Day 8 broke bright and chilly. We drove a couple of hours to Lake Geneva to tour Chateau Chillon. Chateau Chillon was made famous by Lord Byron who wrote a poem about the famous prisoner who stayed in the dungeons for several years. The chateau was an ok tour...there were furnishings in most of the rooms, and the original wall decore could be seen, but I think by this point I was tiring of castles and castle tours, so I was less entralled. The setting on the lake is really pretty, though and provided us with some interesting photo opportunities.
After the tour we met up with our group for a picnic lunch right beside the lake while we waited on our boat. We then took a boat cruise to a town called Vevey. 
In Vevey they were celebrating the maritime history of Lake Geneva and had five antique boats (each with several hundred people in them all carrying balloons) on parade. We stayed in Vevey to see the maritime parade.
Each boat had different colored balloons (there was a red boat, yellow, blue, white, and green) and it paraded by the park area really slowly. Then they came by very fast and blowing their horns really loudly. Finally, they all lined up and blew their horns and let the balloons go. It was kind of interesting for the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes, but the 40 minutes inbetween the interesting parts was really boring for me. David loved it.
In Vevey they were celebrating the maritime history of Lake Geneva and had five antique boats (each with several hundred people in them all carrying balloons) on parade. We stayed in Vevey to see the maritime parade. Each boat had different colored balloons (there was a red boat, yellow, blue, white, and green) and it paraded by the park area really slowly. Then they came by very fast and blowing their horns really loudly. Finally, they all lined up and blew their horns and let the balloons go. It was kind of interesting for the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes, but the 40 minutes inbetween the interesting parts was really boring for me. David loved it.After we were finished at Lake Geneva, we drove back to Murten for a free afternoon. David and I walked around town (took about 5 minutes) and then climbed up on the city walls for a look around. We walked around on the ramparts and really enjoyed looking out over the rooftops.
Around 7pm we met up with our group for a dinner. We had fried fish with several side options, and this was probably the best group dinner on the trip. The fish were apparently swimming happily in the lake outside that very morning.
As I said yesterday, I really enjoyed our time in Murten. I know that the bathtub in my room helped out, but it was a sweet little town and being able to go to Lake Geneva was lots of fun. I think the opportunity to see an intact city wall with ramparts is cool. I'm disappointed that they've removed this town from the tour for next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment