Lausanne - Lucky 13th Anniversary

Bart suprised me with a little overnighter for our Anniversary last weekend. While I did know I was going somewhere, I didn't know where until we switched trains in Zurich for the "Bern, Fribourg, Lausanne, Geneva" train. I guessed Lausanne or Geneva and figured Lausanne was the better bet as it's a bit closer than Geneva - I was right and my prize was time alone with my husband. Short of getting a babysitter for evenings, we have not been alone overnight anywhere since Nov. '05 - when we first faced the fact we might be moving again. A 'look-see' trip to the East Coast - never did move there.

So our friends, M & J (from Cedar Rapids! and the Minneapolis office), watched the girls overnight for us. Kendra wanted to know if Matt could drive (left the car). I assured her that as he was the youngest of a large family growing up on a farm in IA and he's probably been driving since he was 10 yrs old. Kendra says, "Yeah, tractors and stuff, blah, blah, blah." But at least her mind was settled as to whether he could get them to ski lessons or not. And our minds were settled as it was snowing pretty heavy when we left and the fact that he did grow up driving on a farm in IA gave him more qualifications to drive our children to ski lessons than if he had grown up in say, Los Angeles. The man knows how to drive in the snow!


Our pretty view from the train.

In front of the Olympic Museum/Park - The IOC is located in Lausanne in some beautiful villas on the lake (Lac Leman aka Lake Geneva by some).
There were many beautiful and interesting sculptures there at the park.
It houses the torches from each of the Olympic Games including a little history of each.
Click on this pic below for the larger image and read - especially at the bottom. One of the funny things we find about living in Switzerland. They may be 'neutral' but never doubt the quality of their military prowess. Why do you think the Vatican has used them for security for hundreds of years?
Some random lady enjoying a walk lakeside. Really, after the museum, we just enjoyed walking around outside. No one was saying "what are we going to do next?, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm bored, When can we go back to the hotel?, I'm tired of walking, Can't we play just a little longer (on playgrounds while Mom & Dad stand around freezing their back ends off)?, I don't want to go out to dinner." There was beautiful silence except for our occasional conversation - mostly people watching conversations. We really enjoyed it.The gentlemen in the park playing chess. Oh, they were involved in the game!
Sunset over the harbor.

Looking toward Montreaux the next morning - BEAUTIFUL weather! after the previous day.And your typical European power plant on the way home.We had a great time, the girls had fun with M & J and it was a welcome and needed break for Bart & I. Now it's back to work!