Lausanne: Montreux

On my final day in Lausanne, I met Le, whom I met the previous December in Bremen while we were both taking German classes at the Goethe Institute. She came from a small town in China and was among the best and brightest of her region, earning a place at the prestigious regional school, which meant she left home at 12 for a career of serious studying. Now she's a PhD candidate in neurobiology and works in Lausanne. (It's interesting that the only Chinese friends I've made in my life were while studying German.)

Her idea was to take a train to Montreux and walk to the Chateau de Chillon. This allowed us to be in constant contact with that magnificent view I wrote about earlier. Splendiferous. The next thing of interest I saw was a life-sized bronze statue of.....Freddie Mercury. The lead singer of Queen who died of AIDS in 1991 had been beloved in the town, where he and the band had a recording studio. It's interesting because Le had no idea who he was. I sung a few bars of "We Are the Champions," but she waved me off as if to say, "You have no chance of helping know who he is, and I have no real interest." Or maybe my singing was horrific. Still, I persisted ("Come on, sister, you need to get out of the lab!") and started up a few animated thumps of "We Will Rock You!" She did know that one, and I cherished the small success of my effort. Score a point for the utility of pop culture.

We walked for an hour and made it to the castle, which is well worth the visit. Along the way, I told her of an exhibit I had seen in the Olympic Museum, which she has yet to visit. (She says that her life is learning, so in her free time, she has not taste for museums.) A Chinese artist who lived in Germany for many years made side-by-side depictions of different life-themes (Old Age, Dining Out, Mealtime, etc.) and how they manifest in China and Germany. The differences were stark and compelling, and it gave us something to talk about. Score one for the value of visiting museums.

http://europeforvisitors.com/switzaustria/vaud/montreux/castle-of-chillon.htm