Montreux, Switzerland

Our Hotel....The Suisse Majestic located directly across from the train station

Our room

View from our window

left view from the window toward Montreux

The closest thing to a Brasserie we could find and it was Italian!

Chillon Castle

The view from the promenade to Montreux

Under the castle

A bedroom. The guide explained that the beds were so short not only because people were shorter then, but because they slept in a semi-sitting position on tons of pillows.

The kitchen

I am probably the only person I know who would take a picture of a latrine, but I've never seen one in a castle. This one is inside the castle and is a hole in a piece of wood set over a long tunnel that empties to the outside. The air blows right up this tunnel and I bet it's freezing most of the year.

This large banquet hall was being set up for a group.

The castle was originally used as a fortress

View towards Montreux from the top of the tower in the castle

Me on our walk back to Montreux from Chillon Castle

The walk back to Montreux. It took about an hour, but the weather was so pleasant

Danny's "Wooly Pork" which was delicious. I don't think we want to see a woolly pork, but eating them is just fine.

We said goodbye to our immediate family and left Paris for a whirlwind train trip through Switzerland. We will wind up with a full day in Innsbruck, Austria before our final destination of Zurich, Switzerland and then home. Whew!!! We ate breakfast at the train station this morning at 6:30 a.m. Our train wasn't scheduled to depart until 7:10 and we thought we had plenty of time until we discovered that the platform we needed to board on was out of and around the back of the train station. Running with a full suitcase and a back pack is NOT fun, but we found the train and boarded with time to spare. To clarify, Danny wasn't running, but he walks so fast when he is in a hurry that I have to break into a trot with my little short legs. We arrived at the train station in Geneve, Switzerland to catch our second train, but couldn't find it listed anywhere on the train schedule. I stood with the bags while Danny looked for someone to help us. Finally, he just stood in line at the ticket counter and found out where to go. Apparently Montreux isn't large enough to be listed as a stop on the train schedule. Luckily, we are in the French speaking part of Switzerland which is helpful because we certainly don't speak Swiss and Danny knows a fair amount of French! Our hotel in Montreux is directly across the street from the train station. How convenient is that!! We are staying at the Suisse Majestic Grand Hotel. This hotel is beautiful and well situated for sightseeing. We ate a pizza and calzone lunch at a local brasserie and went back to the hotel to double check our travel plans for tomorrow. There is a free local bus that we rode on to go to Chillon Castle which dates back to the 12th century. It is a beautiful old fortress on a tiny island barely off the shore of Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneve). The English poet, Lord Byron once visited the castle and his poem The Prisoner of Chillon was a recounting of the imprisonment of Francois Bonivard from 1493 to 1570 in the converted storehouse of the castle. I might just have to find and read that poem! We rented the ipod auditory tour guide (I know Christy will approve) and took a self-guided tour through the castle. We climbed to the top of the highest tower and looked out over Lac Leman. It was beautiful! We decided to walk back to town along the promenade which took about an hour. We passed big beautiful homes and apartment buildings and left the promenade toward the end to walk through the little town. Dinner tonight was here in the hotel at Le 45 and it was delicious. We ate early to catch up on some of our sleep. Tomorrow we will take a Scenic train across Switzerland. Until then....
(I have just enough internet speed to make a blog post, but pictures are impossible. I will post pics as soon as I get a faster speed)