Montreux Jazz Festival 2014

Since returning to Switzerland this week, I am trying to catch up with myself. Here's another post about an adventure earlier this summer. Tom's annual CIO conference is always in Switzerland, but the location changes. I'm sure you can guess the location for 2014. I was not invited to the conference, but I was happy to take the train to Montreux on Friday afternoon to join Tom and spend the weekend with him there. The conference conveniently ended the day the jazz festival began.

The company always choose nice hotels and we sure couldn't complain about the view from our room.
 

The tents below were for craft vendors selling their wares.












Montreux has definitely invested in its walkway along Lake Geneva. There were beautiful flower gardens the whole way and music notes on the fences! Perfect!

We're not experts on jazz by any stretch and most often don't choose it. Therefore, we didn't know any of the names on the program and opted not to purchase any tickets. We decided we would be just fine with whatever was available free of charge.



The first group we heard (playing on the stage labeled music in the park) was actually a high school jazz band from Washington state, USA! I was very impressed with their soloists. That was something I never felt comfortable doing - they were very good.

female bassist - love it!

We were lucky enough to have chosen to sit down for a glass a wine - when it started raining we had a pretty good spot! Umbrella compliments of the hotel.

Of course, we saw and listened to many street musicians as we walked along.

desperately in need of a haircut

I have seen South American Indians playing their panpipes all over the world - they sure get around. I admit to having no idea what the instrument on the right is called.

an appropriate decoration for the city

Before the music started on Saturday, we took a bus down to Chillon Castle walking back to Montreux along the lake afterwards. The conference had taken a tour of the castle, but Tom was willing to go again and act as my personal guide. (I can never go to too many castles - they're all unique)

inner courtyard

kitchen

watch your head!

I chose not to climb out there...

on our way back to Montreux

We saw the beginning of a race on our way. 

pirates!

unfair advantage?

Time for more music! The singer on the "Music in the Park" stage had a really nice voice, but we enjoyed the solo jazz pianist at "El Mundo" the most. We talked to him at his break and then stayed until the end of his set to buy a CD. He was from Greece, but spoke English well having studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Unfortunately, the CD isn't as good because it's a group and not just him. I'll just consider it a donation to his career.

It's fitting that Montreux has a shop that sells pianos. Notice the awning and the sign in the shape of a grand piano over the door. This one's for you, Pam!

I think the JAZZ sign is temporary, but a nice touch. 












We took our chances (no reservation and an unknown restaurant) and sat down for an outdoor dinner. My food was better than I expected for blindly choosing a restaurant in a crowded tourist town. We had seats where we could hear this young woman singing. We were also rewarded with a beautiful sunset. Well, it was actually blinding me on the way down, but very pretty anyway.

looks good, right?

This group was clearly having  a great time. Fun to watch.

ambiance at night

There was a lot going on in Montreux. The next morning, right outside our hotel, we saw the start of a race.  Don't know if it was a charity run or something else, but there were a lot of runners.

Since the music didn't start until evening and by then we needed to be on our way back to Zurich, we decided to head out in the morning. We opted for a boat to Lausanne since we'd never explored that city. From there, we would take a train back to Zurich and then on to Horgen. It was a perfect day for a boat ride.

au revoir to our hotel

vineyards

Here are some photos from our short walk around Lausanne - of course there was a cathedral. It was difficult to get a picture of from the outside because we couldn't get far enough away with all the other buildings.

cathedral peeking through

city hall with clock

climbing up to the cathedral

This is the best I could do from near the entrance. Without google images, I would have no idea what it looks like in its entirety. There was a lot of pretty stained glass.

thanks google

Time to climb back down and catch a train back home. It was a fun weekend jaunt.  We hadn't spent much time in the French region of Switzerland so the trip was probably overdue.

Swiss National Day 2014

Tom and I arrived back from Russia around midnight of July 31 - just in time to celebrate Swiss National Day with the locals. One of the traditional activities is to go to brunch at a farm. We didn't learn this in time for 2013, but this year we had our reservations made before we left for Russia.

This sticker was our ticket and gave us access to the buffet and the farm tour. 








These pictures were taken from the same spot - looking back at the entrance with the big flag and looking into the food area. (As you can see, the weather was overcast and was also a bit cool, but at least it did not rain.)

 

There were no directions - buffet first or egg station first? Take your pick. The egg station also had bacon and rosti (Swiss hash browns). There was plenty of food and it kept coming! This had to be a huge undertaking for the farm and their preparation was impressive. Here you see alphorn players wearing vests in black edelweiss fabric.

egg station with seating area behind

my choices

The eggs were served on top of the rosti. Notice the roll with the cross (or Swiss flag) baked in and the tablecloth with the popular edelweiss print. They also had tarts and cakes, but I didn't take any pictures of them.

thanks google images

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this father and daughter - each dressed in the edelweiss fabric. It comes in pink, blue and black. The father was also wearing a belt with gold cows on it. I've seen those for sale in tourist areas (and they cost about 100 CHF!!). I don't think the tourists buy them, but I have seen plenty of Swiss wearing them.

lots of tables with a surprising number of seats reserved

Of course, there was entertainment. I hope to have the opportunity to try an alphorn while we're here.

The farm was definitely family friendly - lots of fun things for kids. The farmer gave us a tour which I only partially listened to - Swiss German is just too hard to understand. There was also a list of questions to answer from the tour and I think then the child received a prize or was entered in a raffle, not sure.  (Ex: What is the name of the spotted pig?)

parents hold their children to see pigs inside green pen

 

 

cow with "back scratcher"

There were more chickens, but so many eggs were cooked today, they had to come from other farms as well.

pony rides at no extra cost - a rare Swiss bargain

 

There was a small booth with goods for sale. We bought bread, cheese, and some sausages all of which were part of our Swiss National Day dinner. I didn't eat all that sausage at one sitting, but wanted to show we had two different kinds - both good.

Yum - even without an edelweiss tablecloth

After dinner, we walked down to take a spot along the lake for the local fireworks. On our way, we said hello to our sheep neighbors. The weather improved over the course of the day and ended with a beautiful sunset - also visible in the reflection on a car's windows. Cool!

 

fireworks over the party ship on the lake

Back at home, we finished our wine on the balcony while watching fireworks from other areas around the lake. We also lit the sparklers we were given when we left the brunch. 

Even Google knew it was Swiss National Day and put up a special google-doodle. It captures the highlights of the day, for sure.

It was a fun day and we're glad we made it home in time. Running through Heathrow to catch our flight back to Zurich was worth it.