Abenteuer Sechzehn: Lausanne

Hey! So I'm going to try and write these next two posts really quickly because I have to pack for SPRING BREAK today!! So here goes:

About two days after I went to Weils am Rhein (more about that later) and twisted my ankle, some friends and I traveled to Lausanne, a French-Swiss city in about halfway between Bern and Geneva (I also traveled to Geneva, but, as I don't have my FILM from that trip developed yet, I'm not going to post about it).

Lausanne lies on the banks of the Genfersee, also known as Lake Geneva. This was the first stop on our day's trip.

Gary enjoys being near the water

There were a lot of sailboats

Come to think about it, there were a lot of boats in general

 

 Now, it may look like it was a beautiful hazy spring day, but there's one thing in about the Genfersee that couldn't be captured on camera--namely, the wind. There must have been a 25 mph wind blowing up off the water--my friends and I were nearly staggering off the pier from the breeze alone. It must have been 50 or 60 degrees in the sun that day, but after half-an-hour of running around on the pier, we were all frozen to. Being the American that I am, I suggested that we solve this problem in the most American way possible--by going to a restaurant (because food serves as my solution to pretty much everything). 

My idea was a good one.  It led to this:

After brunch, we continued (me limping; sprained ankle, remember?) down the lakeside towards the Olympic museum. On the way, we found some pretty cool things: 

This one may not be cool to anyone but me. This was where Lord Byron lived for a while. It's also, I believe, where he was staying when he, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Shelley got into the famous contest that resulted in Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. I don't care about Byron or Percy Bysshe Shelley much, but I like Mary Shelley, and I've read about their competition enough times in my English classes to think this was an interesting sight. 

Chateau d'Ouchy--a former castle (kind of) turned hotel.

View from a different angle. 

I love all the flowers here

After a while, my friends and I did reach the Olympic museum. Gary was intrigued:

 There were some interesting sculptures outside of the museum.

After seeing the prices inside the Olympic museum, we decided that none of us really cared enough to go inside. So instead we walked around the park outside. Gary enjoyed the view. 

After that, we wound our way back to the city center and up the hill towards the local Cathedral (my ankle was at this time, of course, totally loving the trip). 

The old town in Lausanne may be entirely uphill,but is gorgeous. Especially the cathedral, which almost looks like a Disney castle.

 

Beyond the Cathedral was an old monastery. 

And, as the Cathedral was at the top of the hill, the plaza on the outside provided a pretty nice view. 

 By the time we got out of the cathedral, my camera was dead and the temperatures were freezing. So, again, we took the American solution to the problem--we stopped into a really nice Italian restaurant for pizza and "good Italian, not Swiss" cappuccinos. Because we were young, foreign, and female, the Italian bartender also gave us extra complimentary chocolates. 

I think I'm really going to like touring Italy, judging by the Italians I've met so far.

After that, we ran back to the train station and ate cookies all the way home!