A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That . .: 08/18/17

I went to visit my son Matt in Lausanne, Switzerland for a week. He moved in there in August and I haven't seen him since he left. I had a direct flight from JFK to Geneva and then took a train right from the airport to Lausanne where I met him at the train station. He has an apartment a short subway/metro ride from the center of town towards EPFL where he is working for a year.

Day 1 - Lausanne:

After he picked me up around noon, he had to go back to work. I rested a little bit and then decided to go and explore the neighborhood. Just a short walk away is the Roman Museum of Lausanne and a little bit further are the ruins of an old Roman town. You will also pass the Olympic Headquarters soon after the Museum. I decided to go and check out the Museum and then the ruins. On the way back to the apartment is a lovely park called Parc de la Vallee de la Jeunesse. Next to it is a beautiful cemetery which I decided to check out later.

Roman Museum, Lausanne

Olympic Headquarters, Lausanne

Roman ruins, Lausanne

Parc de la Vallee de la Jeunesse, Lausanne

At the entrance to the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne

View from the patio, Lausanne

View from the patio towards downtown Lausanne

View from the patio, Lausanne

Day 2 - Lausanne:

After Matt headed to work I took my time to get going. I'm still suffering from jet lag. I took the metro and went to the Flon station. From there I decided to walk towards the Cathedral, but got lost on those windy roads and since the town is built on a hill side I couldn't even see the Cathedral to get my bearings. I did eventually find it after taking the long road and many, many stairs. (According to my Fitbit I ended up climbing 44 flights of stairs while the tallest building I was in was only 5 floors.) The Cathedral is worth seeing and the views from there are great.

Cathedral, Lausanne

View from the Cathedral, Lausanne

I ended up on Place de la Riponne where I had some crepes for a quick lunch. Then I headed out to find a sporting goods/camping store where I could get an air mattress since the one we had had a slow leak on it. I did find it and another mattress. Now I just had to haul it back to the apartment. I did make the mistake of going to the Flon station since there was another one closer.

Palais de Rumine, Lausanne

Near Flon, Lausanne

After getting back I did some grocery shopping and then went on a another walk through the park I was in yesterday and then checked out the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery . Coco Chanel and Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympics are burried there. I have to say it is the most beautiful cemetery I've ever been to.

Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne

Coco Chanel's grave, Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne
See the perfume and the pearls

Coco Chanel's grave, Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne

Pierre de Coubertin's grave, Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne

Day 3 - Lausanne:

Today I headed out to see a different kind of art museum. It's called Collection de l'Art Brut. It is basically outsider art and self taught artists. I think there is hope for me to get my work in one of these days too, I might have to be dead before that happens. From there I wondered around the streets, went to see Tour de l'Ale, Place de la Palud and then to Esplanade de Montbenon. Then back to the apartment for some rest.

Front window of Art Brut Museum, Lausanne

Chateau de Beaulieu, Lausanne

Lausanne

Place de la Palud, Lausanne

Hotel de Ville, Lausanne

Tour de l'Ale, Lausanne

Esplanade de Montbenon, Lausanne

Casino de Montbenon, Lausanne

Esplanade de Montbenon, Lausanne

View from Esplanade de Montbenon, Lausanne

Flon, plant covered, metro station, Place de l'Europe, Lausanne

I headed out to EPFL so that Matt could give me a short tour after work. I do have to say that they have a lovely view of the French Alps and Lake Geneva.

Rolex Center, EPFL, Lausanne

Swiss Tech Convention Center, EPFL, Lausanne

View from EPFL, Lausanne

Day 4 - Geneva

It's Saturday and we headed by train to Geneva. There was a lot of walking since we didn't really know how the buses were going. We first headed out to the Red Cross Museum which was recommended to us. It was actually quite interesting. I didn't know how much they actually do. From there we went to see the United Nations area. Then we walked towards the lake and the along the water front through Mon Repos Park. That was further away than we thought.

Red Cross Museum, Geneva

Broken Chair @ UN, Geneva

UN, Geneva

Parc Barton & Lake Geneva, Geneva

Parc Mon Repos, Geneva

We crossed the Rhone River and went to the old town and the area where all the very expensive stores are. like Rue du Rhone. I think we were both exhausted at the end of the day.

Floral Clock, Geneva

Place du Molard, Geneva

Calvin lived here, Geneva

Cathedral Saint Pierre, Geneva

Near Town Hall, Geneva

Town Hall, Geneva

Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, Geneva

Day 5 - Veytaux - Montreux - Lausanne

Sunday and Matt can come with me. We headed back to the train station and took the train to Veytaux so that we could visit Chateau de Chillon. This castle is built on the shore of Lake Geneva and is definitely worth the trip. You can wonder around it on your own. If you climb up to the top of the tower, you will have amazing views of the surrounding area. You can even see Montreaux and beyond.

Chateau de Chillon, Vaytaux

View towards Montreaux, Chateau de Chillon, Vaytaux

View towards Villeneuve, Chateau de Chillon, Vaytaux

Chateau de Chillon, Vaytaux

From the castle we walked to Montreaux. There is a very nice walking path along the coast, it is more like a sidewalk, but no cars anywhere. It is only about 3 km long or couple of miles. We stopped for a quick snack of galettes and then headed to the train station and back to Lausanne.

Vineyards on the way to Montreaux

On the way to Montreaux

Territet, on the way to Montreaux

Montreaux

Getting ready for Christmas Market, Montreaux

Montreaux

Then it was time to visit the Olympic Museum. When I was looking for places to go and see in Lausanne I thought that the Olympic Museum would be one of my last things to go and see, but it was so worth it. They have a very good display of equipment used by athletes and costumes of the opening ceremonies and of course the history of Olympics. Outside the Museum there are wonderful art displays. Make this one of the places to definitely go and see.

Chateau 'Ouchy, Lausanne

Olympic Museum, Lausanne

Mascots from different Olympic Games,
Olympic Museum, Lausanne

From Beijing Olympics, Olympic Museum, Lausanne

Olympic Museum, Lausanne

Ouchy, Lausanne

Day 6 - Lausanne

Matt took today off and we headed out to the Sauvabelin Forest. There is a lake and a small zoo, mostly farm animals. There is also a wooden tower, Tour de Sauvabelin, but unfortunately they were working on it that day and we couldn't go up. We were able to go to the Signal with nice views of the town, lake and the French Alps on the other side.

Lac de Sauvabelin, Lausanne

Zoo at Lac de Sauvabelin, Lausanne

Signal at Parc de Sauvabelin, Lausanne

View from Parc de Sauvabelin, Lausanne

Parc de Sauvabelin, Lausanne

From there we headed back downtown. We walked through the Parc de l'Heremitage but the exhibit there was closed too. We did go to Place de l'Europe, Flon and Montbenon Park.

Parc de l'Heremitage, Lausanne

Prefecture, Lausanne

Rue Cite, Lausanne

Place de l'Europe, Lausanne

Getting ready for the Christmas Market,
Flon, Lausanne

Fancy street lights at Flon, Lausanne

At Montbenon, Lausanne

Day 7 - Bern

Today I took a train and met a friend of mine in Bern. He is from St. Gallen area so we thought that Bern might be a good place to meet. Unfortunately his wife was busy with work and couldn't make it, but we were able to meet his daughter for a few minutes. She works for the Swiss government in one of the buildings there. We did walk a lot around the town. The old town is beautiful. It is also known as city of arches since lots of the buildings have arched walkways under them (see pics). Since the old town is on top of a hill there are some really good views of the Swiss Alps in the distance.

City of arches, Bern

Bern

River Aare, Bern

Parliament Building, Bern

Rathous (town hall), Bern

Cathedral, Bern

Zytglogge, Bern.

View from Cathedral Park, Bern

View from Keine Schanze, Bern
Finsteraarnhorn,Eiger, Mönch & Jungfrau peaks

Old paintings on buildings, Bern

New paintings on buildings, Bern

Ooops, Bern

Day 8 - Lausanne

It's my last full day in Switzerland. Tomorrow I'll take the train to Geneva and then fly from there to JFK. I spent the day packing, shopping for souverniers and then went for a walk along the lake. I took the metro to Ouchy Station and then headed past the Olympic Museum to Thai Pavillion and the Tour de Haldimand. It was a bit dreary day so I didn't feel like spending too much time walking.