MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

Montreux is just so bloody beautiful. It's a small town at the other end of Lake Geneva to Geneva itself. Later afternoon/early evening Vivienne and I collected our bags after exploring Geneva for the day, and took the train for just over an hour around the lake to Montreux. We went wandering out on the evening before finding somewhere to eat, and unfortunately couldn't see much because of the visibility, but the town lights sparkling on the water were  still pretty beautiful. We found an Italian place and ate dinner (bloody pricey but I guess it's Switzerland..), before heading back to our room and watching Netflix in bed before falling asleep.

In the morning, we dumped our bags at the hotel reception and, I swear, I think I ran to the water's edge to fully see the mountains that were now visible on the other side of the lake. SO beautiful. We wandered and saw the Freddie Mercury Statue and a sculpture piece dedicated to him, and stood on the viewing platform that jutted out into the lake to fully see the amazing view up into the Alps. We grabbed some breakfast on the go, and walked for about an hour around the lake towards Chillon Castle, stopping to take photos and look at the view.

Chillon Castle was quite interesting - very Game of Thrones-esque. We definitely could have spent more time wandering around it; I think Vivienne enjoyed it more than me and there was a kid's guide book that she worked through - definitely worth a visit for a few hours. 

Mid-afternoon, after catching the bus back to the centre to save a little time, we trundled back up the hill towards the train station; stopping, again, for snacks from the Coop for our journey and for picnic-ing in bed later. 
 

We were both so, so excited to get up to Zermatt and have a look around before skiing the next day. The journey took a few hours from Montreux up into the mountains, which left plenty of time for writing in travel diaries and playing Rummikub..

You can see a different selection of photos from our time in Montreux over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - ZERMATT!

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

Ah! So! Here we go.. I've been so excited to blog about our trip, and finally all the editing has been done, I've scanned the polaroids in, the films have been developed and I'm ready to put it all out there.. 

You can see more about our plans here, but in short, we travelled to Geneva, Montreux, Zermatt, Vienna and Budapest, and did a quick few hours in Bratislava. I've decided to break it all down place by place, I'll add links for anything relevant where I can, and I'll be cross-linking to my photography blog too, where I'll be sharing a different selection of images (I didn't want to overwhelm this blog with photography-related content, and overwhelm my photography blog with family content..)

You can see my blog post for Geneva on my sallytphoto.com blog here.

We packed up, had backpacks with snacks and our travel diaries, and Dav dropped us at the train station, which would take us straight to Manchester Airport. I'm so glad I added a full case, my romantic idea of only having backpacks for the trip were soon dashed when I realised we'd need such a range of things; we needed clothes for ski weather and warm weather, hiking boots and swimming costumes.. it wasn't ideal lugging a huge case on and off trains but definitely better than not having everything we needed.

We arrived in Geneva late on the Monday night, and by the time we were checked into our hotel it was about 10pm and too late to eat out anywhere. In the dark we walked down to the Lake and looked across at the twinkling lights, and had a little wander before grabbing a take away pizza (to Vivienne's delight) to eat in bed. In the morning we grabbed a pain au chocolat to go and I think she immediately thought Geneva was the best place ever.. 

We armed ourselves with cameras and a few essentials, and walked through the city up to La Jonction. I'd researched Geneva a little and La Jonction looked so bizarre and so interesting that I really wanted to see it for myself.. It's the point where the rivers Arve and Rhône join but the waters don't mix. It was a bit of a trek to get there, and Vivienne wasn't best pleased (until we found a small petting zoo at the top of the hill just before we reached this point) but once we reached the point overlooking the rivers on a railway bridge it was all worth it. 

I was so excited when Vivienne showed an interested in using the camera I'd lent her for the trip - it's an Olympus Pen PL7 - and she loved going back through what she'd taken and keeps asking me to teach her how to edit.. Further down the line I think I'll blog a selection of her photos from the trip too.

After La Jonction we walked back through the city and headed towards the Old Town, which was uphill through narrow streets towards Cathedral St Pierre. There are two towers which you can climb in the cathedral, and one had a really panoramic view over the entire city. On a clear day you'd be able to see mountains in the distance but we happily settled for overlooking the rooftops, harbour and the Jet D'Eau. We stopped mid-afternoon for a drink and some chips (we didn't realise this would become a daily tradition at the time..) and wandered back through Geneva and down to the Lake. 

We walked to the Jet D'Eau, which you can see above, but it happened to be off by the time we reached it, we hung out by the harbour for a little while, watching people catching fish, and hanging out in the park nearby, Vivienne loved spotting the super-cars that race each other down the streets and admiring the graffiti (I think it was what she photographed most).

We picked up our bags from the hotel and jumped on the train an hour round the lake to Montreux, stocking up first on crisps and a few treats from the shop in the train station.

Geneva was somewhere I chose to start the trip for mainly logistical reasons - it was easy to fly to and move on to where we wanted to see next; but we ended up really loving wandering around this city. 

You can see a different selection of pictures from Geneva over on my blog here.

NEXT STOP - MONTREUX!

Links
La Jonction
Cathedral St Pierre
Jet D'Eau
Geneva Old Town
"Things to do in Geneva" By HandLuggageOnly