Now We're Here

The boys slept well on the plane and were in a good mood upon arrival. Stacking luggage with a boy on top is down to a fine art.

We're in a pristine limbo, waiting to get into our Lausanne apartment, about 20 minutes away from this Lake Geneva scene. A long stretch of quay in the town of La Tour de Peilz with a beautiful setting of the French and Swiss Alps that stretches between Montreux and Vevey (has a wireless town center!).

We haven't yet learned how to say, "We don't want bottled water", so paid about $3 a time to hydrate Jack. This is an old castle turned into a nifty toy museum just a block away - has a nice playground. The slides are curved, so the boys' little bodies bob up and down all the way down. The man in the background was a friendly guy, posing for me at times with his family. The younger couples here convey a Pacific Northwest-like urban, outdoorsy sensibility with a touch of bohemianism - without the fleece.

Turn of the century (19th->20th) steam-engine paddleboats criss-cross the lake and make for a great time, although they changed the itineraries from practical, linear ones (like the train that runs along the lake) that connect neighboring villages to circular ones; more like an amusement ride now, which, they have been anyway, I guess. The Swiss mountains in the background point towards Italy, where Rousseau (as the story goes) traveled, transforming the menacing obstacles into Romantic, aesthetic pleasures in our Julie Andrews tradition.

Speaking of tradition, the August 1st Independence Day celebrations were quite lively with fireworks dotting the lake in the evening, and these guys storming the Vevey townsquare - a tiny version of these bells has graced our Christmas tree for years, but were traditionally worn by cows. The random sound of bells clanging under swaying cows in the distant hills can be lovely, but humans in precise formation bouncing off of cement and asphalt - that was something else. I particularly like the black bell the third from the right, although the ringer was struggling.

We went to Lausanne to check out the hotel Pepperdine is purchasing and loved the setting - the hotel itself is pretty basic and is dwarfed by the grander structures nearby - kinda the cheap house in a nice neigborhood situation. Our egos recovered quickly as we took a walk, finding the Population office where we register our residency. We have to return on Monday to register Michael in kindergarten. More pics soon!