Gruyères

The Gruyères region in Switzerland has amazing mountainous scenery, and is where the Gruyère cheese is made. We were told by many non-Swiss people that it is a town that we must visit. The central part of town is medieval, with old buildings on both sides of the main street which is cobble-stoned. Essentially, it can be described by one word: quaint.

The town is pedestrian-only, which means buses and cars all park below, and tourists have a short walk in. We visited on a warm summer day, and although it was mid-week, it was pretty packed with tourists - not too much so you couldn't walk around easily, but it definitely made it hard to take photos (at that time, most of the tourists were Spanish actually).

One of the first things we did was go to the HRGiger Museum Bar. Right by the HR Giger Museum, it is a bar that is best described as "cavernous" and "skeletal" and is said to remind one of Jason and the Whale. All I kept thinking about were the Alien movies, however. It took 2 years to complete, and there are some great photos on the website: http://www.hrgiger.com
People are constantly walking in it just to take photos, so there is a sign saying that it is for patrons only to enter. We enjoyed a drink and a snack there, and it was a cool place to sit and get away from the sun for a bit.

I later learned that H.R. Giger is a Swiss artist who did award-winning design work for the Alien movie.His work is also in the museum, and just outside it too. One of the more impressive displays is the sculpture of the alien "bullets" in the gun.

Gun with alien bullets

Door handles

It is a small town, but there are plenty of restaurants to choose from, and the dishes of choice are fondue, raclette, and rösti; and for dessert, Gruyère cream with berries, meringues, or both! If you are lactose-intolerant, this is not the place for you to eat. I enjoyed cream with raspberries. I liked that they were separate, as I could choose the amount of cream to eat, but the waitress was surprised I didn't finish my cream. I wondered if I'd offended her.

Berries with cream

 We walked around the grounds of the château, which are flanked by the château walls and the stunning scenery. The chateau is from the 13th century, and marks the top of the town.

Going around the château grounds

View from the château grounds

Around the town is the remaining part of the fortified castlewalls, and it's fun to scramble around there on the old, worn steps.

We found a lovely hotel / resort, Hotel Cailler, in nearby Charmey, a town that is enjoyed by people who enjoy fresh mountain air (who doesn't?). We chose to stay there and experience the bains, or thermal baths, and spent a lovely and relaxing afternoon.
Charmey also boasts breathtaking views of the impressive mountains. We could only imagine the scenery in the wintertime.

Château de Chillon

My friend Tracy was here from the US, and we decided to go to Montreux and visit Château de Chillon while we were there. I love castles, so I was pretty excited to go and see it. It's on tons of postcards of Switzerland, with most pictures taken from the lake. We had expected to spend about half an hour at the Château, then most of the day at Montreux, but there was so much to see, we spent most of the afternoon wandering around the Château, exploring the castle and the grounds!

The weather was fantastic: warm, but not hot, and sunny. We took a pleasant train trip from Geneva to get to Montreux, then took a short bus ride to the Château.  On the way, a quick read through the guide books taught us that was "made famous" by Lord Byron, who wrote the poem The Prisoner of Chillon.  It has become a very popular tourist destination, It's in the very corner of Lake Geneva, and surrounded by tall mountains.

It is on what is now a very busy street, so it's hard to imagine how it was centuries ago. It must have felt like such a serene place to those who lived there.
Upon crossing a small bridge, you can see the natural moat.

The map given to us showed a suggested path to follow for a self-guided tour, which we chose to do. One of the first places we went to was the cellar, where we got to see the dungeons made infamous by the afore-mentioned poem. It's quite chilling to see pillars and posts where you can almost picture prisoners being shackled. I think if the lighting was any dimmer, it would be a very ominous place.

There are windows dotted around that show the stunning lake and mountains. Nowadays, a large ship full of tourists will sail by (very rapidly) or smaller boats.

The tour continued to 30 more different points of interest... it was full of narrow staircases leading to big halls or small private rooms.

There are many signs that this castle was built in stages, over centuries. There were three or four courtyards, for instance, and more than one private quarters.

We spent a good few hours exploring this lovely castle, with great views looking out and into the grounds. There were so many windows and scenic spots!

This excursion cut into our "Montreux time", but it was an afternoon well spent.

View of Château de Chillon from lakeside Montreux

The photo opportunities in this place are almost endless, and I thank Tracy for taking her wonderful camera and sharing her photos with me!