Switzerland July 10

July 10 was a very full day, not just in terms of the kilometres travelled, but also a treat for the soul, with wonderful scenery and amazing vistas from mountain tops, as well as more places to visit and information to absorb.
Our first stop was St Maurice-en-Valais, a town named after a soldier from the 4th century in the service of the Emperor Maximian whose legion, entirely composed of Christians from Egypt, refused to obey his order to harass some local Christians. Maximian ordered every tenth soldier killed, but this did not change the soldire's minds, so a second decimation followed. Eventually, all 6,666 soldiers were executed. We visited first the monastery, and then the memorial chapel dedicated to St Maurice and the soldiers who laid down their lives. (See the photo of the painting over the altar in the chapel.)
Next we drove to Lake Geneva and then up some very narrow winding streets to a town named Caux, the birthplace of the EU, mostly thanks to Robert Schuman, who had a vision to rebuild Europe on godly foundations. There is a photo of the hotel which became a conference centre, whcih is where the first meetings about the EU took place; and also a phtot attempting to capture the incredible view from the hotel - it really doesn't do justice to what we actually saw. We treated ourselves to a coffee on a patio overlooking the hotel and the lake below - what a wonderful setting.
An hour or so later we were in Lausanne where we visited the cathedral where the reformers had defaced the statues of Mary (commonplace during and after the Reformation in cathedrals across Europe), and which was the only church where dead babies were baptised. While we were there we got to hear an orchestra practising - another lovely treat.
We didn't linger long at Lausanne as we were expected for dinner at the YWAM base in a little town further around the lake in Burtigny. This was the first of the YWAM places we visited to actually be full of young people, but we didn't see much of them as we were tucked away in a guest wing.