June 15 Geneva (Day trip to Lausanne)
June 15, 2023
Last updated on September 6th, 2023 at 03:35 pm
Photos from Lausanne
Video Summary of the Day
Today we took a boat across Lake Leman to Lausanne. We checked on the location of the pier and docks, which was just a 5 minute walk from the hotel, as well as the sailing time, so we had a leisurely morning for a 10:45 sailing.
Once we made it to the dock, Alan went ahead across the river to check out Jardin Anglaise, which seemed mostly under construction. Joyce explored a little closer to dock. We met back up in time to board the boat.
There was kind of a gaggle at boarding; not a clean queue here. Some blond girls arrived late and sort of pushed their way in front of us. Alan was uncharacteristically assertive in making sure he stayed in front of them. We had our eyes of a spot on the top deck, but after going up the steps, we saw that it was reserved for 1st class and 2nd class tickets were for outside in the front of the boat. We picked a place next to the dining area outside. It turned out to be a good pick because we had access to both sides of the boat, as well as easy access to the inside places. It also gave us a chance to move into shade when it became available.
As we left Geneva, we noticed that there were lots of swans all along the shoreline. Actually, we’ve seen swans everywhere we’ve been in Switzerland where there was water!
Of course, we were very close to the major point of interest in Geneva guide books/videos—the Jet d’eau (The fancy French way of saying ‘Water Jet’.) Originally a source of aerating water, it spouts about half a cubic meter of water per second up 140 meters high at a speed of 200 km/hour. It was first used in 1891 and today it generates almost 1,000 kilowatts of power.
It was placed in it’s current location to promote tourism to Geneva. It was prominent as we walked along the pier, and the boat sailed fairly close to it, though the wind was not in the right direction to get us wet.
Spreading across an area of 224 square miles, Lake Geneva is one big body of water. It’s the largest lake in Switzerland, France and the Alps stretching up to 45 miles in length and(8.7 miles in width.
It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze and a blue sky dotted with fluffy white/gray clouds.
There were a couple of groups of kids, looking to be 1st-3rd grade, who got on with us and at the first stop. They were excited and it all seemed somewhat novel for them. Watching them took Joyce back to her days supervising field trips. She doesn’t remember going on a field trip this cool!! Alan wasn’t sure if he could handle that enthusiasm for the full 4 hours, but they all got off in about 40 minutes at the Versoix port.
Announcements were made only in French while we were on the boat, so we relied on Google Maps to tell us where we were, and tried to translate the menu with our phones. We elected to just eat chocolate instead of buying meals on the boat. Not a bad alternative!
We had lots of ladies join the trip in Nyon. They were very chatty and fairly aggressive in taking seats. Again, we were blessed when they joined most everybody else when they got off in Yvonne, which is in France. We then crossed the lake again and Alan took a break from the sun to blog for a bit. All and all, it was a relaxing, enjoyable excursion.
As we neared Lausanne, Alan consulted Google maps and we determined we would head for the Olympic Museum first. It was a nice 20 minute walk along the lake.
The dock area was in a park-like setting complete with a large floral clock. We had heard about the clock from our research ahead of the trip, but it was a little disappointing. There were not many flowers, and while large, it was more of a grass clock than a floral clock. There were fountains, statues, and a nice few of the lake along the way.
To get to the museum we had our choice of a long flight of stairs or a a path that wound back and forth through flowers and statues. We chose the stairs as the flights of stairs were broken up with flat areas and statues. On the stairs we met a couple from Oregon (the woman noticed Joyce’s slow progress and said she had had two back surgeries). We talked briefly about how expensive Switzerland was and found out the gentleman graduated from Purdue about 4 years after we did.
We enjoyed the Olympic Museum. There were interactive exhibits covering many aspects of the modern Olympics, from the history and beginnings, and special exhibits about women in the Olympic movement. There were many exhibits of examples of clothing worn, such as Usain Bolt’s jersey, Michael Phelps’s swim suit, Torvel & Dean’s skating outfits, Eric Heiden’s speed skating uniform, and many others. There were also shoes and equipment that were used in the Olympics, including skis, balls, rackets, skates, curling stones, gloves, and even a basketball signed by the American Dream Team. There was another exhibit of all the torches from the various years, winter and summer. We also saw examples of the medals awarded at each game. Who knew there was such variety from one game to the next. One particularly spectacular and moving video production was a compilation of the opening ceremonies.
After the Olympic Museum we want to see the Lausanne cathedral, The Cathedral of Notre Dame, but it was quite a ways from the Olympic Museum, so we again put our Swiss Travel pass to work. Lausanne is one of the few, maybe the only city in Switzerland with a metro, so we took it. It was very easy and we found ourselves deposited in a very different part of the city, definitely the Old Town with cobblestones streets winding up and down the hills.
The cathedral was the spiritual capital of French-speaking Switzerland, and of interest to people from all parts of the world. Constructed during the 12th and 13th centuries, it was consecrated October 1275 in the presence of Pope Gregory X and Rudolf of Habsburg. It became a protestant cathedral in 1536. This is another Gothic cathedral with stunningly beautiful stained glass windows.
On the side of the cathedral was a covered seating area with old benches and tables with a city fountain, which we used to refill our water bottle before we headed back to the Metro which took us to the train station.
We took the train back to Geneva, which took about an hour. As we left the train station, we looked in the local Coop for food to take on the train with us tomorrow as we head for Zermatt, but nothing looked good to us. We ended up buying some raisins (but they were good raisins!).
As we walked through the busy eating and shopping area back to our hotel, we decided to eat on the way so we didn’t have to go out again. We had walked a lot and were both pretty tired. We couldn’t decide what we wanted to eat and were very tired. We saw and Five Guys and a MacDonald’s and realized a burger and shake would hit the spot. It was probably the most expensive burgers, shakes and fries we will ever eat! Have we mentioned just how expensive things are in Switzerland? We’ve heard tourists complaining about the costs, and the locals just seem to accept it as a part of living here. Let me just say that each hamburger was about 20 Swiss Francs. (McDonalds was also priced high, and the proportion between McDonalds and Five Guys was like in the US, only increased by a factor of about 4!) Did we say we were tired?!? We savored every bite!!
Back at the hotel, Alan worked on pictures and Joyce blogged. Our trip to Zermatt tomorrow will take 3 1/2 hours, so we want to get an early start. We organized and packed as much as we could and fell into bed. Another fun day seeing many interesting sights.
About Lausanne
Lausanne was once an intellectual capital, attracting great thinkers such as Rousseau and Voltaire. Today it is a haven for those who love water skiing, swimming and sailing. The International Olympic Committee is even headquartered here. The town’s history is evident, though, in its medieval cathedral, the museums of the Palais de Rumine, and Ouchy, the port where Lord Byron wrote “The Prisoner of Chillon” and the Treaty of Lausanne was ratified. For great views, hike up to the Signal de Sauvabelin.
