Today dawned bright and sunny, the weather is back on our side! We had a later start, and breakfast was okay - I miss my lactose free supplies from Murren!! I know that I have used the words beautiful, gorgeous, picturesque and superb A LOT in this blog, but today was full of them again. We have so many great photos, it has been very hard to choose just a few for this blog.
We started by going uphill to explore old Montreux. I will let the pictures tell the story. Because it is further up the hill, the views are even better. Lake Geneva with blue skies and sunshine is even more breathtaking (see, I found a new word!). Sadly, someone decided to build something new downtown, so there are cranes in the view as well - very inconsiderate of them!!
We wound our way back down, looking for either a train or bus to Vevey - we found a bus first. Vevey is a few kilometers along the lake in the direction of Geneva, and free travel is included on our Riviera card. It too has an old town, and beautiful foreshore (more photos). There must have been 20 white swans just swimming around at the edge of the lake, I don't think I have ever seen such a large group of them before. We spent just over an hour wandering around and taking photos before heading to the railway station.
A short train ride to the small town of Chexbres, the starting point for a walk down through the vineyards of the Lavaux region, and our main destination for the day. Errol had this on our to do list, and there was a small book from the hotel that gave very specific directions. Grapes have been grown on the hillsides in this area since the 12th century. Because the hills are so steep, the vineyards are terraced with rock walls, 'the book' says there are 10 000 terraces, and a total of 400 - 450 km of walls. Everywhere we looked, there was another photo waiting to be taken. The view was over green vineyards, across ancient villages, and out to the lake, with a snow covered mountains in the background. Add all of that to glorious sunshine on a perfectly clear day .......... we could have just stayed there!
We meandered our way downhill and through the small town of Rivaz. Then on to the main road at the bottom of the hill where we found our lunch destination - Auberge de Rivaz (again one recommended on Trip Advisor). We both ordered steaks, which came with veggies (yay - I miss my veggies) and fries. The food was good, the wine okay, the prices reasonable and the view delightful.
We could have finished our day there and caught the ferry back to Montreux, but decided to go back to the vineyards, and walk back to St Saphorin. It did mean some uphill work for a bit, but lunch had revived us, so we were ready. We ran into 2 English couples along the way, and had a very pleasant chat for a while (they initially thought we were English too!). St Saphorin was again a small, old village - photos - what can I say!!
Under the main road to the tiny railway station, it took a little while to work out the ticket machine, but we triumphed! We also had a bit of a wait, so we walked around the back of the building and found a few more very old houses (they're everywhere!!), a small waterfall, and best of all, shade. Stayed on the train right back to Montreux, then back to the hotel to revive.
One last task - we had to get rid of the last of our francs. We bought a light dinner, drinks for the train trip tomorrow, and sadly had to spend the rest on a good bottle of wine to have with our dinner. Wine in Switzerland is nowhere hear as reasonably priced as an Italy.
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