Lausanne

Even though Lausanne was mainly chosen as a repositioning stop for ongoing train connections – I had high hopes that we’d enjoy our short time there.  It was OK, but one afternoon of exploring was more than enough for me.  

We’d arrived in Evian les Bains by taking the ferry across Lake Geneva from Lausanne (directly to the ferry from the train station that day).  Today, we were going back to Lausanne on the ferry, but staying overnight this time.  It worked out better to leave from Lausanne for our next city rather than Evian.

Approaching Lausanne

In Lausanne, there is a pretty park in the area where the ferry and tour boats dock.

There was an area where there were 3 oversized chess sets.  There was also an XL sized checkers board.

A flagpole installation with colorful flags caught our eye.  These flags were hyping the soon-to-start Women’s Tour de France, which would be starting from the city of Lausanne on August 1.

There was a “metro train” stop at the park to help people get up the hills into the city.   We only needed to take it for a couple of stops back to the train station.  Our hotel was only a block or so from the station.

Our room wasn’t ready, so we left our luggage with the front desk and set out to explore a bit.  The hotel provides guests with a free pass for the metro during their stay, so we used the passes to get us further up the hill to the historical district.

The “metro” stop we’d picked had us seeing this building first. It is the Palais de Rumine.

A man named Gabriel de Rumine, who was a son of Russian nobility, willed 1.5 million Swiss Francs to the city in the late 1800s for the purpose of erecting a building to serve the public.  The building was started in 1892 and opened in 1902. Over the years, it has had a variety of uses.  It currently houses the University Library of Lausanne as well as several museums.

Next to it was a set of stairs going up.  We could see that the cathedral was in that direction.  You might ask what was our first clue?

About halfway up, I stopped to take a picture of a side entrance to the Palais.

Before giving the cathedral our full attention, we sort of circled the whole way around it while looking at other interesting buildings.

Below is the Ancient Academia.  This was Europe’s first college of Protestant and French theology.  It was built in the mid-1500’s.  Later, between 1890 and 1987, it was home to University of Lausanne.

We saw the Chateau Saint-Marie.  It was built by Lausanne’s bishops in the early 1400’s to be their fortified residence.  In 1536, Lausanne was captured by the city of Bern -and the bishops were ejected and the chateau was turned into an armory.  It eventually became the seat of government for the Canton of Vaud (which is similar to a county) in 1803…and still is.

This is a statue of Major Abraham Davel. He was a soldier and national hero who led a failed attempt in 1723 to liberate Lausanne from Bern’s control.

Mike checking the view – it was a lot of unattractive rooftops to be fair.

There were some charming business signs here and there in the old town area.

We’d been taking pictures of Lausanne Cathedral as we wandered the streets in a wide circle. Every side of the church seemed different.  We got pictures from different angles.

The earliest construction was around 1170.  There was a gap of twenty years where building activity stopped.  Construction was restarted in 1215 and the cathedral was consecrated in 1275.  Around 1520 there was a protestant reformation and the church was turned over to a Protestant congregation.  Over the years there have been various restoration projects.

This building was interesting, but I couldn’t find out much about its history.

The old town area we’d been exploring was like a ghost town.  There were some other tourists, but otherwise there were no shops or signs of life.  We found a couple of restaurants off in corners, but the streets mostly looked like the picture below.

We decided to walk back to our hotel since it was all downhill.  What a “stacked” city Lausanne is.  There are so many stairways to get you down to the next level, that they actually have public elevators installed in many places for those that can’t do stairs.  We crossed a bridge interested to see if we were crossing a river or something -only to see more buildings below -not water.

We managed to find their shopping street and walked down it for a while.

We were able to check in by the time we got back.  Our hotel was “vintage” in an interesting way -starting with the room key.

Hotel Victoria was built in 1907 and is full of decorations what were hand-picked by the owner as he traveled around Europe. It has been updated as the years have passed, but in a way that retains its “stepping back in time” feel.

The rooms are arranged around a central atrium.

Our room was quite spacious.  While the hotel was very old fashioned; like we’d stepped into the past -it was definitely a dignified old fashioned, with a dated elegance -rather than being decrepit.  

Our hotel didn’t have a restaurant, but did have a menu with some simple meal items that could be ordered for room service -which sounded fine to us.  When we inquired, the employee did pretty much everything he could to discourage us from ordering food.  I think it was because it would have been hugely inconvenient for him.  We didn’t insist.  We wandered off down the street and found somewhere else to eat!

Next stop:  Zermatt

I was pleasantly surprised, as our train left Lausanne on the way to Zermatt, that there was actually some nice scenery for a good part of the ride.  Trains are interesting because sometimes all you see is the industrial side of places…or only small glimpses of a steeple or interesting building as you zip past a town in the blink of an eye… or fields and roads.   

We had to change trains in a small town called Visp.  Between there and Zermatt, our train took us through some amazing scenery.  We pretty much had our noses pressed to the window (well, I did…because Mike doesn’t press his nose to windows, of course!).  Getting pictures was challenging.  It seemed like there was either too much reflection from the inside lights on the train or just a curve in the track at the wrong time…or… smudgy windows.

The tracks seemed to criss-cross with this river. the whole way  It is the Vispa River -and its source is from glaciers up in the mountains.

I think I’m a waterfall “geek” -there’s just something about them.

More waterfalls in the hills.

We passed through several small villages where the train station was basically only a small platform next to the tracks.

When we arrived at the train station in Zermatt, we almost got stuck on the train because departing passengers were so determined to get on.  I had a momentary thought along the lines of…  Are they so anxious to get out of Dodge? Is Zermatt that bad??  

Our hotel. Schloss Zermatt, was almost directly across the street from the train station.  I knew it was tucked back away from the Main Street.  It took us a moment to find and follow a sign that pointed down what looked like an alley.  It wasn’t far, but with a  twists or two along the way.

We saw the end of the building first -then found the front.  Oddly, the front faces the tracks for the Gornergrat Railway, which was next door and has been in operation since 1898.

The front entrance

Little fireplace just near the door to keep the lobby warm in winter.

By the time we’d checked in, sorted out our belongings, and then had a late lunch nearby…we decided we might as well make an early night of it and relax a bit.  I knew it would only take a few hours to see the village the next day because  it is small and there’s not a lot to do -unless you’re planning on taking a gondola or cogwheel train up the mountain(s).  We weren’t.  We probably should have in hindsight.

Our hotel totally reflected the feel of being in a Swiss village in the Alps.  (Or my version of that…hah).  Our room was cozy and decorated with a bit more flair than the standard “you could be anywhere in the world” hotel room that we’ve seen plenty of!   For example, as this is a ski town, just inside the door they had an area with hooks to hang gear on and there was also a plastic tray available for wet shoes or ski boots.   The picture doesn’t show it well, but it was nice -and it had a ceiling light!  

Zermatt is a car-free village.  People arriving by car have to park in an area that is three miles outside of town and take other transportation from there.  It has been car-free for over 100 years as to protect the environment.  Transportation options inside the village include walking, bicycling, electric taxis (shown below) and horse-drawn carriage (which we didn’t see at all).  Even though it was car free, we still were in risk of being run over by any of the other transportation options, as well as construction and village maintenance vehicles!

Zermatt was mainly an agricultural village minding it’s own business until 1865 when a man named Edward Whymper summited the Matterhorn, thus making the village -and climbing the Matterhorn- famous, even though the expedition was a tragedy.  Of the seven men who summited, four of them fell to their deaths on the way down.  The first woman to summit the Matterhorn, aptly named Lucy Walker, did so in 1871.  

In 1902 a ski course was made for the purpose of training mountain guides.  By 1908 the Zermatt Ski Club was formed.  In 1928 Zermatt hosted the first ever winter tourist season.  Early skiers had to walk up the mountains.  I wasn’t able to spot the ski hills -but seeing the terrain in person, I’m impressed that they managed to create ski areas at all..  

The next morning, our goal was to wander through the village in the general direction of the Matterhorn viewing area at the edge of town.  In my mind, the Matterhorn has always been the most iconic mountain thing to see in Switzerland.  Who knows when or where I decided that -but I wasn’t going to visit Switzerland without seeing it.

Mike kept trying to get a photo that would show just how steep and high the mountains were -none one of the pictures did it justice.

Getting to the edge of town wasn’t a long walk.  The whole way there was a bit of peek-a-boo with the Matterhorn because you can see it from almost anywhere in the valley, of course.  We did have to play peek-a-book with some (initially unidentified) animal poo along the way -while trying not to get run over by a bike or various electric vehicles, all of them zooming along in unpredictable ways -because the streets didn’t have marked lanes or road signs.

We found what looked like an ancient alphorn displayed on the steps of Zermatt’s municipal building.  It was actually installed in 2015 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first summit on the Matterhorn,

The Vispa river with the Matterhorn behind it.

The mystery animal poo question was solved.

It was very interesting to see it and even more amazing to think about anyone getting to the summit -let alone a woman wearing the long skirts of her era.

We began retracing our steps back through the village.

This installment is a nod to the kinship between the Matterhorn (Zermatt) and two mountain peaks in Japan.

This is St. Mauritius.  The first reference to a parish church in Zermatt was in 1285.  Over the years it has been enlarged and renovated.  Between 500 and 600 people have died on the Matterhorn since it was first submitted.  Around 50 deceased climbers and guides are buried in the graveyard here.

This fountain is the Fountain of Marmots. The fountain was there in the early 1900s, but the sculpture was added in 1948 to honor the wildlife of the Alps.

This was behind and slightly lower than the marmot fountain, but is considered part of it.  The ibex sculpture is meant to highlight the region’s wildlife.  There is also a plaque dedicated to Lucy Walker -the first woman to summit the Matterhorn.

Along the way we stopped in a few shops.  I’ve been a bit disappointed during this whole trip because I usually look for art stores -especially if they have glass or pottery.  Still out of luck.  However, the mix of retail, hotels, restaurants, and bars know who their customers are.  Just about every famous watch brand is there, along with multiple outdoor gear stores, eyeglasses/sunglasses, clothing and so on.  There are few souvenir stores quietly mixed in along the way.  I like to browse, but we usually don’t buy many souvenirs.  However, I did spot two embossed rolling pins that needed to go home with us -for my studio, not the kitchen!

We saw paragliders whenever we were outside.  They take off from bases that are between 7,500 and 12,5d00 feet up.

We found another ibex statue near our hotel. This one was installed by the owner of the Matterhorn Hotel.

We had a very casual dinner and a quiet evening in anticipation of our next destination of this d’aventure.  While at the restaurant, we saw the sheep being herded back through town to their home pasture.

Categories: Part 8 -Lausanne and Zermatt, Switzerland 2026