Due to technical difficulties beyond our control or understanding, Judy’s video about Spiez must be divided into two pieces. Here are the links. The first is mainly showing our Swiss Chalet and the second is more about what we did in Siez. We had a wonderful relaxing time there. We enjoyed living in a Swiss chalet and a Swiss town for a week.
This is the SpiezHouse Video. We had a wonderful relaxing time there.
https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/p467105398/e325aed05
This is what we were doing is Spiez:
https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/p467105398/e1d8fa1f3
I said I wasn’t going to blog about the second honeymoon, but the trip to Le Mirador from Spiez deserves special mention. Two reasons: the trip itself and our return after 50 years to the Chateau de Chiilon.
Google Maps offered two routes: one northbound to Bern and then southwest toward Vevey, the other a more direct route but that took 30 minutes or so longer. The slower route had lots of wiggles but avoided tolls. The Toyota’s GPS took the slow route without asking. But, hey, we’re here for the scenery, not efficiency, so why not take a little longer and smell the cow dung on the scenic route?
It proved to be a fortuitous choice. The map didn’t lie: the road had lots of wiggles and it climbed up one mountain side and down the other. We passed through numerous small towns. Rain fell periodically, sometimes heavy, but there were breaks with sunshine. At one point the mountain climb and descent was on a one-lane path with occasional cutouts so opposing cars, and especially trucks, could pass one another. We didn’t see but one other car, however.
The big payback was in a small town where a family was herding their milk cows from summer pastures high on the mountainsides to lower pastures for fall, as is the custom here in Switzerland. A man and his maybe six-year-old-son led the way. Dad would call out, urging the cows forward. The boy would imitate Dad with his own call. Mom was in the middle herding the strays out of the path of oncoming flatlanders in big black Toyotas. The last cow in the parade wore a crown of flowers, again as is traditional. This ranked right up there with being in the vineyards at the exact moment of harvest. A “road not taken” event; taking the superhighway via Bern and we’d have missed it.
We visited Chateau de Chillon when we were here fifty years ago, so it seemed appropriate to revisit the castle this time. Also, when touring Schloss Spiez two days ago, there was a reference saying, “While not of the size or grandeur of Chillon, Spiez is of interest in its own right.” So now we can compare and contrast for ourselves.
Notice too that what was a schloss in Spiez is now a chateau two hour’s drive later. Switzerland has four official languages, but one prevails in most regions (Cantons). We passed into French territory somewhere in our drive through the mountains. Same thing with religion. Lucerne was decidedly Catholic, Zurich and Spiez Reformed and I suspect we’re back in Catholic environs.
One interesting difference, other than size. The story at Spiez was the barons that ruled there but not so much the actual construction history of the building. The opposite was true at Chillon. Yes, they talked about the House of Savoy and the Bernese who occupied the place between the 11th and 18th centuries. But the big emphasis was on the construction, and reconstruction of the castle, beginning with its first occupation, probably by the Romans but most definitely as a castle as early as 1000 CE.
Extensive archeological work has been done to identify foundations and changes that were made over the years. The form of the castle that we see today was pretty much defined by the mid 1500s but, like most homeowners, each succeeding owner had to knock down a wall, add another room, repurpose rooms from dungeon to powder storage to chapel and back again.
Significant research and reconstruction were performed in the late 1880s and 1890s, continuing on through the 1930s, creating what some say is a fine example of a medieval castle’s architecture. As with Washington Irving’s visit to the Alhambra in Spain, Lord Byron and other 19th century luminaries popularized Chillon as a tourist destination. Today Chillon is the most visited castle in Switzerland if not all of Europe.
We had a hard time remembering our visit 50 years ago. For one thing, the superhighway that bypasses the main costal road is new. So is the visitor’s entrance and café. And I’m pretty sure we didn’t pay 12 CF each for iPhone-based audio guides. What we do remember is taking the funicular down from Le Mirador, then a train to Chillon and walking along the waterfront to the castle’s entrance.
After, our faithful GPS took us up another series of twisty-windy roads to our hotel. It too has changed: the size has doubled and it’s 21st century modern. Our room is a couple of cuts above what we could afford as newlyweds. But the view remains the same and being here brings back fond memories of those two twenty-four-year-old kids who had no idea what great risks they were taking traveling alone without Internet or iPhone to guide them. Such is the folly of youth who haven’t yet discovered all the pitfalls that are apparent only to those with grey hairs and years behind them thinking up things to worry about.
And one other trip down memory lane: the hotel dining room was booked so we walked up the hill to a small restaurant near the funicular station where we had fondu, just as we did in a small grotto in the hotel, now closed, 50 years ago. “No, no, no” said Judy as the waiter attempted to pour more wine into her glass. “No, no, no,” replied the waiter as he poured the wine anyway. This time the fondus were made with fresh local garlic and fresh local truffles and with white beer, which were great, and elicited fond memories.
