9 July ’05, Saturday. Chateau de Chillon
Leaving Lausanne, we headed east and followed the shores of Lake Geneva. Since we are taking a minor road, we are hitting every little “burg” all along the way. It’s not the little towns and villages that are any annoyance, but it is the stop lights…they are NOT synchronized at ALL !!! And when your traffic lights are in a mess, so is the traffic…and then, when you toss in a weekend, every village/town having a function, and then to top that all off, Montreux is having one of the biggest “Jazz Festivals” in the world…and we, are driving right through all of this, trying to get to another castle. “Chateau de Chillon”, one of the most beautiful medieval castles in Europe, and it’s on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was amazing, as we came around this last curve, there sat the Chateau de Chillon, projected out into the lake, and the lake making a natural moat all around it. They told us it would take an hour to see it all, but they don’t know us…it took us over 2 hours. We were able to see some wonderful collections of furniture, paintings, pewter ware and weaponry, all displayed in their proper rooms of the castle. I don’t think there was any room or passageway, that was “private or out of bounds” to us. We had a great time and saw a beautiful castle. This castle dates back to the 13th century. In the dungeon, we saw were Lord Byron had etched his name on a column, and also some religious carvings etched by a prisoner on one of the prison walls. By the time we had walked the castle through, it was lunch time, so we headed up to the van and raided the refrigerators. Then, we were back on the road. Still heading east, our destination was Interlaken, about 60 miles away, but through some of the Alps. It didn’t take long, and we were winding and climbing at a good pace. I don’t know how long it took for us to get over our first pass, but it seemed forever. “Bumble Bee” handled the climb wonderfully. The closer we got to the top, the closer we got to the wet weather. No snow, but it did rain steadily, and it definitely got a lot cooler. Our pace was slow, so the 60 miles or so, took hours, so when we arrived in Interlaken, we hit a grocery store and then a “Bikers Bar” for dinner. We weren’t through traveling yet, as we are aiming for Stechelberg, which is about 8 miles south of Interlaken, and our campground. This campground is located at the very end of the road to Stechelberg, so it was easy for us to find. As we arrived in Stechelberg, we were introduced from both sides of the road, giant waterfalls. They were falling hundreds of feet, and were absolutely incredible. We have at least 7 waterfalls that we can see from our site here at the campground. Directly above us are Switzerland’s highest peaks, and our goal is to travel by tram and cable cars to the top of some of them. Let’s hope the weather breaks and we can see the magnificence that they can offer. Directly above us is Gimmelwald and Murren, and once we arrive there, we will again travel by tram on up to some much higher levels, such as Schilthorn at 9748 feet. Another peak we want to travel to is Jungfraujoch, which is the “Top of Europe” at 11,333 feet. Tomorrow…we start
Leaving Lausanne, we headed east and followed the shores of Lake Geneva. Since we are taking a minor road, we are hitting every little “burg” all along the way. It’s not the little towns and villages that are any annoyance, but it is the stop lights…they are NOT synchronized at ALL !!! And when your traffic lights are in a mess, so is the traffic…and then, when you toss in a weekend, every village/town having a function, and then to top that all off, Montreux is having one of the biggest “Jazz Festivals” in the world…and we, are driving right through all of this, trying to get to another castle. “Chateau de Chillon”, one of the most beautiful medieval castles in Europe, and it’s on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was amazing, as we came around this last curve, there sat the Chateau de Chillon, projected out into the lake, and the lake making a natural moat all around it. They told us it would take an hour to see it all, but they don’t know us…it took us over 2 hours. We were able to see some wonderful collections of furniture, paintings, pewter ware and weaponry, all displayed in their proper rooms of the castle. I don’t think there was any room or passageway, that was “private or out of bounds” to us. We had a great time and saw a beautiful castle. This castle dates back to the 13th century. In the dungeon, we saw were Lord Byron had etched his name on a column, and also some religious carvings etched by a prisoner on one of the prison walls. By the time we had walked the castle through, it was lunch time, so we headed up to the van and raided the refrigerators. Then, we were back on the road. Still heading east, our destination was Interlaken, about 60 miles away, but through some of the Alps. It didn’t take long, and we were winding and climbing at a good pace. I don’t know how long it took for us to get over our first pass, but it seemed forever. “Bumble Bee” handled the climb wonderfully. The closer we got to the top, the closer we got to the wet weather. No snow, but it did rain steadily, and it definitely got a lot cooler. Our pace was slow, so the 60 miles or so, took hours, so when we arrived in Interlaken, we hit a grocery store and then a “Bikers Bar” for dinner. We weren’t through traveling yet, as we are aiming for Stechelberg, which is about 8 miles south of Interlaken, and our campground. This campground is located at the very end of the road to Stechelberg, so it was easy for us to find. As we arrived in Stechelberg, we were introduced from both sides of the road, giant waterfalls. They were falling hundreds of feet, and were absolutely incredible. We have at least 7 waterfalls that we can see from our site here at the campground. Directly above us are Switzerland’s highest peaks, and our goal is to travel by tram and cable cars to the top of some of them. Let’s hope the weather breaks and we can see the magnificence that they can offer. Directly above us is Gimmelwald and Murren, and once we arrive there, we will again travel by tram on up to some much higher levels, such as Schilthorn at 9748 feet. Another peak we want to travel to is Jungfraujoch, which is the “Top of Europe” at 11,333 feet. Tomorrow…we start