Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
Nothing is open and because it’s the law, shops can’t open either. My first thought is that it’s because the shops took all my money between Monday through Friday. When you charge $15 for a cappuccino why bother opening on a Saturday or a Sunday? In fact, the prices in Switzerland seem to be calculated on fewer sales’ days per year.
At first one resists the urge to slow down because It seems so unnatural, and life screeches to an abrupt halt on a weekly basis. But perhaps it is this forced relaxation that keeps the Swiss culture so balanced. So on a Sunday you go for walks if the weather is nice; you watch dreadful TV, take photos with Charlie Chaplin (with detox in the background) purely coincidental, or go skiing again. The resorts and other tourist points of interest, of course, are exempt from this law.
Walking around Lausanne looking for somewhere to grab a bite, grab a beer or grab a cab even, is a mission improbable. Let that one go, yah, it’s nice to go from Evian to Lausanne on a boat, but even the boat doesn’t provide too much in the way of refreshments on a Sunday. Overall it reminded me of Britain in the 1950s. Governed as we were at the time, by laws created by the Lord’s Day Observance Society, we were forbidden from having fun, from buying anything. Our television programs were centered around songs of praise and TV would end at 11:00pm on the dot. I used to simply loathe Sundays.
My Sunday in Lausanne took me back to the glory days of the 50s, but was saved by a visit to the fabulous Hermitage and the Olympic Museum. Crowded by tourists and Lausannians, looking for something to do on a Sunday, other than ski.