7-8-21 “Smoke on the Water” Lets look at Montreux!

On this week’s journey throughout the Alps I decided to travel over to the French area of Switzerland and visit “Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline.” Hey, that’s a catchy line. Might be good for a top-ten song.

Come on guys – Deep Purple memorialized the 1971 fire that burned down the Montreux Casino. A fan set the Casino on fire and “burned it to the ground” when he/or she shot off a flare gun during a concert there. The late great Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing at the time. Go ahead you “unhipsters“ – find the song by Deep Purple called “Smoke on the Water” and you will learn the story.

So off to Montreux I go.

Alright those of you who have been following my journeys through Switzerland know that whenever I make a trip to a place – Bern, Fribourg, Spietz, etc … it is raining by the time I get there. So, I have gotten smarter.

Pack a sweatshirt, rain gear, towel and even an extra pair of socks in my backpack before I leave. As I walked down Strattlighugel to the Gwatt Deltapark Bus stop the sun was shining and it looked like a promising day (but I kept thinking should I bring my umbrella – Nah!).

I jumped on the #1 bus … it slipped through the midmorning traffic and I was dropped off at the Thun Bahnhof for my two-hour train ride to Montreux. (By now you all should have some German vocabulary … Bahnhof = train station!)

The lyrics from “Smoke on the Water” kept spinning around in my head as we sped across the beautiful Swiss landscape. You all know what it is like when you get one of those soundtracks rolling around in your head. Now, imagine my case – not much in this old brain anyway – so several days later the song is still with me!

After a train change in Visp … we complete our second half of the journey. As we traveled into southwestern part of Switzerland (no it is not like Arizona in the US southwest)! It appeared to my inexperienced eye to be more agriculture in regards to orchards and vineyards. I actually don’t know this for a fact. But, it did look that way.

Obviously looking back from this direction the mountains look different as well. Still as stunning – but just not the same.

As you enter that final leg of the journey there are several smaller stations the train stops at. The last one before Montreux is in Aigle. After leaving there I thought I saw the famous island castle – Chateau de Chillon (If that’s not French – well, I don’t know what would be) sitting in the lake.

No problem, when I got to Montreux (the next stop) I’d find a way to get back there and see it. Oh yeah, by now it is raining – in fact been raining on and off for the last half hour of my ride. Well why wouldn’t it rain on the day that I explore my second homeland??

By the way the Chateau de Chillon is very famous and one of the most visited castles in Switzerland – and in all of Europe for that matter. There is some written evidence that it existed in 1005 – that’s a long time ago.

Built on an island in the lake it guards the entrance to Vaud River which connects to Germany, France and Italy. So, militarily it was advantageous, but also commercially it was as well since the location would allow the castle to charge a toll on passing ships. (Wikipedia can make you look smart.)

Sadly, I didn’t make it back to the castle on this trip. But, I will at some point.

We get to the train station (think Bahnhof). I jump off – no falling off this time! – head down a large stairway to the walkway along Lake Geneva. Some really unbelievable views out across the lakes at the surrounding Alps. Even with the rain and low hanging clouds it was really cool.

I explored this lower area around the lake for a long time. There is no doubt that the city is aching to get back to the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival. They have posters, tributes and advertisements for it. I think it is usually happening in July … but I am not sure when. With Covid who knows if it will take off on a normal schedule.

Standing with your back to the lake and looking up at the city (25,000 or so people live here) the architecture is definitely not like the cities of Bern, Thun, Basel, Zurich … it is described as Bell Epoque. OK – I get it, that’s French – but have no idea what that means.

It is pretty in the rain and probably spectacular with the sun out.

Just in case you didn’t know … Lake Geneva is the border of France and Switzerland (yeah check your geology … or is it geography?) I can never remember – but you all have smart phones – do some work on your own. This area is known as being part of the “Swiss Riviera!”

Freddy Mercury (“Queen”) lived in Montreux for several years and the group recorded a lot of music here. There is a statue in his memory right on the lakefront – see the pics.

The famous composer Igor Stravinsky spent many years in Montreux and completed several of his great works here. There is also a sculpture of him along the lake as well.

And for one last time those lyrics from Deep Purple come back …. Maybe, just maybe they will go away. Well, hell I kind of like that song anyway.