Montreux, Switzerland
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
26
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Montreux,
Switzerland
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Sorry for the long delay since our last T-Pod. We have had a very busy few weeks - my parents, Julie's old roomie Christy, and family friends Andrea and Moshe were all here last week. It was a busy week but a very great one. I'm sure you'll hear more about their trips later but for now, here's our trip to Montreux, Switzerland on Lake Geneva...
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It's Friday night in Montreux, Switzerland and we are exhausted. I think we are done for the day so I figured I would bust out my Palm keyboard and get working on the T-Pod. So here is what we think so far...
01. Room at the Hotel Miramont
THURSDAY
We began our usual walk to Central Station to take the train to Schiphol airport at 5:45 in the morning. It was the usual walk, nothing worth noting other than the obviously drunk girl who spent the whole walk to the train in front of us yelling at some guy in English (with a heavy ascent). I'm not exactly sure what she was saying although I did heard the phrase "he was married" and "you wear a ring when you are married" over and over again. I can only image what she was 'confessing' to. We arrived at Central Station, parted ways with the married/ring chick and bought our tickets for the train.
We tend to use the automated ticket machine to buy our train tickets. It's pretty easy to do and it even has a button at the bottom of the screen so that you can view the options in English. When we approached the train to board, a train employee told me that I had purchased the wrong tickets. At first I thought he was going to tell me that I had bought a roundtrip ticket, an obvious mistake since we are Americans and had luggage with us so we must be traveling through Europe and would not be needing roundtrip, to which I was ready to proudly say, "no, we live here"
02. View from our hotel room
. He surprised me when he said that we had bought weekend return tickets and it was only Thursday - the tickets don't become valid until Friday. I kinda gave him a disappointed look and I think he knew that if he were to send me back, I would miss the train - not that that is a big problem since they leave for the airport about every 10 minutes. He said, "Let me check with my colleague". The colleague thought it was OK so we boarded the train and headed off to AMS. I think the man had to "check with his colleague" because in a typical Dutch way, whether Julie and I were allowed to board the train needed to be a debate as nothing can be decided by just 1 person in Holland.We made it to the airport without another hitch. I even made it through airport security without having my insides examined by some fella. To complete this wonderful experience, I was able to convince Julie to let me have McDonald's breakfast - McFatAss. It was so good, I forgot how great McMuffins are.
We boarded the plane, we took off, and I started reading. Next thing I knew, we were about to land in Geneva. Landing in Geneva was gorgeous. We passed over the mountains and it was breathtaking - so green and so rugged. Of course they also seemed to be endless. We were excited for our long weekend.
We had not checked our bags so after a quick inspection to see how clean Swiss bathrooms are and a stop to the ATM to get some Swiss Francs (E1 = SF1.50), we left the airport and found the train station. This is usually not hard to do in Europe since it appears as if every train system is linked to the airport like in Chicago - LA, get with the program here
03. View from hotel room
. We bought our 1-way tickets (SF60 per person) and we were off. The problem was the 1-hour train to Montreux only comes once an hour and we had about 45 minutes to kill. We looked around the airport shops but nothing was too exciting. Finally the train was about to depart.We sat on the right side of the train and then strategically moved to the left side so that we could sit along the lakeside. Of course as soon as the train began, we were on the wrong side. By this time, the train was full so we just dealt with it. After a few stops, seats on the lakeside opened up and we switched seats so that we could enjoy the gorgeous scenery.
We arrived in Montreux around noon. We stopped at the train station ticket office to find out where our hotel was. The woman behind the counter made a comment about how far it was from the train station and urged us to take a taxi. Being a cheap bastard, we grabbed our wheeling luggage and headed uphill towards Miramonte Hotel. I'm not sure what the woman's issue was because the walk took about 15 minutes. (We are now on the plane heading home - again, I am happy that there was not much T-Podding done on vacation).
The Hotel Miramonte (SF120 per night) seemed very nice but also very empty
04. Sweat on Stephens belly
. Upon check-in, we asked about being upgraded from a room with a mountain-view to a room with a lake-view. The woman behind the counter gladly obliged and we were thrilled. The room had 2 single beds which to Julie's disappointment I pushed together, a couch which didn't look welcoming enough for us to sit on but did make a good spot for us to throw our dirty clothes, a bathroom and shower, and a TV (which we watched for about 10 minutes one night to see CNN International and noticed that unlike in A'dam where loads of shows are in English with Dutch subtitles, every channel was in French). And of course the room had a gorgeous view onto the lake, the town, the French Alps across the lake, and a really cool fort/castle up the way a little bit which we ended up visiting later in our trip - the Chillon Château (Pictures 1-3). Later that night we realized the downside of our move - the train runs right outside our room about every 30 minutes all night. I am a heavy sleeper so I never even noticed however Julie was not quite as lucky.Anyways, we dropped our bags in the room and headed downhill to the lakefront. We were both starving but quickly realized that while Copenhagen was expensive, Switzerland was even more expensive. We looked at a few menus of lakefront hotels and opted for falafel at some small hole-in-the-wall. It was really good and exactly what we both needed at the time
05. Julie on ferry ride on Lake Geneva
. It too was expensive - 2 falafels, 2 bottles of water, and 1 order of fries = SF30. That was the way this weekend was going to be so rather than fighting it, I chose to just embrace it.After refueling, we continued walking along the lake and came upon my favorite statue so far. As we've mentioned, every town seems to have its statue which is celebrated as a tourist attraction. We have seen the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen and the Boy who saved the Dyke in Harlingen, now we saw Montreux's Freddie Mercury (Picture 38). Yes, Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen who died of AIDS about 10 years ago. Apparently, he was a big fan of Montreux and spent a lot of time visiting the city. The claim was even made that he wrote many of Queen's hit in Montreux. As a result, Queen became my Montreux soundtrack - no matter what activity we were doing - hiking the Swiss Alps, swimming in Lake Geneva, or just walking along town - I couldn't get Queen's music out of my mind. It was rather strange. The song "Smoke on the Water" was also apparently written in and about Montreux so when I wasn't singing "fat-bottomed girls, you make the rocking world go round" and "I want to ride my bi-cy-cle, I want to ride my bike", I was singing Deep Purple.
We continued along the lakefront, stopping in the tourist center to look into hiking routes - Julie's main objective of the weekend - and other activities. There didn't seem to be too many attractions which was fine with us since we really did want to spend these 4 days hiking, in the lake, and in general, just relaxing. We stopped at the boat landing to make plans to take a 2-hour ferry ride along the lake later in the afternoon.
06. View of Montreux from ferry
We continued walking west along the lake, passing all the gorgeous hotels that I am way too cheap to reserve a room at. It was so damn hot out and I was beginning to really see the value in paying 4 or 5 times more per night than we were to stay at one of these hotels as we looked through the fence jealously at the hotel guests as they enjoyed the hotel pool. After realizing that we just weren't going to shell out that kinda coin for a pool, we found a bench along the lake and enjoyed the amazing view. It didn't take long before we were both asleep on the bench. The only thing that woke us was the sweat glazing our entire bodies (Picture 4). Did I mention that it was damn hot? So much so that the shops had these blinds that hund down from the overhang that keep the stores shaded (Picture 83). They were weighted to keep them steady and of course, many used them as additional space to advertise on.
By this time, we had just enough time to towel off the sweat and grab an ice cream to enjoy while waiting for the boat ride. The boat was a commuter ferry that ran continuously between the towns along the lake. Some of the ferries went the whole distance of the lake while the one we were on stayed in the upper lake, moving between 10 or so towns with Montreux being the largest one.
07. Stephen on the ferry
It appeared as though those who were on the boat as a tourist activity had 1st-class tickets (SF22 per person) and sat on the top, which had a bar and snack bar. We made our way along the lake, passing the Chillon Chateau fort/castle and seeing lots of really cute towns along the way (Pictures 5-15). Interestingly, as we would pull away from a dock, kids would dive off the wooden poles boaters would use to tie their boats to, into the wake of the ferry. It was like a local sport because every time we left a dock, kids would dive in after us. It looked like so much fun and given the crazy heat, very refreshing. The boat ride was really very nice. It was very relaxing to feel the breeze, grab some sun rays, sip on a nice local beer (Boxer Biere), and see some cute some towns from the top of this boat. This was actually what I was hoping our boat ride in Roskilde, Denmark would've been like. We basically rode all the way to the French boarder and then back across the lake to Montreux - Lake Geneva is slightly more Swiss than French but provides a boarder between the 2 countries. There were tons of sailboats on the lake and a handful of water skiers. It was perfect.
After the boat ride we stopped at a local grocery store to stock up on bottled water in preparation for our planned morning hike. Finally a bargain, a huge bottle of water was only SF7, compared to the SF5 I paid earlier in the day for a small personal-size bottle at one of the tourist rip-off spots
08. Castle of Chillon
.We continued to weave our way through town back towards our hotel. It looked like most of town was on holiday as many of the stores were closed and had been all day. We found a really great little Italian restaurant. Other than fondue, there is not really a Swiss food but because they had been conquered so many times in their history, there are major influences from its large neighbors, France, Germany, and Italy. These influences include language ,where it seems as if every citizen speaks all three, and in the kitchen. This night we tried Italian - La Locanda. And it was real good. Julie had a nice mixed salad, eggplant ravioli, and a beer, while I went with a caprese salad (real good mozzarella), truffle ravioli, and a beer. The meal was very good and not too expensive (SF90). The restaurant itself was small with only a few tables occupied. We were glad to see that the Swiss also eat a bit later in the evening like in A'dam.
Following dinner, we headed back to the hotel, enjoyed the gorgeous sunset across the lake, and called it a successful day.
FRIDAY
We started the day at about 8:30 with breakfast at the hotel
09. Castle of Chillon
. This breakfast was not nearly as nice as the breakfast at our Copenhagen hotel. From breakfast we headed to the train station where we decided we would take the train to another small town in the mountains to begin our hike.At the train station we found a really helpful employee who told us that we could buy a 2-day pass for SF77 and travel anywhere in the region during those 2 days or we could buy 1 round-trip ticket for SF55. We thought it was a good deal so we took the 2-day package.
We took a train powered by a steam engine practically vertical up the mountain to Rochers-de-Naye. It was a very slow ride but the scenery was gorgeous (Picture 16). Along the way we saw an amazing cover of trees, rugged mountains, and spectacular views of the lake. It was truly beautiful. Unfortunately, even on this train there was the ever-present man with horrendous B.O. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe it's me who smells so bad. We also happened to sit next to this women who had a horrendous cough as if she had been smoking cigarettes since she was an infant. It was disgusting.
We finally made it to the mountain peak, left the train depot, and looked for the trail markings (Pictures 17 and 18)
10. Highway in the mountians
. The trails were pretty well marked and I knew at worst case, if we had trouble finding our way, just head down. The scenery was even more phenomenal once we were outside of the train (Pictures 19-20). We saw wonderful purple wild flowers all along the trail (Picture 21).We hadn't really thought about this until we were at the top of the mountain but now that we were at the top, we could only head down. It was going to take some time to get to the beginning of a decent hike but we were expecting something a bit tougher than a walk down. Boy, were we surprised.
Our hike down began as more of a walk. It was very level with barely even a grade. The scenery was phenomenal though and as it was not a difficult walk, we really got to enjoy the environment (Picture 22). We continued to walk past the sporadic wildflowers and jagged mountain peaks. We eventually made our way to a small mountain home (Picture 23). It seemed to be completely isolated at the mountaintop. With no neighbors and a front yard that went on for miles, they really were king of the mountain. It was a small, maybe 2-bedroom place with a nice covered outdoor eating area. It seemed almost impossible that the house could have running water or electricity. I wondered if they had flushing toilets
11. Boats on the lake
. It seemed to be a very peaceful place (Pictures 24-25).We continued past this house and found an extremely steep descent. At first it didn't seem too difficult but after a few minutes of slowly fighting the loose rocks to maintain balance, we both realized that we were probably alone on the mountain for a reason (Pictures 26-28). Julie had a more difficult time than I and I could tell she was really scared. The amount of small talk conversation became one-sided. We considered turning around and heading back uphill to try an easier route but we thought walking in the gravel uphill would be just as tough as downhill so we continued. As we walked, I tried to take note of the views of the lake, mountains, and random isolated homes. We could here a lone goat calling out every so often. After about 90 minutes, we made it even footing.
Julie adds: I was really nervous that one of us was going to fall and break an arm or leg on the loose gravel. I kept thinking what I am possibly going to do if Stephen falls and hurts himself. Due to these thoughts my legs were shaking really badly.
Julie did a great job toughing it out but I think we were both happy to be done with the tough part (Pictures 29-30)
12. Julie enjoying the breeze
. We were now under tree cover (Picture 31). It was like we were in the middle of some forest. The walk continued to be nice and somewhat difficult. After another hour, we made it to a small road which seemed to connect a bunch of these small random homes. These homes were very cute, complete with small and unique front door and big gardens (Pictures 32-36).We walked along the small streets until we reached the town of Caux. We knew that there was supposedly an amazing chateau there called Caux-Palace. It is a hotel built in 1900 by a local architect. Surprisingly, we had difficulty finding the damn place. We walked downhill about 10 minutes and couldn't find it so we changed direction and headed back up. Again, we didn't see it so we tried another couple times before we stopped into a bed and breakfast. The woman at the front desk looked at us like we were morons when we told her we couldn't find the place. She gave us directions and we had not been walking far enough downhill.
At this point, we were both more excited to get lunch than to see some hotel. We tried to eat at the hotel but it is an exclusive hotel and the garden restaurant is only open to those who are guests. So we went to a small restaurant that was next to a small train station
13. Town on the lake
.Julie adds: We had been walking for over three hours and it was starting to get hot. We also had already gone through a bottle and a half of water. I was so tired and my feet were killing me. Walking downhill causes your toes to jam in the front of your shoes and we have been doing it for three hours straight.
It was difficult communicating with the restaurant staff but we found a nice guy at the table next to us who helped translate the menu a bit for us. I had a really nice mushroom thing served over toast, Julie had a salad for SF60. It was really good. Once we killed the few bees that kept walking all over our food, we really enjoyed our well-deserved break. We finished lunch with an ice cream and decided to finish our descent by train.
On the ride down, I caught a quick catnap. Back in Montreux, we both decided to cool off in the lake. The lake doesn't really have any beaches so like the locals, we found an area that had a small pavement block with some nice big rocks we could use to put our things on.
There were a few other people at our "beach", all of which in tiny bathing suits
14. Sailboat on the lake
. These were not the kinda people you want to see in tiny bathing suits either. The woman was probably close to 200 pounds and the man was wearing something very small and very tight that resembled a sumo wrestler's outfit.There was also 2 really cute 10-year-old (?) kids fishing off of the boat dock. They were catching these little things that looked more like bait than the catch but the kids collected these them nonetheless. The boys had taken a shopping bag and filled it with water so that their prizes wouldn't die before they filleted and fried their dinner. The problem was, the bag had tons of small holes in it. One of the boys jumped off the dock and onto the cement "beach" over and over again to refill the bag with water. I had an idea to help them so I approached. They did not speak English and I don't speak, well, anything else, so I did my best act of charades to explain to them that if they left the bag in the water, it would not leak out and therefore, they could spend more of their time fishing and less of their time filling the bag with water. I was able to get the message across and they went for it. It ended up working, although I was concerned (as were the boys) that as a boats passed and waves came in, the bag would get knocked off of the ladder that it was tied to and the fish would go free, thus creating a large international incident. Luckily, that never happened and I helped decrease the gap between the US and Europe that was created during the Iraq war.
While we were not getting sick at the sight of our neighbors and helping to rid the lake of those dangerous fish, we enjoyed the water. It was a bit too cold for me at first but after Julie challenged me, I was enjoying the nice water as well (Picture 37)
15. Town on the lake
. I even followed the local's lead from yesterday by leaping off the dock into the lake. Julie had a tough time walking still but the cool water seemed to ease her tired muscles - and mine - it was wonderful.After our swim we headed back into town for dinner. We went to Le Palais Oriental for some Middle Eastern food. I had some fish dish and Julie had kebab, we shared an eggplant appetizer and had a few beers - SF110.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel, sore from our walk downhill and tired. We did take a few moments to enjoy the gorgeous sunset and full moon though (Pictures 39-40).
Julie Adds: I slept much better in spite of the trains. I did awake at least a dozen times thinking the EuroStar was running through our room though.
SATURDAY
We started our day early again, beginning with our hotel breakfast. We wanted to do something outdoors and active but Julie was not really in any shape to go for a hike so we decided we were going to walk to the next town, Vevey.
Julie Adds: I awoke before Stephen and in my attempt to get out of bed I realized I was stiff as a board. I literally could not stand up straight because my legs were so sore.
16. Train ride to Rochers-de-Naye
I also could not walk down stairs. I physically could not make my legs do the motion required to navigate stairs. My agony was exasperated due to the fact Stephen felt no pain at all.Stephen adds: Every muscle Julie has was sore from walking down the hill, however her muscles used to walk uphill were in perfect condition. As a result, it was easier for Julie to walk down the stairs backwards. It was pretty funny to see (Picture 82).
Vevey has a market on Saturdays we were hoping to see. We figured we would have a nice leisurely walk along the lake, possibly 45 minutes - it took about 2 and a half hours. While it was much longer than we had expected, the weather was cooler than in previous days and at least we were walking along a paved walkway and not on a steep slope consisting of small rocks.
We approached a nice harbor where a few locals were playing fetch with their dogs in the water (Picture 41). They were really cute (not as cute as Chloe though) and there was even one man with a beagle that wouldn't let go of the stick. The man ended up carrying the dog around by the stick like it was a purse. It was really funny
17. Julie with sign of distances to world cities
.We continued walking until we finally reached Vevey. Next we needed to find the market. Surprisingly, this was the hard part. We asked a few locals for some help and they couldn't. When we were able to communicate given that many didn't speak English and we didn't speak French (or German, the backup language), they didn't know where the market was. We walked all over town looking for the market. Despite having trouble finding our desired location, we did see lots of cool sights (Pictures 42-44). At this point we decided it might be a good idea for every local throughout the world to read what the tourist books said about their town since this was not the first time that we were looking for something a book suggested we look for while the locals had never heard of the "attraction".
Finally we did find the market and I have no clue how they had never heard of it...it was enormous. It was in a huge courtyard with probably 50 vendors selling everything from fresh fruits and veggies to meats and cheeses to clothes and other non-food things (Pictures 45-46). There was even a guy selling ham sliced right off the pig's leg (Picture 47). I really wanted to try some of the local goods but Julie wasn't really in the mood.
Julie Adds: Being the non-kosher one in the family, I usually have to try local cuisine and report on its quality. It was hot as hell and the last thing I wanted was to eat pork.
In the middle of the market was a big covered area that had a band (like a college marching band, not a pop band) assembled playing such local hits as Whitney Houston's "I will Always Love you"
18. Stephen with a sign of all the hikes
. I was hoping to hear "On Wisconsin" but it never happened.Also under the covered center was a bunch of tables set up giving out wine. Everywhere we looked, people were drinking wine (Picture 48). It was starting to get hot but I wanted to fit in so I went to get some wine also. I still don't know what was going on but it looked like an Ascent promotion (Picture 50). I bought a wine glass for SF9 and got myself a glass of rose. I had a few small sips and it was refreshing but I bought the glass more as a souvenir (Picture 51).
While I was boozin' it up with the locals, Julie took a walk to the local shops. She found a nice small store and picked up a cool, metal, antique-looking cup holder that can carry 6 cups. Julie wanted it so that when we sit in the garden, she can carry up multiple drinks. It's pretty cool.
Julie was shopping and I sat in the courtyard and listened to a group of 4 men who entertained the masses by playing those long wooden Ricola-commercial horns that lay on the ground (Picture 49). Most of the people seemed to enjoy the melody, which sounded like a more melodic shofar (Picture 52). There were a few kids that sat on the ground, staring at the instruments fascinatingly (Picture 53). Then, there were others who stood in the front with their fingers in their ears (Picture 54). It was pretty cute. One of the musicians was this really old man. He looked like such a total grandpa. He had been playing the wooden instrument for so many years that his lips mad a permanent circle on them (Picture 55).
19. Julie and Stephen on Rochers-de-Naye
There were a few people in period costumes (Picture 56). We are noticed there was braided bread that looked like challah (Picture 57). We wanted to find out what it was called and if it was linked to Judaism in some way but we never got there. The area around the market was really nice with outdoor cafes everywhere (Pictures 58-59).
After our stop at the market, we headed to a small sandwich shop. We got really nice food (SF15) but the people working the shop had major attitude. The woman had made us 2 salami sandwiches and when we told them that we only wanted 1, she almost had a hissy fit. Sorry lady, 1 salami, that's all we want - deal with it.
We decided rather than walking a few hours back to Montreux, we took the bus. The bus was pretty easy to navigate.
JULIE TAKES OVER WRITING:
The highlight of the bus trip was when the bus pulled over for the "bus police" to get on
20. Julie on the hike
. They came to check tickets of all the passengers. Luckily Stephen figured out how to correctly buy two tickets, however a group of teen-age boys were not so lucky. None of them had bought tickets. The police took them off the bus and were handed their bags. Stephen guessed they had to give the police the bags so that they would not take off running. I wonder what the fine is in Montreux for not buying a ticket?Stephen adds: I saw the bus police in A'dam once and the fine there was E30 cash, right there on the spot. Pretty pricey when you consider the bus ticket only costs E1.50 to begin with. And I'm sure in Switzerland, where everything is real expensive, it was more than that. Also, the one boy who was not escorted off the bus rode the bus for only one stop before getting off the bus and heading back to see what happened to his buddies.
We decided to take the bus to the Castle of Chillon. Lonely Planet calls it a must see in terms of architecture. The original structure was built in the 11th century and added to for the next 700 years. It was a fort, castle, and a tollbooth for those carrying goods through the Alps. There is a self-guided walking tour of the castle that goes through 32 rooms (Pictures 60-79). After about 20 rooms, we called it quits and left. We liked what we saw, but it all looked the same and I was very soar and the castle had lots of stairs. We both really loved the intricate patterns in the wood ceiling and the huge armoire - a bit nicer than those we saw at IKEA. Stephen enjoyed the fact that the toilet emptied right into the lake from 2 stories high.
Right next to the castle was a beach type area (Picture 80)
21. Purple wild flowers
. We found a shady area and took a quick snooze. I awoke and decided to navigate the rocks and get into the water. It felt so good (Picture 81). I couldn't stay in long because I got tired having to stay afloat. Stephen came in for a bit also.Stephen adds: Continuing the trend of inappropriate bathing suit etiquette, there was a pregnant woman in a 2-piece. I'm glad that she is pregnant and comfortable with her body but not everyone needed to see everything.
We had enough walking so we took the bus back to the hotel. We relaxed for a while and took a cool shower (the hotel wasn't air-conditioned and it was around 90 out). We decided to go for a nice dinner and the girl working at the hotel suggested we try one of the fancy hotels on the lake.
When we found a menu we liked at one of the hotels we asked for a table. A very snotty waiter asked if we had reservations, I said no and he said sorry the restaurant was full. I looked around the outside patio and it was about 1/3 full. We know the Swiss eat a little later then we do in Amsterdam but it was 8:30 PM. Stephen asked if the inside was booked also. The waiter said yes
22. Julie with view of Montreux
. The inside was EMPTY. We left the restaurant. I was so annoyed. I knew it was because of how we were dressed, or more how Stephen was dresses. I had on a skirt and tube top and Stephen had on shorts, a collar shirt, and sneakers. Did we mention it was hot there yet? I was annoyed the guy lied about being booked, just tell us we weren't dressed right.Stephen adds: Most of the men at the restaurant were wearing suits. I will NEVER wear a suit on vacation. I don't care what restaurant it is, it's just never going to happen. I wear a suit all week at work and I'm on vacation for goodness sakes. Sorry.
We went to another nice hotel, Le Montreux Palace, and they were happy to have us (Pictures 84-85). I had a burger and Stephen had fish. I also had tuna carpaccio appetizer (SF160), it was so good and helped ease the sushi craving I consistently have had since moving to A'dam. Everyone else was getting the fillet of sole for two. It must have been the restaurants specialty.
On the walk home we came upon a band playing on a small stage with about 100 people watching and dancing. There was a little girl dancing on stage (Picture 87)
23. Lone house on the mountain
. She kept bowing as if she was the one performing and receiving the applause. It was so cute. Being tired and having a lifetime full of live music at Rock Werchter I made Stephen leave. We packed and went to bed, although we did take notice of another gorgeous moon (Picture 86).
SUNDAY
After a breakfast of a roll with butter at the hotel, we walked to the train station to get the train back to Geneva. We had to take a train to Lausanne and transfer to the train to Geneva. While we waited at the Lausanne station for our train we happened to be looking at another train stopped at the station - skip the rest of this paragraph if you have a weak stomach - and we saw urine and toilet paper come from the bottom of the train. Basically we saw a toilet flush from the train right onto the tracks. It was so disgusting.
After an uneventful trip home from Geneva, we arrived in Amsterdam, took the train to Central Station, and the tram to the Spui - the stop by our house. We were home by 4 PM. Stephen went to the market to get dinner since I was way to sore to go back down our stairs. It took a few more days before I began walking right again.
T. T. M. M. G. Hmmm - Montreux
*** We noticed the large number of Arabs throughout town
24. Mountains
. I am not sure why this was but they were everywhere. And they must be very rich because almost every restaurant, regardless of what type of cuisine, had a menu catered for Arabs.*** Along the same topic, many of the Arab woman dressed in traditional robes. I couldn't help but feel bad for them as I sat in my t-shirt and shorts sweating profusely. I don't know about you but if I were a Muslim women wearing a black floor-lenth robe in that heat, I would convert...Allah will understand.
*** Julie didn't find this too funny but I asked her a few times if we could go to the Wisconsin Dells next weekend now that we had been to Lake Geneva.
*** In case didn't realize, it was hot in Switzerland. It now makes sense why KLM was offering the flight for so little (E89 roundtrip per person). We also commented that it had never occurred to us that Switzerland gets hot...we always pictured Switzerland as mountains covered in snow. I guess that's the same as when people don't expect that Chicago gets hot and humid summers - it should only be negative degrees with snow whipping across the lake.
25. Mountain peak
*** Julie was hit on by a couple of 10-year old Italian boys. It was pretty funny.
*** We have noticed in general, Europeans are not friendly towards animals. I don't say this because they don't send their dogs to doggie-day-care for messages and swims in the pool like some people I know but because they are actually cruel. During the weekend we saw a man swing this twirled up towel at a swan like he was trying to rat-tail it. The swan was cleaning its feathers near the beach and this a-hole decided that he owns the place. It was really inappropriate. Being someone who was attached by a swan as a 7 year old (?), I know how damaging a swan attack can be...I've been in counselling for years to discuss it. I was hoping that the swan would bombard this mofo but it didn't happen, the passive swan swam away. The dickhead European won this battle. And unfortunately, this was not the only scene involving animal cruelty. We saw a kid basically throw his dog between his legs and under the seat because it barked while sitting on the bus. And there was the fat man at the beach near Chillon Chateau that splashed a group of swans, again because they were near the beach. What's with these people?
*** We have also noticed that in general, Europeans are not too environmentally friendly. We talked about this during our T-Pod on Rock Werchter but people just throw shit on the ground and go on with their day. As we were searching for the Caux Palace at the end of our hike, there was a woman the age of our parents with a woman who appeared to be her mother. Since they all smoke, she was opening another pack of nicotine sticks when she took the plastic wrapper and throw it on the ground in the middle of the mountains
26. Steep hill
. She could very easily have crumpled the plastic up and placed it in her pocket to throw away later. It's not as if that's a lot to ask. And I wasn't expecting her to clean up someone else's mess, just not to contribute to it. If she wants to litter up her house, fine, but don't ruin nature which we all have to share. Anyways, I saw the 2 women walking back down the hill towards us. I was so tempted to give her the crumpled piece of garbage to prove a point but I suppose I kinda chickened out when I looked into the future and saw this angry lady going off on me in French. Anyways, this is a small example but this kinda stuff seems to happen all the time. I don't think I have seen nearly as many Americans throw their garbage on the ground like I have in the last 4 months here. And ironically America has the image as being environmentally unfriendly.*** While we were sitting at the beach on Friday, this guy drove his boat right up to the shoreline. It looked like he was going to park his boat right on the beach. He basically put it right in the middle of the area where everyone was swimming. It was really rude. The area was very shallow with tons of large rocks and I was hoping that as he was cutting off our pool, he would bottom out, teaching him a lesson. It never happened and he ended up leaving his boat in our space for a few hours. It was pretty annoying.
*** I noticed that at the restaurants, when you pay your bill they rip a small tear in your receipt. This happened at every restaurant we ate at in Montreux, regardless of the cuisine or price. It was some sort of accounting system. So next time we go to Montreux, we're gonna save money by ripping our own receipts =)
*** Along those lines, again we were not required to leave a credit card deposit or any information from our passports at the hotel upon checking in
27. Stephen resting on the steep hill
. Maybe we'll just start setting the alarm very early on our last day in town so that we can sneak out before having to pay our bill. I'm sure that will help us save money for a downpayment for a home =)*** They sell condoms in the bathrooms at Geneva airport. I suppose they figure if you're going to join the mile-high club, you should be safe while doing it.
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That's it for now. This was a long one so it should appease your T-Pod fix for some time. We are off to London tomorrow to spend a 4-day weekend with my parents. The following weekend we plan on going to Brussels with Chris and Melanie for a huge beer brewmasters event (Chris and Melanie are big beer connoisseurs so we figured it would be a lot of fun). We also booked a flight to Malaga, Spain in the south for a 14-day roadtrip through the south of Spain. It should be fun and will be our first long trip...geez, that T-Pod will probably be a million words.
Anyways, we'll deal with that later. For now, I hope everyone is enjoying his or her summers. Speak to you soon.
Go Cubs and Go Badgers!
-Stephen
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