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Europe 2024: The Golden Pass
posted : Sunday, January 12, 2025
Hello November and it’s Day 4 of the trip.
So it’s another traveling day, on a (expensive) scenic train ride. But to start off the day, pleasantly surprised by the clear skies and weather and cue lots of ooh-ing and aah-ing from my end. Especially since view from our (upgraded) room was great which meant lots of photos at various time of the morning.  Looks like a nicely framed picture but in reality it’s window frame. Interior designer of the hotel did well.  My heart singsss  Decided to have breakfast at the balcony itself. Coffee, leftover cheese, and some apricot tart we bought from Migros  So there’s a mountain across the lake!  Sun gradually coming out, looks warm Checked out and there was a minor episode in which hotel claimed that we haven’t paid the tourist tax (I think they didn’t record it somehow?) and the same receptionist who checked us in couldn’t remember, but they decided to take our word for it even if they look a bit reluctant. Oh well. Wanted to go up to Rochers-de-Naye via the funicular but of course it’s closed. ChatGPT recommended to hang out at a jazz music cafe but we decided to take a 45min bus ride to a nearby township called Vevey instead.  Fall colours!  Somewhere near the town Centre I guess  Decided to walk towards the lake  Along the way  Spying on a dog having a good time. And we missed one of Vevey’s landmark which is this giant fork protruding into the lake. Saw it on social media but forgot that this is the very town with this landmark  Charming little streets  Feels very French. Aim was to make it back to Montreux by 12 so there’s not much time, dropped by Coop to buy lunch for our train ride then it’s back to Montreux, because good weather warrants another trip to the lakeside promenade.  Looks much better isn’t it  Maybe can do with less spots on the ground  Spying on lovebirds lol  Along the lake Bit of a rush but we made it back to hotel, grabbed our luggage, and headed back to the station. Bought the tickets to Golden Pass Express the moment they opened for sale and also bought seat reservation tickets so these are kind of fixed, and we had to get on this particular train heh. Though in hindsight, perhaps we didn’t need to pay for the seat reservation to begin with because the train wasn’t exactly very full to begin with - just that you still may run into the risk of being bumped off your seat.  Full on fall colours  Bye Montreux  Our ride!  We obviously didn’t go for the highest class, but it looks great already 3h15m of train ride and I was wide awake throughout, witnessing a change from French speaking towns to German speaking ones. Magnificent weather for a train ride like this and I couldn’t ask for more. Well maybe yes I could ask for some snow hahaha but I’ll take it.  Lunch  Leaving Montreux  So sunny along the way. Lots of videos actually but lazy to post, blogspot isn’t the greatest for this clips anyway  Passing by small train stations along the way  More along the way pics  Nearing Interlaken So Interlaken! Was quite excited about this middle part of the Swiss trip actually coz it’s packed with nice scenery. It’s in fact a base for us of sorts for the next three nights - there isn’t much to do in Interlaken itself IMO but it’s near a whole bunch of places so good to have a base to reduce all that traveling and luggage carrying haha.  Our ride arriving at Interlaken  Interlaken West station  New favorite shot style. Hotel is right next to the station, like literally.  Interlaken’s tourist card  Another standard shot Room tour! Actually I think this was the most expensive stay if our trip. Took it easy for the rest of the day - considering it’s almost sunset by the time we headed out. So it’s just doing more window shopping for watches along the main shopping street and hunting for dinner places.  Hotel exterior  Interlaken West station has a nice backdrop. And overall a much more vibrant mood  The streets of Hoheweg  Nice McD building  Sis read on XHS about redeeming a free gift with the tourist card, which wasn’t really explained to us. It’s a nice souvenir tea spoon, from Rolex!  Walked all the way to Interlaken Ost, where most intercity buses and trains depart. A lot quieter, glad that we didn’t choose to stay near here despite most buses and trains to the nearby towns/mountains departing from here. And you can easily catch a free train ride from Interlaken West to here anyway, it’s just a 5 minute ride.  Took a train back to West and ended up with McD for dinner  Then got this raspberry chocolate tart from coop for dessert. Moving on! |
