not so touristy thing. Wednesday saw Sarah and I take to the road in Mike's car. As she is American and comfortable with driving on the right, I just did navigation. In Montreux (home of the famous jazz festival)we met Jill beside the statue of Freddie Mercury, who made the town his second home, which seemed to please the locals. A pleasant walk beside Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) and we were at Le Chateau de Chillon . Outside there were masses of American school/college kids. And one of the teachers even asked which bus we were on. After giving them a head start we followed the guide books walk through dungeons, crypts, banquet halls and bed rooms. It's a cool place, with a good feeling for what it would be like to live there. The castle itself was started in the 11th century and was improved upon at many times throughout its life. Right now they are repairing one wall. It would be kinda cool to be a work man there and tell your friends that you build castles for a living :-) Lunch at a Movenpick cafe beside the lake was very nice. Just one more moment when I wish I had a pic-phone to send photos of what I am doing as I am doing it.

   Once again we negotiated the Swiss road system and returned to the apartment. For dinner we visited the new Mexican place just walking distance from here. Nachos are strange when they come with Swiss cheese on them, the smell and taste are quite different to what I expect, but then a real Mexican would probably think the same of nachos in NZ.

   Thursday was an outdoors day for which Levi, Sarah, Marc, Franseen (sp?), Luke, Cab and I went rock climbing. It was my first real outdoor rock climbing in ten years, so naturally I chose to start on the highest one. Levi was the lead climber. Meaning he went up first and took the rope with him, hooking it in as he went. On my turn I had only gone 10 feet before having to let go and drop back a bit to start again, which kinda shook my confidence a bit. Slowly I crept my way to the top and could enjoy the view, before abseiling back down. For a while the others watched as Marc, Franseen and Luke climbed together to an amazing height. I'd love to be able to just know that I could take on a cliff like that and not have to worry about ropes. They did take ropes but never slipped so in theory they would have been fine without them, except for descending. I had a bit of a scramble up the side, a much easier route but without a rope and with my hiking boots on it was pretty scary. Then I slowly repelled down the main rock face, that was fun

   Dinner was at a nice pub in Lausanne where they serve beer in 3 and 5 litre tubes. The thing stands up on the table and as each glass is emptied it can be refilled from the tap. I don't like beer so I stuck to water, but it did look like a good way to spend the evening.

Chateau Chillon on the shore of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva)

Looking down from the top of the rock climb