Switzerland - Part 3

I have this thing about sunsets. I take pictures of them everywhere and have an album full of various places around the state, country, and even the world. The evening in Montreux looked promising......and it was over water, my favorite! We decided to take the "maiden voyage" of the sunset cruise on the Vervey, a 1907 steamer that would cruise the end of the lake on the "crois du soir". Deciding against having dinner on the boat, we stopped for a quick pizza and then got on board. We soon discovered that we would be accompanied by only a few others....we had the boat nearly to ourselves!

The ride took us around the eastern end of the lake and we were able to get a close look at the Chateau du Crillon, an impressive castle from the 11th century as a fortress and now used as a residence (but open to the public).

We talked about how we will miss boat rides in Minnesota this summer, but this would certainly be a memorable evening. Not quite like partying on a pontoon or a boat filled with people on Lake Minnetonka, but this was certainly peaceful and romantic!

......and I was able to see a Lake Geneva sunset!!

What a magical day....seeing the mountains and a magical lake. We headed back to our hotel, Lyle singing "Smoke on the Water"......a song by Deep Purple in the '70's about the burning down of the Montreux casino, now rebuilt.

We left the next morning on the train to Geneva to explore for the day before heading home on a plane back to airport. The day was rainy (visions of Madrid?).......and we weren't very impressed with this busy city after Montreux. Somehow I think it was partly because of the weather and partly because the travel agent ("moi") wasn't prepared with things to do. We walked around with umbrella in hand, found an Irish pub for a hamburger....and arrived at the airport early. Lyle kept wishing we were taking a train instead, but a 45 minute flight got us back to Paris before 10 Monday night. It was a good get-away, I think, just what Lyle needed.

Here are a couple of pictures of Geneva......we didn't take many because of the rain.