Expedition: Retirement

 The morning after the bike tour ended, we walked to the train station with the others from the tour. We said our good-byes to everyone as they headed to catch their train to Paris to begin their travels home. We were heading the other direction. Our train to Lausanne left about 30 minutes later. Our ride through the French and Swiss countryside was uneventful, and after arriving in Lausanne, we quickly found our hotel and dropped off our luggage so we could head out to explore the city.

Our first stop was the Olympic Museum. This is a fabulous museum, with an extensive exhibit on the history of the Olympics, from the ancient games in Greece to the modern movement. It highlights how the Olympic movement has evolved over time, and has a LOT of artifacts from the various competitions, coupled to a wide range of inspiring stories from the Olympic games. I loved the gallery with all of the Olympic torches that have been used to carry the Olympic flame to the various games. The display was so big, it took 3 panoramic photos to capture it all.They also had examples of the gold, silver, and bronze medals from each of the modern Olympic games. While I found the medals from the Nagano games to be the most attractive, I have a sentimental attachment to those from the 1980 Winter games in Lake Placid, which was really the first time I took an interest in the Olympics.We spent much of the afternoon in the museum, enjoying the exhibits and reliving memories of Olympic games we've watched over the years. Even with all of the allegations of corruption in the IOC and the various national Olympic committees, with the doping scandals, and the other controversies that have surrounded the games over the decades, I still find the ideals of the Olympics inspiring, and the dedication of the athletes has always impressed me. The Olympic motto "Citius, Altius, Fortius -- Communiter" (Faster, Higher, Stronger -- Together) might not be perfectly modeled by the Olympic games, but it is a worthy goal to strive toward.After we finished our visit to the museum, we took a long walk back to our hotel, with a detour through the Parc de Milan that provided us a lovely hilltop view across the rooftops and Lake Geneva. We also walked through the adjacent botanical gardens before we made our way back to our hotel to check in for the next couple of nights.