Spring Break, Part VI - Montreux

Bonjour Kari:

Tuesday March 23, 2004

After our little ski adventure, we drove down to Lake Geneva and the city of Montreux (French speaking part of Swizterland; Bern was in the German speaking part).

While planning for the trip, we found a bed and breakfast lodging place via http://www.bnb-switzerland.com/. Specifically, we stayed at a charming B&B up in Glion just up the mountain from Montreux called La Meridienne run by the Sunier's, a retired couple. The house has great views (our weather wasn't so good while we were there but Sunier showed his photo album of amazing vistas from their deck over the years), comfy rooms and delicious breakfast.

As the single guy on this blog, it might be a stretch, but in my opinion, according to my "romance meter," this locale would be a nice vacation spot for married folks. Maybe you and the other half can go and tell me if I'm right? 8-) March was a tad cold though; thus, I'd recommend later in the Spring or in the Summer!



After a brief rest at the B&B, we headed down to the most notible tourist spot just outside Montreux, the Chateau de Chillon.

Here is the view of one of the many big rooms there.



Looking out one of the windows at Lake Geneva you can see it was a chilly day with a bit of rain.



The walking tour has paths up to the towers which defenders would retreat to if the castle walls ever got breached.



The view of the castle on the lake. Doesn't it look like something straight out of a story book?



Besides the castle, the most famous thing is the Montreux Jazz Festival in the summers.

There are walking tours of the town which over the years was a popular hideout for writers, musicians and artists. Alas, we didn't have time to take one of those tours.

Travel tips:
* Switzerland is more cash based than you might expect. We went to dinner and didn't realize the restaurant was cash only. We almost emptied all our pockets of Swiss money to pay for it. Then when we were checking out from the B&B, we found out they were cash only also! Sunier told us we could get to an ATM in town easily and so we did and came back with a wad of Swiss Francs to pay up.

Laters,
Rene

Go to part VII.