CHOCOLATE & CHEESE AT GRUYERES, Wed.,June 22

Today we were tourists exploring "typical" Switzerland. We boarded a special train painted gold and marked "The chocolate train." It took us into the alps, past the picturesque green hills and valleys.

Our first stop was the Gruyeres cheese factory with an informative tour and yummy samples!

Then we had time to visit the picturesque town of Gruyeres. There were two highlights.

The first was a big surprise:Museum H R Giger, which housed the magnificent art of surrealist HR Giger, who did the art for the film "Aliens." Since we are not up on science fiction or mythology, his name was not familiar to us and his work was shocking, odd, amazing and magnificent.
It was hard to imagine someone with such a creative mind and artistic ability. We were glad to stumble upon this.

The second was the Castle of Gruyeres. You might say that if you have seen one, you have seen them all, but actually each castle has it's own story. (I am just glad I never had to learn Swiss history; it's very complex!)
The castle's history goes back to the 11th century. Now the canton owns it and has maintained it beautifully. It is amazing how many artifacts from the Middle Ages have been preserved in such good condition.

From Gryueres we went to the town of Broc where Nestle's chocolate factory is located. Known as the House of Cailler, it is a new production facility opened in 2010. At that time, they created a new tour for visitors with a most creative multimedia presentation giving us the history of chocolate. (Did you know that Cortez took the cocoa bean to Spain? And did you know that the cocoa drink was considered too dangerous for women to drink until the pope ruled that it was OK!). The tour was very informative and the samples exceedingly generous. I never knew there were so many types of chocolate! (it was a bit like wine tasting!)

A relaxing train ride took us back to Montreux, where we boarded a train for Geneva - our home for the next four nights and our last venue before heading for the U.S.


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Location:The chocolate train to Gruyeres

MONTREUX OLD CITY Tues., June 21

We had a leisurely day exploring the Old City and looking for "The Poets' Ramble" which is benches, statues or monuments that note the presence of famous guests who have spent time in The Montreux area: Charlie Chaplin, Jean Paul Rousseau, Lord Byron, Francis Bacon, Freddie Mercury, Hans Christian Andersen, and dozens of others

We found ourselves in the Tralala Hotel which houses guests for the annual Jazz Festival in August.
It will be sad to leave Montreux, but there is more to explore!


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Location:Montreux

VEVEY and back to MONTREUX, Mon., June 20

A short boat ride along the lake brought us to the town of Vevey, where Charlie Chaplin settled after being banned from the US during the McCarthy hearings.

The lakefront provided a lovely walk among the flowers - to find the statue of Chaplin.

Then we enjoyed a stroll though the Old City and finally a funicular ride up the mountain overlooking the town.

The view of the town and lake below with the mountains on the other side was beautiful. It was hard to believe that people live up this mountain and come and go regularly via the funicular cable car! For us, it was an outing with an opportunity for a fondue lunch while overlooking the lake - with Rivolli (a Swiss soft drink made from dairy).

Upon return to Montreux, we walked along a Thai festival going on at the lakefront-- a wonderful opportunity for a Thai foot reflexology session!

A most relaxing "vacation" day!


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Location:Vevey

CHILLON, MONTREUX, Sunday, June 19

 
We settled in a lovely hotel right on the lakefront and then walked along the lake, past the palm trees and colorful gardens, viewing the green mountains and the snowy peaks across the lake. No wonder this is called Montreux Riviera!

In 45 minutes we reached the Chateau du Chillon. What a site! I remember visiting this spot 50 years ago, but, even though the castle is more than 800 years old, a lot has changed in 50 years! Now there are six excellent videos about the history, architecture and prison stories, as well as self-guided tours with an iPod and a great book store.

The building was during many times a hone for the counts of Savoy. We spent most of the time focusing on the periods during which the castle was used as a prison and particularly the story of Bonnivard's imprisonment in 1530 made famous by Lord Byron's sonnet written after visiting Chillon in 1816. As a champion of trampled freedom, he composed "The Prisoner of Chillon."

Since Byron is one of the poets featured in the poetry sessions Johm leads at the Vi Retirement Community, he drank in the history and context of the poem. I also found the history of the building fascinating, learning more about the many uses of the castle over the centuries.

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Location:Chateau du Chillon, Montreux

GOLDEN PASS TRAIN THROUGH SWITZERLAND TO MONTREUX, Sun., June 19

The Goldenpass train has the name for a good reason. The scenes we passed are works of art - beautiful green hills with snowy mountains peeking through, typical wooden chalets with flowering window boxes, making for enchanting views for miles and miles. John's comment: "in spite of the pictures, I think I underestimated the grandeur."

As we moved from Interlaken to Montreux through the gorgeous mountain passes, some general impressions of our brief time in Switzerland are surfacing:
**Everything is on time.
**We've seen marvelous engineering projects, not least of these are the wonderful trains and cable cars that go to all kinds of places in the mountains.
**Public areas are in great shape - clean, modern, in repair. This goes for train stations, curbs and sidewalks, roads, toilets, walls. Probably because they pay higher taxes!
**The yodel festival was very much geared to the Germanic Swiss audience. Little was in French and nothing in English. They were happy to have yodeling groups from Japan, S.Korea, Alberta Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Wisconsin. And there were a few groups from the French speaking part of Switzerland (all singing in SwitzerDeutch). Out of 10,000 participants, however, the vast majority were Germanic Swiss.
(The only ad in the program book in English was to invite guests to "play poker and black jack" in the Interlaken casino!
***The greeting custom is for three cheek kisses (left, right, left) - especially initiated by the women.

As the train neared Montreux we could see hillsides with grade vine and the architecture changing to a French style, as the signs changed to French. I felt "home" again, able to read the signs and pick up on conversations,

More about our afternoon in the "Montreux Riviera" tomorrow.

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Location:Golden pass to Montreux, Switzerland

MORE YODELING FEST/INTERLAKEN, Sat., June 18

After a 20 minute train ride from our home in Lauterbrunnen, we were back in Interlacken. (Did we mention how great the trains are? Such an engineering feat, with trains and cable cars going to all sorts of places high in the mountains.)

Today the hills were alive with the sound of music -- at least Interlaken was. We spent the entire day listening to yodeling groups present in competition and never got tired of it. A special treat was seeing our new friends from the yodeling club in Laufen; decked in their local costume, they looked quite different than when we'd seen them at their rehearsal and the sounded great! We also enjoyed the presentation from the club in New Glarus , Wisconsin - not far from John's family home!

The brightly colored costumes, different for each canton, the intonations, the harmony, the amazing voices with terrific ranges- what a treat. During intermissions we walked around town, sometimes in a torrential downpour. Rain or shine, there were yodeling groups or alphorn players gathered on corners, in plazas and in cafes. The town was alive with the sound of music!

We enjoyed the shops, too. The wood carving, the Swiss watches, the music boxes, Swiss army knives , Hummels - they were all there. So, too, were the native costumes. We both bought native blouses decorated with edelweiss - to wear when yodeling!!

This festival is clearly an effort to keep alive the Switzerdeutsch language and customs. Is was a privilege to be a part of it.

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Location:Yodeling fest, Interlaken Switzerland