Vevey and Neuchâtel

The Riviera Lodge in Vevey was a gem of a find. The facilities were basic but everything was squeaky clean, and the management was very friendly. It also has to be one of the most easy to reach hostels in Switzerland; just walk down from the train station towards the lake and it's off the main square. I had a very restful night's sleep due to the cool mountain air and the comfy bed.

After a breakfast of müsli and yoghurt, I walked down to the quay where I found this lone goose amongst the swans. I wonder if it felt out of place.

I walked westwards along the water's edge this time. Along the way are these statues of hippocampi.

This was the largest hippocamp. I liked the mirror-like surface of the pool reflecting the distant mountains and the sky. 

This is the headquarters of Nestlé.

Then I walked up the slope to the back of the train station and to the old town.

This is a sculptural machine near the Swiss Camera Museum. I didn't note whether it was a permanent exhibit or a temporary one. I'm also not sure if it's by Jean Tinguely or Niki de Saint Phalle.  How embarrassing.

Then I checked out of the hostel and took the train to Lausanne changing to a milk run to Yverdon Les Bains at the western tip of Lake Neuchâtel. Although Yverdon is famous for its thermal springs, just as L predicted there was nothing of interest to the casual sightseer, probably only for people taking the waters. From there I caught the train to Neuchâtel which is further east along the same lake.

I explored the lakeside a bit and had lunch in an EPA supermarket cafeteria (these have good deals in Switzerland). Streets were cordoned off, and eventually a bicycle race came through to the cheers of bystanders.


It had been my intention to change to a bus crossing into France at Vallorbe and then catch the TGV to Dijon from there. I however saw from the timetables that I could take the service from Neuchâtel to Dijon via Pontarlier. In fact it was the same TGV service, just two branches merging. So I got my ticket changed at a very friendly Swiss CFF counter for no charge.


As the train crossed into France, I got quizzed by a border official about my métier. Fortunately I remembered the French word for computer, ordinateur. At Dijon I met B, as arranged. I'll put those pictures in a separate post as there are quite a few.

Lausanne and Montreux

The train connections went like clockwork. One of the glories of the European rail system is how overnight carriages are routed by coupling and recoupling to trains to reach diverse ultimate destinations. For example, at Lyon, some carriages of my train would have been routed to Paris and others to Geneva and points east. Some of those connections involve waits but of course sound asleep passengers don't know about those. That is also why it's important to be in the right carriage, especially if you don't have a sleeper but a normal seat.

Dawn found me in Geneva where I cleared immigration and hopped onto the local to Vevey. I was now in the land of clockwork. And expensive everything. I stopped mentally converting to Aussie dollars, it was too depressing. Instead I converted to Euros, which was less but still depressing. Fortunately my Eurailpass was good for the rest of the day so I could travel as much as I wanted on the Swiss rail system. I was in Vevey only long enough to check into the hostel and have breakfast. Then I caught a train back to Lausanne to meet L, whom I had made the acquaintance of back in 1997.

She had only the morning free because she had to vote as an expatriate in the elections of her homeland, so we walked the streets of Lausanne while chatting. She seemed a bit preoccupied. I think the burden of living apart from her family weighed upon her. She also mentioned that her employer had to implement an austerity drive. I saw signs that Swiss railways were also under pressure to cut costs. Only France seemed to be bucking the trend towards the doldrums. However the Swiss mountains are always a great backdrop for walking and talking. You'd have to go to somewhere like Norway or Scotland to have such dramatic scenery.

After we parted I had the rest of the day free so I decided to revisit Montreux, after an absence of some 20 years. It has a long lakeside promenade and I wondered I would recognise it.

It still looked like a picture postcard.

I walked all the way to Château de Chillon, one of the most recognisable landmarks on Lake Geneva.

A closer view.

Evening found me back in Vevey where I walked along the lake shore. This is one of the tourist cruise boats that ply the lake. There were quite a few foreign tourists about. Was Switzerland popular at the moment because it seemed further away from terrorism concerns?

The lake was home to a large flock of swans.

The mountain scenery got more dramatic as the twilight deepened.

Three facts I knew about Vevey: It was mentioned in Little Women. Charlie Chaplin lived his last years there. It's the headquarters of the Nestlé corporation.


A man I encountered on the path stopped to ask me if I was Japanese. Perhaps he imagined that every Asiatic looking tourist was Japanese.

There is a Bar Charly by the lake. Whether this was a tribute I don't know.


It was a cold evening so I abandoned an idea to visit Geneva by night.

I dined at Maccas because it was the cheapest place. Even so it was more expensive than in other countries. There were a lot of noisy football fans in town. I wondered what the teams were and which team won. Afterwards I took in an Argentinian film, Historias Minimas, at the local art cinema. It was a good story and distracted me for a couple of hours.