Arrival in Lausanne

Today we met with Professor Ryan at 9:30 a.m. to begin our journey from Paris, France to Lausanne Switzerland, home of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  Our time in Paris had been an incredibly fun and memorable experience for me.  Even though I had been to Paris before, this visit was still special, and I learned much more about the city. Visiting the Louvre was definitely one of my favorite parts of our stay in Paris, since I had never visited the museum on prior trips.

Anyway, way left the hotel a little after 9:30 a.m., and made out way to the train station.  When we arrived at the station at 10:30 a.m, we waited for about an hour to board the train.  During this time I was able to pick up some lunch at one of the snack stands, which was nice.  At 11:40 a.m. we boarded the train and were off to Lausanne.

The train ride to Lausanne was about three and a half hours long, and the scenery on the way there was beautiful.  We slept for some of the train ride, but most of the time, we gazed out our windows at the French countryside.  Every now and then, small villages would pop into view, and a number of times I spotted cows grazing in wide-open green pastures.








As we drew closer to Switzerland, the pastures gave way to hills and mountains.  In turn, the ride became a little less smooth as the train twisted and turned through the hills.  I would liken this half of the trip to a less intense roller coaster ride. At one point, I had to keep my water bottle from falling off the table because of how the ride was causing the train to tilt back and forth. As the train rode up and down hills, it was very cool watching the majestic snow-capped mountains come into view and dominate the landscape.

We arrived at Lausanne at about 3:40 p.m.  The city is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and sits on Lake Geneva.   I was pleasantly surprised by how easy a metro ride it was from the station to our hotel, which took 10 minutes at most.  We arrived at the hotel and unpacked, then had a meeting with Professor Ryan to discuss our schedule for Lausanne. After the meeting, we went out to explore the city and find a place for dinner.  Some of the group, including myself, stopped at a very nice pizzeria not far form our hotel, where I had spaghetti bolognese.  The meal was very good, but it was huge, probably enough to feed two to three people.  After dinner, we headed over to a small ice cream shop, where I had a large cup of coffee ice cream, my favorite flavor.
To finish off the day, we went out for a nice evening walk around the city.



I already love Lausanne.  It is certainly smaller than the cities of London and Paris, but its smaller size gives it a certain charm and sense of intimacy that the other larger cities lack.  I can't wait to further explore and learn about about the city in the coming days.

Matt Kahl