In what seems to be an incipient quest of mine to visit most of the significant urban areas of Switzerland, I spent half a day looking round Yverdon-les-Bains, the second-largest city in Vaud [1]. Vaud, Bern and Fribourg between them control well over half the lakeshore. No one had particularly recommended I go there, but I did. On a cold, drizzly Saturday that felt very British. And I must say I was pleasantly surprised.
The castle also houses the history museum, so I went there first. Visiting the history museum is also the way to visit the castle itself, so I sort of got two things for the price of one [2]. Yverdon has never really been that big a deal, except maybe briefly in the Roman period. And even then, it was probably second-tier. But, it was a well-laid-out museum, with plenty of artefacts. I was a bit more interested once we got to the 19th and 20th centuries and there was a bit more specifically about Yverdon.
It used to be an industrial centre, as well as a spa resort, both money-spinners that very much died off in the second half of the 20th century. You can also go up one of the castle towers, which gives you some nice views over the city and the lake, as well as down to the basement, where they keep the excavated Roman-era boats.
This alone endeared Yverdon to me. I suppose the literal translation would be something like the House of Elsewhere. What that means in practice is that this was the sci-fi museum. This extension also houses the worryingly extensive museum library, which, from my cursory browsing, seems to house most of classic sci-fi.
There was a lot of pulp. The main exhibition was on superheroes — primarily Superman and Batman, but also others — their origin, reception, and so on.
