We arrived at lunch time by train from Interlaken having spent 3 hours on the Golden Pass Panoramic Train through spectacular scenery of alps with snow, green fields with cows, Swiss chalets, lakes and waterfalls. It was a good idea to reserve our seats on the train.
We found our accommodation via taxi (no, not one of the beautiful hotels facing the lake). We had booked a dorm at the Youth Hostel and arrived at 12.30pm hoping to check in and drop our bags. No such luck, though, as a sign stuck on the reception window said “Reception Open 7.30am to 10am, 5pm to 10pm.” There was absolutely no-one around, so we just had to wait. After a while a man appeared and we begged him to check us in but he was rather rude and said “Did you not read the check in times on the website?????” Excuse me for living but aren’t these hospitality people supposed to go all out to please their guests? Not so here in Europe we have discovered. It was only a friggin' youth hostel, for God’s sake, not an exclusive hotel.
Anyway, I agreed to sit with the luggage while the girls went in search of some lunch. Then a couple of hours later it was my turn to go out walking. I walked for a couple of hours along the Montreux Riviera on the shores of Lake Geneva enjoying the wonderful scenery of the lake with the mountains as a backdrop and the large hotels built into the side of the mountains. I came across the Casino Barriere which is the first Casino built in Switzerland, so I went inside to have a look and after checking my passport the woman at the door gave me a ticket with a number on it. This could have been my lucky day as I could have won a Mercedes car if the god’s had been smiling on me. No such luck!
Back at the hostel we finally were able to check in to our 4 bed room that was so small it felt like a prison cell. It was clean though and there is free breakfast in the morning. No free wifi either. We decided to make it an early night so after dinner we hit the hay and went to sleep. Tomorrow we will take the boat across the lake to Bouveret and check into the Cesar Ritz Hospitality School early to get rid of our luggage, then maybe come back to Montreux for a better look.
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