On to Lausanne and the Swiss Riviera

We got up and finished packing and had decided to catch a morning train out of the Zermatt area and head over to the Lake Geneva (Swiss Riviera) area. We loaded up with some breakfast and lunch snacks and a few souvenirs and then got on the first of 2 trains to Montreux. We stopped in Montreux and stashed our luggage in lockers so we could explore a few things. The main thing we wanted to visit was just a short bus ride up the coast to Chateau Chillon. We initially wanted to head there by boat but the timing wasn’t good for the next departure so we walked to the bus stop past a statue of Freddy Mercury who called Montreux home.

This Chateau was built on a rocky island just next to the shore and was most famously owned by the Counts of Savoy as a means of enforcing tariffs on the north/south passage through the Alps in that area east of Lake Geneva. It’s also famous as the setting for the Lord Byron poem “The Prisoner of Chillon”. We toured through the various rooms with an excellent audioguide which kept you moving in a very orderly way through the rooms and thoroughly explained the use and history of each space. There were also excellent views all around the lake area from atop the keep tower.

On our way in to the Chateau we noticed one of the many Swiss fortresses built into mountains, etc in use from World War 2 and through the cold war. This one had been turned into a museum so we decided to check it out. Worth every penny of the free price with our Swiss Travel Pass. They had a lot of cool interactive exhibits such as the gun emplacements, etc. There were also many silly little amusing videos showing life in the various rooms. To finish they had an informative video on the use of these fortresses during WW2 and into the cold war era in support of the Swiss defense. The final exit led through another panoramic viewpoint overlooking the Chateau across the street.

We then headed back to Montreux train station to retrieve our luggage. We stopped quickly in the Tourist Information office for the important task of stamping our Grand Train Tour booklets. Since our next plan was to head to Lausanne by boat we had to haul our luggage down about 2 flights of stairs to the lakefront promenade and back to the pier. We got some ice cream while we waited for our boat which arrived about an hour later.

The ride over to Lausanne took about an hour and treated us to great views along the coast including the terraced vineyards of Lavaux. Upon arrival in Lausanne, Becky expertly navigated us to our hotel via Metro and we checked in. We headed out to dinner and had 2 versions of a local Swiss dish called rosti. This is basically hash browns or a thick potato pancake usually served as a side or with toppings. Becky’s came with sausage and mine with ham and covered in Gruyere cheese and an egg. After this big dinner we decided to start our town walk and finished about half which led us back to our hotel.