Switzerland - Part 6 - Lausanne

This is the sixth post, in a series about my trip to Switzerland.  You can find the previous posts (1) here, (2) here, (3) here, (4) here and (5) here

Dear friend - we've come to rhe sixth, and final day of the trip to Switzerland. This glorious day was spent in the beautiful city of Lausanne, which sits right on the banks of Lake Geneva.  This is the French part of Switzerland, where all the road signs switch from German to French ; )  We started the day early, and decided that we had to have a breakfast of croissants.  The only place open was a small grocery store, but the pastries were fantastic, just the same.  The chocolate croissants were infused with chocolate from the Cailler chocolate factory (from yesterday's post)...so they were good:

Breakfast in front of the lake

We then strolled down the lakeside, and saw beautiful views, and some gorgeous old hotels that sat right on the lake:

I wish our streets in Austin looked like this!

We made our way to one of the highlights of the trip - the official Olympic Museum in Lausanne, established be the International Olympic Committee:

Inside, they wouldn't let us take pictures - so I stole some from people that were dumb enough to try to take pictures ; )  Here, they had a display of all the Olympic Torches that had been used in the various torch relays:

They had examples of all the medals (gold, silver and bronze) that had been awarded in both Summer and Winter Olympics.  There were displays of the clothing and equipment used in various sports:

Yeah - that's a jersey from the awesome 1980 U.S. Olympic win over Russia!

Overall, the exhibits were really well done.  You had your own private iPod with you, throughout the exhibit.  They had so much good history, art and memorabilia from every single one of the modern Olympics.  I was humbled by the stories of hope, peace and endurance throughout.  Then, my disappointment of not obtaining tickets for the 2012 London Olympics was that much deeper : (

We finished the tour and headed into downtown Lausanne.  This was such a large city, compared to the little villages and towns we had visited all week.  We made our way to the top of a hill, to visit the Lausanne Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame)

Another magnificent church building, with construction starting in 1175 AD. It was consecrated in 1275 by Pope Gregory X.

My wife, baby L, me and my daughter A

What a gorgeous organ - I wish we could have heard it playing

This is the Rose Window - and it survived from the 13th century - although the stained glass is not original:

The rose was apparently a popular medieval representation of the universe and this cathedral's rose contains images of the four seasons, four elements, four winds, four rivers of paradise, and the signs of the zodiac.

I wouldn't mind giving a talk from THAT pulpit!

The exterior was just as amazing.  It looked like a combination of architectural styles from several time periods.  Some of it felt very, very modern:

To finish our visit to the area - we traveled a short distance along Lake Geneva to the city of Montreaux (home of the world-famous jazz festival).  There, we found the Chateau de Chillon:

Obviously not my picture, as I didn't have a boat to take this shot from ; )

The castle is built RIGHT on top of the lake - constructed on a small rock island.  According to archeological digs, the site has been occupied since the Bronze Age.  The oldest written document mentioning the castle dates from 1150, but it's been used for hundreds and hundreds of years as an actual fortress and prison.

I've been lucky enough to visit a few European castles, but none as extensively as this.  There were stairwells, walkways and secret passages everywhere!

Check out this ornamental lock on the storage chest:

I was going to say that we were chillin' in Chillon, but I decided not to...

The main tower was extremely tall - I had to navigate almost a dozen different stairways to find the very top:

The view from up there was incredible - looking along the lakeshore:

Looking back toward Montreaux

That's a long drop...

I found this view rather interesting.  The juxtaposition of the modern highway overpass, right next to the thousand-year-old castle...is what Europe is all about ; )

We finished the tour and jumped back into our SUV to head back to Zurich, as we were leaving Switzerland in the morning.  My daughter booked dinner at a great restaurant, to finish the whole trip on a high note!  The restaurant is the Zeughhauskeller - which is actually a glorified beer hall:

We had a fantastic meal of pork shank, sausages, bratwurst and Rösti, which is a heavenly version of hash browns:

All in all, it was a fantastic trip.  Major credit goes to my daughter, as she spent a great deal of time doing research before we even arrived.  Every single day was spent in awe of the physical beauty of the country...as well as a real appreciation for the food and culture.  If you have a chance to go (not in the winter), then take the opportunity to experience one of the prettiest places on Earth. I think I should be paid by the Swiss tourism bureau ; )

Thanks for reading!