Another castle, lots of hills

Today was our last day in Aigle and tomorrow we head back down to Martigny for a couple days. We've already pretty much decided that Nathan will take Bethany out to explore in Martigny tomorrow afternoon while I stay in and rest.

There is a little castle here in town called Chateau D'Aigle. Since the town is so small, we just walked to it. It was a neat little castle. Yesterday's was better, though. The Chateau D'Aigle is also part of a winery and they do wine tours and tastings there. So the castle isn't so much a look back at what it used to be as it is a museum of sorts of the vinyards in the area. That was fine. Bethany just didn't find it as cool. However, in the first room we entered, she made her way over to a "loophole" window. All of a sudden she says, "That's a bird's nest! And those are birds!". When I went over to see what exactly she was talking about, I saw the bird's nest and at least seven baby birds! They all started to stick their necks out and chirp. The mommy bird was out gathering food. We had to get Bethany to move back from the window because as the mommy bird tried to come to the nest, we think we were spooking her. When we moved back, she came right back and we got to watch her feed the babies. It was so neat!

After the castle we made our way down to the train station to head to Lausanne. We decided to go there instead of a town called Vevey because it looked like there was more to do. However, when we got there, we saw that all of the north/south streets were pretty much at a 45-degree angle! How exhausting! We made our way to the top of the town to see an old church. There was a small string ensemble rehearsing inside for an upcoming concert. Bethany liked listening to the music. Unfortunately, she was also enjoying running and eventually we had to take her outside because she wouldn't calm down.

We found a pretty cool place to eat. It was kind of cafeteria-style where you choose your food and then pay at a cash register then seat yourself. It was called Manora. It was really good. This saved us some time since we didn't have to wait to be served.

We decided to head back down toward the lake to see Parc Olympique and the Musée Olympique. It took FOREVER to get there, and again, all downhill at a 45-degree angle. We decided to find a bus to go back up when we were done. Today was finally a nice day, so we were able to really appreciate how beautiful the area around Lac Leman is. We headed into the Museum and it was pretty neat, nothing fantastic. They had a projection of a luge ride in one room and Bethany had fun sitting on the floor with Daddy pretending to ride. It was cute. B was also taken by the video of Katerina Witt ice skating. She just loved that. She also thought the skiing was neat. We'll have to get her to watch some of the Olympics next year (though I'll have to get her interested in the summer games - she should like the gymnastics, I think).

So afterward, we found the bus (hoorah!) so we didn't have to hike anymore. We couldn't believe how quickly we got back to the train station!

We told Bethany that her birthday is tomorrow. She's pretty excited.

Well, packing up again in the morning and looking forward to an uneventful day tomorrow. Nathan will probably write about what he and B do in the afternoon. I'll be sleeping (or something very close to it!).

Bonne Nuit!