Leaving Lucerne
(Day 1) behind, we boarded the train and were in Lausanne in slightly over 2 hours. The best thing about travelling in Switzerland is that with the exception of scenic trains, you don't have to make any advance purchases even for inter-regional rides. If you like, you can just go to the station and buy the next ticket to any other towns using the ticket machine! Of course, you can always search up the
SBB website in advance to check on the train schedules and fares. Trains in Switzerland runs like clockwork, yeah?
Our decision to stop by Lausanne was influenced hugely due to the fact that our return ticket to Paris departs from Geneva (and not Zurich, where we arrived at). However, the Lake Geneva vicinity has lots to explore too, and especially in this off-peak between-season odd timing, has much more to offer than the mountains.
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Around Lake Geneva
After a quick lunch, we took the local train S3 from Lausanne to Veytaux-Chillon. Veytaux-Chillon station is the gateway to
Chillon Castle (Chateau de Chillon) on Lake Geneva. In this season, you can only get to Chillon Castle by car or train. Note that the train runs on an
hourly schedule so you really wouldn't want to miss a train. In days of better weather (or season), you could take a scenic public boat ride across Lake Geneva to the castle.
So... This is it!
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| The elusive Chillon Castle. |
The Chillon Castle, built along the shores of Lake Geneva, has been in existence since the 12th century. It was originally used by the Counts to control the trade routes between North and South Europe and collect custom taxes. Subsequently, it was also used as residence, fortress and even prison.
We didn't get the audio guide but there was no real need to since each site was clearly labelled and the more significant rooms even have interactive computers playing videos in various languages. As we could easily immerse ourselves in the history of the castle, it quickly became one of our favourite castles that we've been to thus far.
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This room was once used as a prison. Being right next to the waters and with limited view
of the outside world, it was said that prisoners hallucinate that they are being kept under water
and got crazy with that thought! |
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This used to be a banquet hall.
It's interesting to see how different banquet halls are in different castles! |
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| Manual heating system in each bedroom to ward off the cold. |
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| Beautiful wooden ceiling paneling |
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| Views of the shoreline towards Lausanne from the castle. |
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| Wonders of man-made structures in nature. |
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| Seems like the perfect spot for some heart-to-heart talk, no? |
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| In the faraway horizon where sky blends into lake |
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| The small little Veytaux-Chillon train station |
Leaving the picture perfect Chillon Castle, we took train S3 back to Vevey and then S7 towards Chexbres-Village. (Again, the trains run on hourly perfectly timed schedule so you'd really not want to miss it.) Our aim is the UNESCO listed
Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, which actually stretches 30 kilometers along the shoreline from Chillon to the outskirts of Lausanne. If you have a full day to spare, you could walk trek or bike the entire region (and people do). But with only 3 precious day for the whole of Switzerland, you can guess that we probably don't have luxury to do so.
What we did was a planned shortcut, downhill walk from Chexbres-Village station towards Rivaz station along the shoreline. At Chexbres-Village station, there is a small tourist center where you can get some information and walking map of the entire vineyard area. In autumn, the sun sets at about 17:30 so we had slightly less than an hour and a half to complete the trek. Obviously there paths through the vineyards are not lit so it will be a real struggle to trek after sunset.
Despite the rush to beat the sun, boy are we glad we came at this time of the day! Just look at how beautiful everything is!
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| Even in black and white, you can barely tell where the lake ends and where the mountains start |
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| Some of the vineyards are open and you can stroll in, maybe do some wine tasting even. |
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The entire route is clearly signposted and there are little pop-ups here and there
sharing some information on the planting and harvesting of grapes |
It is said that the grapes grown here are unique due to exposure to the 3 suns: the sun in the sky, the sun-light reflected from the lake, and the sun-heat retained from the walled terraces. Perhaps its clearer from the photo below where you can see the terrace walls. I don't think the effect of the 3rd sun is intentional; probably it's something that people realize after trying to cultivate grapes on the mountainous land by building terraces.
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| Harvesting season well over, all that's left are abandoned dried grapes |
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| With the setting sun threatening us, and still a long way down to go |
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| Sparing us the last bit of sunlight... |
In semi-darkness, we made it to our destination:
Lavaux Vinorama.
Lavaux Vinorama is about 10mins walk away from Rivaz train station. Being at the vineyard during off-peak season, it means that it is not as easy to find one open for wine-tasting. I also could not find any information online about which vineyards are available or open. Thus, we planned a visit to Vinorama, where they serve and sell a variety of the different wines made in 30km stretch of Lavaux Vineyards Terraces.
You can choose a set where you get to try a certain number of varieties of red/ white wines and it comes with a small plate of appetizer to go with. The staff here will kindly explain to you the details and which region in the vineyards the grapes are harvested from. Surprisingly, just in that 30 km stretch of land, there are different soils and so the grapes (and wine) produced by a specific vineyard can be very different from that of its neighbours. Sadly though, the glasses aren't for us to keep as souvenirs. :P
As you can guess from the photos, the area around Lake Geneva can be rather hilly and there are several rather steep slopes (some even about 40 degrees) to conquer even in the town of Lausanne. It is however, precisely because of the slopes that we can enjoy such beautiful views of the lake and the mountains on the opposite end...
Staying for the night and then moving off again to Day 3 early next morning!
