We Finish Our Tour Exploring Montreaux and Neighboring Vevey

 

Our last day in Montreaux. And we were on our own for the entire day.

Rolling meat market

 Dayne and Pam had decided to take a train into some surrounding mountains and tour one of Switzerland’s noted chocolate factories. We decided to sightsee more of Montreaux and use or free bus pass to see what was worth seeing in neighboring Vevey.

Mmmmmmm, sausages!!

We started with a light breakfast and then headed out to the waterfront to get some walking in.

Market vendors

We were way up on our food intake and way low on burning some of the excess calories, and it was getting to the point where we could no longer disguise the result. Jane had learned that there was a Saturday morning farmer’s market along the lakefront, and suggested that we could walk while viewing the vendor offerings in the market (Capt. Larry really didn’t think many calories would be burned examining jewelry…but the Queen always wins).

Lakefront flowers

Off to the lakefront we headed. Jane said the vendors set up at 0700, so when we arrived at 0900 we figured that everything would be in full swing. Wrong!

Beautiful, whatever it is

We found the vendors just beginning to set up and few displays were ready for viewing. Capt. Larry was relieved. We did find some interesting meat and produce stands that are contained in cleverly customized vans, much like rolling butcher shops, and featuring a variety of meat cuts, sausages, and smoked and cured meats. The few crafts booths that Jane was interested in were a disappointment. One interesting van that caught Capt. Larry’s attention was a bakery on wheels that produced fresh-baked breads and pastries sur place.

More flowers

Overall, it was less of a farmer’s market and more of a flea market. Capt. Larry characterized it as a rolling garage sale. We reversed our direction and walked in a northerly direction along the lakefront- a section we had not previously explored. Montreaux has a beautiful lakefront and the city plants beautiful beds of flowers seasonally throughout the year. Since we were not familiar with many of the species, Capt. Larry was busied himself taking pictures of the beautiful flowers.

Bicycle racers

As we retraced our route we came upon a bicycle race that was being conducted on a course laid out along the lakefront and the Avenue des Alpes, the main street through the business district. We watched the riders for a while before returning to our hotel room to spend a couple hours reading and relaxing.

Dining al fresco

Around noon, we decided to drag ourselves back up the Rue de Marche to the old historic district for lunch at the English-speaking restaurant Gabriella told us about the previous day. We found our restaurant, told the owner how we came to visit them, and were seated outside on the restaurant’s street-side veranda. Our English-speaking waitress was a real delight.

Government building in Vevy

Being low on Swiss francs, because we were leaving Switzerland the following morning, we first inquired whether she had a card reader that would accept our credit card. She assured us they did, so we dined al fresco on salad, olive bread, and tomato pasta with shrimp. A trilogy desert of chocolate mousse with raspberries, crème brule, and strawberry chiffon finished our delightful meal. We went to pay our bill and the waitress appeared with a credit card machine that we feared would not read our card, but the waitress turned the machine over to reveal a magnetic strip reader. It’s all good!

A really old Vespa

Vevey's old district near waterfront

We returned to our hotel room and had a brief rest. Around mid-afternoon we decided to go out and use our bus passes and travel to Vevey. We boarded a bus and were in Vevey's central district approximately 30 minutes later. Exiting the bus, we walked toward Vevey’s waterfront and through the old district adjacent to the waterfront. Similar to Montreauex’s old district but located along the lake, we found the old city of Vevey very quaint and interesting and with lots of balconies and flowers.

Street shot of the old district

Vevey is famous for being the home of Charlie Chaplin for 25 years, and having learned that he and his family also vacationed in Snee, Ireland when we were there, we started to regard old Charlie as some sort of Kilroy that had lived just about everywhere.

Odd sailboat along Vevey's waterfront

On the other hand, Montreaux was a home to numerous celebrities such as Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, Victor Hugo, Igor Stravinsky, and Richard Strauss to name a few. We passed by a statue of Chaplin as we headed toward the waterfront. Along the waterfront we saw an interesting ketch sailing on the lake, and after about 45 minutes of sightseeing and not finding much more than shopping to do, we headed back to the bus route to return to our hotel and pack our bags so we would be ready to leave early the next morning.