Chateaux cHILLON, GRUYERES & ZERMATT - Day 4 - september 22, 2022

Today was the first full day of our land tour - it turned out to be a very busy day. We will be spending a fair amount of time on our bus with our amazing driver, Bruno. Our Tour Director is Petr Drobny, a young man from the Czech Republic who has been working for Tauck for 10 years - he was excellent!

Bruno, Petr, & Shelly

Our first stop this morning is to the Chateaux de Chillon, a defensive castle located on a rock jutting out into the east end of Lake Geneva built in the late 1500’s. The castle is beautifully preserved because it was never attacked. It is one of the most visited castles in all of Europe. It it situated at a narrow portion of the valley leading into the Rhone region and was and excellent defensive position as well as a great position to collect taxes as people went by on the road.

Chateaux De Chillon on the east end of Lake Geneva

Inside the Chateaux de Chillon

We left Lake Geneva and drove to the town of Gruyeres, which is a cool town that is know for its cheese. We had a nice lunch of Raclette - a cheese melting and scraping dish served with potatoes and pickles. It was very good, but entirely too much cheese! During the luch a group of Alphorn players set up in the center of town and played several songs, our timing was fortunate.

Alphorn concert in Gruyeres

After Lunch we drove about 2 hours to the town of Tasch where we caught the train to Zermatt. Zermatt is a beautiful ski town that does not allow cars, with the exception of e-bikes and golf carts. If you had all the money in the world, Zermatt would be a great place to live - very exclusive and expensive! We stayed a couple of nights at the Mount Cervin Palace, another beautiful hotel. We had a excellent dinner at the Mount Cervin Grill a meat centric restaurant.