Château de Chillon

Now what can I saw about what is in fact the most impressive example of castlery in the country? Even as one approaches it, one’s step accelerates to match the beating of one’s heart. With the exception of the home of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum (which is a castle/palace in its own right, yet whose interior lacks the sort of impregnable feel that the exterior would lead to believe) this is the first bona fide medieval fortification I’ve ever set foot inside. You can walk throughout most of the structure, from the courtyards to the towers (which give an amazing view of Lac Léman and the distant Alps), and a pamphlet explains the uses of all the various rooms (in English too!), which are many: prison, dining halls, bedrooms, even toilets (which naturally empty straight into the lake). In one semi-large hall, there was a collection of wooden chests from the 15th through 17th centuries. There were a few dozen (yes, I took pictures of them all), but for now I’ll just share one.

Hmm, I’m actually really at a loss for words here. Perhaps I’ll have more to say on it after I read the book I bought that explains the whole history of the castle. For now, I’ll just share some pictures:

A swan makes her nest at the base of the wall.
Extant wooden supports used in the creation of the vaulted ceiling.
A charcoal (!) sketch on a part of the plaster-covered wall in the prison area.
Coat of arms in stained glass.
A view of the castle, lake, and Alps.

Oh, I did forget to mention that the castle produces its own wine, Clos de Chillon. It’s available exclusively at the Château, and I did buy a bottle. OK fine, I bought two bottles. Hopefully at least one will back it back to the States. Here’s a glimpse of the vinyard, a stone’s throw away from the castle.

Montreux, via Interlaken Ost

On the morning of 12 April, Natasha and I woke up at a painful 7:30 to start our journey towards Montreux. We had only a few change-overs, and one happened to be in Interlaken Ost; having an hour or so to kill, we decided to walk around and see the area. There was nothing too spectacular about it; I saw no castles or other great architecture, and we certainly didn’t have time to find any museums, but it was a beautiful day and quite scenic. The picture above hints at but doesn’t quite do justice to the colourfulness of the place. And yes, the water really is an unreal teal colour.

The train that bore us from Interlaken to Montreux, however, was amazing. Our 4-day rail passes somehow entitled us to take the “GoldenPass Panoramic” line, which, as the name suggests, is a very scenic trip through the Alps on a train that’s made up of a lot of window. Furthermore, as luck would have it, it only rained for about 5 minutes.

Going down into Montreux, which is on the northeastern shore of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), was reminiscent of riding into the Grand Canyon on mule-back: a very narrow path, with very sharp turns, winding its way down down down.. Only this time, we were on a train. Granted, a very small train (I think there were only 3 or 4 cars), but still somewhat hair-raising to see only mountainside through one window and a very steep drop out the other. We did survive, however, to take another very short train ride from the station at Montreux to the extremely impressive Château de Chillon. Which is another entry entirely.