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Montreux, Switzerland

We actually treated ourselves to a taxi this morning as it was a fairly early train and an uphill albeit gentle walk which would have taken about 25 minutes. Our train was a Swiss one that had come up from Milan and you noticed the difference as soon as you hopped on. Very modern, clean, signs everywhere and screens showing stops and other information. Along side the seat numbers it showed whether the seat was booked or free with an electronic display.

When we got to our allocated seats we found like Goldilocks that someone else was sitting in them. I motioned that they were our seats and showed the tickets at the French or Italian man and his asian female partner. He said – seats are ours, I said no they are not – here see? He then humphed and shifted right up the carriage. Ours were the window seats so they could have just moved over one but didn’t. The whole funny bit was that when they hopped off they saw that we were on same side – one window and one aisle facing forward (like they had been) – not the two windows (facing each other) like he thought we wanted. He saw this and displayed with great annoyance with an audible grunt. Vernon and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. I guess you had to be there but it was funny. I don’t know what number his allocated seats were but he clearly did not put much weight on them and anyway there were loads of seats so there was no problem really.

The trip from Maggiore to Montreux was very scenic. Lots of green, clean rivers and increasingly swiss style buildings as we crossed the border. We got the occasional glimpse of a snowy hill top. Overall most of the trip was through hills, along side rivers or lakes and through tunnels.

Arriving in Montreux you could feel the money. It is a resort town – city on Lake Geneva and a blend of French and Swiss and boy did we see the price difference right away. Coffee is around 5 franks and upwards and a pizza has jumped to around 22 franks – not much difference between a Frank and a Euro but basically you can double the costs of the same item in Italy OMG.

Our hotel was right opposite the train station and we quickly checked our bags then went back to organise our scenic rail ticket for tomorrow. That all done and feeling excited about it, we found a corner food shop come dairy – flash one – and bought a picnic lunch to have down by the lake which was about 5 minutes walk from the hotel down a slope.

From there we took a long long leisurely stroll around the lake edge up to the castle and back which was just lovely, all 11 kms of it! The lake is blue and even though the day was dull it still was very reflective as if it had oil on it, making the shadow of the hills an indigo. All along the promenade they had fantastic floral planting with the most variety of flowers and trees I have ever seen in one place. In particular the azaleas, peony and rhododendrons were spectacular. I marvelled at the colour combinations and variations of plants and flowers. It must keep a few people employed full time.

They had some nice coloured ducks – like a ginger, but not paradise ducks and mallards and swans. The photo of Vernon at the castle shows how tame they were!

When our tired legs got us back to the town we decided to have a cheap – for Montreux – middle eastern buffet which was self serve and pay by the kilo. We loaded our plates with vegetables and dips and even got some Cevapici – very nice but not as good as the Bosnian 🙂

Montreux is nice, but its a bit ‘beautiful people’ and ferrari etc are not uncommon. It is also known for its jazz and music festivals. Freddie Mercury had a place there which he visited often without the bother of paparazzi. Queen (the band) also had a recording studio there. Great place I am sure if you earn Swiss Franks by the bucket load or are wealthy.

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