Hello Lausanne

I'm on the road again so it's time for another blog. This week I am in Lausanne, Switzerland supporting our Lawson go-live. Lawson's European headquarters is located in Lausanne so there are many members of the implementation team here this week. Good thing for me too, as my French has proved to be less than stellar. Scratch that.....less than stellar would be an understatement....non-existant is much closer to the truth but more on that later.

In an effort to avoid Heathrow, I decided on a route that this trip that would take me from DFW to O'Hare to Brussels to Geneva then I have to hop on a train for the final leg to Lausanne. The travel time was less than connecting through London, but a little more risky with all the connections. In the end, everything was on time and I was in Lausanne a mere 18 hours after leaving my house.

My trip started out on an interesting note with an encounter with a professional athelete. One Roy Williams...no, not Roy Williams the Cowboys reciever and no, not Roy Williams the North Carolina basketball coach, but Roy Williams the Cowboys safety. Seems Mr Williams and his wife or girlfriend (hopefully his wife as it is quite possible she is on my lenghty list of blog followers and could read this posting some day) were on there way to Chicago or some other destination beyond. I first saw Mr Williams in the security line right in front of me when I got to the airport. As much as I knew that Andrew would like his autograph, I decided to leave him alone and give him his space. I then saw him getting on my airplane and taking the seat two rows in front of me but again....I'm going to give the man his space. When I saw Mr Williams at the Admiral's club in O'Hare I decided that some unknown power somewhere obviously wants me to get his autograph. I pulled a classic stalker move and pretended to be on my blackberry until he got on the elevator. Then I went in for the kill...."Hey Roy, can I get your autograph...my son has your jersey and would really like it if I could get your autograph, too". To his credit, Roy (I can call him that now as we are friends) was quite a nice guy and took the time to sign the back of my free drink coupon. Bottom line is that I got an autograph for Andrew but I had to pay $8 for my beer.

I finally arrived in Lausanne on Sunday afternoon. Lausanne is in the region of Romandy, which is the French speaking area of Switzerland and it is on the shores of Lake Geneva. I had never been to Lausanne before, but had heard stories of how beautiful of a city it is. I also heard horror stories about all the hills and how steep they are. I found that out in a hurry. When I got off the train, I could see the Hotel Victoria about 200 yards away and up what appeared to be a gentle slope going up to the entrance. That slope doesn't look so bad so off I go dragging my 48.4 pound suitcase(yes I weighed it so I wouldn't have to pay the $50 fee for being over 50 pounds) along with my laptop bag and carry-on. After about 150 yards I was a bit winded, but not terribly and I could see the sign pointing to the left to the Victoria. Wooo hooo, the end is in site. Little did I realize that the sign was pointing to a hotel entrance that was around the corner and about 50 yards up a hill that had to be a 45 degree grade. Holy #@*! was the main thought going through my head as I labored up this god forsaken cobblestone street only to find out that once I got to the hotel........NO ELEVATOR in the entrance way and the check-in counter is up a flight of stairs. At this point, I would have paid a bellhop 50 bucks to carry my bags up those 14 steps, but nobody was in sight. I tell you this...if American Airlines doesn't want people carrying heavy bags on airplanes, they should put all the check-in counter up a flight of stairs!

The good news is that the hotel Victoria is a very nice hotel and my room far exceeds my expectations. I've grown accustom to the minimalist style of the Swedish hotels and was expecting the worse. I was pleasently suprised. I even have a funny little short sink right beside the toilet, but it hurts my knees when I brush my teeth so I use the one by the shower. Thank you Chooch.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few colleagues in Lausanne with me so I met up with Tom and Chris for dinner on Sunday night. We went to a brewery called Le Brassiere, which is when I realized that my lack of command of the French language was going to be an issue. The entire menu is in French and I can't even find fries, bread or onion soup. Fortunatly, Chris knows the language pretty well so I'll let him order for me and I have him ask for a large beer for me. Lesson to self...large beer at La Brassiere = 1 litre of biere. I didn't realize how big a litre is, but needless to say I was set on the biere front. Dinner consisted of a Cheeseburger and Frites (Fries!!!!!!) and I gotta admit...it was a pretty good meal. There was coleslaw on the burger though and they asked if I wanted mayo with my Frites. I opted for Ketchup instead and wondered why I would put mayo on my fries. Crazy Swiss custom I guess. Overall, I'd give my first meal in Switzerland two thumbs up. At this point of the day, as much as I wanted to walk away and see some of the city, I'd only slept 4 hours in the last 36 so I decided it was time to call it a night. More to come from Lausanne........