Chapter 9: Tranquility in Montreux and Vevey

19 December 2013

We were out on an early morning train ride from Luzern to Montreux.

We are finally here in Montreux! After walking quite a distance in search for our hotel, we finally arrived at this small and cosy hotel that is owned by Bon. Its even got her name. Lol.

Imagine how I felt when I saw this view, which was 5 minutes away from our hotel.

Mesmerised by the beautiful view, even with bird shit everywhere on this platform.

I have never seen anything so gorgeous.

The birds even came over to pose for photos as I was snapping away.

It was picture perfect.

The bushes were shaped to my favourite cartoon characters, which made the place even more perfect!

There were shops along the lake so I was too busy looking at everything, the lake, the sky, the mountain, which were far more attractive than the shops.

Check out the sea gulls in action. They will go to anyone who is willing to feed them.

We were standing on this platform like the others and there were people feeding the swans, ducks and seagulls.

Spectacular scenery, our photos did no justice to the beauty of the place.

Statue of Freddy Mercury, who chose to retire here. He eventually passed away here too.

Can I just say that I am in love with this place?

Once we were done, we did AK’s favourite activity of hopping onto the train to Vevey!

This is a walk to the park lead by Bon who knew the place well.

 The walk in the park was really nice and I enjoyed it. The views were too beautiful.

I was walking slowly because there were too many photos I wanna take, at the same time I was really savouring the beauty of the place.

Its official that I am obsess with trees! They are so pretty!

Its not that there are no trees in our country but there are no trees looking like this!

Such tranquillity.

How can anyone not love this view?

The bestie and me both were in love with it!

I was so happy that I was able to fly.

The sea gulls were really noisy because they wanted to get to know us!

Its like the more we walk, the more beautiful the scenery gets.

Symbolic.

And then we see it! The giant and famous fork!

Do not ask me where is the spoon.

Yes it is that great big Fork of Vevey of Switzerland. Vevey is the place of the world headquarters of the food giant Nestlé, founded in this town. A swiss artist initially created it as a temporary exhibit. But the people of Vevey had grown to love their gigantic fork, and it practically became a public symbol.

It was a really nice place to sit down and chill. The peaceful nature of this place is perfect for silent reading, heart to heart conversations and picnic with the family. When we were there, there were kids posing for photos at the fork and we had to wait for them to be done before we can start our own round of taking photos too.

We were just chilling.

While someone was busy feeding the swans.

I cannot believe I am here. I read about this place and read everyone’s description of it but I did not expect the place to go beyond my expectations. It was impossible to capture the true beauty of the place.

The view on the other side.

This is where I did my zohor and asar prayers with the sun shining on my face.

The sun was starting to set and we had to move.

Symbolic statues of Vevey. Apparently a lot of celebrities chose this place as the place for them to retire. I can see why.

We were going higher, where Bon used to study so we had to get onto the tram up.

Steep slopes greeted us and I was panting walking up. I need to keep fit.

It was quite a long walk too and Bon was walking too quickly while the rest of us struggle to catch up. How does she does that?

When we reached the top, this was the spectacular view.

Breathtakingly beautiful.

It almost feels like the clouds were below us.

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

As the sun sets in further, that was when I felt that nature brings solace. Seeing the town below, I was reminded of my small presence in this God’s world.

Time to catch the train down before it gets dark. I think we spend half the time getting all paranoid about missing our trains and getting stranded. Lol.

We were greeted by pretty Christmas lights back in Montreux!

Enjoying the night view as we walked around looking for food for dinner.

I cannot wait for tomorrow to come because the bestie and me had planned to watch the sunrise at the lake.

Today was another amazing day.