Western Switzerland

Two days in Geneva:

The hardest to miss landmark is the fountain of water in the middle of the lake:

I went to the UN and did the guided tour. I find it oddly fitting that they have a giant chair with one broken leg outside:

The older wing of the building, and one of the conference rooms

I made it to CERN which was a lot farther outside the main city than I thought, but I guess you have to book a tour ahead of time as they only do a few each day.

In one of the parks in Geneva they have a clock mostly made out of flowers, as well as a statue for the genevan people

In another park they have the wall of reformation, with lots of sculptures of famous reformers

On the way back I spent a good half hour watching a game of chess in the park

Random panorama of Lake Geneva, taken when for reason they had the fountain turned off

Geneva to Lausanne:

I sat here and ate lunch which consisted of bread, camembert, ham, and mustard I still have from Dijon

I made it to Lausanne to meet a host who showed me a bit around the city, including another church:

That church and many of the other famous buildings in the city are made of some type of sandstone, so they're pretty much constantly repairing them.

Lausanne, being built on a hill and spanning valleys also has many bridges like this:

The next day I was off to Montreux to see the Chateau de Chillon. On the way, there are tons of terrace farms. Everywhere else in the world, terraces are for rice. Here they're for grapes.

On the way back, before climbing up a rediculous hill I found Charlie Chaplin

And it's not often you come across the literal fork in the, um, lake?

I made it all the way to Bulle before continuing into the mountains and finding a place to camp, where the next morning brought the end of the nice weather, and everything has been fog or snow since.

Even with the fog it was still a good day. I hit my new highest altitude of about 4100 feet, and still managed 50 miles, to camp just near Spiez. Somewhere around Gstaad, the road I was riding on stopped being a Rue and started being a Strasse, and "La Poste" became "Die Post"

The following day, I was going to meet a host at the end of the day, but decided to head into the mountains south of Interlaken before that, in case the weather decided to improve. It didn't, and it was snowing all day. This was also the day I made my first major navigational blunder. I thought there was only one way to go into the mountains, but it turns out there were two. I made a wrong turn, but pressed on, up into the mountains thinking I was heading in the right direction and not wanting to give up before reaching the end of the valley. After arriving, it turns out I shouldn't have taken the left turn at Zweilütschinen towards Grindlewald, and instead I should've veered right towards Gimmelwald and Stechelberg. It seems so simple in hindsight. Not that it mattered since there was nothing to see anyway.

On the way down, since I was so close to Lauterbrunnen where I wanted to be, I decided to head back up there anyway. This sign marked what I came to see (fog on the lens)

Oh yeah, check out the awesome view. If you look closely, you can make out the cliff wall:

Today I stuck around Interlaken since the weather is supposed to improve tomorrow. Went to the tourist office and they told me, "Yeah there isn't a whole lot to do in Interlaken. It's mostly a starting point for other adventures in the mountains."

I did go to the caves they have on the north side of one of the lakes, which has a pretty cool entrance, even though they don't want you taking pictures inside:

Before heading to the cave I took this picture:

After returning ~3 hours later I took this picture:

Yup, the weather is definitely improving.

Tomorrow I will try to head into the mountains if the weather improves, otherwise I'll continue eastward.