Switzerland - Day 3 (Geneva, Montreux, Vevey, Lausanne)

Started the day with a little walk around Geneva. We successfully negotiated the tram system, which got us into the historic centre. It was extremely quiet, as everything was closed for Boxing Day. We found a few of the churches that were in the guidebook - one was impressively large in the style of a Roman temple - but kept moving so we didn't get cold.

I love this statue, but unfortunately I didn't note the plaque, and I can't find it on the internet.

War memorial

Fat, fluffy winter sparrows!

Me and Socrates catch up on old times

Hopped on a train to begin our day trip around Lake Geneva. First stop, Montreux! Famous as a base for recording studios in the wild days of rock n roll, it has entered music history via Deep Purple's song "Smoke on the Water". The song describes the fire that broke out at a Frank Zappa gig, and which levelled the Montreux Casino. Clouds of smoke wafted across the beutiful, still lake...

We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline / To make records with a mobile - We didn't have -much time / Frank Zappa & the Mothers were at the best place around / But some stupid with a flare gun burned the -place to the ground / Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

The cast of Ice Age...

Lakeside

Château de Chillon is a castle on a small island, continuously built up from around 1005.

Originally built to exact a toll passing traders, it's now known as the prison of François Bonivard, a political prisoner from Geneva. His plight inspired many artists and writers, including Lord Byron's poem "The Prisoner of Chillon".

Byron's name is carved in one of the columns near where François was chained.

The next stop, Vevey, was a pilgrimage for myself and Frank, as it is the resting place of Charlie Chaplin. I've been a huge fan since Dad showed me a couple of Chaplin films as a kid. Modern Times and The Great Dictator especially had a profound effect on me. Frank, meanwhile, has been writing a screenplay about the notorious (but bungled) ransom attempt on Chaplin's remains...

When we got there, we didn't actually know where his grave was, so we went to a couple of the local musuems for information. It's another pretty town with stunning lakeside views.

Looks like a Claes Oldenburg fork to me... Wonder if the seagull has a nice view?

First find on our pilgrimage - Chaplin statue!

On a tip from the lady at the food museum (no really), we caught a train out to one of the suburbs. From there we proceeded to walk up some staggering hills looking for a cemetery. One false turn lead to a vinyard, the other to the wrong cemetery. Still, this lead to the second find of our pilgrimage - Graham Greene's resting place! This came as a complete surprise.

Finally - after questioning some locals - we found the right spot and paid our respects. There were fresh flowers on the site - afterall, we were there the day after the 30th anniversary of Chaplin's death (Christmas Day, 1977). It's a pretty spot, and he and his wife are safe now - newly encased in two metres of concrete...

It was getting late, but we still had time to stop at Lausanne on the way home for a visit to the Musée Olympique. This was a magnificent attraction (aside from one dodgy animatronic display that wasn't working at all well), with fascinating displays. They had one of the finest collections of Greek antiquities I've seen. We saw the highlights, but wished we'd had more time.

Switzerland - Day 2 (Gruyères)

Enjoyed a little Xmas moment in our hotel room with Emma and Frank, swapping pressies and eating room service (average) and produce from the local Coop supermarket (yummy). I got some great clothes from Anna and a board game from Frank called "Zombies!!!" which would later prove a source of much amusement on our holiday.

After breakfast we departed for our first Swiss trip, to the cheese-making town of Gruyères. Once again the train trip was a joy, even though we had to switch a couple of times. It's true what they say - everything here runs on time, is clean and hassle-free. (Though I did note that the train toilets are just an open hole onto the tracks.)

It was a big thrill to move deeper and deeper into snowy territory. Of course we took lots of photos of the first white trees we saw, which were nothing compared to what we saw later on the trip.

The Gruyere cheese exhibition was right by the train station, and we lost no time going in to learn about this famous cheese.

We had an amusing audioguide narrated by a very happy cow. (Disturbingly, she still sounded pleased with herself when describing the sourcing of rennet...) The highlight was the cheese cellar, through which a complex machine wanders, washing and resalting the cheese wheels.



We ate lunch at the exhibition restaurant - I had a delicious onion soup (with cheese), and Anna and I shared a rosti with grilled pear covered in melted Gruyere. No one was keen enough to try the horse steak.

After lunch we walked up the hill to the old town, surrounded by beautiful snowy fields and hills:

The town itself was obviously very picturesque as well...

...though I couldn't wait to get to the H.R. Giger museum. After a quick tour of the castle, I quickly navigated my way to this Alien fan's mecca.

The museum had a thorough collection of Giger's work, including his early ink paintings, his later (and oft-vaunted) airbrush illustrations, plus a whole room full of original Alien paintings and sculptures. Such a shame there were no photographs allowed inside. Other highlights included the Harkonnen chairs from an aborted Dune film, and the lifesize Sil from Species.

But that's not all, there also a Giger theme bar next door, and we popped in for a nice hot chocolate. It's a very moody place, like the interior of the alien spacecraft in Alien.

3D version of the creepy 'wall of babies' painting...

In a Harkonnen chair...

Check out the creepy lighting. It's like being in Doom 3!




Swizterland is rightly famous for it's chocolates. Here is a small selection at the train station! I tried a guarana chocolate bar.

We went for dinner at our hotel's own restaurant, as it is very well regarded for it's live music, which is authentically Swiss. There was some yodelling, with the offer to try out the Swiss longhorn. You basically just blow a raspberry, and it comes out really well.

We tried the cheese fondue, but no-one particularly liked it (because of the white wine and other yucky stuff they add). The choc fondue was a bit hit, though!

Switzerland - Day 1 (Geneva)

An unfortunate start to our trip when we receieved a text message at 5:30 in the morning to inform us that our flight was cancelled. It had been very foggy the past few days, and a lot of earlier flights had been cancelled. Although the weather was now clear, we were hit by the knock-on effect. We quickly scrambled to find another flight as we didn't want to ruin all our plans (hotel and restaurant booking included), and luckily managed to get an (expensive) Easyjet flight from Luton. We were away!

Because of the later flight, we didn't arrive in Geneva until the later afternoon, by which time the sun was already setting. It was an invigorating one or two degrees in temperature. We had a comfortable train ride (the first of many!) ito the city and found Hotel Edelweiss, which was whimsically decorated in wood with painted flowers.

Our greeting treat - chocolate and Xmas peanuts!

We got out and about for a quick walk before dinner. The faux iceberg on Mont Blanc island:

We weren't out for very long as we had a dinner booking at the fancypants Brasserie du Parc for Frank's birthday. We took a taxi around the shore of Lake Geneva to the restuarant, a chateaux nestled in beautiful grounds.

It was intimidating to begin with, as we were the first people there, not to mention that we were feeling a little rugged after the day's scrambling about. The multi-course menu of rich but off-putting food (foie gras) didn't help - but I had it good with my vegetarian plates.

The others started enjoying themselves once the gourmet ouer d'oeuvres were over, and the 6th and final course of delicious cakes was a delight.

Cabinet War Rooms

Another long-outstanding tourist opportunity fulfilled, with Frank and I off to visit the Cabinet War Rooms and newly opened Churchill Museum. It was great to see where Churchill conducted his strategy meetings during the Second World War, and I was surprised at how low-key the surroundings were.

And outside the fog rolls on. Big Ben: