Montreux Pictures
August 29, 2004
These may take a little time to load, so be patient. Although most of
the pictures have been optimized for those of you with "girlie"
modems. If your browser stops loading for some reason, just hit "REFRESH"
and it will reload the cached pictures right away, then continue loading
the rest.
|
| Montreux,
Switzerland |
 |
"We all came out to montreux
On the lake geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn’t have much time
Frank zappa and the mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky"
|
 |
"They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky"
|
 |
"We ended up at the grand hotel
It was empty cold and bare
But with the rolling truck stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We make a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky"
- Deep Purple
|
 |
I came out the Montreux to see what it was all about. What a cool town.
Unfortunately I missed the Montreux Jazz Festival by about 2 months.
|
 |
Freddie Mercury (Queen) lived
here and owned a recording studio in town. After his death, they erected
this bronze statue in his memory. |
 |
This plaque tells the story.
Click picture for a close-up of the plaque. |
 |
The other impressive sight in
Montreux (or nearby) is Chateux de Chillon. |
 |
It has a real moat and everything! |
 |
Some of structure dates back
for medieval time. |
 |
One of the biggest attractions
is its prison and gallows (gallows shown here). |
 |
The is the place Lord Byron wrote
about in The Prisoner of Chillon. His "graffiti" is on one of
the columns in the prison. |
 |
You can see the cover over Byrons
carving on the 2nd column. The column two down from there is where Francios
de Bonivard, Prior of St. Victor's in Geneva (the "real" prisoner
of Chillon) was chained. |
 |
The crypt here was much cooler
than the one at Canterbury. |
 |
It was small, dark, damp and
very crypty. |
 |
Not only was the view from the
castle nice, the WINDOWS were nice. |
 |
Nice dining room, eh? |
 |
The kid's play room... you can
tell by all the pointy objects. |
 |
You know it's a serious cross-box
when it comes with its own winch. |
 |
A courtyard... |
 |
A bedroom...
|
 |
What's an anti-chamber? Does
it cancel out the actual chamber? (oh! that's "ante-"... much
be olde englishe) |
 |
Coats with arms... |
 |
...quite a few. |
 |
See that tall hotel? I walked
from there. |
 |
Well, it's good to know they
had these nasty uncomfortable folding chairs back in the 9th century, too! |
 |
I took a helicopter ride to get
this view. ("It's only a model.") |
 |
I think that little hole to the
right is so that they can pass bottles of wine to people outside without
opening the door. Or to kill people outside without opening the door. One
of the two. |
 |
Forget the crossbow... |
 |
These are the clockworks that operate the clock tower. Pretty neat.
|
 |
The sentry's walkway. |
 |
There are the stairs up the tower...
this is the first floor of 5. They start out narrow and steep... and get
narrower and steeper as you go. I almost didn't make it... |
 |
A view to the East. |
 |
And one to the West... there's
that hotel again... err... I'm taking the bus back. |
|
|
