Tag Archives: Montreux

Day 5 – Chocolate and Cheese

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The weather cleared up, and we had partly cloudy skies with no rain for today.  There are many different things to see and do here, so it’s a difficult decision, but we decided to fill our day with chocolate, cheese, trains and boats.

We started the day on our balcony and were treated to this beautiful sight.

We then had breakfast before walking down to the train station, where we would take the Golden Pass line across the mountains behind Montreux, toward the town of Broc-Fabric where we would take a tour of the Cailler chocolate factory.

The train slowly climbed up the mountain, ascending a series of switchbacks and tunnels and we slowly make our way up and over the pass.

We reached the Montbovon station where we changed trains to a different line.

The train carried us past many farms in the rolling countryside.

We arrived at Broc-Fabrique and found the chocolate factory.

Here is Nadine posing with a large chocolate bar outside.

The tour was interesting, but the best part was the tasting!

After the tour, we headed back to the train station to go to the village of Gruyères to visit a cheese factory, and also to have a good fondue lunch in the medieval town up the hill from the train station.

We returned to Montreux by train, and when transferring to the second train, we were treated to a classic first class carriage, which we had completely to ourselves. This was a nice surprise, as the train we took up in the morning didn’t have anything like this.

Here we are coming back into Montreux.

It was getting late in the day, but since it was a nice day, we thought we’d run down to the pier and try to grab a lake boat somewhere. We didn’t really care where it went, but wanted to see something by water. We arrived just as the last boat of the day was ready to depart for Vevey, where we would change to a different ship to get the last boat back again to Montreux.

These boats are part of the Swiss public transportation system, and are included with out travel passes. Because we have first class passes, we were able to ride on the top deck for better views.

Here is our hotel as seen from the water.

The town of Vevey looks very nice, but we didn’t get to spend much time here.

After arriving back in Montreux, we walked back to the hotel to freshen up, and headed across the street to the hotel’s terrace restaurant for a nice dessert.

My night photos don’t always turn out so well, but here are a couple of pictures from after our dessert.

It was a very full day, and now it’s time for bed!

Day 4 – Exploring Montreux

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The weather forecast for today called for a bit of rain.  They were right!

Our original plan was to visit the Chateau de Chillon, by walking one way and returning by boat.  The rain has caused us to modify those plans slightly.  We can still visit the famous castle, but our method of transportation will be to take the bus each way.

The Chateau de Chillon has had a very interesting past, and they have done an excellent job restoring this facility and creating an excellent self-guided tour.  I won’t explain the history of the place, but would encourage anyone who plans to visit the area to add a stop here to your itinerary.

Here are a few photos from our walk.

One of the places they kept prisoners…

This hole looks down into the lake several stories below. You can probably guess what it’s for!

View from one of the many lookouts…

Views from the tower…

After our visit to the castle, we looked around the area a bit, doing a bit of shopping, and then taking the bus back to the hotel. Due to the weather, we spent the evening at the hotel, again visiting the spa for an evening swim.

Day 3 – Geneva to Montreux

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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.