Montreux Pour Deux

We left Murten on what was another foggy gray day, but even so we still enjoyed the view from our room. Its the perfect one night stay town where you don't feel like you've missed anything once you leave (That feeling is always awful). Here are the final two shots from Murten:


Final goodbye from our room.



This is the logo of Murten, and I LOVE IT! If I had room in my bag, I would have snatched it and the plate it came on. I searched for a T-Shirt or Hoody with this guy on it to no avail. I'd totally be wearing it right now it I had. But enough of my sadness on to Montreux.


Montreux is AWESOME!!! -or in french- IMPRESSIONNANT!!!
I will note our french is way better than our german, which isn't saying a lot. But we have become really familiar with how to say "I'm sorry."

We took three train transfers to get here, and Brian is doing a great job of figuring out how and when we need to get where, its probably all the numbers involved (train #, arrival #, platform #, its a lot of numbers). I'm doing a good job of falling asleep on the train, I could be wide awake, then 5 minutes into the ride I'm out. My name is Trish, and I suffer from Train Narcolepsy.

Anyhow, back to Montreux. We checked into our hotel fully expecting to take it easy and hit all the sites on our next day, but the super helpful desk lady basically told us to hurry up and drop our bags off and go see the Chateau De Chillion while it was not raining. So we did.

Fun Fact about Montreux: The Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water" was inspired by a fire that occurred in the Montreux Casino after an idiot attendee of a Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention concert shot a flare gun into the ceiling. Deep Purple witnessed the fire from their hotel where they had been preparing to record an album.

We decided to walk along the lake to the Chateau and happened to pass the famous Freddie Mercury statue completely by accident. He's a big deal to Montreux, and its where Queen recorded their last album. Here he is in all his glory, I tried to get a picture of a fat bottomed girl near the statue, but the stars did not align for me.











We said goodby to Freddie and headed back on our route. While on our way I spotted an amazing spot to spread some of Gram & Paps, but of course they were in my other bag, so I spent half the walk after that asking myself why I hadn't transferred them to my camera bag. More on this later.


The Chateau De Chillion is officially the oldest building we have ever been in by a long shot, it has reported construction dates of 1005 or 1160, either way, WOW.

In 1816 is was made popular by Lord Byron who wrote a poem about a prisoner kept here. It is Switzerland's most visited historical monument.

The name of the poem is "Prisoner of Chillion" and its a long one, so feel free to look it up at your leisure. Its does describe the feeling of the Chateau very nicely. The Chateau is creepy and cool at the same time. The creepiest parts for me were the Dungeon which was deep in the foundation of the castle, the Crypt (obvious reasons there) and the Toilets which were absolutely terrifying.

Here are the pics from our journey:












































Brian in the Crypt, this was a lighted portion. I may have screamed (more than once) in the darker portion because of some projected shadows of prisoners on the wall, I'm sure who ever monitors the security cameras found me hilarious.



Tapestry in one of the bedrooms.





The Rooster was my favorite.


Wood detail in the ceilings.


This was the main hall fireplace where they prepared boar and sometimes bear, and on special occasions, fresh Trish.






They were exhibiting a series of historical posters. Here are our favorites:

















A more intricate tapestry.


The terrifying toilet, they don't look so bad here.


But, from this angle you can just barely make out the water below, it was a 75 foot drop to the lake below. There was a crazy breeze coming up through the hole and all that was separating you from a really disgusting death was a pretty thin plank of wood. Makes you appreciate the little things.



Day 2 in Montreux:
Rain, Rain, its here to stay. We grabbed an umbrella and boarded a bus. Two bus trips already on this trip, I'm practically a pro.

We headed to the old town section of Vevey, a 15 minute bus ride along Lake Geneva. We almost took the boats they are famous for here, but it was a bit too choppy for Brian and sea....errr lake sickness is bound to ruin a day.

Fun Fact: Charlie Chaplin called Vevey and the area surrounding it his home for the last 25 years of his life.

Here are some pics from Vevey:













One of Three Frenchies we saw today. This one totally pulled a Nans by stopping dead in her tracks and making her owner come back and get her, she was then carried to her destination from there, her face saying "how dare they expect me to walk in this rain."

















Hey there, Charlie.



Fork in the Water, Pie in the Sky (ok, the lyrics need work).


Food for thought?

So remember when I said we found the perfect spot for Gram & Paps? Well today ended up being much better for their spreading. Here is where they ended up:


View One, you can see a bit of them on the bottom leaves.


View Two, which is directly across from the court.



The sky not five minutes after we spread them.

So it turns out yesterday would have been horrible to spread them because the courts were really crowded and it would have looked really suspicious crouching down in the flower beds in hindsight. Today was perfect because the clay courts were deserted due to rain so we had all the time in the world. We still have some more of them with us, so we'll see what pops up next.

Here are the last shots from the lakeside path that is loaded with interesting sculptures (I also included some other random shots).























Off to Lauterbrunnen and the Alps tomorrow. We miss Montreux already!