Château de Gruyères

Gruyères, Switzerland

A quaint town named after the french word for crane. Famous for it's cheese, and supplier of fresh milk for the chocolate made by Callier.

Une Grue.

Aging gruyère cheese.

Stiring the curds and whey.

The stash of chocolate we bought at the Callier chocolate factory. We probably would have bought more if we hadn't just made ourselves sick on the samples at the end of the tour.

Vevey, Switzerland

Musée Suisse de l’appareil Photographique

(Swiss Photography Museum)

The first photo shop.

Cool postage stamp sized gold portraits.

Window shopping.

This is the pre-dinner "I'm so hungry I can hardly stand" look.

I'm curious what the significance a mail bearing, peg-legged knight has to be painted on the side of a building.

Waiting for the bus to take us back to our hotel.

Laundry Day

Doing laundry can be a challenging, and a quite complicated when your are on vacation. Here's our step-by-step guide for doing laundry while staying in Montreux, Switzerland.

1. Figure out how to say "Laundry Mat" in French
2. Ask several locals if there is one around.
3. Consult the GPS
4. Make a quick trip to the information center to acquire a short list of "local" laundry mats (within 60km).
5. Reconsult the GPS.
6. Drive 40 minutes through Swiss wine country
7. Follow the GPS instructions to a tiny alley, with no laundry mat in sight.
8. Assume the GPS was wrong.
9. Park the car, and try to ignore the overpowering fermented grape smell, and the drizzly rain, while attempting to find a local to ask if there really is a laundry mat close by.
10. Follow the local's directions back up the alley to exactly where the GPS said there was a laundry mat, and notice that there is in fact a small, closet sized space with 1 working washer, and no dryers which could technically be called a laundry mat.
11. Appreciate the little village, but decide to try the next address listed.
12. Drive another 20 minutes to a slightly larger town, and locate the Self Wash.
13. Realize that you need soap.
14. Ask other patrons in the laundry mat if there is a store near by to get laundry detergent. If it is past 6:00 PM the answer will be "no."
15. Borrow two loads worth of soap from a nice young man.
16. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
17. Dry clothes (without dryer sheets for the full experience).
18. Take pictures while waiting for the clothes to dry.
19. Fold, and repack clothing.
20. Appreciate freshly washed clothes.
21. Remember to bring detergent, and dryer sheets next time.

Luckily, it was humid enough that the static was only an issue when we first took our clothes out of the dryer.

Château de Chillon

Chillon castle was important for control of the trade routes along Lake Geneva. The castle is first mentioned in history in 1150 when it was controlled by the Counts of Savoy. In the 1500's the Bernese took over the castle. It became the property of the Canton of Vaud around 1800 during the Vaudois Revolution. The castle became famous when writer Lord Byron wrote a poem called "The Prisoner of Chillon" about François Bonivard , a monk/politician who was held in the castle for 6 years.

And that is about the extent of my knowledge of Swiss history.

The sentry walk

The safest place in the castle is the keep. The little door is the only way in. Once you climbed up the ladder into the keep, you would pull the ladder up after you so no one else could get in.

Lord Byron carved his name on one of the pillars in the prison.

One of the prison rooms.

The castle is built right into the rocks.

Looking down into a prison room.



One of the rooms available to rent for parties.


Chillon is technically built on an island.

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

We stayed in a fabulous hotel in Montreux, Switzerland right on the Lake. We began to suspect we were a little out of our league when we saw several Ferrari's being valeted by the casino. Our suspicions were confirmed when we started asking around for a laundry mat, and were told (politely) that the closest laundry mat was 40 minutes away. Apparently Montreux is a vacation spot for the rich and retired types, who like to spend their vacations relaxing, gambling, and wandering around 5 star hotels in their monogrammed cashmere bathrobes while their laundry is sent out. I'm sure we were frugally conspicuous as we opted to walk around looking for a bakery to buy a few pastries, rather than paying for room serviced breakfast. The area is beautiful, and I can see the appeal. Maybe we'll visit again sometime when we fit in more with that crowd, and are more comfortable sipping $30 hot chocolate from tiny espresso mugs. I'm pretty sure I could get used to someone else doing my laundry. Then again, I think we prefer vacation spots where the restaurants stay open past 6:00 PM.

View from our hotel room balcony.

Along the boardwalk.

Château de Chillon

Swiss Countryside

Mountains, rolling hills, sheep and cows grazing in the green meadows, white churches, bikers everywhere. Beautiful. Stunning. Breathtaking. Amazing. Etc.