The town of Montreux, located 20 miles away from us on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva, marks every July with the famous Montreux Jazz festival. For sixteen days the town’s long lake walk is filled with festival booths, meandering tourists, and of course, music! On the final day of the festival, July 16th, Melissa and I made the short trip over to check it out. To make the most of our time in Montreux, we also squeezed in a visit to the top of Rochers de Naye, a nearby mountain.
After a slow, lazy, morning we pulled into the Montreux train station around 1 p.m. Our initial plan was to next catch the train up to Rochers de Naye, so we bought our tickets and made our way to the platform. At the platform we joined a crowd of people gathered around a jazz band giving a free concert. Even though we enjoyed the lively music, this turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The crowd was waiting for a different train that left from the same platform, and at the same time as the one we wanted. By the time we realized our mistake, the train we actually wanted was full, and we had to wait an extra hour for the next train.
To pass the time, we took a short walk downhill from the train station to visit the Jazz festival. As we nudged our way through the crowds checking out craft and food booths, we were accompanied by the constant sound of live music. Music poured from open restaurant and bar doors, from free concerts in parks, from stages set up over the water, and from enterprising artists set up anywhere there was space and they could set a hat for coins. If we had wanted to see some of the famous bands at the festival, ticket prices would have been steep, but it was free to walk along the lake taking in the atmosphere, and to listen to different artists every 100 feet or so.
When the hour was up, we walked back to the train station and happily found the train to Rochers de Naye had plenty of empty seats. After a scenic 50 minute train ride that began at 390 m (1280 ft) we found ourselves just a short hike away from the 2042 m (6700 ft) summit. In addition to breathtaking views, the top of the mountain also had a marmot enclosure, alpine garden, and hotel/restaurant with yurts to rent out. The marmots were an unexpected highlight for me. Their enclosure featured a dark tunnel that we could walk through simulating a marmot burrow. The tunnel went under the pen, and popped up with a viewing window in the middle of the marmot enclosure.
It took about 15 minutes from the train stop to hike up to the top. At the summit we marveled at the 360 degree view featuring Lake Geneva on one side, whose western coast we could just barely make out 45 miles away, and on the other side glacier covered Alps, that stretched off to the horizon, some still clearly visible over 50 miles away. After we hiked down from the top, we then hiked about 15 minutes in a different direction to visit the alpine garden. The free-to-visit garden showcased many different native flowers in quiet grounds surrounding a huge outcropping of rock. All our sightseeing caused us to miss the once-an-hour train back to Montreux, so before coming down we drank a beer at the restaurant balcony while being serenaded by Alp horn music.
Once we were back in Montreux, we again strolled through the jazz festival, where we grabbed Thai food for dinner, and soaked in the crowd and music. As sun was setting we finally left for home, arriving back at the apartment around 10 p.m.
