2008-09-19

Lausanne, Take Two

I was in Lausanne for some lab business but bummed around the city Tuesday and Wednesday night. Thursday I explored a little bit of Geneva, but the overcast sky meant there weren't any great photos. Though I have to admit, the hotels near Geneva have strange ideas of what lingerie will do to you, though pretty accurate if you are male:



On Wednesday mornings there is a market in Lausanne. Orange tomatoes are delicious.



The next few pictures are from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) headquarters in Lausanne. The IOC still had the Beijing Olympics decorations up.










I window shopped at several famous Swatch Stores on this trip.



Europeans like mixing the outdoors with everyday life.

The IOC usually has some world records depicted in artistic form. Last time I was in Lausanne there was a long jump statue. The high jump, the pole vault, and the shot put had either statues or a long line. The high jump and pole vault records are amazing, especially the high jump statue. I wasn't impressed by the shot put record. Seriously, humanity, a little over 20 meters is the best we can do?





Have you ever been waiting for the walk signal at a stop light, constantly pressing the button because you didn't think your push registered? I didn't realize how genius the walk request buttons are in Lausanne until the second time around. When you press a walk button, a light comes on - no more constantly pressing the walk request buttons at intersections. I respect the geniuses of civic engineering in Switzerland for their use of feedback.



I took a bunch of photos at Ouchy, the docks at Lausanne.







Finally, a parting photo that doesn't need a caption.

3 comments:

Liz! said...

(0) lingerie! that rocks

(1) while I find orange tomatoes amazing, fried green ones are better! but actually, yellow ones are the all around best...

(2) outdoor escalators? wouldnt that be hard to keep working properly...i feel like there would be a lot of debris that might jam it.

(3) Have you ever been waiting for the walk signal at a stop light, constantly pressing the button because you didn't think your push registered?
I thought they were like the 'requests' box on our web interface...speaking of which....I can't see them on my new computer! I guess I'm keeping Junker for My Pants...

(4) the last chick is hott! (yes, with *two* Ts <3

miss ya!
<3

Dan Gagner said...

on feedback buttons: Or, if when you press a walk button in the US and it eventually always lets you walk, you can probably assume that almost all crosswalk buttons, once pressed are really pressed.

If a person waits for 10 minutes or more to get the all clear sign to walk then he probably needs the feedback to let him know that he knows how to press a button. ;-)

alison said...

brookline has feedback-ful walk buttons in some places. slooowly catching up to europe?