Geneva to Vevey (5/10)

I had my last café au lait and croissant at my now familiar café before packing up, and leaving the hostel. The weather – it was raining – made it easier to leave than it otherwise would have been. I really enjoyed Geneva! It was a short walk to the train station, where I bought a ticket to Vevey and was on the train less than 20 minutes after leaving the hostel. Switzerland makes public transportation easy!

Vevey is east of Geneva on the lake. Given the weather, even though we were traveling parallel to, and a short distance from, the lake, it was difficult to see. But the countryside is beautiful – rolling hills and a lot of terracing used for farming. In fact, I’m guessing that the retaining walls, or terracing, date from the 19^th century. Vevey was the last stop on this train, and I got off and found the hostel easily. (Google Maps and I got along this time!) I was able to check into the hostel – on a main plaza and just steps from the lake – at noon, which meant I could set off for my first destination rather quickly.

Some background: Vevey is the headquarters for Nestle. Aside from providing the economic base for the town, the company has a food museum called the Alimentarium. Although public opinion – including mine – has turned against Nestle in the last few years, the museum sounded fascinating so I went. First, they have a restaurant with well-prepared, French-style food. Of course, I had lunch there – a wonderful fish with veggies and riced potatoes, and something I can’t name – served in a small glass placed on the plate, that served as a sort of “taste sensation” along with the more bland main meal. I had a tiny chocolate dessert. All wonderful! Then I went into the museum. It examines food from A to Z. At the beginning, there were exhibits on the growing and packaging of food, and how it is preserved and transported. There was some discussion on GMOs, which I read with a grain of salt, knowing who funded the exhibit. There were discussions of food in different cultures, and examples of families in various parts of the world and their diets, as well as a comparison across centuries of the diets of poor and of more well-off people. There was an exhibit of the differences in food traditions between Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as well as the foods served on the holidays of each faith tradition. The top floor examined all of the senses and described how each of those senses affect our perception of food. One exhibit showed what is served for school lunches in various countries around the world. I appreciated that the exhibit made the point that in India, serving lunch is one way to get kids to school – and to support nutrition of children, as well. The same exhibit looked at airplane food across three country’s airlines – fascinating, though not particularly appetizing. The last exhibit was a wonderfully explained, multi-media exhibit of the digestion process, using an apple as the food that was digested.  I could have spent quite a bit more time in this museum. (Yes, I closed it down, after being there for four hours, including lunch.) I was impressed with the thoughtfulness and creativity that had gone into the creation of exhibits.  This could have been the usual “oranges and strawberries have Vitamin C, and they affect your body in X way.” Instead, we saw strawberries growing and made into jam, and we learned how the feel of the skin and the consistency of the flesh affect our perception of an orange – plus we learned what Muslims eat for Ramadan, and how their meat is butchered to make it Halal. There were kids all over the place, and they were really getting into the exhibits – and the parents were, too. Oh, and there were examples of farming tools and kitchen equipment – the latter from various centuries and all kinds of food. (Given the location, there was cheese-making equipment, for sure!) This is one of the best – if not the best – museums I’ve been to on this trip.

By the time I left the museum, it had stopped raining and was beginning to clear.  I left past the giant fork sticking out of the lake – an art piece presented to the museum on its tenth anniversary – and walked up and down the shore. Of course, I had to take a photo of the statue of Charlie Chaplin, who lived much of his life in this area, before going back to the hostel.