CHILLON

We awakened to a cool wet rainy day. Obviously, sight seeing from a train or boat was going to be a bust! The clouds practically touched the ground. We're staying at the Eurotel Riviera - right on the lake. Breakfast was continental (coffee, rolls, cereal, eggs for 14€ each) Antje told us not to miss the Chillon castle so jumped on a bus (hotel guests have free bus and train passes) in the now pouring rain and made our way to the castle where we promptly joined about 5 bus loads of tourists.

Fortunately the castle is enormous and it is entirely open for wandering around. We each had english translation head phones and spent 2 hrs learning the history of the dukes and family Savoy. Bryan wrote his famous poem - Prisoner of Chillon here.

The rain stopped, returning to city center we could see the peaks of the mountains - there was definitely Termination Dust on the top.

We stopped at the train station to check tomorrow's cog train schedule and to check the schedule for the Lusanne train. After picking up sandwichs, local wine, chocolate, and chips we dined on our terrace and now it's time for a siesta. Later: hard to believe yesterday was so hot we were ready to throw ourselves into the lake. We ran the room's air conditioning all night. After the rain, a cold front moved in and we're wearing layers of clothes and are still cold. This afternoon went for a walk along the quay. The gardens are magnificent - wonderful combinations of color and texture. The gardens stretch the entire length of the quay, some 13 kilometers. I stopped at the statue of Freddy Mercury (he lived here the last 4 years of his life.)

 Along the way I could see glimpses of the Dents du Midi mountain range.tomato We had an ok meal at Le Metropole - bottle a of wine, 2 plates of sausage, pomme frittes, tomatoe with pesto, corn soup with shrimp and a salad - about $100. Geesh! And I still haven't had fondue and this is the famous gruyere home. Well enough. Love this area but the expense is overwhelming.