Ruth’s Diary

I think this was the most glorious, thrilling ride of the whole trip in spite of a bad start. It was up to us girls to get breakfast. First of all the fire went out & I finally got that started, then Dot & got the breakfast while Helen & Florence went for milk. We had puffed oats with raisins, bananas, & peaches & cocoa. After an hour there was still no sign of Helen & Florence. Finally I spied H coming up the path with a small bottle of milk – all she could get. She had been in every Swiss chalet along the hillside for a mile. Florence came in a few minutes later with a litre. I went out looking for some more & went into a peasant’s chalet. She called to her husband in the field (cutting grass) & he came in & milked a half litre from a goat in a shed adjoining the kitchen. Consequently, we had enough milk for us girls. It was around 9:30 before we finally got started. Then I had to go back to return the pitcher I had borrowed. Helen & in his poem The Prisoner of Chillon. We stopped to view this chateau. The lake was as blue as could be & so was the cloudless sky. There were a few little boats on the lake. A canoe & sailboat. All four of us were to eat in Montreux, but as we didn’t see them anywhere we rode on a little way & then picked up enough for lunch. We had sufficient for 87 (centimes?) a small loaf of bread, ham, cheese spread, plums, macaroons, & a litre of milk – goats milk, I think. By 2 o’clock we reached Lausanne. It took us then about an hour to find the hostel – then to find it was only for boys. Since Frank had made reservations for us – they finally took us in. At 3:30 Florence & I were washed & in our city clothes and still no signs of Helen & Dot, so we started out to find the city. We hadn’t gone so very far when we bumped into them trying to get directions from a woman who was jabbering in German. We, Florence & I, continued on into the city. I cashed a travelers check into Swiss money & then we scouted around for something for supper. We had supper a little after 6 – tuna fish, salad, bread & butter, a little delicious cake, milk. It tasted very, very good to us. After supper Helen & I walked to the other side of Lausanne to find a friend of a friend in R. I. – only to find he was out for the evening. It was pleasing to see the city by night – I saw the stars for the first time in a long, long while as we generally stay up & write & then go to bed after supper. The view of the city lights from our bedroom window was very lovely as we are on a hillside as usual. Over in back we could see the cows on the hillside.