Good morning! Right now I’m in my hotel in Lausanne, waiting for the chocolate stores I want to go to to open…thought I’d write about yesterday in the meantime.
I really can’t describe to you the number of hills that there are here. I kept trying to take pictures to document how ridiculous it is. The other time I felt like this (but not to this extent) as in the coastal town on Helensburgh, Scotland, where coming up from the coast up into the city was one big uphill. That is how it is here, but there are lots of streets that overlap and wrap between each other. So…Just hills. Everywhere. After these past three days (and since I haven’t been to the gym in like a month) my calves and feet could use a serious massage.
I got more of a leisurely start yesterday – ate breakfast at 7, and headed to Lausanne at 10. The hotel is only supposed to be a three minute walk from the train station…they don’t mention its up three steep flights of stairs and a hill, after that!! My room wasn’t ready here, so I just headed back out. The SUN was out, and it was a beautiful day. Probably about 80 degrees. This town feels a little more “normal” than Geneva and Lucerne. Geneva was very overly wealthy, and Lucerne was more of a tourist town. This place has tons of graffiti, and I actually saw a homeless person yesterday. Feels more like any other metro city you might visit.
I started out by walking down to the Olympic museum. I first walked into the building at the top, where the restaurant is. Many people were there for lunch. There was a place labeled. “La Galerie” there also, so I thought that was the museum. It was a bunch of blown up photos from photographers at Rio. It was cool, but I was a little disappointed because I thought that was all there was.
I walked down to the park part, where there are lots of bronze sculptures of different athletes and an Olympic fire. There, I found doors to the actual museum part! The museum is AMAZING. It was recently renovated (2012), so everything looks new and pristine. It’s well taken-care of. There are three levels, and they have all of the torches and medals from every Olympics, as well as memorabilia and displays of things like how all the paper stuff (ID cards, forms, etc. for the athletes) had a color scheme and a “look” for the Munich games. Equipment and uniforms, many of them autographed, and finally, a section of interactive stuff, like a biathlon, balance, and coordination exercises, as well as info about the villages and what the athletes eat during training. The outside was awesome as well. I walked along the lake and peered into the mountains in Italy. I ate ice cream for lunch and then made my way back to the hotel. I cooled off, and took a short power nap before dinner.
Dinner: A wood fired pizza with a thin cracker-like crust. It was very good. 10/10 would eat again, but I’d bring some flake salt for the top. I explored the north of my hotel after dinner. It’s the bustling area of restaurants and shops. There is also a beautiful cathedral at the top of the hill (I feel like it’s not really the top), but they are setting up for a city festival that starts today! I’ve gotta wander back up that way this morning to go to the chocolate places, so I’ll probably try and check it out today.
That’s pretty much it! Pretty low key, I have been tired! So I went to bed about 9:30. First day of the conference starts tomorrow, but I’ll be headed up there this afternoon! until then…I’m going to take another nap for like 20 minutes. 🙂
-h
laughs and giraffes 