So after Lausanne we continued towards the village of Vevey, where we would catch the ferry which would take us along the lake towards the Castle of Chillon.. One our way there though, we passed by the big headquarters complex of Nestle which is a Swiss founded company. Incidentally, our guide also mentioned that the design of the building was similar to that of WHO in Geneva.

Our ferry ride was like this mini steamship kind of thing. It was quite interesting to note that it carried both the French and Swiss flags on either side of the boat. The scenery along the river was great. It was clear that there were a lot of French speaking tourists on their way to see the castle of Chillon as the boat only really emptied once we reach Chillon! Heaps of small kids running around the clambering around the boat.... while the old french men sit patiently, still dressed in a blazer/suit despite the summer heat...



Our ferry actually stopped at Montreux briefly before Chillon so we got to see a bit of the harbour side. While on the ferry, I notice a very pretty castle complex on the top of the mountains (top right picture) and I mentioned it to our guide. That was where I learnt that it used to belong to Empress Sisi of the Habsburg empire and it was her summer palace when she stayed in Geneva. Incidentally, if you remember, I did mention at the beginning that Sisi was assasinated in Geneva... how cool is it that you're able to piece history together when you visit 2 very different cities!!! Today the summer palace is no more and is now a private medical facility.

At last Chillon castle... I thought that my guide was exaggerating when she said that the castle doesn't look real, it looked like it was just standing on the water.... but as the ferry got closer, I began to see what she meant. It's a very surreal feeling, seeing a castle built directly on the edge of the coast, and with no land jutting out, it almost looks like it's standing on the water surface itself.


The dungeons and prisons of the castle, where we were able to see that the castle was built directly on the natural coastal rock as its foundations. The door openings were so small and short for me that I had to take a picture with it to show how short it was!

It was made popular by Lord Byron, who wrote the poem The Prisoner Of Chillon (1816) about François de Bonivard, a Genevois monk and politician who was imprisoned there from 1530 to 1536; Byron also carved his name on a pillar of the dungeon.

Religious painting on dungeon wall for reasons unknown.

Castle courtyard

Interior of the castle. We got to see the dining halls/trunk collections and bedrooms of the castle. Notice how the bed is very short.... evidently people used to sleep sitting up in the middle ages as lying down meant that they would die...

The hospitable thing in the middle ages was to offer your guest a bath when he had arrived at your castle. Due to the long travelling times, visitors always arrived at their destination dirty hence the offer. An interesting tibbit I learned was that many people were under the impression that people in the middle ages did not bath and were dirty, but it was not true. It was only discouraged (baths) in the later centuries as back then baths were always assisted by servants (usually female) and the church realized that alot of copulating was happening in these baths and tried to discouraged it by putting down baths...


Funny toliet jokes...

Montreux along the River...

Interesting fact about Montreux: this is the place where Freddie Mercury of the band queen had his second home and this is where he died. In memory of him, there is a statue of him here in Montreux

My guide was so cool... she asked me if I had any more questions towards the end of the tour and I asked her if she could recommend a cheese fondue place since it's like a national dish of Switzerland basically. And she recommended this good place in Geneva. It's called Petit Chalet, on Rue de Berne street. She even wrote down in french what I should order so that I would not have any problems with the waiters, though the menu in that restaurant was in english as well and all the waiters spoke english too.... Good recommendation for anyone wanting to try cheese fondue in Geneva. It has pretty decent prices (for a Swiss town)...
Here's what I had...
Assiette Viande Sechee (thin beef slices-> as a starter)
Fondue au Fromage (Cheese fondue)
vin Blandle.. (White wine)

I have begun a fond appreciation for Viator.com after my trip to Geneva. I booked 2 tours via viator and one of them was this day excursion to the surrrounding towns: Lausanne, Montreux and Chillon. I took so many pictures of Lausanne that in this post all you'll see is pictures of Lausanne first.... The swiss countryside is very beautiful and I just start snapping away.

Interesting facts about Lausanne:
- Birthplace of the Olympic games. The Olympic headquarters is located here.
- Lausanne is located on the shores of Lake Geneva which is approximately the size of Singapore. My guide had previously spent 8 years in Singapore and she recognized my accent immediately. Incidentally too there was another Singaporean on the bus. He was a PSC scholar on internship with MFA for 3 weeks in Geneva. I kinda guessed immediately that he was a scholar coz he told me that he was in Yale (like hello... private school in the States) and he had a very cool internship working with WTO in geneva.... I asked him if such an internships were common and he quietly admitted to me that it wasn't.... scholars are soooooooooooooooo lucky.....

Pictures of Lausanne: town area. Lausanne is built on a mountain, so it is very steep for the pedestrains...


Old town area...one thing about Swiss water is that it is mostly drinkable and very safe. And it tastes very nice too.... for example... Hungarian tap water while safe had a different taste to it when I first tried it and it took some getting used to.



Headquarters of the International Olympic committee...

Believe it or not, Switzerland actually has some Roman ruins... though it's nothing in comparison to the ones in Turkey... but still you gotta be proud of what you have right.... basically what you see are the walls/foundations of the old towns

Olympic museum. We didn't have time to go inside, but from the outside, you can see that the grounds is nicely decorated with sculptures and statues which are gifts from participating olympic countries. The thai structure below is a gift from the Thai king who actually studied French here in Lausanne.

Cathedral Notre Dame de Lausanne... known as the most beautiful gothic cathedral in Switzerland and famous for its square tower where watchmen used to announce the time at the 4 corners at 15 min intervals.

Interior of the cathedral... with the famous rose window and blue stain glass windows (bottom left hand corner -> like those in the Notre Dame Paris).

The cathedral grounds overlooking the city and the lake.

Walking tour around old town... we managed to see this scheduled performance in front of this old fountain which features soldiers marching and swiss girls dancing in the swiss dress... a bit like the astronomical clock in prague... but this one had a bit more action :P

Lake Geneva and its surroundings... Opposite of Lausanne is French territory and also the famous village of Evian, where the famous bottled water is produced

On our way to Veves to catch the boat to Chillon, we drove past this UNESCO site of terrace vineyards. This region is the 3rd highest producing region of wine in Switzerland. I managed to try some during my stay in Switzerland and its very nice. The unfortunate thing is that Switzerland does not export its wine as it does not even produce enough wine for its own consumption and has to import wine from France and Italy to support the demand...

Vineyards overlooking the lake..... gorgeous scenery..

So... while everyone ran to the lakes and the beaches to enjoy the summer weekend, I ran away to the mountains instead :P I pretty much had no expectations for this trip. First time ever to Switzerland and barely read up on it before I boarded the plane. So I was just pretty much planning to bum around. However, things obviously never turn out the way you want them to, though in this instance, it turned out for the better :)
Before going to Geneva, I had previously signed myself up for trips to the neighbouring Swiss Towns, including a day trip to Charmonix and Mont Blanc in the French region, so pretty much I had two days to explore the city of Geneva. Before, I kept thinking that Geneva was pretty much a modern city, not much history in it, but during my stay there, I did learn a few interesting facts about it....
a. The story Frankerstein was written in Geneva by Mary Shelley!
b. Empress Sisi of the Habsburg empire was murdered in Geneva.. (isn't it nice when you visit two different cities and you can actually piece history together>)
c. Geneva is the second greenest city in Europe after London (which has Hyde Park)
d. CERN labs, based in Geneva, developed the world wide web
e. Swiss have the Reformation to thank for chasing all the smart watch makers (artisans from France) into geneva where they continued their trade and made Switzerland into one of the top quality watch making countries today.

Another point which I particularly liked was how Geneva -> Geneve -> Genevieve (HAHA!). I swear, there were a couple of times when I walking around the street and I mixed up the french pronounciation of Geneva with my name!!

So... I arrived into Geneva on an evening flight from Budapest. Rather late actually, so by the time I managed to figure out the way to the hostel it was nearly midnight, and I just quickly staggered into my hostel room and slept. The best part, my hostel roommates were Hungarian. How ironic was that.... In the 4 nights that I spent in the hostel, I share the room with Hungarians, Spanish and Koreans... I got on particularly well with the Spanish girls, despite our lack of mutual language for communication... it was quite funny, 3 of us trying to describe our day's adventures to each other in the room, one of the girls scanning through her english dictionary constantly, me trying to remember all those simple spanish phrases I learnt many years ago... (eh.. "comprehendo!!" ...." Si loci!!" "Mi Nombres..." "Comos es tas..." ) God, it was so funny, and in the end we exchanged contacts coz I found out that they were from Madrid, and I mentioned that I was planning to visit that place when i had the time towards the end of the year... haha...
Anyhow, my first day proper in Geneva, I woke up pretty early (must be all those early classes training my body) and I walked to the tourist office as I had researched and knew that the office offered a walking tour. We had a wonderful guide, very patient and like freakin tri-lingual (Now, I shall officially bow down to the Swiss, as everyone I've met seems to the trilingual in the very least... like OMFG). I really think that part of my wonderful experience in Geneva was because the Swiss are such polite, friendly and open minded people!! Everyone is always smiling and saying hello and goodbye. Geneva being so close to France (and being part of France before,) French is the main language in this canton. I don't know French. Not at all... but even so, it wasn't a problem communicating! And how easy it was to pick up the simple phrases like Bonjour... Merci...S'il vous plait... It's always a good idea to greet someone in French first and then switch to English... that little bit of respect goes a long way... I do think... and here is where that I officially fell in love with the French language... it's such a polite and endearing language... just hearing the waiters say Merci S'il vous plait to me was enough... (like can I just die on the spot now!!!!)
Ok, I could obvously write forever about my slight infatuation with French... but moving on now... and to the pictures... which are always the highlight of every post I think...
Stuff I saw/learnt during my walking tour..
The famous Jet d'eau... the icon of geneva which rises to a height of 140m

The swiss are all about quality and they certainly know how to display their products well too!!!! Just looking at these products through the window made me want to go it and splurge 50 franc on a box of well made chocolates.... though I must confess I bought a very tiny box for myself on the last day... and it was utterly divine...

The private banking institutions have their origins from the Reformation when the calvinists needed loans/institutions to keep their money and having none available to them, set up their own.... Private banks also mean that you need to have a minimum of 1 million bucks to set up an account there... like in another lifetime for me man...

The one distinctive thing about Geneva architecture is that it's all very simple and plain, most probably a reflection of the reformation movement of the time... You find that the buildings have simple designs (though their engineering feats are another matter) and not at all overly "dramatic" as some might notice in the baroque styles. But there are a few exceptions: First picture from the left is the oldest remaining Geneve wall... much of the city was destroyed in many fires centuries back and that is the oldest wall. The second one is the rare example of an Italian architectural style with open verandas...while the other photos are typical buildings you find in Geneva..

Geneva is a little bit like Auckland, but steeper I imagine... so there is a downtown and the upper streets. The old town of Geneva is located in the upper streets, but it lovely being able to walk through the cobbled streets (and check out the funny restaurant names at the same time). One finds that the Swiss are a rather patriotic bunch, not only to their country, but also to their respective cantons.. which is evident due to the flags all around...

Downtown area: aka the shopping district

Street art..

First picture: Plaque commemorating the birthplace of Rousseau, more famously known as the philosopher whose ideals were important to the French revolution. He was Genovese... though not very well liked in his town because of his equality ideas
Second pic: Geneva two council house. That flag is the Geneve canton flag. Half of the flag is an eagle from the Habsburg monarchy and the other half is a key, symbolic of St Paul. Old folk's tales will say that the bird is a chicken and the key is the key to the wine cellar.
third picture: Rochemont... famous guy who set/created the neutral states/mandates of Switzerland which successfully kept it out of both World Wars.

The grey building with the tower is the oldest building in Geneva

The longest wooden bench in the world is in Geneva and yes it's in the guiness book of records..

Town hall: Where the Geneva convention was signed and created...

The city cathedral: used to be a catholic church but was converted to a calvinist church during the reformation. The columns were added to make it look more like a temple. I can't really remember this, but one of the words (French or something) for church was really temple... hence the design... I need to be corrected on this... Anyhow, there is also an archaeological museum beneath it which shows the stones used for the construction of the church from the middle ages as well as some graves/coffins.


Interior of the church. The acoustics of the church are really really good. Our guide demonstrated for us in the chapel, and when he sang, his voice really reflected back down and was like wow...

From the right, is the pulpit and chair when Calvin preached and sat. Left is the choir box whereby pple in those days paid to sing in the choir and hence the choir seats were also custom made to fit the person's body perfectly... hence some may have bigger seats than others because of their big butts..

Place de Bourg- de - Four... lovely place in the old town area, which is highly recommended if anyone ever happens to be in this city and looking for a place to eat.... lovely area to sit outside and have a nice meal... I ate at this place at Chez ma cuisine wher for 15 francs, I got roast chicken, bread, wedges, and salad... naturally I couldn't finish everything and left the place stuffed.

After lunch, I walked over to the Parc de Bastions to see the famous Reformation wall.... but there was some kind of festival going on and they boarded up the place... but I had my ways of snapping a picture or two :P

Giant chess games in the Parc de Bastions

When i saw the flowerclocks in Scotland and Disneyland... I was like wow.... that must be one of a kind... but honestly... Switzerland is obsessed with flower clocks... I made this remark to my tour guide in Lausanne and she agreed with me.... Almost every city will have a beautiful clock in the park...