We caught a 7.32am train today and got to Lausanne at 10.10am. We walked the very hilly route to our hotel which is very nice! The lady even gave us a room with a great view of the cathedral because it isn't busy - yay!!
We set out for what was a pretty relaxing day. We walked through Place de la Palud, a medieval square. Here is the town hall and the justice fountain. Then we walked up the escalier du Marche which is a medieval staircase. In this area tomorrow there is a traditional market we are going to go to. We continued to the cathedral. At this stage we didn't know that you could go up the tower, so we went back later in the day and went up for a nice view.
We walked downhill towards Place St Francois, another important square in the history of Lausanne. Lausanne is sooooo hilly! It's going to be very hard wheeling my case to the station at 4.30am on Thursday! Oh well. We continued to the botanic gardens. We walked through half the gardens then got to a gate that was locked. We jumped over it and had a look around and then on the way back noticed it said only open march-October. Oops! I guess not if you jump the fence haha!!
Then we walked down to Lake Geneva. The weather was so weird today. Grey and pouring in one section, blue and sunny in another! The wind was strong so the weather changed every five minutes! We walked along the lake to where the Olympic museum is. It's closed for 2 years to renovate it but never mind. Lausanne is linked to the Olympics because the International Olympic Committee meet here to decide where the next Olympics will be sometimes. They also host other IOC meetings here.
We went back up the hill on the metro and went to the history museum which was free on our rail pass and was really interesting! Lausanne started to become a significant Swiss town in the 1200s and used to have many vineyards and old buildings, but lots of these were demolished to make the town more accessible (hills cause problems) and build new buildings. Most of the museum was in French so it was hard to get the full picture! I'm terrible at French and can't even pronounce 'aurevoir' properly - but I'm trying!
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox
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