Morgan's Gate to Morges

"Fish with legs" this is how the only English speaking waitress described the days specialty in restaurant we entered in Morges. As I was trying to form a mental image of bangude or buthai with legs, the lady sitting in the next table bent over and said "Octopus" freeing me of the shame of being a Mangalorean and not knowing that there existed edible fish with legs . Ok , so that was ruled out. Nothing else in the menu suited my tastes and it suited my husbands tastes even less . So we finally ordered omelets. Me with cheese and he with herbs. Geez , being in France border and having omelets . "I am always determined to taste the local cuisine but I always end up eating burgers and pizza wherever we go" I complain to my man . "That's because the local cuisine is mostly beef that you don't eat" he says matter of factly. No arguing with that. I should lower my expectations with food in Europe. But the beauty of Morges more than made up for my disappointment in food.

Earlier as the train whizzed past the canton of Aargau into Vaud , I was admiring the hills when suddenly Lake Geneva emerged from behind the hills and I was spellbound . It looked surreal.

The tulips were of every conceivable color. Mom and Amma both would have had a field day if they were here. Mom would definitely have tried a best to take some saplings home as well. back home any visit to a relative with a garden is not complete if Mom hasn't got a few saplings home. Kaushik was a wee bit disappointed . He expected the whole area to be covered with Tulips like shown in Yash Chopra movies . Here it was multiple patches of tulips , each of a different color.

After lunch , we strolled to the lakeside for a few photos. A very helpful gentleman not only offered to have our snap taken but also answered our queries on the other attractions around in detail. Taking his suggestion we decided to walk along the lakeside and then take a bus to Lausanne to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. But first the castle .

Being a history buff , this castle , my first , left me mesmerized though it didn't have much . The view from top wasn't great too. The gallows room gave me goose bumps . Some of the artifacts , specially the arms and weapons were worth the visit. Kaushik on the other hand seemed happy to end the castle tour ASAP. "What's this fixation with castles and all things old" he wanted to know. Since I landed in Swiss , he has been suggesting going to Zurich and Milan and I have been suggesting Chillon castle and Hapsburg castle and when he decided on this trip I asked to be taken to Morges castle.

The walk was 6 Kms. We kept chatting along the way , took a few wrong turns , asked for directions everywhere and finally after about a good 2.5 hours reached the bus stand to take the Lausanne bus. The walk was tiring but the views all throughout was excellent .

The cathedral is an imposing structure and has been standing since the 12th century. The glass work inside looked beautiful . I could see a few tombs inside. Loved the view from top. There was a good amount of reconstruction work done on the church . The husband tells me that Swiss rebuild even those monuments that are reduced to a rubble and make it close to the original one as possible.

Morges was a lovely place for a visit. But as I see more and more of the western world , I think I am starting to appreciate the chaos of my home country more.