We've been to Montreux thrice in the last 6 months. And each time i just cant get enough of it. Its really beautiful and so relaxing to just go to the beautiful French part of Switzerland.
We went the first time in May. Had a nice time walking up and down the lakeside promenade which had so many interesting sculptures, flower arrangements, statues etc that you didn't realise how much you were walking. A's favourite was a spider in the trees (just a wire arrangement!) and a statue of a crow with a piece of cheese in its mouth, singing and a fox staring at it below (foolish crow story anyone?). The Freddie Mercury statue was of course awesome, because he was such an awesome star, and that being city centre there were tons of things for the kids to do there- bouncy castle etc. The highlight of the trip was the train ride upto Rochers-de-Naye. Its about an hours drive into the mountain where you have breathtaking views of the lake and the mountains on either side, it goes right up into the mountain and from the top you could see Eiger,Monk, Jungfrau. Just beautiful. There's a small marmot exhibition on the top, but nothing worth visiting, really. Its enough just for the breathtaking train ride up and back.
The second time was on the August 1st holiday. It was a crazy four day holiday. 1st August (Swiss Day) was on Thursday and holiday for me but Friday was a holiday only for the hubby and not me and we thought we should take a 4 day holiday to enjoy the summer weather, so we drove out to Montreux on Wednesday evening, spent thursday there, Friday i took the train back to Zurich (2 and 1/2 hours) while the hubby entertained the girls in Montreux and then drove to Zermatt and then i took the train from Zurich to Zermatt and joined them there at night. Super hectic, but fun!
This time in Montreux we visited the beautiful Chillon castle. It was a very long walk about 1 hour but the girls somehow managed with a lot of coaxing and ice creams on the way. The castle has a lot of history being in an interesting place near the Italian, Swiss, French border. Its prisoner was made famous by a poem by Lord Byron! Since it was Swiss Day there were lots of games organised in the castle for children to play, where they would play the games,and get points on their book and a prize at the end of it. S and A were especially interested in seeing the princess bedroom! We missed the train back and had to walk back. this time we ended up carrying A most of the way and S half the way and all of us were quite exhausted by the time we reached the hotel and slept after lunch. In the evening we went to this awesome water park- AquaParc near Montrex which is a huge indoor and outdoor water park. The girls loved the 'lazy river' and the slides. The hubby had an unfortunate accident on the 'black hole' slide and had to miss most of the water park, but the girls and I had a lot of fun and even now the girls keep asking when we are going back to the 'lazy river'. The next day i had to return to work but the hubby took the girls to the Zoo in a village near Montruex and they saw a lot of exotic stuff they hadn't seen before, and in the evening they went to the Games museum which had all the games from across the world. It seems most of the board games (including chess) originated from India or China! In the night we met up in Zermatt where we went up the Kleine Matterhorn for the amazing view of the Matterhorn (an inspiration for Toblerone chocolates! And how could i miss out on mentioning the awesome fireworks we saw over the Lake Geneve on 1st August. It was great, sitting on the promenade watching the fireworks till late at night with the fireworks over the lake and the mountains in the background.
We went back to Montreux one month later with my parents. The wooden sculptures we had seen the artists sculpting the previous time were now finished and on display. On the way to Montreux we managed to squeeze in an awesome fondue at the Gruyere cheese factory (from fresh Gruyere cheese, it cant get better!) and a visit of the cheese factory. The city centre was abuzz with activity for kids and this time A wanted to have a go on the trampoline thing (with the ropes where you can go really high). She had a great time, though we got a bit shocked when the organiser let her go on a rocket blast which basically meant giving her a big push up in the air, and being the little thing she is she went super fast way far. But she was happy |
The next day we visited the St. Bernard musuem (the girls love dogs and so does their Ajja) and went up to the St Bernard pass crossing into Italy. The view is just awesome there. The girls wanted St. Bernard dogs, but they had to make do with the stuffed toy version instead (A has named her doggy Bernadita!)
I missed the Montreux Jazz festival though. Maybe next year?
