The next morning we decided to do a chill ride and took the waterfront path all day.








Freddy Mercury!



We stopped and took several pictures, looked through the little sidewalk market in Montreaux, and wandered upon the Castel de Chillion. This is a bit touristy, but we paid our 5 francs to go inside and look around. It’s really amazing inside. The rock on which Chillion stands was oocupied by men of the Bronze age and later by the Romans. Bonivard’s Prison is still intact. Bonivard , prior of St. Victor’s Geneva remained chained for 4 years because he was in favor of the independence of Geneva. He was freed by the Swiss in 1536 and immortalized by the poet Byron.

















Back on our bikes, we continued down the coast where I could see tons of Red Bull banners and lots of people congregated. As we got closer I saw the banners for Vertigo. It was an acrobatic hangliding competition. I’d never seen anything like it so we bought our daily loaf of bread, hunk of cheese, and chocolate bar and sat down to watch. It was a spectacular show, even though I didn’t understand much of what the announcer was saying. We watched for about an hour and then headed on our way.






It was a great ride along some back dirt roads and a series of bike paths before we got to Aigle. We originally had planned to ride up to Leysin so I called for reservations at the hostel before we climbed up the mountain. The guy was delighted that my name was Heidi! “Heidi like from the Alps?” he asked me.



After reconsulting the map though, Derek decided he didn’t want to ride all the way up to Leysin for the night, so we found a hotel that let us stash our bikes in the kitchen! We walked up to a castle and winery, took some pictures, wandered the streets, and ended up at a very good little Italian restaurant for dinner and plenty of sangria with local wine.











Another good day, only one more to go in Switzerland..