Our first full day in Switzerland started out with similar weather to the day we arrived; Sunny skies and warm temperatures. Here is a morning picture out our window.
Our plan today was to move on to Montreux; a small city at the other end of the lake. There are fairly regular trains, so we can pretty much leave at our leisure. We decided to spend the morning doing some more exploring of Geneva on foot. After a nice breakfast on the hotel patio, we headed toward the river.
We noticed there are a lot of motorcycles in this city. As it appears that ‘business casual’ attire hasn’t made its way to Geneva, it was not uncommon to see people dressed in business suits riding on motorcycles!
Here are some photos around the river where it flows from Lake Geneva.
We even saw someone swimming with the swans.
Heading back across the river and up toward the old town.
We stopped in for a quick look at Saint Peter’s Cathedral.
Back down at the hotel, here is the view from the rooftop terrace.
While I’m sure there is more to see in Geneva, we didn’t come to Switzerland to spend a lot of time in the cities, so it’s time to check out and head for the train station. After picking up some food and drink in the grocery store at the station, we boarded our train for Montreux.
Here is a photo of our train car. It’s very quiet and comfortable.
The scenery along the way was very pretty, however, photography from a moving train through reflecting window glass is not easy, so I won’t post many photos of the journey! However, these tiered vineyards on the hillside above the lake in the Veyvey area were very interesting. We’ll likely make a day trip back here to explore these further. Sorry for the poor photo quality.
Arriving in Montreux, it was only a 400 meter walk to our hotel, so with luggage in tow, we headed toward the hotel.
We have a very nice suite, complete with two sets of doors onto a private balcony overlooking Lake Geneva, in the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace.
Here is Nadine sitting in our living room.
Below is a picture of the bedroom.
Finally, this is the view from our balcony. The green lawn across the street is actually the roof of another part of the hotel. The Willow Stream Spa and health club is actually across the street from the main building, but connected from inside by taking the elevator to floor “-1” and walking across.
Since the weather was still excellent, we set out to walk up the shoreline for a couple of kilometers.
Statue of Freddie Mercury…
Here is Nadine testing the water temperature. It’s very warm!
In addition to trains and buses, these boats form part of the public transit system.
Just a bit further up the walk, you can see the famous Chateau de Chillon in the centre of this photo. We plan to tour this castle during our stay here.
Taking a rest along the walk…
Back at the hotel, we went across to the spa for a quick evening swim in the outdoor pool before returning to our room for the night.