Thursday, September 20
As I mentioned, we were a bit tapped for time in Interlaken. We could have easily spent 2-3 days exploring the town and surrounding mountains and lakeside.
But, after hang gliding we set off again. It was
almost 2 hours to drive to Montreux. We experienced a slight hiccup checking
into our airbnb here (it seems the price has fluctuated a bit on this one since our stay too), mainly because without a phone, it was not clear to us
how to go straight into the locked building, where our host was expecting us to
arrive at the apartment on the top floor. So we waited outside while he waited
inside for about half an hour, until some residents of the building allowed us
in to go upstairs. No matter, once we reached the apartment we received a warm
welcome and some great suggestions of what to see, how to get around, and where
to eat dinner.
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| UNESCO Heritage - Lavaux Vineyards |
After settling in, we explored the local area. We
were intentionally very nearby the lakefront boulevard, as I had been to
Montreux prior to this trip and my main memory was of the beautiful lakefront.
We went for a walk to view the Chillon Castle, and on the way back detoured
towards the inland streets of the ‘old town’ Montreux. Like the other old town
centres, again this featured my beloved narrow stone-laden laneways.
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| Montreux lakefront promenade |
We followed our host’s suggestions to take the car
out to dinner that night. He had drawn us a crude map that took a route south out of Montreux, along Col de Chaude Sonchaux, with a right turn onto Route des Raveyres to our restaurant, where we
followed the hairpin turns up a mountain, and arrived to our restaurant just as
the sun was setting. It's good to have the map because our GPS didn't know what we were talking about. He had recommended this place specifically for the
atmosphere and their fondue. Surprisingly, we had gone this whole time in Switzerland without trying the fondue yet, but for a reason. My last time in Geneva I went for some
overpriced fondue in their tourist district and was severely disappointed. This
time, I wanted a place that was recommended, to know I was getting a well made Swiss style fondue. The Auberge de Sonchaux really delivered on this front.
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| View from Sonchaux at sunset |
We were seated by the window, overlooking the sunset
on the lake, when the waiter brought us the ceramic fondue pot and some fresh
baguette. He brought as much baguette as was needed to finish the pot of
fondue. When we thought all was done, he ensured that we dig up the crusts of
cheese at the bottom of the pot, and tickle me pink if that wasn’t the best
part of the meal. We shared the fondue along with a salad, since it’s fairly
rich on its own.
Friday, September 21
The plan for the day was to see Les Diablerets – the Glacier 3000. I have done this trip before, as a tour from Geneva that honestly, I don’t recall being too expensive, and I was a student at that time! In the morning, we drove first to Gstaad, which is a charming town about 45 minutes out from Montreux. This town showcases the quaint Swiss log-style buildings and cabins.
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| Gstaad |
We warmed up with some hot chocolate from one of the
only places that was open that morning, with the town clearly seeing mostly
afternoon traffic (much of which is from tour bus groups). Gstaad is a small town and it only takes an hour or so to adequately see the area. We had lunch at the supermarket, which had a variety of prepared meals offered Ikea-style, as a less expensive lunch option.
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| Glacier 3000 |
We then made our way to Les Diablerets, with the
intention of going up the mountain. For some reason, I got the impression that
a single cable car ride would not be that expensive. But there is only one
payment option – 77 CHF for an all-day cable car pass. Now, in winter this would
make sense to me, since you would be skiing down the mountain and taking the gondola
back up. But in summer, when tourists are clearly only going to go up once, this pricing scheme made no sense.
Now, if you haven’t seen the Glacier 3000 before, it
really is spectacular up there, especially as an Aussie that had never seen a
glacier before let alone walked on one. It really is one of my most memorable
Swiss experiences for this reason. But having already done it once, it just
isn’t worth that kind of money to me to go again. Having seen glaciers in
Alberta and Alaska, the novelty of walking on one has worn off a little too.
And Mike, growing up in Montreal with seasonal access to snow and ice, also felt that money could go to better use. So we gave this one a miss for this
time. If you haven’t seen or walked on a glacier though, I don’t think you’ll
regret the money spent on this experience. They also have sled dogs that will
take you for a ride on the glacier if you’re interested in that.
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| UNESCO Heritage - Lavaux Vineyards |
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| Vevey |
For dinner, we went to Chez Gloria in Montreux's old town for a spectacular meal. Just when we thought the food we'd experience in Switzerland couldn't get any better, this dark basement medieval-style restaurant impressed us yet again. The service here wasn't as good as elsewhere, we waited a while for our meal and drinks, but we were glad to be sitting down and enjoying the rustic decorations so that wasn't an issue for us.
We tried really hard this whole trip, to go to restaurants recommended by locals, and I feel it made a huge difference in the quality and authenticity of the food we received. You know, at any tourist destination you go to, there will be those restaurants that will cater to what they think the tourists want, rather than to the strengths of their local cuisine, and this is what we want to avoid. Our local host's recommendations were spot on every time for what we wanted.
From here, we ran home in the rain, stopping at the Coop minimart for some snacks to get us through the next morning's road trip to Chamonix Mont Blanc.
We tried really hard this whole trip, to go to restaurants recommended by locals, and I feel it made a huge difference in the quality and authenticity of the food we received. You know, at any tourist destination you go to, there will be those restaurants that will cater to what they think the tourists want, rather than to the strengths of their local cuisine, and this is what we want to avoid. Our local host's recommendations were spot on every time for what we wanted.
From here, we ran home in the rain, stopping at the Coop minimart for some snacks to get us through the next morning's road trip to Chamonix Mont Blanc.
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