DAY 1, SWITZERLAND TRIP: Rochers-de-Naye, Chillon castle

SWITZERLAND : REPORT OF OUR 10 DAY TRIP  

We spent a lovely 10 days in Switzerland (AUG 29-SEP 7, 2014). We chose that period to avoid crowds and get good weather. Fortunately, things turned out the way we had expected and we had a fabulous time.

We stayed at Vevey from Aug 29—31, then moved on to Lauterbrunnen Sep1—5, were at Luzern on Sep 6, and flew out thru Zurich on Sep 7^th.

This is the google map prepared for this trip, you can zoom in and see the details

Here’s a Report.

Train from Geneva to Vevey:

We landed in Geneva at 8 am, bought the half fare card for 120 francs each at the airport, showing our passports as ID.

At Geneva airport... our train station platform 3/4 sign is behind

We then walked down to the train station and took the 9.53 train from the airport to Vevey our base--1 hour journey. Tickets bought from the machine were 31 francs for the both of us with the ½ fare card advantage.

We knew our trains toward Brig was at 23 and 53 min past the hour every hour from the SBB site...

We saw several wine plantations and good scenery on our trip.

We passed by Genève, Nyon, Morges, Lausanne before we reached our station Vevey.

At Vevey station... use the ramp at the end to exit the station. We saw many people carrying their bags by the stairs... 

Checkin at Hotel Le Charlot:

From Vevey train station we walked 500 m to our hotel LeCharlot situated on the lake.

They allowed an early checkin at 11.10am.

Our Hotel room

The lake view is not worth the extra money...

We freshened up, had a meal of the home made paratas (tortillas for the westerners) and tomato relish. Packed up some more of the same and walked out.

Missed the boat to Chillon Castle:

We had planned on taking the 12.05 boat to Chillon castle. We walked to the lake just a minute away from our hotel.

The lake is Lac Leman –Lake Geneva implies it belongs to one city whereas the lake belongs to the entire region.  The boat takes off from the promenade, but we had missed the boat by a few minutes.

The next boat was only after 2 hours…We enjoyed the scenery with the mountains reflected in the shimmering waters, swans gliding by, several small boats docked in the pier and colorful flowers enhancing the whole ambiance!

At Vevey lake promenade

A lake cruise on the Haut Lac would have been wonderful too. [The Haut Lac (Upper Lake) is the most beautiful part of Lake Geneva.] Could have gone to Chillon, re-board another boat to St Gingolph and then Lausanne and come back by yet another boat to Montreux, sailing along the foot of the Lavaux vineyards. The old town in Lausanne is worth a visit IF we had the time. Anyway these were our possibilities which we could not do

Riviera card:

Our hotel girl had said our Riviera card (Riviera card offers free transport for the local region and a discount for Chillon castle—It’s given out by all the hotels for their patrons) will be ready only by 2 pm which is the regular checkin time. We had had an early check-in by 11.15, we decided to spend our own money for the day instead of wasting our time waiting for the card. Actually, the girl should have given us the card saying we should use it from 2 pm onward. Because she did not give it, we lost out on the discount for that day… do be aware of your entitlements! Anyways, our ½ fare card was of mighty help—as it gave us 50% discount on all fares!

Rochers-de-Naye:

As weather was lovely, we took the train to Montreux and then got into the train to Rochers-de-Naye. (take this trip only in clear weather, otherwise you’ll see only clouds, no views).

We got down at Caux to admire the views when the train stopped for 5 min there.

Boarded the train once again to reach the top—many people were trekking from this point but we were a little tired from an overnight flight, so decided to stick on to our seats in the train.

Great views from the train as well as at the top (6700 ft).

 Nice alpine garden visit. Alpine garden’s supposed to have 3500 species of plant life---they were all labeled and were so pretty.

Saw the famous edelweiss---aah… reminded of the lovely song from the Sound of Music one of my fav movies of all time…. The captain singing it as a proud reminder of his patriotism

A swirling fog came up and we could no longer see the lovely views but thankfully we had trekked to the edges of the cliffs and enjoyed the view of Lac Leman and the sprawling villages below as well as the deep valleys.

We had our picnic meal surrounded by the fog !!

The marmots inside an enclosure were very cute.

Marmot

We marveled at the 4 white camp tents on the cliff... must be a fun spot to camp overnight...

We walked through the tunnel to the restaurant on other side and enjoyed the views from there also, as the fog started lifting.

Last train:

There is a train every hour but the last train up is at 16.34 and last train back is 17.45. If we miss the last one, we have to trek down… not a very easy task! We came down by the 16.34 train. Again enjoyed lovely views, the fog was now a distant memory…

 Château de Chillon (Chillon Castle):

Chillon castle (pronounced Shi-yon) is open till 7 pm. We walked along the promenade but did not have the 45 min time needed to complete the walk to the castle as it'll become quite late...

We saw the bus stop and a bus heading to Villeneuve ... Boarded it. 

Gave the driver a 20 franc note for the tickets... he did not have change... asked us to ride on free...

We managed to communicate and understand what he said with our limited French and were grateful for his goodwill gesture!

We paid the full entry price at the castle as our hotel girl had not given us the Riviera card which would have got us discounts!

Chillon Chateau was a bit of a let down as we could not take the boat as we had planned, so missed out on the lovely views—the approach from road is not that spectacular.

Chillon Castle

Chillon Castle is an island castle located on Lake Geneva  It is situated at the eastern end of the lake, on the narrow shore between Montreux and Villeneuve.

It has been in existence from 1005.

From the mid 12th century, the castle was home to the Counts of Savoy, and it was greatly expanded in the 13th century.

The inside and the history is interesting though we liked the Gruyeres chateau better…

This is a heater.

This is the Great Hall which was ready for some formal event.

This is Camera domini, which was a room occupied by the Duke of Savoy - it is decorated with these 14th Century medieval murals.

Lovely medieval wooden furniture...

Adam and Eve with the Apple Tree and the Serpent carved out ...

Chillon castle was made popular by Lord Byron, who wrote the poem The Prisoner Of Chillon (1816) about François de Bonivard, a Genevois monk and politician who was imprisoned here from 1530 to 1536; we could not see the dungeon though.

We returned by bus… a long trip passing through nice towns…

That was the end of our day 1 (Aug 29th).

As a tip for future visitors, COOP near the train station served well for our needs to pick up essential food items.

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/04/day-2-our-trip-to-switzerland-cheese.html
covers our visit to cheese factory in Gruyeres, chocolate factory in Broc Fabrique and the Gruyeres castle.