Today we took a ride up to mountains. The first journey took us on the funicular railway from Vevey to Mont Pelerin. At 9 o’clock in the morning Lake Geneva and the distant mountains were looking beautiful.
We were all looking forward to having a cup of coffee at the top overlooking the lake on a terrace, but oddly everything was closed until 11 am. You can’t help but feel there is a business opportunity being missed here.
We came back down and took a local train to Montreux where we stopped for lunch before continuing on the cog railway up to the very top at Rochers-de-Naye (2042 metres) to enjoy further spectacular views over the lake and mountains. Unfortunately, mother nature laughed at our plans, and by the time we arrived there was an almost complete white out and visibility of about 10 m.
This area of the Alps is famously home to an animal called the Marmot, described to me as a sort of squirrel on steroids, but with teeth and an attitude problem. Since humans extract the oil from Marmots and use it medicinally for ailments, such as cramps and arthritis this may provide some explanation for their stroppy attitude. Here’s a photo of the Marmot enclosure at the top of the mountain. Can you see them? No, neither could we because the bloody things are all hibernating. The revenge of the Marmot.
Fortunately, we got our fix of four-legged friends on the cog railway. This is Akira, who was apparently going mountaintop walking with his family.
TimOnTheTrain 