Switzerland trip part 6 - Montreaux, Lausanne and Geneva

I guess this is finaly the last part of my swiss photos. On the last day, we went back to the cities. Upon suggestions by some frens, we decided to stay over at Montreaux. Initially wanted to do Lausanne, but was unable to get a decent hotel due to our last minute-ness.

Anyways, we took the Golden Panoramic train from Interlaken to Montreaux and passed by some really beautiful scenery.







Finally we arrived at Lake Geneva! Lake Geneva is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in Central Europe and is known as the Swiss Riviera.



Upon arrival at Montreaux, the first place we went was Chateau de Chillon. This is apparently one of the top attractions in Switzerland.




Actually after been to soo many other castles, I thought this was so-so only. Although the location is simply unbelievable.


View from the Chateau.


Watching the sunset from one of the windows in the tower of the Chateau.




Beautiful castle with mountain view background.

After the visit, we decided to take a train down to Lausanne for dinner coz Montreaux was sooooo quiet.. hardly saw any interesting places for dinner.


Last rosti in swiss..


Lausanne - home to the International Olympic Committee

The next day, we moved on to Geneva, our last destination before we fly back to London.

Naturally, our first stop was to visit Jet d'Eau - a large water fountain situated at the point where Lake Geneva empties into the Rhone River.




The famous Flower Clock located at the edge of the Jardin Anglais (English Garden). This is a symbol of the world renowned watch industry of Geneva. Eh, somehow it reminded me of a similar clock at Taipei's 阳明山.


Then I made my way to the European headquarters of the United Nations.


However due to time constraints, I didn't manage to do a guided tour of the UN HQ. Also, the queue was too long!


Statue of Gandhi at UN HQ.

My last visit was to CERN. CERN is located quite out of Geneva and I had to change buses to get there... quite an experience coz the bus actually brought me to all the residential and suburban places of Geneva. Quite different from the touristy Switzerland that I had known for the past week of my trip.

This is the 'Palais de l'Equilibre', a landmark building designed by Geneva architects. This is a 50th anniversary present from the Swiss Conferation to CERN.

Again I didn't manage to do a guided tour of CERN due to time constraints. I did however go into this Palais for an exhibition on Angels and Demons - the movie made famous by Dan Brown's novel. Quite an eye opener.

Overall, I think I've really enjoyed the Swiss trip. Beautiful scenery and wonderful travel kakis. Though its also really expensive!

Switzerland trip part 5 - Zermatt

This is the part which I like most. The visit to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn. Reason why I like this is the most is coz I think the scenery is the nicest on this leg of the trip.


View from the train on the way to Zermatt.


The Matterhorn coming into sight as the Gornergrat railway scales the Mount Gornergrat where we can get the best view of Matterhorn.




I must say that we were really lucky to get very good weather to see the Matterhorn so clearly :)


St Bernard dogs






That's a frozen lake.


Coming down the mountain






The village of Zermatt.


Main shopping street of Zermatt


Spring time!

Switzerland trip part 4 - Bern and Trummelbach falls

I am soo late in my updating. Can't believe that I'm still at only part 4 of my swiss trip! After swiss, there is still the trip I did with Pris (who came to visit me and jy) to York and Liverpool, and Berlin trip, and just this weekend, North Wales trip with aunt nic and liping! gosh... when will I ever finish posting everything? :(

Anyways, so back to Swiss trip. The next stop while we stayed at Interlaken was Bern. Do you know that Bern is the capital city of Switzerland? Many people probably thought its Zurich or Geneva. But, its actually Bern.




There are many many such fountains around Bern. These public fountains were added in the 16th century to serve to show the power and wealth of the city, as well as to provide fresh water for the people in the city. This is one of the 11 fountains which feature a large allegorical statue.


The Zeitglockenturm, and astronomical clock.

After that, we went to the house where Albert Einstein stayed in when he stayed in Bern, and where he derived the famous formulae, E = MC2.


Einstein's family tree


A very nice display of Einstein's life story and achievements.




The Bear Pit. This is actually a living place for Bears. Too bad when we visited, the entire place is undergoing some expansion plans, and the new Bear pit is due to be opened Oct 2009. Too bad we didn't get a glimpse of the bears as they are being moved to a nearby zoo for the time being.


View of the city at the Bear pit.


A pretty display

Next day was a visit to the Trummelbach Falls with its 10 glacial water falls in the mountain.














This 小妹 was trying to scare people who walked past her by hiding in a box! Quite cute though, although we really got a scare when we suddenly heard someone said "hello!"


Starting our cruise of Lake Thun.








Guess what the person in this stall is selling? Strawberries! haha..


We specifically went to find a pub to watch the Champions League final between Man Utd and Barcelona. But what a disappointment we got. Man Utd played so awfully lousy :( They deserved to lose!