Lake Geneva in Montreux

Montreux is the last stop on the Golden Pass line, a scenic railway route which we followed from Lucerne. It is right on the banks of the eastern end of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman to locals, Genfersee in German), at the foot of some of the Swiss Alps.  The lake is one of the largest in Western Europe belonging to both Switzerland and France.

Not unreasonably, the area is known as the Swiss Riviera, specially because of the Mediterranean kind of climate it enjoys. It is a mild micro climate, with the lake and the steep hills behind protecting it from the severe winters that other parts of the country experience.

We stepped out of the station, crossed the road and went down a long flight of steps to get to the lake just opposite the station. Thankfully there is an escalator to come back to the top, which of course we used while returning.

The Promenade Fleuri is a flower-lined path built right along the lake, from Montreux to Vevy allowing people to stroll along admiring the amazing colour contrasts provided by the water, the mountains that come right down to the water on the other side, the clouds on top against the sheer blue of the sky. We walked along one stretch till Clarens. We saw trees like pines, cypress, palm, bananas etc. which can only grow there. There are a number of other exotic colourful and scented flowering plants, not common in Switzerland.

A bridge in Lucerne

A 50 minute train journey brought us from Zurich central station to the beautiful city of Lucerne (Luzern), sometimes also described as the gateway to central Switzerland. The city is on the banks of Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstaettersee or Lake of the Four Forested Canons), surrounded by the Swiss Alps including Pilatus, Titlis and Rigi. We stepped out of the station and saw the lake right in front at the bottom of the mountains. Turning a bit towards the left brought us onto a bridge, Seebrucke, at the end of which was the Saturday morning market and also next to it was a cute, flower-lined, angled, wooden bridge, running diagonally over the water.

One of the famous landmarks of Lucerne is the Chapel Bridge or Kapelbruecke, a covered, wooden bridge, 669 feet long which maybe one of the oldest in Europe. The original bridge was built in 1333 as part of the city's fortifications but was destroyed by a fire on August 18, 1993. The restored bridge was opened on 14th April, 1994. The bridge spans the river Reuss near to the place where it flows out of Lake Lucerne. It is named after St Peter's Chapel which is at its northern end.



There is a tall, octagonal tower adjoining the center of the bridge, more towards the southern portion. This is the Water Tower (Wasserturm), a building constructed around 1300 AD which has subsequently been used variously as a prison and torture chamber, watch tower, treasury and archive.

Another significant feature is the 122 gable paintings, originally dating from the 17th century, a lot of which of which were destroyed and subsequently restored after the fire. The paintings by Heinrich Wagmann, have Swiss history and Christianity as a common theme and show quite violent and morbid scenes. Some of them depict black death, in reference to the black plague of the 1500's which wiped out more than half of the population of Europe. Others show the daily life and times of the people of that age, their clothes and activities. Stories of the life of the city's patron saints, St. Leodegar and St. Maurice, are also seen, as are the coats of arms of the various noble families. The paintings were executed directly on the frame of the bridge and the ones at the two ends of the bridge were part of the few of the original to have completely escaped the fire. Each painting has a number and a caption.