Day 8 – Lausanne (1)

On 12 July 2011 we were up early.  At 9:00 we went to the station.  The train was about 5 minutes late.  We had a connecting train at Spiez and had to organize that our connecting train wait. 
Mom in the Goldenpass Panoramic train
We departed from Thun at 9:25 to Spiez.  9:36 we arrived at Spiez and hurried to our next train, the Goldenpass train to Zweisimmen.  We arrived at Zweisimmen at 10:18 and changed to the Goldenpass Panoramic train.  We left at 10:26 and arrived in Montreux at about 12:15.  The Goldenpass Panoramic is another scenic train and has an extra window at the top to give you a great view of the mountains.  We changed trains again and traveled to Lausanne.  From Montreux the last 30 minutes of our journey  was next to Lake Geneva with vine yards on the hills.  It was lovely.
Vine yards next to lake Geneve

Lake Geneve

















At about 12:40 we arrived at Lausanne station.  We were now in the French speaking part of Switzerland. The station was very busy because of a gymnastic competition.  We found the information center and they gave us a map and suggested a route.  We bought some food at a shop and then started walking to the car free old town.  The street we walked with was very steep and we were out of breath when we reached Place St Francois.  We found a bench in front of a church, The Église St-François (Church of St. Francois), and sat to eat lunch.  The church was completed in 1272 and the clock tower was added in 1368.
Steep hill from station to
Lausanne Old Town

Church of St Francois
Church of St Francois
We then walked with the Rue de Bourg and Rue de Caroline towards the cathedral.  The view of the city was amazing.  It was a very hot day and there was a fountain with ice-cold water.  We filled our water bottles and sat to enjoy the view for a little bit. (In all the Swiss cities/towns there are fountains with clean drinking water.  We bought water on our first day and just filled the bottles at the fountains.  It saved us money and we always had nice cold water to drink)
Walking towards the cathedral

View of Lausanne from the cathedral
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

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