bekkeratis's PhotoBlog

La Veveyse

2008-10-05T20:16:27Z

After a shopping trip to France in the morning, we went for a hiking trip with Enikö, discovering the path we have found a month ago. It starts just above Vevey, going north towards Châtel-Saint-Denis, following the valley of the river La Veveyse. We walked 3 hours, crossing through small wooden bridges, and checking the temperature of the river.

First snow

2008-10-05T20:01:42Z

We drove up to Les Pléiades with Enikö today, to check the snow which fell a few days ago, painting white all the mountain tops around. By the lake it was sunny and quite warm, 15 minutes later we were walking in the snow, and I was bombarded with snowballs. We also found the ski lift, which will come handy in a few months.

Last minute descent

2008-10-04T12:56:29Z

Today I was invited to a Portuguese lunch at Nuno's, along with some Brazilian friends. The food was excellent, and Nuno's dogs Lilo and Stitch provided good entertainment for all. The sky was clear, we were looking at the mountains, and somebody suggested to go up to Rochers de Naye. Since it was already mid-afternoon, taking the one hour train ride from Montreux was out of question. We decided to drive up as far as we could, and see it from there. The road ended in Caux, and the signs indicated that walking up to the top required more than 2 hours. So we waited for the train instead, which took us up much quicker, but it was the last train that day, and it was leaving back to Montreux as soon as we arrived to the top of the mountain. It was around 6 pm. We decided to take the hiking road back to the cars, a very stupid decision as we realized soon. It was a treacherous path descending more than 600 meters in 1.5 hours, the sun was going down fast and it was getting dark around us. Nuno was carrying his infant daughter on his chest, and could hardly see what was in front of his feet. We were dressed for a lunch not a mountain trip, our shoes had no grip. We were lucky, by the time the sun disappeared we reached an easier forest section, which later turned into a paved road, and led us right back to the cars. Had we started half an hour later, we would have been in serious trouble. Needless to say, everybody was relieved, it was quite an adventure. Too bad we haven't had much time to enjoy the sight of the sunset over the lake.

Montreux from above

2008-10-04T12:33:22Z

I cycled to Montreux, and took the road which goes up to Glion. It is a cruel steep part, which quickly took my reserves of stamina. I was hoping that it gets a bit easier after a while, but it didn't, so after half an hour I decided to turn back and rolled back to the road by the lake. Anyway it was a good exercise, and the view was worth the effort.

Torino

2008-10-04T12:03:59Z

We had a blast of a long weekend trip with some colleagues to Turin. It is only a 3 hour drive from Vevey, through the St.Bernard tunnel. On the other side of the mountain there is a completely different world, the temperature was about 10 degrees higher, wide streets of marble full of designer shops, and plenty of beautiful old buildings. It was 3 days of drinking beer and eating pasta. Sightseeing during the day, chupito, long island and tequila during the night. I even made my own long island in a bar, too bad I was way too wasted to remember the secret recipe.

Bern

2008-09-10T19:44:11Z

This weekend we drove to Bern, did a nice walk around the medieval city center, where half the shops are under the street. Cars are not allowed to drive there, but one has to watch out for the local buses which do. We waited for the Zytglogge to play some music, but there was none. The Münster cathedral is strikingly huge, and there is a nice park next to it with beautiful view over the river. There was also a gathering of around a hundred Fiat 500 Topolino cars in front of the cathedral.

Rochers de Naye

2008-08-28T19:50:34Z

Rochers de Naye, over 2000 meters above sea level, above the clouds, home of the marmots. Enikö quickly figured out which particular flower was preferred by the marmots, and made them queuing up by the fence.

Gruyére

2008-08-28T19:21:07Z

Today we went to Gruyére with Judit's parents, as it offers a great array of things to see very close to each other, and of course a beautiful panorama. We went to the cheese factory museum in Bulle, then up to the medieval village of Gruyére, where I finally had a chance to visit the museum of H.R.Giger, after having a beer in the Alien bar next to it. I was totally right about two things. First that I had to see that exhibition, second that my daughter should not. The museum is fantastic, if you like horror movies and gothic stuff you must check it out. Unfortunately it was prohibited to take pictures, but it shouldn't be a problem to find plenty of images on the web, for example here or here. Imagine all that in the heart of a medieval village in the Swiss alps, in an old stone house owned by the artist himself. Then we visited the castle, had an excellent fondue for lunch (I start to appreciate that stuff), had a good laugh on the Harley with a cow paintjob, drove up to Moléson, just to decide that we will go up to the peak some other time.

Beach volleyball

2008-08-28T18:52:24Z

The summer event of my company was originally planned for July, but it was canceled due to rainy weather that weekend. Fortunately the weather was perfect on the second time. Our team played 5 beach volleyball matches in total, at the end becoming the champions of the tournament. We crushed our opponents, living up to our name: ite-hard-core. We had a great barbecue, and were also taken to a ride on the SUI8 racing catamaran sponsored by our company.

Les Pléiades

2008-08-28T18:39:46Z

We have seen Les Pléiades during the winter, but it was totally worth going up again in the summer. We decided not to take the train from Vevey, but drove up as far as we could, and then just walked the last few hundred meters. Instead of a skiing school for kids, on the top there was the AstroPléiades, which is an educational exhibition about the solar system and the galaxy. And of course cows, a lot of them.