Nyon station, en route to Zermatt
We've finally left Geneva. Woke up one hour late, so had to catch the 9.36 a.m. train instead of the 8.50 a.m. one. Expect to be in Zermatt around 1.30 p.m.Now, to talk about yesterday. Left more than 2 hours behind schedule for the train station. Once on the train, I showed Papa information on castles in Sion, so we decided to head for Sion instead of Montreux.
At Montreux we got off, then I promptly got shoved back in because we didn't need to change trains after all.
It took almost 30 more minutes to reach Sion, on top of the 1.5 hour journey to Montreux. Was tremedously relieved to finally get some fresh air.
Had a teeny bit of trouble getting to the castles, even after we were standing at the foot of the hill staring up at Château Valère.
Had to enter the old town part of the city, and wind our way up steep cobbled walkways and large stone courtyards. After following our third "Châteaux et Musée" ("Castles & Museum") sign, the cobbled streets gave way to an even steeper dirt path that led all the way to the top.
580m of uphill climbing later, and completely breathless, we reached the ruins of the castle. There was some construction going on and nothing much to see other than old stone walls and overlooking views of the whole city.
There was also a Cantonal Museum of History situated in the ruins, advertising artwork and artefacts - but, most unfortunately, it was closed.
Disappointed, we returned to the bottom via a nice set of wide stone steps, passing by an ancient-looking little church.
At the carpark below, Papa wanted to rest so I happily headed up to Château de Tourbillon on my own.
It was a steeper and longer climb to the top, since this castle was higher up.
Where the dirt path ended, I walked under a stone archway to find a rock-strewn trail leading straight to the castle entrance. Stopped for water before gingerly treading my way over the jagged rocks.
Once I had reached flat ground again, I set about taking in the scenery and getting as many pictures out of it as possible.
Wasn't too thrilled by a sign mentioning rare insects amongst the ruins, but that didn't stop me from bounding around every explorable corner of the castle. There were dungeon-like "rooms", and towers without roofs, but other than that I contented myself with enjoying the view under the shade of some wispy trees.
A few more pictures later, I turned and made my way quickly back.
After our castle adventure, we headed back to town and had pastries and drinks at a small pâtisserie. I had strawberry spongecake and Papa tried some chocolate fudge thingy.
Then came finding our way back to the station. We had half an hour to kill before our train was due to arrive, so we stopped at a boulangerie to buy some bread, then at the convenience store across the road for ice cream.
It was around 6 p.m. when we left. Wanted to stop by Montreux, but turned out there was no time and even so, we barely made it back to the house by 8.30 p.m. for a yummy spaghetti dinner. :)
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