Château de Chillon Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Woke up as early as the alarm sounded and got ready for the day ahead. It was to be some travelling and therefore we needed the extra time. First stop today was to catch up on the Chateau de Chillon that we missed the day before.

Went to move my car as the time was almost up, and fortunately there weren’t many cars this time so I shifted the car park to the one right opposite of the B&B. Loading the luggage was then much easier.

Had the not much variety breakfast in the B&B and proceeded to check out. Drove about 5 mins and we were back at the chateau, this time not as many cars at the car park. Parked my car easily and we proceeded to the chateau. It costed 12.50CHF per adult and with the audio guide, it was more expensive. We didn’t take the audio guide as we were short of time.

The chateau was really an old castle, very different from those that we saw in the Loire Valley, big and beautifully decorated. It was still interesting to walk around. What was unpleasant during the visit was the presence of children who were making a ruckus and we were concerned that it would wake our sleeping baby. Luckily he slept through.

Nice view at the entrance of the chateau.

Room with coat of arms painted on the wall.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — View of the chateau on the lake.

Without walking the full circuit of the chateau as recommended by the brochure, we drove to Zermatt train terminal in Tasch. There was a huge parking area for many cars and parking was pretty straightforward. Went over to purchase the return tickets to Zermatt and bought some hot pastries that we brought up the shuttle train of 10mins ride.

Snow capped mountains in view en route to Tasch.

Zermatt was also full of people. We got to the information board where there was a map that showed the location of our hotel. It was about a 5 mins walk to Admiral hotel.

Upon checking in, we were quite disappointed to have received a room without the Matterhorn view although we thought we had paid for it. There were ongoing renovation works on the top 2 floors and as the reception tried to offer the available ones, those were too low and the view was blocked by their own pine trees.

We prepared the cold wear and went to the Gornergrat train station to purchase tickets up. However we we dissuaded as the staff advised that it was not good for babies below 1years old to go above 2000m and so she recommended that we go to Riffelalp instead, at about 2200m. We took the return for 80CHF for 2 and boarded the train.

The ride up was easy and baby K fell asleep. He didn’t looked uncomfortable anyway so that was ok. The ride up was about 10mins and we got off to walkabout. The stop was actually more meant for customer staying at the luxurious Riffelalp resorts but we could walk around as would any other hikers.

View from the train en route to Riffenalp.

We were able to see Matterhorn at a closer view but the clouds were covering its peak. Stayed long enough and went back to Zermatt instead.

As we walked back to our hotel, the peak started to clear up and so presented a photo opportunity.

Satisfied with the photos, we went to walk around the town of Zermatt and along the shopping street which was just infront of the train station. There were just lots of shops selling souvenirs, watches and clothing. We didn’t walk through everything and instead went for dinner at the Timeout Sports bar and grill. Had a burger and some curry, which was actually tasty, before returning to the room.

It was an early return and a welcome one since we really didn’t have much time to rest since the start of the journey. With all the shops closed as 7pm, there wasn’t really much that we could do then to return to the room, do baby stuff and then take a nice short break from the holidaying. More to come tomorrow when we go north towards Bern.

Today the alarm went off at 7am but we didn’t wake until almost 9am. Got ready quickly, didn’t have breakfast and we were off onto the road. Ate the biscuits that we bought the day before and arrived at Lausanne. Wanted to visit the cathedral but was afraid of the lack of carpark so I parked at the nearest mall carpark and trekked up the slope. In 15mins, we arrived at the top, La Cathedrale de Lausanne. It was a fairly small one compared to those we saw in France and we didn’t spend much time there before returning to the car. The town was pretty quiet since it was a Sunday and almost nothing was opened. Driving was substantially easier.

Next location was the Olympic museum not to far away. While nearing the lake, we saw much more people and it seemed like there were some event going on by the lake. The available carpark for the museum was the roadside ones and it was quite full until the end of the road. Had to slot in between two cars in the parallel parking, thankfully for the reverse cameras and the front sensors, the parking was done ok. Strolled along the lake bank to admire the beauty of the lake view and mountains before arriving at the museum.

We bought the tickets using the auto ticketing machine, like those of the trains. The entrance was on the 3rd floor and the exhibitions took 3 floors in all, with the history in the 3rd one and other interesting stuff such as the games, the gears and the medals. We spent nearly an hour plus just browsing mostly but it would surely take longer if we read into more details.

Figured we couldn’t have lunch at the TOM cafe with the awesome view, window shopped at the TOM shop before leaving for the Chateau de Chillon.

Took the highway and arrived at a service station with a Burger King that had an awesome view. Had some light lunch of Paninis and proceeded onwards to Montreux.

Burger King service station with a view.

Beautiful scenary. — Beautiful scenary taken from the service station.

The beautiful little town was full of people, locals and tourists visit for apparent reasons. The carpark was full as usual so we changed course to check in instead, at the La Rouvenaz hotel.

This posed another challenge as the available carpark was a mall quite far away (for one with 2 huge luggage and a inflatable bathtub to carry up 3 flights of steps). So we just brought along the daily use bags first for check in.

The B&B was very modernly designed and had a big room. The toilet was very small though. I didn’t really liked the toilet design though it had translucent glass walls and movement sensor lights activation that gave it a modern feel and some Eco friendliness. But any movement caused the lights to be switched on and off and that would wake up a baby.

We had 2 options, the Chanteau or the lookout, and figuring the lookout could take too much time and impact the next day schedule, we chose to go to the lookout.

It was an hour train ride from the station in Montreux and not the usual SBB train but a train by Goldenpass. Getting from the hotel to the train station was fairly easy, just a 10mins walk and a lift up the to the fourth level from the walking street. The B&B gave us day passes and with that, we were able to purchase the Goldenpass tickets for 50% off, which came up to about 25CHF per person, quite a good deal.

The journey was filled with wows as the train climbed from the street elevation all the way to 2000m to the final station of Rochers de Naye. Some stops along the way were longer than usual and those presented a photo opportunity.

One of the first few nice views as the train climbed.

Nice viewing place at Caux, an intermediate station.

The viewpoint of the train driver, a steep climb ahead.

At the end of the journey, we reached a station surrounded by peaks and nature. It was simply wonderful to be on top of the world but a little chilly as well. Took some time to walk around and explore the area, such as visiting the disappointing Alphine botanical gardens before retreating to the warm cafe before the baby got too cold.

I continued to move around and was able to see some cute Marmotes that seemed to be bred in a private area. Also, while I moved further to where the cross was, I could see the lake, the town and a beautiful panorama.

Spent so much time out there till the last train at 645pm arrived, which we could not missed else we would need to stay behind. Got myself some hot coffee before boarding the train with my family.

Back at the hotel, I drove the car closer to the hotel, dropped all the luggage before parking it on the road side. As it was after 9pm, it was free till 7am the next day. The reception advised that I should parked further down as it had more hours available for parking instead of the 1hour max in front of the hotel.

It was the same night routine. Baby K got really cranky and was having trouble falling asleep, from the auto light and the sounds coming from the sink while I was doing the washing of the bottles. I went to get some McDs that thankfully stayed opened till 12MN while the rest of the restaurants closed.

The port was pretty in the sunset and even at night where hotel lights illuminated the area. I had to move my car further down to the 2 hours slot and pay at the pay station so that I do not need to move my car before 9 am. Then it was repacking for the Zermatt trip into a haversack as we didn’t want to bring the 2 huge luggage up.

Switzerland 2015 Day 11 – Montreux to Zermatt and Matterhorn

Switzerland 2015 Day 10 – Lausanne and Montreux