First, longtime family friends (and blog readers), Warren and Nancy Davis, stopped by for a couple of days. Looking through my photos, I don't have a lot of photos from their visit, but I know that Warren took a bunch so maybe one or two will surface later. At any rate, although they did not stay at my place, and were only here for about one full day, they still got the total Lausanne experience: fondue, the Collection de l'Art Brut, narrow-gauge cog trains, and lots of rain.
Next up, another blog reader (and occasional commentor), my Aunt Donna, stopped by for a weekend after she finished up giving a tour in Italy. Luckily for her, the weather was significantly nicer -- it only rained about half the time -- so we got to do some really fun outdoorsy stuff.
Fig. 1: This is the only photo I have of my Aunt Donna and I together from her trip. I think that's Lausanne in the background, behind those two shadowy, sunglass-wearing characters.On Saturday afternoon, we took the regional train out to the small town of Romainmôtier. The Côtes de l'Orbe cellars were having a "Wine and Chocolate" special -- for a nominal price, you could taste a couple different glasses of wine and a few fancy pieces of chocolate. The town itself was really quaint and cute and the wine and chocolate were both fantastic. I only mention this because the tasting is available all summer long and I could certainly be convinced to go again ...
Fig. 2: Wine, chocolate, and a silly hat. Vive la Suisse!We also took the train across the lake to beautiful Evian-les-bains, France. Yes, that Evian. Although it was Sunday and not a whole lot was open, it is a fun town in which to wander around, and if only we had had the proper attire, maybe we could have gone to the public swimming pools.
Fig. 3: Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up.After Evian, we came back across the lake to Lausanne, and then checked out the world famous Olympic Museum. Although you might not realize it, Lausanne is the "Olympic Capital." Despite never hosting the Olympics, Lausanne is home to the International Olympic Committee -- basically, the killjoys who are more concerned with orderly organization of the games than with the thrill of sport. The museum had a lot of really cool exhibits -- the copies of every single torch were really interesting -- as well as some that seemed more about the Olympic Committee than the Olympics; there were displays of the different letterheads that they had used over the years. The "tone" of the exhibits definitely had a sort of administrative lean, as well. One particular exhibit mentioned the boycott of the 1980 Moscow games, and the description read something like, "Lead by the United States, 61 countries boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Nevertheless, the organization of the games was exceptional."
Fig. 4: Whether you prefer the old-school elegance of "The Curlmaster" or the high-tech design of "The Hammer" says a lot about your personality.Finally, just this last weekend, my good buddy and former labmate (two times), Nick Breznay, came for a brief visit after a conference in Trieste. As Nick pointed out, since he and I both went to Mudd (and both worked in the mailroom, and both worked for Prof. Donnelly), and then he came to Stanford after me (and worked in the KGB lab with me), he might as well visit EPFL as it was inevitable that he would end up following me there, too. If that happened, I would have to come to the conclusion that at last, these things were more than coincidences.
Anyway, the weather was pretty much phenomenal for Nick's visit (well into the 80s for most of his stay, with only one brief thunderstorm), so we really hit the outdoors. We took the train up to the beautiful Vallée de Joux on Sunday and hiked to the top of Mont Tendre, the highest peak in the Swiss Jura (only about 1700 metres).
Fig. 5: Reuniting the HMC mailroom, circa 2000.As the Jura Mountains are known for extremely harsh winters, despite their low altitude, it wasn't so surprising that we came across the tail end of this year's snow. As we hadn't brought our skis with us on the hike, we had to resort to other methods to enjoy the snow.
Fig. 6: Nick invents a new extreme sport.Alas, Nick left this morning, so I am once again on my own here at the apartment. Although it was a little bit hectic at times, coordinating so many visitors over such a short time, it was never a hassle and never a problem. I still have a bunch more interesting photos which I will probably put up soon, so hopefuly lots more updates to follow.
