I stand up quite early and have breakfast at the fancy hotel buffet. Then I take the train to St. Saphorin a little further south-east along the lake, but not without buying myself a very nice gluten free bread in the old town before (Amavita NutriBio) and stealing some cheese and cucumber from breakfast.
Today I’m walking the “Terrasses de Lavaux” panoramic path, which takes me through the UNESCO protected traditional vineyards of Lavaux all the way from St. Saphorin back to Lutry. The way goes slightly up and down more or less 50 m above the lake level right through the wine plantations. I try some grapes and they are deliciously sweet. The views are even sweeter and I can’t believe how beautiful everything is. I walk a total of 11 km, through the grapes and the small winemakers’ villages on the way: Rivaz, Dézaley, Épesses, Riex, Grandvaux, Aran.
I make a nice lunch break halfway in the middle of a vineyard with my awesome new bread that I cut with my newly acquired miniature swiss knife and the cheese and cucumber from breakfast. The romanticism is perfect. Just the wine is missing.
As usual and useful in vineyards, it’s very sunny and hot all the time and I plan a swim in the Lac Léman afterwards if the conditions are right.
When I arrive to Lutry, there is a real beach with swimming islands, a nice lawn where people are relaxing, toilets, changing rooms, showers and a bar. The water has a not very convincing greenish look and fishy smell but the infrastructure is just too good not to go in. In the end I feel quite refreshed even though I can still smell the fishy perfume until I’m back at the hotel 45 minutes later. Lake-wise, the place clearly loses against Ohrid from where I would have even drank the crystalline water.
I enjoy the big bathroom with the nice shower and the comfort of everything once more and after another round through the old town I get ready for the “social dinner” in which all the congress guests participate.
Dinner is long and exactly like I imagined it. Gluten free explanations in French are complicated but everything goes well and at least I can compensate my wine deficit from before.
