I just spent my weekend in the capital of the Olympics, Lausanne, Switzerland!
What a beautiful city!
Right on Lake Geneva with a beautiful view of the Alps.
My friends and I took a beautiful train ride through the countryside and mountains Friday morning directly into Lausanne, Switzerland.
After checking in, to our very nice four-star hotel, in the center of the little city, Hotel Alpha-Palmiers, we walked a mile to the lake and spent the day walking along Lake Geneva.
It was very cloudy in the morning and we couldn’t even see to the other side of the lake. But when we were at a crêperie for lunch, overlooking the lake, the sky broke and we could actually see the mountains on the other side! It was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen.
So relaxing and so peaceful.
After spending the whole day walking along the lake and seeing the little town, we walked all the way back up the mountain, snuggled in bed and went to Blackbird Diner for dinner!
Our server was actually from New Jersey! Such a small world!
I had a delicious avocado, chipotle mayo chicken burger, for a mere price of 23 Swiss Francs...
That meal was the indicator that our relaxing weekend in Switzerland would be anything but cheap...
Saturday was rainy and cold all day.
Our first activity was climbing to the top of the mountain and going to visit Lausanne’s Cathedral.
Very beautiful, because what cathedral with stained glass isn’t?
I learned that Lausanne was actually originally a fortified city when the Celtics controlled the city.
After our adventure up the mountain we trekked down the mountain and went to the Olympic Park and museum!
I was so excited to visit the Olympic museum because I LOVE the Olympics!
I have so much spirit and pride for team USA! Every time the Olympics are on, I mark in my calendar when my favorite events like swimming or gymnastics or track or skiing is on TV and I religiously watch and cheer on team USA!
I loved this museum. We were enjoying it so much that we stayed in there for 3 hours! It was a beautiful and well-designed museum and I would 100% recommend going if you ever happen to stumble upon Lausanne.
The Olympics originally started in Ancient Greece. Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin in 1894 made the Olympic Games international.
He created a sense of unity and international love in the world. Every four years for 16 days, the world puts aside their political difference and compete in sporting events while representing their countries.
During WWI, Coubertin moved the Olympic committee from Paris to Lausanne, Switzerland because of Switzerland’s neutrality.
Since his amazing revival of the games, countries have been really able to put aside their differences to compete. It is remarkable.
Germany during the 1956 games was divided but the west and east were unified under one Olympic team.
By 2012 every country had sent a woman athlete.
It warms my heart that countries that hate each other and have so many problems can put aside their differences and have a friendly competition.
This museum has many Olympic torches and costumes from opening ceremonies and uniforms from many teams throughout the years of the Olympics. The famous runner, Usain Bolt’s sneakers are in the museum, as well as Lindsey Vonn’s helmet, Michael Phelps’ bathing suit and many other gold medalists’ uniforms.
By far one of my favorite museums. They had videos of all the filmed Olympics that you could watch, and we watched a lot, as well as a montage of all the opening ceremonies.
Coolest museum ever!
For dinner we went to Caffe Bellini, a very delicious Italian restaurant that was recommended to us by a friend of ours who is on our Dijon program and happens to live in Lausanne!
After dinner we went home to our hotel, ate our delicious Swiss chocolate that we bought and made our way in the freezing rain to Buzz Club!
There was no cover charge, but very expensive drinks but it was super fun!
It felt so good to dance and let loose!
It was a very fun way to end our weekend in Lausanne!
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