the olympic museum
Although I thought that regular programming would resume after everyone recovered from their New Year's hangover, today I learnt how wrong I was. It was a rainy day and J and I decided to go to one of the large malls in a neighbouring town, but when we got there, the entire place was shut. We weren't the only confused drivers because ahead of us the cars also paused right outside the entrance to the car park before making a U-turn. So on the spur of the moment, we decided to drive on to Lausanne and check out the Olympic Museum. The museum has recently reopened after nearly two years of renovation and admission is free till 24 January.
Turns out we weren't the only ones with that idea - the whole place was filled with people and many many children. It was so crowded that I suggested to J that we go to the restaurant for an early lunch before the hordes descended on it. That was probably the best idea for the day. We snagged a large table in a minimalistic room filled with light and a great view of the lake, and fifteen minutes after we sat down and ordered our food, the entire restaurant was full. I'm relieved that we didn't have to wait an hour for a table (as I overheard a group complaining about) with hungry kids, and the bad weather plus the fact that the museum is atop a very high hill would have made it inconvenient for us to walk elsewhere to look for a restaurant.
And the food was good, too. J had a veggie burger, I had a club sandwich with hummus and chicken and a huge salad, and The Bun had a kid's meal of steak hache (minced beef formed into a 'steak' patty) with fries, steamed vegetables, and ice-cream. Bao ate the food I brought from home, plus bits of veggies and fries. When she was tired of sitting with us she roamed the large dining room and was bold enough to stand around other diners' tables checking out their children. I only let her walk around because the room was big enough that she didn't get in anyone's way, and also because 95% of the other tables all had young children and were very friendly toward her.
Stairwell at the Olympic Museum
We walked through the three floors of the museum together after lunch. Lausanne has been the Olympic capital since 1994 and is where the International Olympic Committee is based. I explained to The Bun that the Olympics was like a very huge competition with lots of people doing different sports. He's in the midst of major sibling rivalry now so I think the competition element (who is the fastest runner? who can jump highest?) struck a chord with him. He enjoyed looking at the videos of the torch relay, touching the different kinds of sports equipment, like fencing swords, and playing with some of the interactive displays. One of these displays featured the types of food that should be eaten for a healthy body, and I used it to hammer home the 5-a-day 'eat your veg!' message. He was quite taken with that and willingly ate a fair amount of broccoli for dinner later.
Since it was so crowded we couldn't linger long at the exhibition. Besides, Bao was being a menace. She wants to do whatever her brother is doing, which basically meant that she insisted on walking around the crowded museum trying to touch everything. If she couldn't reach something or if we prevented her from touching something, she would scream. Good times. I do not want to think about the Terrible Twos and Bao.
The sun came out briefly when we left the museum and we took the opportunity to walk along the lake back to the car. Lausanne is a very pretty city, and the area we were in, Ouchy, offers spectacular views of the lake framed by a dramatic backdrop of the Alps. It was a very scenic walk but also brief because it was very cold and I wasn't particularly dressed for being outdoors, having imagined that we would be spending most of our time in a heated mall.
Lakeside at Ouchy
After driving fifty minutes home, we tried popping into the supermarkets nearby only to discover everything was shut. The post office, too. Who knew? I wonder if the hangovers will lift by this weekend.
Turns out we weren't the only ones with that idea - the whole place was filled with people and many many children. It was so crowded that I suggested to J that we go to the restaurant for an early lunch before the hordes descended on it. That was probably the best idea for the day. We snagged a large table in a minimalistic room filled with light and a great view of the lake, and fifteen minutes after we sat down and ordered our food, the entire restaurant was full. I'm relieved that we didn't have to wait an hour for a table (as I overheard a group complaining about) with hungry kids, and the bad weather plus the fact that the museum is atop a very high hill would have made it inconvenient for us to walk elsewhere to look for a restaurant.
And the food was good, too. J had a veggie burger, I had a club sandwich with hummus and chicken and a huge salad, and The Bun had a kid's meal of steak hache (minced beef formed into a 'steak' patty) with fries, steamed vegetables, and ice-cream. Bao ate the food I brought from home, plus bits of veggies and fries. When she was tired of sitting with us she roamed the large dining room and was bold enough to stand around other diners' tables checking out their children. I only let her walk around because the room was big enough that she didn't get in anyone's way, and also because 95% of the other tables all had young children and were very friendly toward her.
Stairwell at the Olympic Museum
We walked through the three floors of the museum together after lunch. Lausanne has been the Olympic capital since 1994 and is where the International Olympic Committee is based. I explained to The Bun that the Olympics was like a very huge competition with lots of people doing different sports. He's in the midst of major sibling rivalry now so I think the competition element (who is the fastest runner? who can jump highest?) struck a chord with him. He enjoyed looking at the videos of the torch relay, touching the different kinds of sports equipment, like fencing swords, and playing with some of the interactive displays. One of these displays featured the types of food that should be eaten for a healthy body, and I used it to hammer home the 5-a-day 'eat your veg!' message. He was quite taken with that and willingly ate a fair amount of broccoli for dinner later.
Since it was so crowded we couldn't linger long at the exhibition. Besides, Bao was being a menace. She wants to do whatever her brother is doing, which basically meant that she insisted on walking around the crowded museum trying to touch everything. If she couldn't reach something or if we prevented her from touching something, she would scream. Good times. I do not want to think about the Terrible Twos and Bao.
The sun came out briefly when we left the museum and we took the opportunity to walk along the lake back to the car. Lausanne is a very pretty city, and the area we were in, Ouchy, offers spectacular views of the lake framed by a dramatic backdrop of the Alps. It was a very scenic walk but also brief because it was very cold and I wasn't particularly dressed for being outdoors, having imagined that we would be spending most of our time in a heated mall.
Lakeside at Ouchy
After driving fifty minutes home, we tried popping into the supermarkets nearby only to discover everything was shut. The post office, too. Who knew? I wonder if the hangovers will lift by this weekend.