Saturday 5 September - Blonay Chamby Museum and Les Pleiades

The Blonay Chamby narrow gauge museum operates only on weekends.  Bearing in mind that there is a special celebration for the next two weeks so it was likely to be less crowded today. The SBB took us to Vevey where we transferred to a narrow gauge train to Blonay.  A tram with coupling rods was waiting to take us to the museum which is near Chamby.  We went past the museum and on to Chamby then reversed back into the museum. Very little has changed since I was there last October with Paul.  The exhibits are mostly well preserved and presented and the people were very friendly. There was a museum cat which walked around the tracks and expected to be petted - I don't remember seeing it last year.

This tram with coupling rods was getting ready at Blonay to take us to the museum.

The were just beginning to raise steam on this tram locomotive which was used later in the day.

This was doing the switching

Exquisite art work on this Rhaetian Railway post van

View from the restaurant balcony.  The train continues left to Chamby then reverses back into the museum

The magnificent curved viaduct from the rear driving cab

We rode back to Blonay.  The crew wished us "Au revoir et bon appetit - c'est presque l'heure pour manger".  We transferred to a Vevey - Les Pleiades train for the run up the rack line to the summit at Les Pleiades.  There is only one restaurant here but it turned out to be pretty good.  Four others got off the train with a St.  Bernard dog.  It turned out they had a reservation - the waitress told us the table in the corner was reserved for a party with a big dog.

At Pleiades - the party with the St. Bernard on the right

The trick with fondue is to keep scraping the bottom to prevent the cheese from burning

Some think the pan scrapings is the best part

We had a good fondue and an excellent bottle of Blonay white wine.  There was a large group already sitting down.  It turned out they were a male choir from the Berne area.  After they had finished their fondue they sang three songs.  The conductor said that if any of them sang out of tune it would have been because of the wine.

Click here to see and hear the choir full screen
When it came time to pay the bill the wi-fi was not working and so I couldn't pay by credit card.  The bill came to CH 87 and I had precisely CH 90 in my wallet.

It was good walking around after lunch and the views across the lake were excellent but it was getting cold so we decided to go back to Vevey.

Who would have thought cowbells would be so noisy? Click here for full screen
The old town is very attractive and there was a lot happening on a Saturday afternoon.

Vevey

Statue of Charlie Chaplin who spent much time at Vevey

The trolley bus seemed to be the easiest way back to Montreux as we wanted to visit the supermarket which is on the route. The weather is turning cooler but still very variable.

Click here to see all pictures taken at the Blonay Chamby Museum