Last Day in Vevey
And Christmas markets in Montreux
On our last day in Vevey which was supposed to be a laundry/rest day, Stacey and I wanted to visit Collection d’Arts Brut in nearby Lausanne — this was the one thing I was not going to miss out on— 15,000 paintings done by psychiatric patients, eccentrics and incarcerated criminals. But it was not to be!
Stacey woke up with acute pain in her neck and upper back and decided to head off to the local hospital. She was transferred to Montreux and spent the next 6 hours being stuffed around, not dissimilar to Queensland hospitals except they charged like a wounded bull and she still didn’t get to see a physiotherapist which is what she really needed.
Charlie Chaplin
Of course, we researched why the hell was there a statue of Charlie Chaplin here on the foreshores of Lac Leman in Vevey. It turns out he lived here from 1953 until his death in 1977 and was buried in the local cemetery. There’s now a Charlie Chaplin Museum in his former home in Vevey.
The Games Museum
After getting our washing done, (best dryer yet!), Kiryn and I headed off to the Games Museum which is located in an old castle on the banks of Lac Leman in Vevey. After wandering through rooms filled with ancient games and an extremely impressive collection of chess sets, we sat down at a table to play what we thought what memory. After drawing a couple of dozen cards and not getting a single pair, I re-read the rules (in French) to ascertain the pairs just had to be related in some way! We soon gave up and headed to another table to play Mr Jack — a very strange game, which we got the hang of after reading pages of rules — and of course, Kiryn won!
Montreux Christmas Markets
We walked along the lake’s edge back to Riviera Lodge and headed straight out to the Montreux Christmas markets where we met a very traumatised Stacey. After all day at the hospital and paying all the money she had left, she was still in pain. Don’t get sick in Switzerland!
It started spitting rain as we were walking up towards the station and was a downpour by the time we got to the open-air markets. Lorelle and Kiryn braved the elements to ride on the Ferris wheel and ended up soaking wet. After a couple of plates of tartiflette, we decided to head for home and dry off our clothes.
Of course, I had to drink the rest of the red wine, as I don’t want to carry it tomorrow. It’s amazing how quickly a bottle of red goes when two are drinking it but how hard it is to drink it on your own!
