Lausanne day trip and last days in Geneva
Trip Start
Aug 17, 2009
1
27
43
Trip End
Jul 20, 2010
Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Papers were due midnight Friday/Saturday of week 7. Celebrations started at 10pm and people trickled in as they finished. I did not see Saturday morning, woke up just before 1 (so nice after several all nighters) and the rest of Saturday was spent blissfully doing nothing. Sunday though Kit, Alisia and I decided we wanted to go to Lausanne for the day. We picked a fantastic day for it, the weather was gorgeous!
Lausanne is just on the other end of the lake, so the train trip was only about 40 minutes. We can add Lausanne to the growing list of places I could easily live in, the city is wonderful. We spent the morning exploring the old town at the top of the hill. Visited the cathedral, strolled the old streets, just soaked up the city. The cathedral is lovely inside and has an amazing Rose window that caused quite a controversy when it was installed in the 1400s. It is full of astrological symbols!
After the old town we wandered down to the harbor and took copious amounts of pictures of the lake, the boats and the mountains. Oh, have I told you how Switzerland is NOT a mountainous country. Who knew? I still think it's a mountainous country, and its become a bit of a running joke in the cohort. ;-)
But I digress. Back to Lausanne, which is surrounded by mountains :-) and sits on the lake. We even walked out on the surf wall (or whatever the strip of land is that juts out to protect the harbor) and had some fantastic views. Getting out there and getting back was a little harrowing, and we all got wet running the gauntlet back because of the surf that was going over the wall. After our little exercise we stopped for a relaxing lunch at a cafe on the beach, before walking up the coast a bit to the International Olympic Museum.
It was very cool to be there during an Olympics, and the entire museum was set up to honor Vancouver. There was even a special display of Native American masks and art. I have one picture that I took before I realized you weren't supposed to take pictures. Oops! Also, all the TVs had the games running, so we were able to watch repeats of the various sports. We got to trace the history of the ancient Olympics, and then the history of the modern Olympics. They had all the torches from every modern Olympics, I think that may have been my favorite part. There was also a display of all the medals from each games. You could even touch Gold, Silver and Bronze from the Sydney games!! In the upstairs area there were displays of the equipment and outfits that have been used over the years. I even got a picture of Michael Phelps Speedo pants from the Sydney games. We did make one bad judgment call during the visit, we decided to watch a 3D movie. We should have known when we walked in the room, but alas, 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
When we exited the museum a little over 2 hours later a major storm had rolled in and it was raining buckets! Couldn't even see the lake anymore, and it was only across the street! So we made a mad dash for a Creperie, planning on just ordering a dessert crepe and a coffee. It became dinner crepes, wine, dessert crepes, and coffee. Which all worked out fine as it had stopped raining by the time we left. After a hike back to the train station is was homeward bound, getting in about 9pm.
On Tuesday the three of us had decided we needed to have Museum day. So we visited the Museum of the Reformation (have to admit I wasn't too impressed, but it had its high points) and then also visited the Patek Phillip watch museum, where Alisia and I decided that we needed to either find a job that pays a lot, marry wealth, or befriend and inherit wealth so that someone can buy us these watches! Absolutely gorgeous work! The museum has watches from the 1500s up until the present, so you can trace the development as well as see the incredible work and designs that Patek-Phillip puts into their work! We also found a lovely park where they have giant chess and checker boards. So we played a little game of chess (I lost, I think I need to learn chess).
After the museums it was time to finish Geneva sightseeing. Back to the UN to get the chair and Gandhi statue, then down to the harbor for the fountain, the harbor, and the sky-line of Geneva at dusk. You can walk out on the pier to the fountain and we had intended to walk as far as possible without getting wet to get the best shots. So what happens when we were literally 5 feet from the best spot??? They shut the fountain off! Didn't get the picture I wanted. This did allow us to walk the rest of the way out on the pier, past the fountain, although there was plenty of joking about "what happens if they turn the fountain back on?" At this point we didn't know they turn it off at dusk.
Tuesday saw us crawling home from a long day of sightseeing, but happy that we got everything in.
And so there it is. The rest of the week has been uneventful (minus another luggage shipping experience where I got yelled at by the post lady) and now its Thursday night and I will be leaving at 9:17 Friday morning to catch a train to Paris where I will get to meet up with my parents!! Then its on to London and term 4. Yikes!
Until my next update, lots of love.
Comments
Hi Heather,
I graduated from Alliance High School with your mom!! It has been wonderful reading about your travels! Your mom just emailed to let me know that she is meeting up with you in France!! That is so exciting! When our oldest daughter studied in Spain, we met up with her in Paris for the Easter break!! I am so excited for your mom and all of you to be together in Paris!! I will keep reading about your adventures! You write so well and your pictures are just great! Have fun with your parents!!