We made several visits to Lausanne, a city known for its beautiful Lake Geneva shore, surrounding vineyards, three steep hills, and since 1915, home to the International Olympic Committee.

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Port de Ouchy – This beautiful area is not only the starting point for lake tours, but also a popular spot for dog walkers, bird watchers, joggers, skate boarders, and roller skaters. We watched several teenage skate boarders successfully propel themselves and their boards from the sidewalk up onto concrete benches. 

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Parc Olympique – The popular Olympic Museum and Park host over 250,000 visitors per year. We opted out of looking through the museum, but enjoyed walking through the park, which features the Eternal Olympic Flame and many sculptures by international artists. One of the most interesting pieces of art is the 4-meter-tall moving torso that opens into three sections and then closes. Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, a Spanish artist known for his puzzle sculptures, created the piece for the 1992 Barcelona olympics. 

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Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Lausanne – We visited this 13th-century, large-scale  Gothic church when walking through the Old Town part of the city. Even though the cathedral was restored in the 1700s and again in the 1800s, the many beautiful stained glass windows are original. 

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Six quick facts about the cathedral’s magnificent pipe organ: 1) includes 7000 pipes, two consoles, five manuals, and one pedalboard  2) first organ manufactured by an American company (Fisk) for a European cathedral  3) took 150,000 man-hours to build  4) weighs 40 tons  5) cost a total of 6 million Swiss francs and  6) was inaugurated in December 2003. Unfortunately no one played the organ during our visit. 

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Esplanade de Montbenon – On a sunny afternoon we relaxed on a park bench at the upper edge of the expansive green lawn with great views of the Alps and Lake Geneva. The impressive Palais de Justice de Montbenon dominates the north side of the esplanade. Built in the 1880s, the building housed the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland in 1921. Now the District Court of Lausanne occupies the multi-story structure. 

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First Time for Everything – While visiting Port de Ouchy we looked for a public bathroom and found a loo with clear glass doors and walls. We did figure out that the glass becomes less translucent (but not opaque) after pushing the large lock button inside and then becomes clear again after the door is unlocked and opened. ‘Twas a memorable experience!

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