Fribourg

On Saturday I made the my first venture outside of Lausanne since arriving. Since I will have to use the trains almost daily, I figure I better make a trial run. So I found out that the city of Fribourg is considered the best preserved medieval city in Switzerland. Better yet, it is only an hour train ride away. This first week has convinced me, for now, that we probably won`t be getting a car. Since the town is so condensed, most everything in town is easily accessible by walking. The metro system is easy, too, and the buses run every 10 minutes. Now that I`ve used the trains, I found we can get pretty much anywhere we need without a car.



I wish I could`ve taken some pictures of the Swiss countryside during the train ride. The entire trip was like one big, long postcard. I don`t know how they do it, but they`re doing something right.



See below for some pictures of Fribourg. As advertised, it did have a large medieval old town, which was actually most of the city, except for some not unattractive modern buildings on the outside of the city. It was a good way to spend 4-5 hours walking around for the day.



The real fun that day began when I got back to the hotel. There was a concert in the waterfront park across from my hotel, so I wandered over. It was a group of old Swiss guys singing American songs (in English). It was pretty decent and a good way to pass the evening. But the absolute highlight was when they sang "Sweet Home Alabama". I can`t describe to you how bizarre it was to hear these Europeans singing this Southern anthem. The kicker is that they were desperately attempting to sing in a Southern accent, which, mixed with their European accents was absolutely ridiculous. This was easily the crowd`s favorite song of the night. I`m pretty sure I was the only audience member who`s actually been to Alabama, but everyone was on their feet swaying back in forth, playing the air guitar, and singing along.



Talk about a bizarre night. Once I walked the five minutes back to my hotel, I had to wait at the entrance for several minutes as a salsa dance line had meandered out the front entrance and back in again. I think it was an out of control Italian wedding. Then, 10 minutes later while I was checking my email on the computer in the lobby, the "Macarena" song began being blasted on a non-stop loop for the next 1/2 hour, along with the same people doing the accompanying dance over and over.