Summer 2007 - Day 28

Day 28

Lausanne is a city in the French speaking part of Switzerland. There are four official languages in Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh.

We did our usual wander around the city and had a look inside the Cathedral.

In 1915, Baron Pierre de Coubertin established the IOC's (International Olympic Committee) headquarters in Lausanne and created the Olympic Museum. The museum details the history of the Olympic Games and has all of the medals from all of the games and the torch from each games. Lots of other memorabilia as well.

We then left for Montreux as we had a fairly busy day ahead. In Montreux we visited Chateau de Chillon, a castle built on a rock on the shores of Lake Geneva. The oldest part dates back to 1160. In the 13th century under Count Peter II of Savoy, Chillon was completely transformed and considerably enlarged.

The ancient road to Italy was widened at the start of the 18th century. Chillon was built to guard the narrow pass between the lake and mountains and to serve the military and commercial interest of the House of Savoy.

Castle Keep.

Courtyard.

Castle Interior.

Chillon also houses a collection of armour and weapons.

Evidence of Swiss hospitality even in medieval times - where you might expect to see an archer or to have to duck out of the way from a cauldron of boiling oil, they have flower boxes.

Guards walk above the 12th century walls.




These toilets are for display purposes only.......

.....but someone forgot to tell Mark and John.

Chillon was most famous for Bonivard's Prison. The room was previously used as a storehouse in the 13th century and as a prison in the 14th. Bonivard, Prior of St Victor's, Geneva was chained for 4 years to a pillar because he was in favour of the Independence of Geneva. He was freed by the Swiss on 29/3/1536. He was immortalised by the poet, Byron, who signed his name on one of the pillars.

View from Chillon.

Mark and John letting us know that perhaps they would like to leave.

As we walked away from Chateau de Chillon we could see the A9 motorway - a marvel of Swiss engineering. Unfortunately, that was as close as we got to the A9 thanks to our GPS. (David decided that he wanted a new navigation system) This new system took us all over the countryside, which was very scenic, but a tad slower than the motorway.

After winding our way through the vineyards (with David colourfully lamenting his purchasing decision) we finally made it to Bern. We visited Bern to see the house where Einstein lived for 2 years and where he developed his Theory of Relativity.