Rochers-de-Naye

Friday dawned with the clearest skies we'd had so far in Montreux. We decided to take advantage by taking another mountain excursion. This time we'd board the cog train right at Montreux station and head up to Rochers-de-Naye high above the lake.

It's a nice, slow, ride that switchbacks up the mountain with fabulous views of the city below







At the top, there are more clouds, and they blow through occasionally. While we eat lunch it clouds up completely and we lose the view for a bit. It returns, although shreds of the lower clouds hang around drifting across the landscape.



Oh, did I mention the snow? There is an alpine garden up here that I wanted to visit, but it will not open for the season for another week or two as the path to it is too icy to walk on. I'm disappointed, but I knew we were a little early in the Spring for some things.

I will have to be satisfied with a short walk to a nearby view point. Along the way is a set of pens contains marmots. One of them comes out to say hello



And more view...check out the tracks of the train we came in on






After a bit, we are ready to head back down to Montreux. I'm struck by the lush wildflowers that line the tracks. At one point we pass through a whole field of blooming, wild narcissus. It's quite lovely, but maybe a little blurry...shot from a moving train after all...



We returned to the station and walked back to our hotel. Seconds after arriving at our room, the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down...for about 10 minutes. Then the sun resumed shining through breaks in the clouds.