Live trip report - 8 days of family fun in Berner Oberland and Vevey
Aug 3rd, 2013, 03:13 PM
#24
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Really enjoying your trip report and taking notes.
We will be in Switzerland in September staying in Wengen and Montreux. We are also taking the Golden Pass route to Montreux. We will be on a morning train to Montreux and have not booked seats yet, wondering whether we should. We will have 1st class tickets.
We thought to purchase an 8 day pass, had thought about the flexi pass, but didn't really want the inconvenience of purchasing tickets every time we decided to go somewhere. What was our experience?
We will be in Switzerland in September staying in Wengen and Montreux. We are also taking the Golden Pass route to Montreux. We will be on a morning train to Montreux and have not booked seats yet, wondering whether we should. We will have 1st class tickets.
We thought to purchase an 8 day pass, had thought about the flexi pass, but didn't really want the inconvenience of purchasing tickets every time we decided to go somewhere. What was our experience?
Aug 3rd, 2013, 10:16 PM
#25
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aussie -- buying tickets, at least for our week around Wengen, was a piece of cake. No hassle at all. We could usually walk right up to the window and purchase them. Sometimes, we'd have to wait for 1 person. The only queuing we did was at the Zurich airport and even that was only a few minutes.
So, our experience was no hassle at all. I wouldn't buy a pass just for that reason (obviously that's not the only reason, but you get what I mean).
So, our experience was no hassle at all. I wouldn't buy a pass just for that reason (obviously that's not the only reason, but you get what I mean).
Aug 4th, 2013, 02:46 PM
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Thin - are Swiss not big on giving hugs I take it? The "Grandma" was indeed the first and only person in Switzerland to do so! And Philippe I think was almost as surprised as I was when my normally reserved kids(at least with people they don't know well)ran and hugged him when we left Wengen.
Indy_Dad - we are living near Ascot outside of London (commute into London for work) and are 4.5 years into a 3 year assignment
We will probably go back to the US sometime next year which will be a shock to our kids who really don't know anything but here! I think I recall from one of your posts you are up further north?
Aussie - you will have a great time in September and the combination of the mountains and lakeside was really good for us! I don't really think you need to book seats ahead for 1st class based on our experience unless maybe you have a large group? We never found 1st class to be full on any train and as Indy_dad commented, we also found with the HF card it was really easy to buy tickets on each day (just make sure you do remember to buy them and not jump on the train without like we did!). There would certainly be a convenience of a Swiss pass to not have to buy tickets each time but for us, the buying was easy and the price comparison with our facts made the Swiss pass quite a bit more expensive.
Ok, I am slowly catching up on my report although not "live" anymore due to my slowness in writing...
Day 7 - August 1 - Swiss National Day and Le Bouveret
Happy Swiss National Day today! The kids wake up surprisingly early given the late night before so we are at breakfast by 8:30 am and enjoy the crisp morning air out on the hotel terrace with our coffee.
Today we are going to take the CGN boat cruise from Vevey to Le Bouveret and visit the Swiss Vapeur Parc which is a miniature steam railway park that I had read about. We use our Riviera cards (could have also used our Half Fare cards) to buy boat tickets for 50% discount and we go for 1st class so we can sit on the upper deck of the boat.
The boat ride is calm and peaceful and I get some great shots of Vevey and the countryside as we cruise to Montreux, by the Chateau de Chillon, and so on around the lake until we reach Le Bouveret. It takes a little over an hour from Vevey to Le Bouveret. I was kind of hoping we might have some festive Swiss National Day music on our boat similar to what we had when we took a boat cruise on Lake Thun two years before on Swiss National Day but no luck. I suppose these boats are a bit more “business like” in ferrying passengers back and forth versus the more scenic cruise we took on Lake Thun. Anyway, the ride is still very nice and we arrive at Le Bouveret and leaving the dock immediately see the sign for Swiss Vapeur Park only 500m to the left.
Le Bouveret looks like a nice small town and we see some picturesque buildings but don’t stop as Mr. 3 is so excited to see the trains he can barely contain himself. We’ve visited several miniature railways or similar in the UK so not really sure what to expect. We paid around CHF 8 per adult (at 50% using the Riveria cards) and CHF 6 for my DD (age 5). Mr 3 was free but the woman could barely believe he was 3 years old as he is really tall and many people throughout our trip thought they were twins (by the comments I would over-hear). As an aside, this is a funny thing I’ve noticed traveling in Europe. We will be standing in a tram or somewhere and I will hear people next to us commenting to each other in English things like “oh - do you think they are twins? How old do you think he is, etc. etc” as if they assume we don’t speak English or can’t hear them. Kind of awkward - do you respond, ignore them? I’ve done both but is funny sometimes when I answer and watch the startled look on their faces.
Anyway, we walk into the parc which is not huge but a nice size and are immediately at a small railway station where a miniature green “subway” train pulls in with lots of happy people sitting in the wee carriages. The trains are just big enough to sit in, usually straddling a little bench and I had to laugh a bit at all the adults sitting on the trains with their knees sticking up over the tops of the carriages. We get on the “subway” and off we go through a miniature Switzerland filled with Swiss landmarks, tunnels, bridges, ponds, and beautiful flowers. They even have a miniature gondola going up the side of a little mountain. The kids were ecstatic but all of us enjoyed it so much. My DM and I started laughing at ourselves and our ridiculous overuse of the word “cute” as every corner we turned one of us would say “oooh, see the ____, how cute!!” The tracks wind all over the little landscape and there are a few different rail stations where you can get on and off various trains. They put several trains into operation depending on how many people are in the park and there are different varieties including a Matterhorn train, a “city train”, an old fashioned steam train, etc etc. It was hilarious to watch the train engineer take a tiny little shovel and scoop coal into a 5 inch steam engine firebox. This is a place for both kids and any train enthusiast!
You can also just walk through the park and watch happy families ride by on the little trains. There was a a few nice places to have lunch including the restaurant we went to by the “prairie” and they served a beef steak and some pork that was surprisingly good along with the typical bratwurst. The parc has several really nice areas with picnic tables or benches as well and many people brought their own picnic baskets for lunch. We saw families with children from infants up to teenagers and everyone seemed to be having a great time. I sat at the “prairie station” by two young British boys (aged 10 and 12) who were so nice and friendly (although the younger boy had to first ask his older brother if it was ok to tell me his name which I thought was sweet and wise). They were telling me that they had been on many holidays in Europe but this holiday in Switzerland was by far their favourite.
We spent about 3.5 hours at the park in total including a 1 hour lunch break and that gave us time to ride 4 different trains before we had to go catch our boat back to Vevey. We selected a boat that was completing the same loop we had started in Vevey so the ride back was only 30 minutes or so as we merely stopped at St. Gingolph and then went straight across to the lake to Vevey arriving around 4pm.
Right near the boat dock in Vevey there is a grand old carousel so we stopped to let the kids have a few rides before heading back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap to be prepared for another late night of fireworks. Things were already lively on the waterfront in preparation for the evening festivities and lots of people were already camped out in their firework viewing spots.
Around 8pm we headed down to the waterfront to find some more good street food at the venders and it was a bit more challenging this night to find a place to sit but we did find a nice spot along the rock wall overlooking the lake and had a little picnic. I found my Brazilian friends who greeted me with “Hey Anglais!” and hooked me up with a round of delicious caipirinha’s.
Around 10pm they lit a huge bonfire on the lake (which my DH first thought was a boat on fire - ha ha) and once that died down, the real fireworks began. They were done from a barge just off the shore by the Vevey main boat dock and our view from the lake promenade in front of our hotel (close by where the giant fork is in the lake) was perfect!
The only downside of the evening was that the lead singer of a band that was playing live music (piped along our section) was truly awful and her singing was not appreciated by many patrons by the looks I saw on faces around! After the fireworks, DH went to return our caipirinha glasses (you put down a CHF 2 deposit per glass) and watched a woman walk up to the owner of the Brazilian stand and start scolding him for the “bad music” as she mistakenly thought the horrible singing was coming from his speakers - she was speaking French but this is what he got out of the conversation. Hoo boy - did that ever make the Brazilian mad so it took a while to return the glasses as he had to correct the woman of her mistake and then he also assured DH he had nothing to do with the out of tune band....
Another perfect (if slightly out of tune) day in Switzerland! Happy Swiss Day!
Tomorrow - our last full day in Switzerland - relaxation on the agenda.
Indy_Dad - we are living near Ascot outside of London (commute into London for work) and are 4.5 years into a 3 year assignment
We will probably go back to the US sometime next year which will be a shock to our kids who really don't know anything but here! I think I recall from one of your posts you are up further north?Aussie - you will have a great time in September and the combination of the mountains and lakeside was really good for us! I don't really think you need to book seats ahead for 1st class based on our experience unless maybe you have a large group? We never found 1st class to be full on any train and as Indy_dad commented, we also found with the HF card it was really easy to buy tickets on each day (just make sure you do remember to buy them and not jump on the train without like we did!). There would certainly be a convenience of a Swiss pass to not have to buy tickets each time but for us, the buying was easy and the price comparison with our facts made the Swiss pass quite a bit more expensive.
Ok, I am slowly catching up on my report although not "live" anymore due to my slowness in writing...
Day 7 - August 1 - Swiss National Day and Le Bouveret
Happy Swiss National Day today! The kids wake up surprisingly early given the late night before so we are at breakfast by 8:30 am and enjoy the crisp morning air out on the hotel terrace with our coffee.
Today we are going to take the CGN boat cruise from Vevey to Le Bouveret and visit the Swiss Vapeur Parc which is a miniature steam railway park that I had read about. We use our Riviera cards (could have also used our Half Fare cards) to buy boat tickets for 50% discount and we go for 1st class so we can sit on the upper deck of the boat.
The boat ride is calm and peaceful and I get some great shots of Vevey and the countryside as we cruise to Montreux, by the Chateau de Chillon, and so on around the lake until we reach Le Bouveret. It takes a little over an hour from Vevey to Le Bouveret. I was kind of hoping we might have some festive Swiss National Day music on our boat similar to what we had when we took a boat cruise on Lake Thun two years before on Swiss National Day but no luck. I suppose these boats are a bit more “business like” in ferrying passengers back and forth versus the more scenic cruise we took on Lake Thun. Anyway, the ride is still very nice and we arrive at Le Bouveret and leaving the dock immediately see the sign for Swiss Vapeur Park only 500m to the left.
Le Bouveret looks like a nice small town and we see some picturesque buildings but don’t stop as Mr. 3 is so excited to see the trains he can barely contain himself. We’ve visited several miniature railways or similar in the UK so not really sure what to expect. We paid around CHF 8 per adult (at 50% using the Riveria cards) and CHF 6 for my DD (age 5). Mr 3 was free but the woman could barely believe he was 3 years old as he is really tall and many people throughout our trip thought they were twins (by the comments I would over-hear). As an aside, this is a funny thing I’ve noticed traveling in Europe. We will be standing in a tram or somewhere and I will hear people next to us commenting to each other in English things like “oh - do you think they are twins? How old do you think he is, etc. etc” as if they assume we don’t speak English or can’t hear them. Kind of awkward - do you respond, ignore them? I’ve done both but is funny sometimes when I answer and watch the startled look on their faces.
Anyway, we walk into the parc which is not huge but a nice size and are immediately at a small railway station where a miniature green “subway” train pulls in with lots of happy people sitting in the wee carriages. The trains are just big enough to sit in, usually straddling a little bench and I had to laugh a bit at all the adults sitting on the trains with their knees sticking up over the tops of the carriages. We get on the “subway” and off we go through a miniature Switzerland filled with Swiss landmarks, tunnels, bridges, ponds, and beautiful flowers. They even have a miniature gondola going up the side of a little mountain. The kids were ecstatic but all of us enjoyed it so much. My DM and I started laughing at ourselves and our ridiculous overuse of the word “cute” as every corner we turned one of us would say “oooh, see the ____, how cute!!” The tracks wind all over the little landscape and there are a few different rail stations where you can get on and off various trains. They put several trains into operation depending on how many people are in the park and there are different varieties including a Matterhorn train, a “city train”, an old fashioned steam train, etc etc. It was hilarious to watch the train engineer take a tiny little shovel and scoop coal into a 5 inch steam engine firebox. This is a place for both kids and any train enthusiast!
You can also just walk through the park and watch happy families ride by on the little trains. There was a a few nice places to have lunch including the restaurant we went to by the “prairie” and they served a beef steak and some pork that was surprisingly good along with the typical bratwurst. The parc has several really nice areas with picnic tables or benches as well and many people brought their own picnic baskets for lunch. We saw families with children from infants up to teenagers and everyone seemed to be having a great time. I sat at the “prairie station” by two young British boys (aged 10 and 12) who were so nice and friendly (although the younger boy had to first ask his older brother if it was ok to tell me his name which I thought was sweet and wise). They were telling me that they had been on many holidays in Europe but this holiday in Switzerland was by far their favourite.
We spent about 3.5 hours at the park in total including a 1 hour lunch break and that gave us time to ride 4 different trains before we had to go catch our boat back to Vevey. We selected a boat that was completing the same loop we had started in Vevey so the ride back was only 30 minutes or so as we merely stopped at St. Gingolph and then went straight across to the lake to Vevey arriving around 4pm.
Right near the boat dock in Vevey there is a grand old carousel so we stopped to let the kids have a few rides before heading back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap to be prepared for another late night of fireworks. Things were already lively on the waterfront in preparation for the evening festivities and lots of people were already camped out in their firework viewing spots.
Around 8pm we headed down to the waterfront to find some more good street food at the venders and it was a bit more challenging this night to find a place to sit but we did find a nice spot along the rock wall overlooking the lake and had a little picnic. I found my Brazilian friends who greeted me with “Hey Anglais!” and hooked me up with a round of delicious caipirinha’s.
Around 10pm they lit a huge bonfire on the lake (which my DH first thought was a boat on fire - ha ha) and once that died down, the real fireworks began. They were done from a barge just off the shore by the Vevey main boat dock and our view from the lake promenade in front of our hotel (close by where the giant fork is in the lake) was perfect!
The only downside of the evening was that the lead singer of a band that was playing live music (piped along our section) was truly awful and her singing was not appreciated by many patrons by the looks I saw on faces around! After the fireworks, DH went to return our caipirinha glasses (you put down a CHF 2 deposit per glass) and watched a woman walk up to the owner of the Brazilian stand and start scolding him for the “bad music” as she mistakenly thought the horrible singing was coming from his speakers - she was speaking French but this is what he got out of the conversation. Hoo boy - did that ever make the Brazilian mad so it took a while to return the glasses as he had to correct the woman of her mistake and then he also assured DH he had nothing to do with the out of tune band....
Another perfect (if slightly out of tune) day in Switzerland! Happy Swiss Day!
Tomorrow - our last full day in Switzerland - relaxation on the agenda.
Aug 4th, 2013, 03:52 PM
#27
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Day 8 - Relaxation in Vevey and Montreux
Today is our last full day in Vevey - sniff. We try to sleep in but this is not possible with children sitting on your chest staring at you so we get up and head down to breakfast to plan our day which (shock!) to DH, I have not set any agenda.
We take a family vote and both 3 footers immediately yell out "Golf!!" which they have been talking about since we played it in Wengen and were upset with us for not going back there to play again. So, we suggest some other things like the funicular, boat rental, etc but they stick to their guns and mini-golf it is. We found a mini-golf place right in Montreux on the lake promenade near the Montreux Palace hotel which was easy to reach via the 201 busline. It was a simple but nice mini-golf course and we got there before its official opening time but the man running the place saw us loitering around and took pity and let us in early. Beyond all belief, DD who refuses to listen to any coaching (such as not holding the club backwards), manages to get another "goal in one" (she also got one in Wengen). There is strange karma at work here...
Mini-golf mission accomplished we wander Montreux a bit before taking the bus back to Vevey for a play at the playground near the boat dock and to have lunch. I read about a good sushi restaurant on tripadvisor so we look it up on our BB's and walk over. Ugh - sign on the door that says the owners on are vacation for 3 weeks. We can't decide on anything else so we go back and eat on the hotel terrace. The food is fine but I'm not too impressed by the service - it was really slow and the waitstaff were not in synch and keeping forgetting to bring things. If I wasn't staying at the hotel, I would not choose to eat there again.
After lunch the adults relax while the kids have a short nap and then I take them swimming in the hotel indoor pool while DH gets a massage at the Puressens Spa in the hotel which he says is very nice. The spa and pool facilities are quite nice at the Trois Couronnes. It is an indoor pool vs outdoor pool which can be good or bad depending on the weather situation. During this great weather, an outdoor pool would have been nice.
DS is ready for fireworks for the 3rd night and is quite miffed when we explain there were no fireworks to be had this evening. However, all the vendors and tents are still up and so we go down to the lakeside and have our final picnic in Vevey while a much nicer musical group than the previous night plays some classical music and we enjoy the relative peacefulness of the lakeside - it is busy enough to feel like a holiday but not so busy that we feel crowded.
Day 9
Saturday Market in Vevey and home to England
Today we have to go home so we sadly pack up our duffels and have a nice breakfast. We have until noon until our train leaves Vevey for the Geneva airport so we walk over to the Marche and see the Saturday market. It is a nice market with mostly food and some clothing and other goods. DM and I browse around while DH takes the kids to the playground by the dock and to see the swans. I find a nice straw market bag and lots of great food I would like to buy but don't since we are leaving. It would be a great place to get a fabulous picnic - sigh. next time.
We finish up and go to the playground to see DH and the kids only to find them stripped down to their undies (the kids that is) and swimming in the fountain near the playground along with a few other children. It is a perfect fountain for kids to swim/play in and we had noticed it became quite busy with children on other days as well. The outer part is very shallow (about 8 inches for younger children) and the middle section is probably about 2.5 feet deep.
Time to catch a train so we go check out of the hotel and walk to the train station (we missed the bus and in the 10 minutes we would have waited for the the next one, we walked the distance easily). No excitement on our way from Vevey to Geneva airport and we catch the short flight from Geneva to Heathrow and home by 5pm UK time. Gotta love short flights!
DH says this is our Best Holiday Ever and is already trying to figure out when we can go back. For me, it is a huge testament to a good holiday that DH and I barely touched our blackberrys. It is hard for us to feel unplugged from work but Switzerland is a great cure. Thanks for reading and I hope that this report helps those as much as other reports helped me in planning our trip!
Today is our last full day in Vevey - sniff. We try to sleep in but this is not possible with children sitting on your chest staring at you so we get up and head down to breakfast to plan our day which (shock!) to DH, I have not set any agenda.
We take a family vote and both 3 footers immediately yell out "Golf!!" which they have been talking about since we played it in Wengen and were upset with us for not going back there to play again. So, we suggest some other things like the funicular, boat rental, etc but they stick to their guns and mini-golf it is. We found a mini-golf place right in Montreux on the lake promenade near the Montreux Palace hotel which was easy to reach via the 201 busline. It was a simple but nice mini-golf course and we got there before its official opening time but the man running the place saw us loitering around and took pity and let us in early. Beyond all belief, DD who refuses to listen to any coaching (such as not holding the club backwards), manages to get another "goal in one" (she also got one in Wengen). There is strange karma at work here...
Mini-golf mission accomplished we wander Montreux a bit before taking the bus back to Vevey for a play at the playground near the boat dock and to have lunch. I read about a good sushi restaurant on tripadvisor so we look it up on our BB's and walk over. Ugh - sign on the door that says the owners on are vacation for 3 weeks. We can't decide on anything else so we go back and eat on the hotel terrace. The food is fine but I'm not too impressed by the service - it was really slow and the waitstaff were not in synch and keeping forgetting to bring things. If I wasn't staying at the hotel, I would not choose to eat there again.
After lunch the adults relax while the kids have a short nap and then I take them swimming in the hotel indoor pool while DH gets a massage at the Puressens Spa in the hotel which he says is very nice. The spa and pool facilities are quite nice at the Trois Couronnes. It is an indoor pool vs outdoor pool which can be good or bad depending on the weather situation. During this great weather, an outdoor pool would have been nice.
DS is ready for fireworks for the 3rd night and is quite miffed when we explain there were no fireworks to be had this evening. However, all the vendors and tents are still up and so we go down to the lakeside and have our final picnic in Vevey while a much nicer musical group than the previous night plays some classical music and we enjoy the relative peacefulness of the lakeside - it is busy enough to feel like a holiday but not so busy that we feel crowded.
Day 9
Saturday Market in Vevey and home to England
Today we have to go home so we sadly pack up our duffels and have a nice breakfast. We have until noon until our train leaves Vevey for the Geneva airport so we walk over to the Marche and see the Saturday market. It is a nice market with mostly food and some clothing and other goods. DM and I browse around while DH takes the kids to the playground by the dock and to see the swans. I find a nice straw market bag and lots of great food I would like to buy but don't since we are leaving. It would be a great place to get a fabulous picnic - sigh. next time.
We finish up and go to the playground to see DH and the kids only to find them stripped down to their undies (the kids that is) and swimming in the fountain near the playground along with a few other children. It is a perfect fountain for kids to swim/play in and we had noticed it became quite busy with children on other days as well. The outer part is very shallow (about 8 inches for younger children) and the middle section is probably about 2.5 feet deep.
Time to catch a train so we go check out of the hotel and walk to the train station (we missed the bus and in the 10 minutes we would have waited for the the next one, we walked the distance easily). No excitement on our way from Vevey to Geneva airport and we catch the short flight from Geneva to Heathrow and home by 5pm UK time. Gotta love short flights!
DH says this is our Best Holiday Ever and is already trying to figure out when we can go back. For me, it is a huge testament to a good holiday that DH and I barely touched our blackberrys. It is hard for us to feel unplugged from work but Switzerland is a great cure. Thanks for reading and I hope that this report helps those as much as other reports helped me in planning our trip!
