Today, we went to Lausanne City – our first weekend trip! It took about a day’s planning, a bunch of enthu interns and a little bit of “help” to make it a perfect day.
As every time, we were all supposed to meet at Lausanne-Flon station at 9 a.m. and it took 30 mins more for all of us IITians to be all there. But anyway. So we started for the Tower of Sauvabelin, from top of which we can have a 360 deg view of the huge Geneva Lake (or at least, that’s what they claim) The Tower has been built in 2003 and is a complete wooden structure with a spiral staircase. Great piece of work! Obviously, we took a lot of pics on the way. From atop the tower we couldn’t see much due to the mist/clouds but the city looked beautiful – all red roofed houses, green forests, speedy cars along a high way and the Lake surrounding them all.
After the Tower, we visited the Cathedrals at Bessieres. These are quite old (1300’s) hence are very strongly built and carved magnificently. They had elegant statues of the Christian deities, fellowmen and a huge hall for mass prayer – with beautiful archs. The glass paintings could not have been any better. The Cathedral, I think, occupies a major portion of my cam memory!
Around the Cathedral is a line of museums of art and history which boast of ancient coins, antiques, armour, weapons etc. belonging to the 14th to the 18th century. We saw a small presentation on the development of Lausanne city. Apart from being in English, another nice thing about this was the efficient system of lights and sound used, and the meticulousness of the artisans who must have made the over 1000 tiny buildings (of height 4 cm, with lights inside them!) Basically, in IIT lingo, Godgiri!!
Next, we were lucky to witness the Lausanne City Carnaval (that’s how they spell “Carnival” here) on our first weekend itself. It’s like the typical Indian melas, except that the games are mechanized and they sell chicken tandoori instead of pakoras. It was a noisy yet very warm place to be in, with colourful decorations, bands playing loud music, children being helter-skelter and huge stalls of food. The noisiest Swiss people we have seen here, till now!
Our day ended with a lucky trip to France (Evian) by the ferry ride. Totally worth it! France (southern part) is just across the Geneva Lake, hence the Ferry takes you there at 16 CHF in about 25 mins. All you can see on the other side is a few nice buildings, colourful streets and some restaurants, but it’s France still, and you can feel it around you! The people, their language, their manners, their food, their hobbies – typically French. We clicked a lot of pics here too, and returned back by the same ferry, planning for the day after.
Nice day altogether! IITB-EPFL junta cracks!
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