Lausanne and Montreaux

It was another "Travel Tuesday" and our original plan was to take the train south to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. The weather reports called for a warm but overcast day all over Switzerland so we decided to change our plans. Besides, the mountains here in the Berner Oberland are much closer and pretty darn spectacular in their own right!

We decided instead to head to Lake Geneva and visit both Lausanne and Montreaux. A busy day was in store for us to say the least. We would experience two fine Swiss cities via four bus rides, three Metro trips and six train rides.

Thank goodness for our Swiss Half Price travel cards!!!

Lausanne Gare

Gare is French for bahnhof which is German for train station.

As the home of the International Olympic Committee, they have a great, must see Olympic Museum in Lausanne. The only problem for us was that they are in the middle of a 20 month renovation project and we were thus out of luck on seeing it this year.

We opted for the Metro ride up the hill from the Gare to Lausanne's old town.

Really Old Town

Funky shops in the Place de la Riponne

Mythology meets Science

Washed out Palais du Rumine wall

Fierce Lion

Fun loving guy I'm sure

The whole city is Beaux Arts

Laurie liked these so I

photographed them for her

Sundial at Lausanne's Castle

Laurie at Lausanne's Castle

A French feel in

a French speaking city

Lausanne's Cathédrale is the biggest church in Switzerland. It is an Evangelical Reform Church which was once a Catholic Cathédrale dedicated to Mary.

John Calvin's followers stripped it of most, but thankfully, not all of its original ornamentation.

Here are some of the surviving and/or reintroduced art treasures in the Cathédrale.

Atop the Pulpit

Bern controlled Lausanne

from 1536 to 1798

Swiss Flag Vestment

The Cathédrale's Portal

statuary was of great interest

They made one ponder

Moses on the left I believe

Are you looking at me?

Isn't that Davy Jones from
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
in the middle?

The Original Blue Angels

Soon I will be able to play

"I've got your nose" with

Kevin and Jacob!

Say a little prayer

Get your head out!

Darwin goes to church?

Another day at the office

Patron saint of 1950s Mafia types?

Hail to Venice!

I'll get back to you

Nice knee pads

I need some dry cleaning

Hmm . . .

The Cathédrale was great but we had to
move on via . . .

The Camino de Santiago's

Swiss Route

The view as we ate lunch

We saw some pilgrim's go past as we dined, ah the memories of life on the Camino.

A few years ago there was a vote in Switzerland to make Absinthe legal again.

Semi-Naked Women were

pro-absinthe it appears

Stodgy Calvinists were not

Lady Justice

A little help here!

The yes vote won!

But all the Swiss ladies are still fully dressed from what I've seen. No truth in advertising here at all if you ask me!

Politics.

City Hall Gargoyle

We need to add a couple of these to our home in Canarillo when we get back.

By the way, we land at LAX one month from today!

Lausanne Lunch Bunch

Paging Mr. Brian FitzGerald

It's all about the advertising

Paging Mr. Ian Murphy . . .

Mr. Ian Murphy, please

pick up a courtesy phone

One of only . . .

Two worthwhile fountains today 

We had seen a lot of Lausanne's old town and now it was time to board the train again for the 20 minute ride to . . .

The Montreaux Gare

Montreaux is a very welcoming city

Interesting lady by
the Geneva lakeshore

Nice lakeshore park

Laurie with Freddie Mercury

Château de Chillon

Along with these hardy swimmers, we enjoyed the views of this wonderful medieval castle that dates back to the 13th century.

Cool Chillon Clock

An EXTREMELY rare sight

in Switzerland!

Because of Switzerland's long standing stance of neutrality, memorials like this one to those Swiss citizens who gave their lives in World War I or II are rare.

Best sign in Switzerland!

Not the best sign
in Switzerland . . .

But I liked the look of the restaurant 

Old Montreaux

Withered

The Tigers are HUGE
in Montreaux!!!

Laurie really liked this street name

O.K. . . .

It was now time to head home to Helvetica after a truly great "Travel Tuesday."

Meanwhile, back in Thun . . .

SURF'S UP!!!

Three brave Aare River surfers were at it in the cool of the evening by the flood gates.

Use the tow rope first

Paddle if you must but
it doesn't usually work

He was easily the best
of our three surfers tonight

Nothing to it

Dinner at Casa Iberica

After our long day on the road, we decided that we deserved to eat dinner out for once.

The Casa Iberica was our call for great food, good wine and a big screen view of the Sweden vs. France soccer game.

The Swedish squad saved some dignity by winning 2-0 in the 2012 Euro Championship Tournament after having lost their first two Group D Pool games 2-1 to the Ukraine and 3-2 to England. The Swedish team was eliminated from the tournament and France advanced to the quarterfinal round.