Montreux and Sion

We flew into Zurich, but our first couple nights were in Montreux on the other side of the country. The thing is Switzerland isn't really that big and it has an excellent train system. So we arrived in Montreux around lunch time completely exhausted. As soon as our hotel room was ready (several hours after we check-in), we all crashed.

Swiss train station sign

Taking a walk along Lake Geneva waiting for our hotel room to be ready.

Our hotel, Eden Palace, right on the water. It was pretty good, but desperately needed new carpet. 

The ferry that connects the towns and cities on Lake Geneva.

View from our hotel room balcony looking into France.

We had a late dinner in Montreux the first night. It was an Italian place. Inga's dinner request the whole trip was pizza.

Fox and Ornery posing in front of the Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux.

 We didn't do much sightseeing in the Swiss Riviera. We pretty much stayed in Montreux just to be close to an early morning departure of the GoldenPass line, but more about that later. For Inga's 2nd birthday, we took a train to Sion, the capital of the canton Valais. Valais is home to ski towns, the Matterhorn, wineries, and the oldest Catholic diocese north of the Alps, in Sion.

Sion train station

Immediately after getting off the train, we took a bus into the mountains to the ski town of Haute Nendaz. We had a slight detour when we got off the bus in Basse Nendaz, but got to see some of small town Valais in our walk up the mountainside. The previous post on Swiss gardens has picture of the cemetery in Basse Nendaz. Once in Haute Nendaz, we road the gondola up to a ski area because it was such a clear day.

Inga's first gondola ride. She LOVES gondolas now.

Tracouet had a playground and restaurant. This was like a mid-mountain ski station. The sign to the right in the picture showed the lifts that were open for hikers.

 We had lunch at the restaurant at the top and discovered the best way to make a ham sandwich. Hearth bread, soft cheese as a spread (like brie), mustard, cured ham, hard cheese (like Emmental), and a little pickle (sweet and spicy, not dill) made the best sandwich. We used this recipe for the rest of the trip. The restaurant also had a changing table! (Those are hard to find in Switerzland.) We didn't do any hiking because we wanted to go back to Sion to see the castle and old city.

Pretty Alpine lake

Our attempt at a family photo. You can see Sion at the bottom of the valley.

View of Rhone valley

 Sion is known for its medieval old city and the Chateau de Tourbillon and Basilique de Valere. The Basilique de Valere is a fortified church and monastery that Pope John Paul II named a basilica. The church is on a smaller hill so that's the one I wanted to walk to as I was carrying Inga.

View of vineyards above Sion

Old building outside the church walls.

Chateau de Tourbillon on the hill opposite the church.

Inside the church altar

The church's organ was built about 1435 and is one of the old playable organs in the world.

There was a museum in the monastery I kind of wanted to see, but it cost money and Inga was really worn out by this point.

View of old Sion

Tunnel street!

Center of the old city

We all took naps on some grass by the Cathedral Notre Dame de Fatima.

Beautiful fountain and the flag of Valais

 I really liked Sion. The people were very friendly and relaxed. I could tell they don't get many American tourists in Sion especially at that time of year. I really just saw Swiss people out enjoying a Friday afternoon in late summer. I had to laugh when we left Sion at 8pm that all the teenagers who had come into the big city for Friday night were leaving at 8pm. The Swiss do not stay out late.

Probably the most embarrassing toddler moment of the trip came on the train ride back to Montreux. It was passed Inga's bedtime at this point, but we still had a 45 minute train ride back. We got on the first train to Montreux that arrived at the station. It was a EuroCity train that had originated in Milan and was heading to the Geneva airport. It was packed with business travelers. We could only find two open seats and put Inga on my lap. This led to a toddler meltdown with Inga crying, "Want seat. My turn. My turn." The fit lasted pretty much the entire ride to Montreux.

But it was her 2nd birthday after all and we hadn't gotten her any cake. Well, we still didn't. We got her some ice cream instead. "Birday i cream" as Inga said.

Inga crashed hard that night. Happy Birthday.

Kinderspielplatz of Switzerland

Switzerland is a very family friendly country that also loves outdoor recreation so they put playgrounds in all the right places. It made the trip much more enjoyable to be able to always find a playground for Inga. She loves to slide and learned all about up and down on the teeter-totters. Her ladder climbing skills also greatly improved. It was an interesting cultural experience to see and talk with other parents. We were obviously the American, helicopter parents helping our daughter climb things too big for her and riding down the slide with her. The other parents just watched from the sidelines unless their child was really young (like 1 year old). Inga did a great job communicating with the other kids by being her extroverted self and teaching the other kids to say "jump" and "slide".

Here are pictures of some of the playgrounds we visited.

Family Car train (yes, a playground on the train):

Here is Sam being an American, helicopter parent.

The Intercity (IC) and nicer Interregio (IR) trains have family cars with a small playground. There is a short slide.

The boat was great for imaginative play.

The family cars are always at the end of the train and have a jungle theme painted on the outside.

Haute-Nendaz/Tracouet ski area:

There was a brand new playground at the top of the gondola from Haute Nendaz to Tracouet. This is a ski area in winter and hiking area in summer.

There was even a jump-jump! Inga played with a little boy in the firetruck for awhile, too.

 Gimmelwald (Lauterbrunnen area):

Gimmelwald is a tiny town above the Lauterbrunnen valley. It had the best slide we saw, in my opinion. This slide is located right next to the gondola station.

 Allmendhubel (above Muerren):

You can take the Allmendhubelbahn (a funicular) from Muerren up to this amazing view (that's the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau). There is a restaurant, hiking and skiing, and a playground. The slide wasn't as great because it had a flat spot in the middle.

 Muerren:

We went to the playground in Muerren many times since we stayed there four nights. Inga really liked the slide in teeter-totter although it was a playground designed for older kids.

 Winteregg (railway station/ski lift near Muerren):

The Winteregg train station/ski lift restaurant had just added a playground. It had a miniature "ropes" course, tunnels, playhouse, slide (of course), carved animal figures, and hammock swing. The restaurant also had toy trains inside to play with.

Lumberjack merry-go-round and wooden chickens.

Cow rocker with slide in background.

 Kleine Scheidegg (Grindelwaldbrick berghaus):

The redneck old chair lift swing at the Grindelwaldbrick berghaus playground. This playground is on the trail from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. 

Inga found a little to play with on the teeter-totter. The little Swiss girl just spoken German and all I understood her to say was "Jungfraujoch" as in she had visited the Jungfraujoch, I think.

Luzern:

This playground is in New Town not far from the train station. There was a water table with hand pump. It was messy.

The big kids side of the playground where Inga befriended the playground bully and got her to play nicely.

 Zurich/Oerlikon Migros restaurant:

This is the equivalent of a McDonald's play place. It is in the Migros (grocery store) restaurant.

Lauterbrunnen:

This playground is the near the cemetery and church in Lauterbrunnen along the main walking path out of town. It had a slide and tunnels built into the hillside. This water table thing drained into the sandbox area.

Other places with playgrounds we didn't take pictures of are:

• Montreux: in the central water front park near the Freddie Mercury statue
• Sion: a few blocks from the train station

All the playgrounds were principally made from wood. There were no monkey bars or large climbing structures. The sandboxes were filled with a granite type sand not the American play sand, but it worked just fine. There also weren't many toddler swing seats. 

The playgrounds were a lifesaver many days when Inga was begging to do something she wanted to do and to play with "other kids!".

Swiss Gardens

We just spent 10 days touring Switzerland from Montreux, on the shores of lake Geneva, to the Alps, and to Zurich, the banking capital of the world (or something like that). One thing all these places had in common was impeccable gardens, vegetable and flowers alike. The Swiss take their gardening very seriously. I am inspired to fill my yard with more flowers and more rows of vegetables. So to kick of my many posts about our adventures in Switzerland, here is a series on Swiss gardens.

The lakeshore path in Montreux is lined with a raised planter box filled with a mixture of perennials and annuals.

They made heavy use of begonias in Montreux. 

Ornamental grasses, banana leaf plants, and juniper were the primary perennials in Montreux. Chateau de Chillon can be seen in the background.

Cemetery in Basse-Nendaz (above Sion) next to the Catholic church. The Swiss cover grave sites with flowers instead of grass. 

Freshly cut hay fields in Basse-Nendaz that are watered with snowmelt through a system of channels. The Swiss grow hay wherever they can.

Street planter box in Haute Nendaz. The streets had planter boxes full of flowers on every corner.

Hay barns above Gimmelwald in the Lauterbrunnen area (German speaking Alps). All that grass is for the cows. These are the lower grazing fields. All the cows, sheep, and goats were grazing at about 8000 feet (Gimmelwald is at about 4000 feet).

House in Gimmelwald adorned with geraniums on all the window planter boxes.  In the German speaking Alps, the primary flower was a geranium.

A cemetery in Lauterbrunnen (outside a Protestant church), with lots of begonias on the grave sites.

Onions drying on a barn in Gimmelwald. There were lots of vegetable gardens in Muerren and Gimmelwald all growing cold weather crops in August (onions, lettuce, peas, etc.).

Small vegetable garden in Gimmelwald. I love that it looks like the barn and garden are perched on a cliff because they are!

Raised flower bed at the Trummelbachfalle visitor area (they don't really have visitor centers). I love the use of cosmos among the perennial flowers.

Our hotel in Luzern had planter boxes on all the balconies with begonias, petunias, and sweet potato vine (the Kapellbrucke and Mt. Rigi are in the background).

The Kapellbrucke in Luzern had planter boxes along its whole length filled with sweet potato vine, petunias, and impatiens. 

You might think Switzerland is the land of mountains, snow, and banks, but they have a lot of agriculture there. On the train from Zurich to Lausanne, we saw farmland comparable to anything in the US growing corn, hay, and various vegetables. The Rhone valley around Sion grows grapes (for amazing wine) and lots of apples. We also loved the community gardens we saw in the suburbs. Every plot had a private garden shed. It was very different from community gardens in the US. The Swiss also know how to get high yield out of a small space. They utilize every bit of land they can.

My goal for next year is to plant more flowers everywhere around my home. The Swiss do know how to brighten up everything with flowers. We are also going to try growing lettuce between rows of onions/leeks, which we saw in several gardens in Muerren.

Additional pictures I found on Sam's computer:

The cutest flower garden was in Gimmelwald. Best use of garden gnomes I have ever seen. 

Vege garden in the Lauterbrunnen valley. This was somewhere near Trummelbachfalle.

Another vege garden in Lauterbrunnen valley near Trummelbachfalle.