Our day started late with a little bakery breakfast and then we headed to the start of our city walk. The first stop was a few blocks (uphill which will become a theme in Lausanne) to the Chateau St. Marie. This is an old Italian style building which now houses the city administration offices. There is a nice viewpoint in front looking over the city.

Next we headed downhill to the cathedral and went inside to look around. this is an old gothic style building that was originally catholic and then protestant so most of the decorative elements have been removed though a few remain including some newer stained glass windows. The centerpiece is the new large organ. They do concerts and the pews even reverse so you can face the organ in the back. We got a bonus as they started playing small excerpts while we were looking around the cathedral. After touring around the main floor we decided to brave the 200+ steps up to the belfry tower.

The tower housed several bells and we even got the noon bells while we were on the main bell level about 2/3 of the way up. each landing had great views all around and the top was magnificent. The descent was tight and steep to start and we were glad we were the only ones in the staircase as we descended.

Once we left the cathedral we headed down to the Bishop’s palace area and then down a pedestrian only shopping street where Becky bought a music box that played Bella Ciao. We continued down this street to the Place de la Palud which had a few interesting sights. There is a brightly painted statue of justice in the fountain and a clock that has a clockwork animation every hour. The clockwork was fun and it was nice seeing all the kids gathering around to watch. This place (plaza) also is home to the town hall building which was an impressive building with dragon gutters on the facade.

Next we headed down the shopping street further to the Saint-Laurent church and had a picnic with food from the Coop supermarket nearby. After finishing up lunch we proceeded to the Tour (tower) de l’Ale which was the only remaining tower of the old city defensive structures which at one point consisted of fifty towers and gates.

Having had a few long days we returned to the hotel to rest and I (Chuck) took the chance to go to the Victorinox store to see about getting a small Swiss army knife as a souvenir. Having successfully acquired my knife I returned to the hotel to continue our leisurely afternoon.

We had one other main sight to see in Lausanne and that was the Olympic Museum so we headed down there late afternoon. The museum was a good display of the history of the Olympic both ancient and modern and a huge collection of Olympic memorabilia from all the torches and medals to specific athlete’s equipment. When we finished we walked down the hill through the Olympic park and saw a few statues and displays related to Olympic sports.

We ended our day with a nice stroll along the lake front and grabbed some ice cream. We saw the clock that counts down the days to the next Summer and Winter Olympics in LA and Milan respectively. Heading back to the hotel we decided to eat in and noticed a French taco place across the street from our hotel so we got that for dinner and started packing for our move to Bern and our first soccer game of the Women’s Euro tournament tomorrow night in Lucerne.