I wouldn't be surprised if today's stage turns out to be the most beautiful of the whole hike.

It's eight o'clock in the morning, the sky is as blue as it can be, the lake is rippling in the morning breeze, what more can you expect from an ordinary Saturday. The evening low has disappeared due to many hours of deep sleep. And above all - the path through the Lavaux is a special delight.

Just water and clouds and mountains

The marketplace

Well, I have to organize breakfast somewhere outside again, but the large square directly in front of my hotel, la Place du Marché, offers not only numerous restaurants and cafes, no, today is Saturday so market day, the square is fully occupied with countless stalls offering everything that the heart desires.

While walking through the stalls, my mouth waters. I would like to see such markets in German-speaking Switzerland, too. Where wonderful scents are floating in the air, where people meet, have cheerful chats while shopping.

Anyway, I can hardly restrain myself, but at the same time I have to be careful not to overload my backpack, because today is a great but at the same time very long stage ahead. So I am content merely with fresh smelling bread and some sweet temptations looking like Cinnamon rolls, but tasting even better.

But before I set off, I sit down in the nearest café, order coffee and a wonderfully fragrant brioche, and take in the life all around me. It is difficult to tear myself away. I' d like to stay, spend the day on this chair, maybe have a chat with some people in between, eat something, have a drink and just experience the feeling of being in the right place.

The marketplace

As mentioned, today's stage promises magic.

A delightful hike through the precipitous vineyards of the Lavaux, which have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007. Along the way, you will encounter the ancient winegrowing villages of St-Saphorin, Rivaz, Epesses and the pretty towns of Cully and Lutry on Lac Léman.

From Vevey to Lausanne

The Lavaux - a world-famous beauty

Before the start, a few words about what awaits me today.

With over 800 hectares of grapevines, the vineyard terraces of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Lavaux are the largest contiguous wine-growing area in Switzerland and offer terrace after terrace of the best views. Terraced vineyards, Lac Léman below, snow-capped mountains behind - you need some time to really enjoy this landscape! (Copyright MySwitzerland.com).

The Lavaux - UNESCO World Heritage

The path initially follows the shore, the noise of the city is left behind me, it becomes quiet, only the lapping of the waves softly splashing on the shore accompanies my steps. A little later I cross the river La Veveyse, which empties into the lake here.

The wine terraces greet from afar

But then the path branches off again into the town, I pass a stately building, Nestlé, it seems, the food giant that has its headquarters here. It takes a while and a few kilometers to pass beneath the railroad, cross numerous roads and finally reach the open country. But then, finally, it all starts.

You think you have arrived in another world.

Through the vineyard terraces

Although the paths through the cultivated areas are paved throughout, walking is a single pleasure. How could it be otherwise: the air is warm and fresh, the wind a tender embrace, the eye drunk with all the sights to the right and left of the path.

One has the impression of having entered something perfect, something that cannot exist, because everything human is imperfect, as Fernando Pessoa claims.

I have trouble enumerating everything that is simply there, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

It is not only the green terraces in bloom, where you can see the ripening grapes already hanging, it is - especially today, a gift to me and all other walkers and hikers with the same goal - also the lake, whose waves gently rock, it is the sky, almost cloudless, it is the mountains on the other shore, draped with veils of clouds, it is the small towers rising from stately houses, the villages that every few kilometers invite you to drink (preferably, of course, a sip of Chasselas, the local wine) ...

How am I supposed to continue the hike tomorrow when the beauty has already been passed?

Path through the vineyards

view from the vineyard to the lake

Far from everything

Sometimes I sit down on a stone wall, chewing on my sweet thing, whose name I unfortunately do not know, once again completely in balance. How could anyone be otherwise. If someone ponders over his problems in the midst of this beauty, he really has a problem.

Mountains on the other side of the lake

Sometimes just a boat and the lake and nothing else

So in short, I can't get out of the reverent amazement, just for a moment, when the sound of the highway passing above Lavaux pulls me out of my reverie.

Stalls and wine, lots of wine

Every few kilometers, tiny stalls, no more than a table and a small covered hut, invite the passers-by to buy the local wine. As already mentioned, the Chasselas is the main variety here, cultivated for centuries. The wine still has its fans, but has lost prominence in recent decades.

Well, I would like to invite myself for a drink, however, the distance to Lausanne is still very long. Whether a half-sober hiker would still have enough stamina, I dare to doubt, so I let it be with a heavy heart.

The sky fits the picture

when there's no vineyard, then it's blooming flowers everywhere

Houses and trees and ships

At the very top of a hill - one is constantly moving up and down, sometimes near the lake, then again on the upper hills - there is a vantage point where I would love to take my siesta. But all benches are occupied, no wonder in this splendid weather. Whole armies of walkers and hikers and bikers are on the road, competing with each other for space, but everything proceeds in good-natured chaos.

Ships and cars and houses and rich people

Sometimes, a little surprisingly and for a moment annoyingly, a car suddenly turns the corner, although you think you are on hiking trails. But there are houses, rather villas, in the middle of the cultivated areas, which have been here since time immemorial and have now been bequeathed to the grandchildren with their expensive SUVs. Behind tinted windows attractive ladies or their equally attractive husbands sit and on the back seats the next generation of attractive rich people.

Well, that's how the world is. You wonder a bit and go your way. Anything else would be a waste of wonderful moments.

Boats and rich people

A house in the midst of paradise

Houses like fortresses in the middle of the vineyards

Villages, but restaurants are rare

Every few kilometers I am greeted by a village, sometimes right on the lake, then again on the hills. I'm thirsty, longing for a strong coffee or anything, but the restaurants, such as in Rivaz or Chexbres, are all closed.

I don't understand that at all, the French Swiss actually have the reputation of being very customer-friendly and devoted to the drink. But anyway, I move on, life is bearable even without coffee, especially today. I follow the Chemin du Dezaley, which is a wine that I am quite inclined to, especially with a fondue.

St. Saphorin - the village with another famous wine
St. Saphorin - a village with a famous name

St. Saphorin - old and famous

Along the bank

After Epesses (again a village with a famous name) the path forks down to the lake, I leave the vineyards for the moment and follow the lakeside path, for once a welcome change after all the vines on the right and left that only fuel the desire for something other than tap water.

Shady avenues are lining the hiking trail, the midday heat is dissipating under the trees. Sometimes I unexpectedly encounter scantily clad people sunbathing on the shore or cavorting in the water.

A strange meeting of two worlds that might not be more different at this moment. People give me a few looks, wondering what the weird hiker is doing on these shores of all places.

The path along the lake...

...through shady alleys....

... and along blooming bushes and meadows

But then, finally, a restaurant, located directly at the lake, very crowded, a mixture of different voices, laughter, children, babies. I let myself be lulled by the atmosphere of the surroundings, sipping my coffee, leaning back, just happy to be here.

Restaurant at the lake - a very welcome place

Then the path follows the lake again, the mountains on the French side seem to have come closer, perhaps an illusion, a trompe l'oeil, as they say here. Sailboats drift in the light wind, but even no wind might not be the end of the world.

Just water and clouds and sky and a few boats

Old trees

Then suddenly a village, Cully, quite unexpected, even if the map has long since pointed it out to me, a magnificent square right on the shore, benches and above all a few trees that might have a lot to tell if they wanted to.

One of them, a maple I guess, has been planted 1798, the other one, whose identity I can't figure out, exactly one hundred years later.

Despite their advanced age, the two Methusalems exude unshakable strength and dignity. Imagine 1798, in fact, still in the midst of the French Revolution, Europe is in upheaval, everything is changing, including Switzerland.

And oblivious to all the political and social turmoil, a maple tree is planted on the shores of Lake Geneva, and now, 223 years later, the tree still exists in all its glory, while the world has continued to turn at an insane pace.

Crazy and at the same time very reassuring. There are things that happen beyond everything else.

A very old tree, planted in 1798

... and another old tree, planted in 1898

The vineyards for the last time

The route passes through the village, then branches off again into the vineyards, once again a pleasure, but it is now definitely the last kilometers before finally returning to the lake.

At times I feel, I don't know why, touched by a sense of not belonging. I am a stranger, someone who is briefly there and immediately disappears again. I am offered beauty, a gift to the stranger, who enjoys, marvels, and after a short time has to let go again.

I don't know why these feelings arise, on a day so full of everything. Maybe it's the sense of loss that always happens when something is there doomed to disappear or be forgotten.

Strange thoughts. I do not understand it myself.

Last kilometers at the vineyards

The day's destination afar

But still the beauty of everything

Accessible banks

When I think of Lake Zurich, of all the sections that are declared private and thus inaccessible to the public, I feel like I'm in a different world here. I haven't seen a single meter that is closed to the public. Our bourgeois majority should take it to heart.

Narrow path along the lake

Some quite strange detours

Today's destination is getting closer

The villages become denser, almost indistinguishable from each other, Lausanne, today's destination is close. I enjoy the view of the lake for the last time, look after the slowly disappearing ships, and am nevertheless glad that it is not far anymore.

The last meters to Lausanne

My friends, some ducks, irritated by young blocks

But then, I take a deep breath, Lausanne, first Lutry, then Pully and finally Ouchy, where today's stage ends.

Lausanne - finally

However, my journey is not quite finished, because my hotel is still some distance away. After some consideration, I decide to walk to the hotel, a rather idiotic decision. I didn't consider the fact that Lausanne is located on a hill, so I have to walk the long way up the slope, nota bene after more than 8 hours. I curse myself, but that's the way it is.

Panting and pretty much at the end of my tether, I finally reach the Hotel Ibis, check in, shower, find a restaurant and lean back in front of a plate of pasta, tired and satisfied and very very happy ...

 

Matching Song: Ladytron - Beauty

And here the journey continues ... to Etoy

 

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