Montreux

more content in German | mehr Inhalt auf deutsch

Tag Archives:

Montreux

Let there be night!

by cimddwc · 2008-09-15

Sunsets at a lake have their own magic, that applies to Montreux too, of course…

Ships are still running when it’s getting dark:

The old market hall (Marché couvert) from 1890 – the lighting is probably more modern:

From Friday night after the shows – taken with the small camera, for as I mentioned I didn’t want to carry the large one with me during the concerts, and this was the only night when the lake was quiet enough for larger reflections:

At the end, a few “strange” stripes from Sunday – surely some conspriacy theorists got their own ideas of that – and an almost boring cloudless evening on Monday:

Funiculì, Funiculà

by cimddwc · 2008-09-14

From nature to technology – to the funicular Territet–Glion (about 300m above the lake). (The Italian title is from the song about the opening of such a train on Mount Vesuvius, see Wikipedia.)

One of the cars and a look at the mechanism:

On the ride down a look through the window (in which my bright t-shirt is reflected) shortly before passing the other car going up; and a bridge along the way (photographed through the opening of a small horizontally pivoted window at the top):

One view from the very top and two from the very bottom:

An old car still to be seen in the lower station (already partly visible on the previous photo):

And speaking of railroad vehicles, let’s turn quickly to the Glion station of the cog railroad from Montreux to the Rochers de Naye (the Mountain behind Montreux), right next to the funicular station:

And further below where it passes a bridge at the top edge of Montreux:

Speaking of the Rochers de Naye: One current photo from lakeside and one from four years ago when I was up there:

Gorge-ous

by cimddwc · 2008-09-13

After the castle, let’s head back to nature: into the Gorge du Chauderon, the gorge behind Montreux through which the torrent called Baye de Montreux runs – more specifically into its lower, steeper part.

Here, too, all photos are also available in the Flickr set (without comments, though).

A look back to the beginning – or rather the end, the bottom part where the torrent passes the stilts of that ugly highway, but I was walking up; and we have a look at the rock face:

A detail of the torrent – on the left with 1/400 second exposure time, on the right 1/25 second:

Rocks on the ground:

The largest waterfall in the gorge, due to its little bend and the many trees (Cut them down!! The tourists want to see the waterfall!!!) it can hardly be seen completely from one spot – so first the upper part that seems to spring from the trees, then the lower part, again with 1/400 and 1/25 second exposure:

Two other parts of the gorge – and all roads lead to… somewhere.

One of the refuges (and barbecue sheds) in the area, with the comforting realization that Uri Geller wasn’t around recently:

I didn’t go through the entire gorge to Les Avants this time (I went down from there two years ago), but turned right towards Glion where you soon leave the forest and encounter the first houses. (And a funicular railway that I’ll show on one of the next days.)

At the end we have a look at the opposite mountain where also the Montreux-Oberland Bernois railway is passing to Les Avants and on via Gstaad to Lenk.

Château & Co.

by cimddwc · 2008-09-12

The Chillon Castle (Château de Chillon) is located on the shore of Lake Geneva near Montreux, Switzerland. The castle consists of 25 independent buildings that were gradually connected and now form a single whole.

The oldest parts of the castle have not been definitively dated, but the first written record of the castle is in 1160 or 1005.

(Wikipedia)

And since then, there have been many additions and reconstructions on this Château de Chillon (official site) that’s the topic of today’s photo collection.

As with the flowers yesterday, you can also view all the photos in the Flickr set in the same medium size (and click to get the large size, of course), whereas I’m using different sizes here and add a few words, too. If it’s too much at once, if you’d prefer more small thumbnails or, on the contrary, more larger photos, please speak up…

After the wide-angle view above, let’s have a look from northwest and southeast:

And now with a ship in the front – and the ugly stilted highway in the back; as well as from 300m higher and with maximum tele zoom (and post-processing to remove the haze):

Let’s get inside – across the bridge that replaced the drawbridge in the 18th century:

A few looks into and from the courts (not in the order of the tour):

The gothic cellar vault, part-time jail, and a cellar with a small opening in the top:

There was a photo exhibition in the coat of arms hall, and I was glad I had that wide-angle lens in the chapel:

State-of-the-art cooking equipment and the latest in men’s fashion can also be found in the castle:

On the left a mechanism for the drawbridge or the gate, on the right the view tall people like me (1.90m = 6 ft 3 in) get in many places without bending down:

A bed, a chair that doesn’t look very comfortable, and a 15th century coffered ceiling:

An old wall painting, a barred passageway, and a crenel made for firearms:

Two pictures combined with HDR tone mapping (which I have yet to practice…) from photos with varying exposure:

And at the end panoramic views from the keep, the highest tower, to the northwest and southeast – and downwards:

The Bloom on the Quay

by cimddwc · 2008-09-11

The “Quai des fleurs” in Montreux got its name for a reason – but also other parts of the lakeshore with other names have nice flowers. Following is a small selection of 29 of my photos that can also be seen on flickr (there all in the same medium size; here on the blog, I decided to feature some in larger sizes, some as thumbnails only).