Monday, October 18, 2010

A Little Late - Something Different Sunday

It's a little late, but I wanted to do a Something Different Sunday because I wanted to share my wonderful weekend trip.

Saturday morning I left for my drive to Montreux, Switzerland. It's on the east side of Lake Geneva and is in the French speaking area of Switzerland. Twenty minutes into our drive, I realized that I forgot my swimsuit and had to turn around. I'm glad I did because the hotel had the most amazing spa! I spent over an hour in there switching between the sauna, hot tub, personal Jacuzzi and cooling bath.

When I arrived in Montreux, it was extremely rainy and foggy so you couldn't really see much of the alps. The hotel we stayed at was impressively beautiful!






Once I arrived, I went straight too sight seeing. Itook the bus along the lake to Chillon Castle. It's been expanded and used since the mid 12th century. It's also the first castle I've ever been too. It was really nice to tour as they had the whole castle numbered and also described in a pamphlet.



Montreux also is home to a recording studio called Mountain Studio were quite a few notable bands have recorded at... Queen, AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop. A little interesting song fact for you all. The song Smoke on the Water was based on events that happened at Montreux Casino on December 4, 1971. Frank Zappa with The Mothers of Invention was holding a concert at the casino when someone in the crowd fired a flare gun destroying the casino complex. The band Deep Purple watched the smoke on the lake from their hotel that night. Interesting background for a song right?

Statue of Freddie Mercury

Sunday morning I left for my drive to Adelboden. A place that I've lived for a total of four months before my move. Instead of taking the normal route up to Bern and down to Adelboden. I decided to do a little sight seeing. I went the east to north route. Allowing me to drive from Montreux-Sion-Brig-Kandersteg-Adelboden.

Lots of vineyards on this side of Switzerland.
Situated on a giant hill in Sion. Left is Tourbillon castle and right is a Valère castle (church).
From Sion I made my way to Brig. Where I drove the curvy road up the mountain to the car train. This is the third time I've been on this train car. I took this way when I went to Italy last summer. Not a ferry like the TomTom pointed out. Side note, when we were at the Chillon my cell phone told me I was in France when I was obviously still in Switzerland. haha


Once I arrived in Kandersteg.  I still had to drive another 30 minutes around the mountains and up again to make it to Adelboden. Where I enjoyed the snowy landscape, took the gondola up the Tschentenalp (2,025m/6,644ft), and drove by my little shack I used to lived in. I dearly miss Adelboden and wish I could of stayed longer. It will always hold a little place in my heart.
Gondola to Tschentenalp
Rösti for brunch. A Swiss dish made of roughly grated potatoes.
Oh boy, it's very winter like up here.

Adelboden Village Main Street
The cow in the upper left moos sometimes when you walk by it. :)
It was really cloudy so you can't see the mountain tops. But this was the kind of view I had out my bedroom window.
I just went by, my old apartment, but here is the little road I use to take down to the valley.

My little time I had in Adelboden went by fast and it was time to drive back home to Zürich. Instead of the usual way of Adelboden-Bern-Zurich. I took the long and more scenic route of Adelboden-Spiez-Interlaken-Lucerne-Zurich. It was insanely beautiful.

Obwalden


little white gorilla!

Thanks for joining my massive photo post of Switzerland. I wanted to share my current home country.

4 comments:

  1. What an incredibly beautiful place. You're very lucky to live near such breathtaking scenery. <3

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  2. OMG Switzerland is so beautiful. Makes me wanna go by car through Europe (I live in Sweden), Germany, Austria, Switzerland!

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  3. Thanks ladies. It's definitely a place to visit if you can. I would skip the major cities and check out the mountains.@isabella We drove around the black forest and it was gorgeous. I really want to check out Austria sometime but it will be a long while till that.

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