Day 14 Tuesday - Travel Olten to Montreux

My first view out of the room window over the lake. It was raining in the distance.

Today was a travel day moving from Olten to Montreux. The first train, an ICN, very comfortable, took us from Olten all the way to Lausanne via Oensingen, Solothurn, Biel, Neuchatel and Yverdon-les-Bains. The ride was smooth and the banking very effective. At Lausanne we changed to a train for Montreux. The weather was somewhat spotty but the views over Lake Neuchatel were exceptional with the mountains in the background. However traveling eastwards from Lausanne the clouds came in and Lake Geneva was a little choppy. At Montreux we quickly went to the hotel and were delighted to find that our rooms were ready. 

The SBB was not doing very well today most trains were running a couple of minutes late and much of the problem seemed to stem from poor station work. They need to start blowing whistles at passengers to get them to hurry up when boarding the trains.

We then went back to the station and took a train to Aigle and changed to the narrow gauge for Monthey.

The narrow gauge train to Monthey

Here we found a Migros restaurant and had a very good lunch followed by Magnums. The reason for taking this train was to see how much of the shops and associated narrow gauge trackage we should be able to see at Chernex. It seems there is a platform there but this is a private one just for people working in the shops. We will have to give this a miss.

Back at Aigle we took another narrow gauge train on the rack railway up to Leysin. This is always a lot of fun because the first part is a single line with trains running in both directions along a very narrow one-way street. Part way here we met a truck coming in the opposite direction. There was some confusion while the truck was forced to reverse back out for 100 yards or so. From there the train made its way to the depot. The driver changes ends here and we run onto the very steep rack operation. It is a great fun going up here and we made our way up to the terminus at Leysin (omitting the tunnel section into the hotel).

Leysin

Bus connection to Le Sepey at Leysin

At Leysin there was a quick connection with the local bus which took us down a very steep hill with many hairpin bends and across the valley to Le Sepey.

Le Sepey

At Le Sepey the school had just let out and the kids were running riot all over the place. A second bus in the opposite direction met us and the up and down trains met in the station. The narrow gauge train took us back back down to Aigle. This is an interesting trip in that virtually all of the line is side-hill construction on very steep hills with very very deep valleys and heavy forests. The line runs downhill but no rack is used.  The forest continues all the way until we were very close to Aigle where the vineyards start to take over.

There are excellent views of the Chateau d'Aigle before arriving back at the Aigle terminus. The trains used on the Leysin and Sepey lies are very old and do not sound good.

We decided to take a stopping train back to Montreux and get off at Chinon so we could see the chateau and walk along the coastal path back to the hotel. This is a pleasant nicely landscaped route passing the ferry dock in Montreux where two steamers the Italy and La Suisse docked in quick succession. By now the weather had improved significantly it was pleasantly warm and there was a little breeze.

A local train at Chinon

Chateau de Chinon

Italie

Our hotel

La Suisse

We have travelled from German Switzerland to French Switzerland and the changes are notable. The architecture is different and there does not seem so much regimentation here. The real difference is that we can talk to people in their own language whereas in the German area we have to ask if people understand English. Both Paul and I have spent some time in the Montreux area and we feel very much at home here.