Lausanne/Ouchy

Yesterday we visited the town of Lausanne (Loh-zahn). Lausanne is an interesting city because it incorporates the old and new. The older part of town sits at the top of a hill and is flooded by charming, quaint shops and old buildings. However, inside of these old, medieval looking buildings you can find modern businesses like architecture firms and bookstores. Signposts still hang over the streets and the cobble stone streets 

wind along taking you through the shops and cafes. Down by the fountain you can even hear the sounds of a local musician playing the accordian for tourists.













Our first stop was Place de la Riponne where we parked the car and started up the covered wooden steps to Lausanne's cathedral. On this day, we ditched the heavily researched itinerary and picked up a Rick Steve's book to lead the way. Steve's creates some great historic walks in his books and we decided to take the 'Old Lausanne' tour, backwards of course because we started at Riponne then adding on the lakefront area of Ouchy (pronounced oo-she)

Here I am with my Rick Steve's guide and my camera...a true tourist!!

When we reached the top of the hill where the cathedral rests, we were stunned by the beauty of the surrounding views: rooftops, mountains, Swiss flags flying. It was a beautiful sight! The cathedral was equally as stunning as it perches on the hill and looks over the city watching everything that is going on.
According to Rick, Lausanne's cathedral is the largest in Switzerland at 300' long. The cathedral was Catholic, dedicated to Mary; however, the Protestants stripped it of all it's symbols and statues, replacing the stained glass windows with plain ones. Later in the 20th century the plain windows were once again replaced with beautiful colored ones. The rose window in the south transept is the only surviving window from the 13th century. You can see the regal beauty of this cathedral:

 

After exploring the Lausanne cathedral for a couple of hours, we hopped on the Metro and headed down to the lakefront area called Ouchy. Here we toured Olympic Park. Lausanne is the well-known headquarters for the Olympics and supposedly there is a fantastic museum there that you can tour.....but we wouldn't know!

 Oh well, maybe next time! 

Instead of touring the museum, we were able to look at all of the statues they have on display there. Many of the statues and water features had turned into ice sculptures because of the extreme temperatures.

 

We finished up our day with a late lunch at a creperie by the waterfront. We enjoyed some savory and sweet crepes and then hurried back to hang with the pups. All in all, it was a great day!!