October 12-13:  It was really difficult to leave Montreux.  Just the one day there reinforced that I’m going to have to live in a French area in Europe at some point in my life.   The consolation to leaving is another beautiful train ride – this time to Bern via Lausanne.   On the way to Lausanne, there are views of the area’s wineries, perched on the hills above Lake Geneva:

As the train heads north toward Bern, the clouds melt away and we’re presented with yet another sunny day.  We find our way from the train station to our small hotel in the old town of Bern, drop off our bags and after a late lunch eaten sitting along side a cobblestone street, we take in a small museum set up in Albert Einstein’s apartment for his time in Bern.  It’s not a good museum – Jodi quipped that it was like someone just printed out a bunch of stuff from wikipedia. 

With a beautiful afternoon upon us, we stroll over to Bern’s Bear Park to see the bears who are a symbol of the city.   We’re lucky that two of the bears are playing in the water when we arrive:

The bears were very amusing playing in the water.  Jodi decided to shoot this video, and hilarity ensues around the 0:30 mark. After the laughing subsides, we take in some of the sights of Bern as we make our way back to our hotel before supper:

No photo tour of Bern is complete without a picture of the Zytglogge, the 800+ year old medieval clock tower in the heart of Bern’s old town:

In the evening, we have a spectacular meal at cozy Pizzeria da Bucolo.  Wood-oven pizzas, better than any we’ve had, filled the night.  Desert, something I usually take a pass one, was really unique – a panna cotta gelato (so creamy!):

Our second day in Bern and the weather is starting to feel more fall like.  In the morning, you can see your breath, but it warms up nicely for the afternoon.  

Münster of Bern from across the River Aare:

Here’s our morning destination – the Swiss Museum, and in particular, the Einstein Museum located within:

We have the Einstein Museum to ourselves and spend a couple of hours learning the story of his life.  The museum does a great job of putting his life and work in context of world events and the pressures on him academically and politically.   There are wonderful artifacts like old school report cards, essays he wrote to enter university and this one, his immigration document when we moved to the US:

We spend the afternoon being pretty lazy and wander around town a bit:

I really liked Bern.  It’s old town is a UNESCO site and is beautifully preserved.   But it’s also a town with a bit of personality and humour, perhaps best demonstrated by Kindlifresserbrunnen, a monument in a busy town square of an ogre eating a child (with a few more at the ready in his sack).  Ok, that’s not really funny (among a couple of interpretations, the most likely one is it’s a symbol to scare disobedient children), but the fact that it’s still there in a busy square makes me chuckle:

On our last night in Bern, we decide to violate one of our principle travel rules (“Thou shalt never return to the same restaurant on the same trip lest ye be disappointed”) and go back to da Bucolo for supper.  It’s wonderful the second time around.  This place is so good, that for 2 nights we forgot to take pictures of our pizzas. 

October 11 – We spend a cloudy, rainy morning on the train from Milan to Montreux.  The clouds obscure what would have been spectacular mountain views as the train enters Switzerland and turns to the north west before hugging Lake Geneva.   We’ve been fortunate with weather so far – almost perfectly sunny, not a drop of rain has touched our skin and the daytime temperatures have been in the low 20s.   As the train pulls into Montreux, the rain has stopped.

Walking through this town feels comfortable.  It’s a quaint, quintessential French town.  Being able to easily understand the language feels reassuring after the first half of the trip battling through our limited understanding of German and Italian. We keep our streak alive of being able to check into our hotel early (traveling in October has its perks).   The Hotel Splendid is an older property that hangs over Grand Rue.  The view from our room over Lake Geneva is spectacular (more on that later).   After a quick spot of lunch, we leave by bus for the Chateau de Chillon.

The castle dates back to 1150 and was developed in a number of stages.  We take an audio-guided tour which tells the story of the castle (construction, battles/occupation, trade, prisons).  It’s a fascinating afternoon wandering through the halls of the castle and learning about life in this area over 7 centuries.  Here are some photos of the castle and views from its many towers:

Leaving the castle, we head back into town.  As it’s Canadian Thanksgiving and we have a room with a view and a deck, we decide to pick up a few items from a grocery store on the lake.  On the way to the store, we walk past this statue of Freddy Mercury:

A view from the lake front boardwalk:

Thanksgiving supper, so we pick up a roast chicken, some potato salad, some cheese, a baguette, and of course some wine (a local one from Sion):

The hotel succeeds because of it’s spectacular location.  Inside the room, it’s a bit grimy in places.  In particular, the two drinking glasses are really dirty – luckily wine comes in its own drinking vessel:

As the sun begins to set over Lake Geneva, it lights up the town perched on the hill:

Too bad the crane is there, but here’s a view of snow-capped mountains as we look east from our patio:

This is how we spend Thanksgiving evening – watching the sun set behind the mountains and into Lake Geneva on the horizon:

Not a traditional Thanksgiving, but appropriate nonetheless.  Although we only had the one day/night in Montreux, the evening spent passing a wine bottle back and forth in the shadows of mountains with a spectacular view of a sun set was special.   We both were smiling from ear to ear thankful to be in such a beautiful place.

October 6-7 – Our itinerary called for 2 days between Zurich and Milan.  Scanning some Swiss tourism brochures, I picked Lugano for a couple of reasons: it looked stunningly beautiful (something we came to learn applied to everywhere we went in Switzerland), there were well reviewed red wines made in the region, and it is a unique pocket of Italian culture tucked inside Switzerland’s border. 

The train trip from Zurich was two and a half hours of amazing views out the window – valleys and mountains, quaint towns, rivers and lakes.   It was on this train ride that I was reminded that the journey is as important as the destination.  When we arrive in Lugano, I’m actually a bit disappointed to get off the train.

It’s a short walk from the train station to our hotel.  We attempt to check in, and they don’t have any record of our reservation.   I had cancelled our original reservation and re-booked when the price dropped.  They saw the cancellation, but never caught the new booking.   After a few minutes, they apologized for the mistake with the keys for an upgraded room.  The first breathtaking moment in Lugano came when I opened the window to this view:

That made supper plans really easy – a Ticino merlot and a few staples from the grocery store would be enjoyed while we sat on our deck and looked out over Lugano.  So taken were we with the view, we took this video from our hotel room patio of Lugano.

We took a stroll around the town on our first afternoon and  it really felt like we were in a different country.  Without the Swiss flag flying, you really would have thought you were in Italy.

Some of the Italian influenced architecture:

The main town square of Lugano:

A view of Lugano from across the lake:

The clarity of the skies on our second day beckoned us to travel up one of the two mountains surrounding the town – Monte San Salvatore (912 metres).  From the top, we have 360 degree views including toward Lombardy (Italy) and of the Swiss and Savoy Alps:

Here’s the obligatory shot of the two of us from the windy peak.  We’re actually standing on the roof of a church – a location which affords the best views.

After lunch on our balcony (we really couldn’t take our eyes off the view) and an afternoon walk around the town (complete with a gelato break on a bench by the lake), we wrap up our last evening in Lugano by having a typical Ticino supper of risotto (mushroom risotto for me, saffron risotto for Jodi) along with another Ticino merlot at La Tinera just off the town square. 

I know I left part of my heart here.  The views, the laid back Italian lifestyle and the surprisingly great wines made these two of the best days of our trip.

This is to be a different kind of trip for the two of us.  Swiss train pass in hand, we’re off across the pond to a land we don’t know much about.  Our loose itinerary has us planning to see a few cities, some mountains and to sample from the German, Italian and French areas of Switzerland (with a two day detour to Milan thrown in for good measure).

October 4
About 11 hours after leaving Halifax, we arrive in Zurich (via Frankfurt).  Condor isn’t a bad airline, but the legroom for my 6’2” frame leaves much to be desired.  At least the person in front of me doesn’t recline during the 7 hours to Frankfurt.   With a brief hour and a half nap on the plane, I’m surprisingly refreshed when we arrive in Zurich to striking blue skies and 25C temperatures.  A short train ride into the city and we’re soon in our room at Hotel Bristol. 

We pick up a bite to eat from a grocery store and find a bench in the central train station to people watch before an afternoon city tour.  The city tour as a means to make use of a jet-lagged arrival day is now a staple in our travel planning.  This one of Zurich is quite nice, taking us through a number of areas we wouldn’t have otherwise seen including some residential neighbourhoods, the university area and around Lake Zurich.

We made reservations at Hiltl (a vegetarian restaurant) and enjoyed a few interesting dishes.  Jodi’s was the most creative (a banana madras).  By the end of the meal, a very long day of travel fatigue is settling in so we walk back to the hotel via the chic Bahnhofstrasse to get some sleep.  Here are a couple of quick snaps of Zurich on the walk back.

Bahnhofstrasse:

Zurich HB (central train station):

Limmat River (the Swiss National Museum is the illuminated tower just off centre):

For a first day, it’s a pretty good one.  Flight was on-time, we get our hotel room early, get a bit of a feel for Zurich and have a nice meal.   Our heads hit the pillow for a deep, travel-weary sleep.  The alarm clock is set early for the next morning – it’s the day I’ll get to see mountains for the first time.