What gall! Yet these were the thoughts swirling in my head while we toured the place, and later, as we drove back toward Lausanne, with Okki detouring down along the lake front on the local road for a couple hours, and we stopped and had espressos in a small French-speaking town.
As we got to Lausanne he jumped back on the autoroute, so that we could go easily through it, and pass through to the other side, going northeast along the lake, where the road climbs the bluffs that afford the heavenly views through the gaps in the mountains on the far side, revealing the ridge of the high Alps beyond.
An hour later we were off the autoroad, onto the side roads headed towards Gruyère, the town famous for its cheeses. We passed the cheese facctory and museum in the modern town and headed up to the hill towards the medieval town, which is the real Gruyère. We parked on the hillside in a grassy area to which visitors were being directed by locals in vests. Then we climbed the road into the town on the gravel road, hearing he ringing of the giant cow bells as the cows were paraded into town on a road above us. We could not see the cows, only hear them.
The town was buzzing with a festival. We passed through the arch and realized that amidst the crowds along the ancient street in either direction were booths from which local food was dispensed, through presentation of tokens that were purchased at a table at the town entrance. Okki went back and bought some for both of us, and then we began touring the food booths, using the bowl for some stew, and also just using our fingers for the various sweet delicacies, and winding up with some ice cream. We took beers in a restaurant, and then Okki and I walked up around the town, and down to the church, and saw the cows with the bells in lower meadow. Okki got a text from Stefan saying that he and his wife had parked below the town and would meet up with us.
We went and found them and then there were four of us.
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