Montreux
Sunday, January 14, 2018
After couple days in Lausanne, we were already excited to go to our next destination Montreux. We were waiting to see Chaplin's World since we arrived in Switzerland. So we decided to start our day by driving to Vevey first and visiting the museum.
Visiting the museum was an amazing experience. Everything is designed and presented in a very balanced way. You do not feel saturated or tired of looking. Charlie Chaplin is a great artist and so is his museum. We have spent half a day seeing every detail of this beautiful place and left Vevey with full satisfaction. Museum entrance and parking fee was 22 euro per person. So totally worth the experience. If you are visiting Montreux or close by this place is a must see.
We drove all the way to Montreux centre and parked the car somewhere close. (Again using paid parking just not to deal with parking tickets.) We walked out of parking lot and boom! There it was the statue of Freddie Mercury. Placed next to the lake along with a small pier on the lake which is ruled by local birds. You can find a small video on our Instagram to see how friendly the birds are.
After feeding the birds with some of our breakfast leftovers, we also started to feel hungry and guess what? This time we found a Mc Donald's next to the statue and did not want to do the effort of searching for a better option. Even Mc Donald's had the same Swiss price standards. To be honest it hurt a little bit when you eat something like that and still pay 12 euro per person. It was again a rainy day and already getting dark so we decided to head our Airbnb in Les Avants. It is a small mountain village north of Montreux. Honestly, with all the snow and the dark, it was a really scary trip going there by the mountain roads. Once we arrived we thought it was really worth it because of calmness and nature surroundings. We have stayed in this place for 3 nights and I think it was the best nights of sleep during our trip to Switzerland.
Next day we made our plans to visit Gruyere (famous Swiss cheese town) and visit the cheese museum. (Of course, we were both interested in eating them more than seeing.) We drove to Gruyere which took around 40 minutes and found the place quite easy with navigation. I had to convince Charlie to have another cheese fondue there since we only had it once in Geneva. She was not into it but she could not resist my charm and had a go with me. Food was really good and place itself is also very wide and comfortable. Prices were again Swiss standards. (20 euro person + 8 euro for museum visit) You can visit the museum if you would like to see how the famous cheese is being produced. As I said we were more into eating and we only did that.
Since we finished our visit earlier than we thought, we decided to visit Evian-Les-Bains and get some thermal bath on a rainy day. We drove all the way to this little coastal town on the southern side of the lake and guess what? Thermal facilities were closed for Christmas holiday(2 weeks). It was kind of disappointing not to have the experience after all that driving to fill the day so I had a little moody period and Charlie was trying to cheer me up. It was raining a lot so we decided to go back to Montreux instead of walking in this town. But as we drive out our way we have discovered a small fountain which happened to be the source of Evian water. (Natural spring water) We took the opportunity to fill our empty bottle with this water and it tasted so good. Definitely, do the refill if you are passing by this town. Another day ended up in Montreux with some frustration but we recovered fast and head back to our place.
Next day we had a lot of options in mind to choose from and as we woke up we saw the sun! The day just started with a bright light and we both were like "ok let's discover the village and ride the funicular"(little tram that carries people to higher ground). Ok, I must admit that I insisted to Charlie like a kid to ride it but it looked great and I loved it. As we walked to the tram we saw a lot of people were carrying sledges to ride down from the top. We asked around and found the place that rents them. Charlie was not sure about it since she did not know how to handle it. I assured her that it is going to be alright and she had the impression that I knew what I was doing. We went up to the place with tram and get on our sledges to slide down back to the town and less than 10 seconds, Charlie figured out I also had no idea what I was doing. But it was fun and we loved doing it. After a long and stressful downhill slide, we felt like having a refreshment break with a cup of tea before we decide what to do next. We had two options in mind. First one is to take the panoramic train and see the great view of this journey up to the north. Second, we go down to Montreux and have a walk alongside the coast and visit the castle. After a small research, we found that ticket prices were 80 euro per person and we were like "ok Switzerland, give us a break already." We went down to Montreux and this time Charlie took the wheels and I had some stressful moments since the mountain roads were narrow and the car was relatively big. She did it quite well and made me proud.
As I said it was a sunny day and Montreux Riviera was full of people taking the walk. There are maps for Riviera routes if you can handle a long walk. We walked from centre to Chillon Castle. It was one of the best walks I have done in cities. Wonderful sunset, lovely sights and beautiful weather made our afternoon. It was the last day of 2017 so we walked back to centre and started looking for restaurants to book for the new year dinner. As we tried our chances with different places we started to get worried about our dinner because all of them were fully booked. Finally, we managed to find a decent place by the lake and had their new years menu. By the time we finish dinner, it was already around 9 pm and we wanted to head back to our place and celebrate the new years in peace. We were already in our place waiting for the new year, doing phone calls to our families and also celebrating my family's new year in Turkey. Time has come and there we are with 2018 in a small wooden house up in the mountains of Montreux covered with snow, watching fireworks on different parts of the mountain and of course kissing each other with love and joy.
Next day we headed back to Geneva to deliver the car back and catch our flight back home.
Visiting the museum was an amazing experience. Everything is designed and presented in a very balanced way. You do not feel saturated or tired of looking. Charlie Chaplin is a great artist and so is his museum. We have spent half a day seeing every detail of this beautiful place and left Vevey with full satisfaction. Museum entrance and parking fee was 22 euro per person. So totally worth the experience. If you are visiting Montreux or close by this place is a must see.
We drove all the way to Montreux centre and parked the car somewhere close. (Again using paid parking just not to deal with parking tickets.) We walked out of parking lot and boom! There it was the statue of Freddie Mercury. Placed next to the lake along with a small pier on the lake which is ruled by local birds. You can find a small video on our Instagram to see how friendly the birds are.
After feeding the birds with some of our breakfast leftovers, we also started to feel hungry and guess what? This time we found a Mc Donald's next to the statue and did not want to do the effort of searching for a better option. Even Mc Donald's had the same Swiss price standards. To be honest it hurt a little bit when you eat something like that and still pay 12 euro per person. It was again a rainy day and already getting dark so we decided to head our Airbnb in Les Avants. It is a small mountain village north of Montreux. Honestly, with all the snow and the dark, it was a really scary trip going there by the mountain roads. Once we arrived we thought it was really worth it because of calmness and nature surroundings. We have stayed in this place for 3 nights and I think it was the best nights of sleep during our trip to Switzerland.
Next day we made our plans to visit Gruyere (famous Swiss cheese town) and visit the cheese museum. (Of course, we were both interested in eating them more than seeing.) We drove to Gruyere which took around 40 minutes and found the place quite easy with navigation. I had to convince Charlie to have another cheese fondue there since we only had it once in Geneva. She was not into it but she could not resist my charm and had a go with me. Food was really good and place itself is also very wide and comfortable. Prices were again Swiss standards. (20 euro person + 8 euro for museum visit) You can visit the museum if you would like to see how the famous cheese is being produced. As I said we were more into eating and we only did that.
Since we finished our visit earlier than we thought, we decided to visit Evian-Les-Bains and get some thermal bath on a rainy day. We drove all the way to this little coastal town on the southern side of the lake and guess what? Thermal facilities were closed for Christmas holiday(2 weeks). It was kind of disappointing not to have the experience after all that driving to fill the day so I had a little moody period and Charlie was trying to cheer me up. It was raining a lot so we decided to go back to Montreux instead of walking in this town. But as we drive out our way we have discovered a small fountain which happened to be the source of Evian water. (Natural spring water) We took the opportunity to fill our empty bottle with this water and it tasted so good. Definitely, do the refill if you are passing by this town. Another day ended up in Montreux with some frustration but we recovered fast and head back to our place.
Next day we had a lot of options in mind to choose from and as we woke up we saw the sun! The day just started with a bright light and we both were like "ok let's discover the village and ride the funicular"(little tram that carries people to higher ground). Ok, I must admit that I insisted to Charlie like a kid to ride it but it looked great and I loved it. As we walked to the tram we saw a lot of people were carrying sledges to ride down from the top. We asked around and found the place that rents them. Charlie was not sure about it since she did not know how to handle it. I assured her that it is going to be alright and she had the impression that I knew what I was doing. We went up to the place with tram and get on our sledges to slide down back to the town and less than 10 seconds, Charlie figured out I also had no idea what I was doing. But it was fun and we loved doing it. After a long and stressful downhill slide, we felt like having a refreshment break with a cup of tea before we decide what to do next. We had two options in mind. First one is to take the panoramic train and see the great view of this journey up to the north. Second, we go down to Montreux and have a walk alongside the coast and visit the castle. After a small research, we found that ticket prices were 80 euro per person and we were like "ok Switzerland, give us a break already." We went down to Montreux and this time Charlie took the wheels and I had some stressful moments since the mountain roads were narrow and the car was relatively big. She did it quite well and made me proud.
As I said it was a sunny day and Montreux Riviera was full of people taking the walk. There are maps for Riviera routes if you can handle a long walk. We walked from centre to Chillon Castle. It was one of the best walks I have done in cities. Wonderful sunset, lovely sights and beautiful weather made our afternoon. It was the last day of 2017 so we walked back to centre and started looking for restaurants to book for the new year dinner. As we tried our chances with different places we started to get worried about our dinner because all of them were fully booked. Finally, we managed to find a decent place by the lake and had their new years menu. By the time we finish dinner, it was already around 9 pm and we wanted to head back to our place and celebrate the new years in peace. We were already in our place waiting for the new year, doing phone calls to our families and also celebrating my family's new year in Turkey. Time has come and there we are with 2018 in a small wooden house up in the mountains of Montreux covered with snow, watching fireworks on different parts of the mountain and of course kissing each other with love and joy.
Next day we headed back to Geneva to deliver the car back and catch our flight back home.
Some tips from Montreux on top of rest
1. Montreux is the best town in Lac Leman.
2. Chaplin's World, Montreux Riviera walk and if you have enough budget panoramic train are the things not to be missed.
3. This town has relatively more ramps than other towns of Lac Leman.
2. Chaplin's World, Montreux Riviera walk and if you have enough budget panoramic train are the things not to be missed.
3. This town has relatively more ramps than other towns of Lac Leman.
Hope you enjoyed reading this and it will help or inspire you on your plans.
Our next blogs will be York and Cambridge from England.
Until then...
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| Chillon Castle |
1 comments
It sounds like you had an amazing time in Montreux, even if the hot springs were closed. This is a reason to come back to Switzerland, no? :)
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