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.
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.
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.
