Gland & Nyon

21 May 2023

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I'm sitting on the train westward after completing our journey on the Chemin St-Jacques somewhat westward of where we intended. 50 kilometers instead of 60 is not that bad I suppose. Last night we stopped in Gland when we happened upon a gîte where we could sleep for the night at 10 francs a head, well, human head. The dogs were free but we had to leave them outside if any other pilgrims came and objected. Fortunately no other pilgrims came so we had the place to ourselves. It was also a learning experience that gîte was the word we should search for since auberge is the cognate of albergue en Español to the west and Herberge auf Deutsch to the east. Auberge in Switzerland, however, means a small, expensive hotel.

Gland has a lot of Portuguese immigrants and so a lot of Portuguese restaurants so we enjoyed a meal not unlike those we enjoyed last month in Galicia. Unfortunately Iwona drank some eau non potable from one of the fountains earlier in the day and so was not feeling well in the evening or today for that matter. After two nights of camping we were glad to be back in a bed and with shades to draw as well, so we slept in well past 8. There were fireworks last night when I took the dogs out the last time, so Eddie was a mess this morning and kept running back to the gîte where he shtood shaking outside the door. Once we got back on the road however, he perked up again and he and Paula were soon running through the woods and fields together.

Finally back down to the lake at Prangins we stopped a too posh for itself private beach to eat cheeseburgers and swim while the dogs had to sadly sit outside. The prevalence of Britsh and Russian accents as well as the mansions all around bespeak the freedom and also descretion of the Swiss. Soon we found ourselves back in fields of wheat and barley with vineyards higher up. At the Château de Prangins we stopped for a break and discovered that it was free museum day, which conveniently dovetaled with our plans to see the Roman museum in Nyon. So much serendipity! The Château turned out to be a French version of the Landesmuseum in Zürich, while the Roman museum in Nyon was rather small and underwhelming. Still it's nice to see bits of millennia old history along our way. After four days we're quite exhausted by the sun and heavy packs. It's much easier in Spain where one can ship one's pack on to the night's stop for 5 or 6 euros.