Montreux by Chad, Emily and Kenny
Posted on 2016-12-10
After an early flight from Brussels to Geneva Chad Emily and I set out to explore Switzerland on our way to Zermatt. We had all purchased the Swiss travel pass for a few days which was super worth the cost. We caught the train in Geneva and headed towards Visp where we would switch trains to move to Zermatt. On this train we stopped in Montreux were we visited the Chillon castle and walked around their Christmas carnival thing. Which was super pretty and full of hand crafted goods and traditional Swiss dishes (at least I think, there was definitely a language barrier involved). After exploring a bit, we enjoyed some of the food from the carnival and then caught the bus to the castle.
This castle was awesome! It was built way back around/before 1005AD and we explored quite a bit of it. Turns out they just used the bathroom in the lake and instead of having a moat, they just built the castle on the water. The workers there also did a fantastic job of re-enacting some of the normalities of the time (they were cooking pork quarters over an open fire that smelt great! After exploring and taking way too many pictures, we caught the bus back to town and headed towards the train to Zermatt.
The train lead to beautiful views among the Swiss country side. Luckily we were able to see some parts by the day, but as the mountains rose as we approached – we lost the sun rather quickly. After arriving into Zermatt, we exited the train and headed to our hotel. The town seems small but in reality it is spread out fairly wide. It is purely a ski town but the homes, huts and buildings have a presence that make you want to stay. At this point we weren’t even being lured in by the glorious mountains that surround the place as it was dark. But after setting in for a moment things start to change.
It’s quite, there are no cars in Zermatt, you only get there by train. There is a strange silence as you can’t hear much of anything but the wind and the small river/creek that flows through the middle. The stairs a bright when there are no streetlights around and once your eyes become adjusted you can see a feint white ring that surrounds the village you are now in. Those… Those are HUGE mountains surrounding this village you have now found yourself in. And it. Is. Amazing.
