Museums!!!

Saturday was jammed packed full of museums and sight seeing-- by jammed packed, I mean after seriously sleeping in! The city of Lausanne had a special day where you only had to pay 10 Swiss Francs and you could get into all the museums as well as ride the buses for free. In case you thought I was attempting to make a fashion statement, the yellow neck tie was actually the pass to get in the museums. So everyone you saw on the buses were wearing a tie. The picture of Emma and I was taken at the Musee De L'Eysee(it was a photo museum).




First stop of the day was in the town centre of Lausanne. We decided to walk the mile down a section of town call Ouchy where the Olympic museum is located. It was a great walk downhill. Along the way were many shops and stores. Of course the chocolatier sidetracked me a bit (see the pictures below). The chocolate was absolutely fantastic-- I'm actually savoring a piece as I type.



Ouchy is a district of Lausanne along the lake. The views are absolutely astounding. Emma and I both agreed that much more time was going to be spent in this area in the coming months. Here are a few pictures from the area:













Me giving the virgin of Lac Leman a nice hug.

Lakeside in Ouchy.

The biggest attraction of the day, at least for me, was the Olympic museum. The IOC(International Olympic Committee is based in Lausanne. They have an amazing museum. Some of my favorites included: the Olympic torch from every modern Olympics, the ancient Greek artifacts (including ancient dumbells and many pieces of pottery depicting ancient athletes), and the displays highlighting each of the Olympics. I wasn't allowed to take photos of all the really cool stuff, but we were allowed to take photos in some areas. Here are the pics:



Nice view of the lake from the museum!!!






















"Do you believe in miracles.....YES!!!!"











The Olympic flame burning behind me.











Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day was the Jessie Owens' shoes from the 1936 Olympics, or lack there of. This was the best Olympic performance ever, in my mind. Normally they are on display, but they are on loan to a Beijing museum for the 2008 summer games. But I can always say I saw were Owens' shoes normally are.

Next stop was the Musee De L'Eysee; not much really to say about that place except they had a beer garden-- oh, I mean the photos were great.

Enjoying a cold one after lots of walking.

After the beer and photos we had a short walk to the botanical gardens. It was very pretty and peaceful. It wasn't really well organized with many different displays, but the views were great.
















A tranquil pond.

Fountains at a park near the gardens.

A view from the top of the gardens.


As the day was wearing on, so were Emma and I. We decided to make one last stop: the famous Fondation de l'Hermitage. It is an art museum and they had a large exhibit featuring Henri Fantin-Latour-- truly showing my ignorance in fine art: I have never heard of him. The museum was overall pretty enjoyable-- about as enjoyable as an art museum can be after a day of walking and of course I was getting hungry as well.

Me outside the art museum.













And example of Henri Fantin-Latour's work.



Finally we rode the bus back to the towne centre and found a place to eat by 9pm. We sat at one place that looked delicious and after waiting 15 minutes with no service we left for another place. We found a good place to eat with delicious food. I had the picatta milanese with risotto and Emma had a pizza with nearly everything on it. It was the first time I had ever had authentic risotto. My chicken was awesome-- it was battered with an egg batter then fried to perfection-- and the risotto was indescribable--I'm trying to think of something as rich, creamy and flavorful as the risotto, but I can't! The picture is below:












Riding home after a long day........