Even though we’ve lived in the Lake Geneva area for 18 months now, it took until Sunday June 19th with Tim and Colleen for us to figure out the best 1-day sight seeing route for the region. After a nice slow morning with crepes and coffee, we squeezed in a drive to the summit of Mont Tendre, a lake cruise, a castle tour, wine tasting, hiking, old-town Lausanne, and we even caught the first half of the Swiss-France soccer match at a bar.
Our rental car from the previous day didn’t have to be returned until 2 p.m., so we took it for a morning drive to the top of Mont Tendre (the highest non-Alp mountain in Switzerland), just 19 miles from our apartment. Despite it being a short drive distance wise, it still took about 50 minutes, with most of that time spent in the last 5 miles on a narrow, twisting, road to the top. This last road was barely wide enough for one car, but it was still open to two way traffic. It was a slow and tense climb up, never knowing if a car would come barreling down on us around every blind corner.
Just before we reached the parking lot at the top, a cow stood in the road blocking our way. In fact our narrow rode wound through cow pastures the entire way up, but we were lucky enough to avoid a cow crossing until the top. Despite my inching the car closer and honking, the young cattle just wouldn’t move. Luckily Melissa knew what to do. She stepped out of the car, marched up to it and easily shooed it away like she was raised on a beef farm.
The summit of the mountain was an easy half mile hike from the parking lot. Along the route I was surprised to still see snow, especially after the string of sunny and 70 degree days we had had. All the way up driving, and even at the beginning of our hike we had a nice view, but as we hiked higher a cloud started to roll in. We could barely see a hundred feet in front of us, and eerily heard the constant sound of cow bells around us. At the top there were occasional breaks in the clouds to see the lake, but we couldn’t see the Alps. We waited a little bit to see if the view would improve, but instead of improving the wind picked up and a cold rain started.
A little disappointed in the lack of views we made our way back to the warm, dry, car. The route down was fun to drive with our car, because even though it had automatic transmission there was an option to choose the gears. After making it down the mountain and driving toward Lausanne we noticed it was getting close to 2 p.m. when we had to return the car. I filled up the car with $4 a gallon gas (it’s getting cheap here!) and everyone bought gas station sandwiches for lunch. We then easily returned the car without the attendant even checking for scratches, then caught the metro to Lausanne’s port where we would embark on a cruise to Montreux.
We made our boat with 10 minutes to spare, and choose outdoor seats to enjoy the lake and eat our lunch. Even though the top of Mount Tendre was still shrouded with clouds, the sky was mostly sunny giving us great views to the Alps on the French side, and the Lavaux wine terraces on the Swiss side of the lake. We disembarked at the farthest stop from Lausanne: a castle called Chateau Chillon. Here Tim and Colleen went to buy tickets for the tour, and found out they had free entry with the Swiss Travel Pass they had bought for the trip. While we’ve had good experiences with Eurail passes, if you’re considering visiting and staying in Switzerland, the Swiss Travel pass gives you unlimited rides on trains, buses, and boats, as well as free museum and tour access and discounts on gondolas and mountain trains.
While Tim and Colleen were in the castle, Melissa and I went down to the lake to sip on coffee and enjoy the view. A sun shower poured on us for about 10 minutes while we tried to stay dry under a tree, but it was a much warmer rain than on top of the mountain.
At about 5 p.m. Tim and Colleen finished their tour, and we were off to the next sight: the wine terraces. The train to where we wanted to go only stops at Chateau Chillon once per hour, and we had just missed it. So instead of waiting we took a scenic, two mile long walk along the lake until we came to the Montreux train station. We only had to wait a few minutes until a train arrived to take us to our next stop: the town of St. Saphorin in the Lavaux wine terraces.
In St. Saphorin we walked through the picturesque town and happened to find an open cave, or better known in English as a wine cellar. Melissa and I stumbled through ordering in French to buy a bottle of white wine, then we stood outside sipping it while enjoying the area’s ambiance. Standing next to us was a woman from Taiwan who wanted to practice her English and talked to us about wine and the small village life as we finished our bottle.
It was close to the summer solstice, so even though it was 7:30 p.m. we still had plenty of daylight left. We said goodbye to the cave and continued our tour by walking the short, but breathtaking, distance through the wine terraces from the town of St. Saphorin to the town of Rivaz, where we caught a train back into Lausanne.
It was getting late when we came into Lausanne, but our day wasn’t over yet. In Lausanne we stopped at a bar just below the cathedral to grab some late dinner and watch the Swiss national team play France in the Euro cup tournament. We had cheese burgers, and beers. The Swiss team had some trouble with their jerseys ripping, and the score was zero zero at half when we left. (The final score was a zero – zero tie). While none of us are fervent soccer fans, it was fun to see how the people watching reacted to each play and blocked shot. At half time we took off and did a fast walking tour of Lausanne and the old town, going up to the cathedral and along some of the narrow, steep, winding streets of old-town. Finally, around 10 p.m., we made it back to the apartment for some much deserved rest.
