This past weekend we were joined by our friend, Nils, from Victoria who is currently doing an internship at the World Health Organization. Besides being good company, he turned out to be a very useful translator in multiple situations. Saturday morning we took the funicular (an inclined railway run on a cable) from our home on top of Mt Pelerin down to the town of Vevey. Funiculars seem to be a popular mode of transportation here and a very direct way to get up and down the mountain. Because they go straight up the side of the mountain, the "railway" cars are built on an angle. The top picture isn't great because it was so bright outside the car, but you can get the perspective of looking down the hill along the rail line.
Once in Vevey we attended a folkloric market in one of the largest market squares in the world, second only to Lisbon. Every Tuesday and Saturday in the summer market local merchants wear traditional costumes and sell local produce, spices, sweets, breads, pastries and wine (just on Saturdays...I suppose it might interfere with weekday productivity otherwise).
For 9 Francs you can purchase a souvenir glass from this market and have it filled with wine and refilled as many times as you like from 9:30am - 12:30pm. With the exception of a couple of unrestrained British tourists, the whole affair was very orderly and family-friendly. Unfortunately, we got to the market a bit late, so we weren't able to sample very much, but what we did we enjoyed. The shot below shows Danielle getting a refill by a roving winemaker.
Later on Saturday afternoon we went to check out the world reknown Montreux Jazz Festival but again our timing was off and we heard only a couple of songs from some big band before they packed up.
We had better luck on Sunday when we drove through Chardonne (a small town closeby) in search of a winery. We were told that this is the place to come for wine but had been met a few days earlier by closed-up store fronts. Apparently these are small-time operations so the owners were likely out in the vineyards attending to the grapes. Soon after we parked our car Curtis and Nils bumped into the owner of a winery out walking her dog and, thanks to Nils' years of French immersion schooling, we were invited into their cellar for wine tasting and a personal tour. What fortuitous timing!
The above "cave", where the tasting is done, was constructed by monks in the 1500's. Until just 3 year ago, the brick walls had been covered up by ugly white textured plaster. The owners chiseled it all away and now it looks absolutely beautiful. Why would anyone have covered this up???
These oak barrels hold 3000 litres of red wine; the one on the left is 100 years old.
Here are the winemakers and us...
8000 litres of white wine here...
Not included in the pictures was our afternoon tour through the Musee Suisse du Jeu (Swiss Museum of Games). Held in a castle, this exhibit had everything from 2500 yr old ancient Egyptian dice to Chess to Atari to Carcassone and everything in between. I think I saw my old friend Colin Richert's Commodore 64 there, but unfortunately I didn't see my Vic 20. There were a couple of rooms stocked with all sorts of games free for the playing. This would be a little piece of heaven for our good friend Rick Faw, I'm sure! (He would need to pack a sleeping bag.)
Not included in the pictures was our afternoon tour through the Musee Suisse du Jeu (Swiss Museum of Games). Held in a castle, this exhibit had everything from 2500 yr old ancient Egyptian dice to Chess to Atari to Carcassone and everything in between. I think I saw my old friend Colin Richert's Commodore 64 there, but unfortunately I didn't see my Vic 20. There were a couple of rooms stocked with all sorts of games free for the playing. This would be a little piece of heaven for our good friend Rick Faw, I'm sure! (He would need to pack a sleeping bag.)
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