RTW 2013 | Montreux

After departing Zermatt, I needed to get to Montreux to catch the Golden Pass train back up to central Switzerland, to Lucerne. Montreux is situated on Lake Geneva on the side opposite to Geneva. Since the beginning of this trip, I’ve pretty much stayed in the German-speaking area of Switzerland (except for the bernina express, which passed through some Romansh-speaking areas). Montreux marks the first time I’ve set foot in the French-speaking area.

This town is also in a hilly area (I’m starting to see a trend here…) at the foot of the Alps and, of course, not realizing that the hotel I booked so close to the train station is in fact (again) situated on the hill above the train station. I made my way up the to the hotel and dropped my things off and set off to explore the town. On the bright side, the view from the hotel was nice. =)

Montreux is a really nice town, but much more populated that the other areas I’ve been in the last few days. It sits on Lake Geneva a few miles from the Swiss-French border, and is a nice place to hang out, catch a boat to other towns on the lake, or just bum around the riviera.

From here, I headed over to the Château de Chillon, a castle built on an island right next to the shore. This castle was built around the 12th century, but expanded in the 14th century. It was made popular by Lord Byron, who wrote The Prisoner Of Chillon about a monk who was imprisoned there. Lord Byron also carved his name on one of the pillar dungeons for fun I suppose.

After the castle, I took a ferry back to Montreux that gave me a chance to see the town from the water. When we arrived, I walked along the shore until we reached the Freddie Mercury statue. Apparently he lived in Montreux, and they dedicated a statue in his honor after his death. By now it had gotten cold, so I headed back to the hotel to get a jacket and headed out to look for dinner.

I found a restaurant nearby that had gotten good reviews on trip advisor. I heard that their specialty was fondue, so I opted for the traditional – moitié-moitié (half/half) – Gruyère and vacherin cheeses. It was quite tasty, but I think even if you get a portion for 1 person, you need to share it with 1-2 other people, as it gets kinda tiring after a while of the same thing. This was the first time I’ve ever had fondue (even though I’m familiar with the concept) so the waitress explained the process just in case.

After dinner, I headed back to the hotel, but because none of these hotels have AC, I had trouble falling asleep (it was kinda warm, but if I opened the window it got loud. The next day, I was supposed to catch the Golden Express at 9:44am, but I woke up at 9:40. I ended up catching the next one, which took me to Interlaken an hour late. Oh well…