European Figure Skating Championships

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Photos on this page © Paola Occhipinti, Melania Resnigo, Giovanna Centi.

Thursday


Sightseeing in Lausanne

also known as "Turisti per caso" (Tourists by chance - an Italian tv program) in the sense that we spend so much time at the rink/s that it's a miracle we manage to have a look around!


Our room had a nice balcony facing the lake © Paola Occhipinti The same view, from above the bacony's irons © Paola Occhipinti
The advantage of our choice of getting a triple room, apart from the economic saving, was that it was a nice room facing the lake... Gio and Antonella had only a double and they got a room facing... the Metro's tracks! The balcony was also useful, because we had brought what we needed to make ourselves some sandwiches to eat at the arena, and we used it as a fridge! (it was so cold outside that it was perfect!)



In the morning, it often looked like this when we woke up © Paola Occhipinti At night it was really romantic... © Paola Occhipinti With all this mist the lake is often quite melancholic © Paola Occhipinti
The lake is really beautiful, even with the bad weather we found almost all the week!

Lots of swans and other birds refuged in the small port © Melania Resnigo They were pretty used to tourists - didn't run away when we started taking pics © Paola Occhipinti
There were lots of beautiful swans and other cute little birds who had sought refuge in the port right in front of us. Unfortunately, I remember well their noise!

The strange rotating sculpture that dominated the entrance to the port... © Melania Resnigo Melania and I during a lakeside walk © Melania Resnigo Lausanne is rich in particular sculptures - this one was near the port too © Paola Occhipinti
Two nice girls and two strange sculptures! Lausanne was quite rich in strange things, and its sculptures where no exceptions... the one on the right is geometric but nice, but for the one on the left... I still have to figure out exactly what it was meant to represent!
Notice the black plastic back in my hand: I had finally bought myself a bell!! Like the ones we all use cheering! I don't know when I will use it again, but I wanted it - a true fan need his cheering tools!

The tower of the Hotel I rember lots of roofs decorated like this one © Paola Occhipinti
There were lots of nice buildings all around the town. The one on the left is the tower which was part of the hotel "Le Chateau d'Ouchy" - a very suggestive place. It wasn't even that more expensive than the ones we stayed in... maybe if we will ever go back to Lausanne...

The strange thing with this city is that is built on a million different levels, so you keep running up and downhill © Giovanna Centi
Lausanne is definitely a pretty tiring city if you wish to have a walk around... it is made up of a series of hills and you keep walking up & down... You turn a corner, and you find yourselfe in a terrace, the ground level is 20 meters below... pretty absurd!

We had to climb this little hilll to get to the cathedral... nice but really tiring! © Paola Occhipinti And the cathedral was not such a beauty to justify the effort! © Paola Occhipinti
When you visit a town you always end up trekking to its most relevant monuments... so Melly & I went looking for the Cathedral... I was a little disappointed, as it was not anything special, and was on top of a very high hill... on the brighter side, there was a nice terrace with a beautiful view over the city right behind it. Why I din't take a picture is a mystery to me.

For a moment I thought I was in London! © Paola Occhipinti
Coming back from the Cathedral we found this little nice road, which reminded me a lot of England...


Other note: my biggest complain was the difficulty to get the tickets for the public transport - they don't sell them on board, and there are not even specific places to buy them like in Italy we can go to a newsagent's or a tobacconist's - you have to buy them from some atumatic machines they put at the stops... and if you don't have the coins, only notes? Of course if you don't have the exact amount and you put in a bigger coin, you won't get your rest... it was really annoying! And the fines were really high, so it wasn't a good idea to risk...

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Thursday at the Ice Center