Chateau de Chillon

Happy 19th wedding anniversary to us!

We headed down the steep hill at a reasonable hour to go on our day excursion to Chateau de Chillon, the most visited Medieval castle in Europe, apparently. With plenty of time until our train, we grabbed some croissants with chunks of Camembert and ham from the station kiosk and had breakfast on the go.

The train took about 30 minutes, following Lake Geneva around to Montreaux and then Chillon Castle. In doing so, we have pretty much done the full length of the Switzerland side of the lake by train. If we had gone much further, we would have been in France.

Chateau de Chillon was built on a small rocky island in the 12th century as a strategic location to control movement between North and South Europe. It had three eras - the Savoy era (1100s to 1536); the Bernese era (1536 to 1798) and the Vaudois era from 1798 until today. Excavations and restoration works were carried out in the 19th century based on the extensive historical records of the castle. As a result, it is in excellent condition.

We did the audio tour, which again proved to be very informative because there was a lot to see. Francois Bonivard, a Genevois monk, was held prisoner there for 6 years from 1530, and, disturbingly, you can see where was kept chained for 4 of those years in the storehouse/ prison. Lord Byron wrote the poem, The Prisoner of Chillon, after visiting the castle in 1816. There were also a lot of stairs and low beams (Adrian's head 0 - beams 4).

From the castle, there is a flat, non-cobblestoned path around the lake to Montreaux with uninterrupted views of the mountains and a series of sculptures dotted along the way. The walk took us about 45 minutes, it was a beautiful sunny and windless day and the lake was like a mirror. We walked as far as the Freddy Mercury statue, a former resident of Montreaux, and where he recorded his last album. We also walked past a casino, possibly the site of one that burnt down in Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water?

We then got the train back to Lausanne, took the Metro up to Flon, and had a very tasty cheeseburger before heading back to the hotel to pack and get ready for our anniversary dinner.

For dinner, we went to the restaurant in the hotel, Le Matcha Pitchu, for a lovely Peruvian Japanese fusion meal. The ceviche was the stand-out dish!

Tomorrow, our France leg begins!Читать далее