Wednesday 26th August - Interlaken to Montreux,

It stopped raining for a couple of hours last evening to allow us to finally walk about Interlaken and familiarise ourselves with the place.

There were dozens of Muslim families in town, literally dozens - in every restaurant, every hotel, every Designer Label shop, and they continued to pour in numbers from buses arriving in town late into the evening.  Most of the women were fully hidden behind black veils, with only their eyes visible....   God knows what they find so attractive about a holiday in Interlaken - they hadn't been in evidence in such great numbers anywhere else in Switzerland.  Their kids are all gorgeous, and I wondered how the soon-to-be-covered young girls felt about soon following Mum into invisibility!!

Anyway, we retired to our room after a particularly nice dinner, and reflected on all the gorgeous hotel rooms we have had in the past - of which this was not one!!!

Really heavy, lumpy doonas, hard mattresses and pillows that didn't seem to have much filling of any sort in them.   Slept for a few hours, and then woke up to a neighbouring church (or something) which had a clock-tower, and a clock which chimed every 15 minutes, and then a particularly exciting chime on the hour.....   Omigod......  We had the window open because the evening was actually very warm and humid...    That was our mistake - double glazed windows DO keep a lot of noise out!!!  Our fault.

This pub is undergoing renovations and will probably improve - very 1960ish at the moment.......


Anyway - to today - Wednesday.......

Woke to a slighter brighter day, although it had poured all night - very heavy rain...

Breakfast was also ordinary - no Bircher Muesli, no platters of fresh fruit, and sacre bleu - no toaster!!! To top it off, the coffee was also bad!!!

Anyway, off we went to the train station.   Boarded our very comfy train - again with 1st class reserved seats, and again the train was half empty.

The clouds cleared as we headed south, and it was a gorgeous sunny day, with spectacular views all the way to Montreaux.

Noticed along the way that the train announcements in multiple languages, which had ALWAYS begun with German, followed by French, now started with French..... and even sometimes included Spanish. Of course, being a lazy English speaker, we had always appreciated that every person to whom we spoke, prior to our arrival in Interlaken - spoke perfect English and was happy to do so.....  Now however, it was very different, and some folk seem barely have any English at all, and we were not in the position to explain that we were Aussies, not English - which we know from past experience, always helps with the French's English!!!!   Not for the first time I am SO sorry I didn't concentrate in French language classes at school!

What a truly lovely town, and probably the busiest town we've visited in Switzerland.  Obviously a few degrees warmer all year here too, as there are many vineyards planted on the hillsides - reminiscent of the vineyards planted along the Rhine;  nothing like this growing further north.

We left our luggage (as our room wasn't ready) and wandered off along the foreshore - right in front of our hotel, which incidentally, was directly across the road from the railway station.....  Well done Bev.

Lovely gentle scenes, small yachts sailing about on the lake, and many fat happy white swans bobbing about close to where the good tourist folk were having their lunch!!!  Arch and I had a bite to eat down on the waterfront too and then wandered upstairs to OUR hotel, to enjoy a beer in the bar, overlooking the water...  How nice, and how relaxing.....

Everybody was having a lovely day, and many passers-by were paying homage to Freddy Mercury - who's amazing likeness, cast in bronze, is pretty much right in front of our hotel.  Apparently Freddy called Montreaux home for years, and they remember him with affection!

I had had the wit to book a table for dinner upon arrival at the hotel, and when time came to eat, we discovered we had a table centre front, overlooking the spectacular Lake Geneva, and we got to sit there - at the most romantic restaurant table I have EVER sat, and enjoy a divine meal, great wine, and watch the stunning views as the sun set over the lake, and the lights of the villages across the lake came on....   Did not want to leave........

Decided that days don't get much better than this......

Retired to our room convinced that Montreaux is a place to which we could return....