Rochers-de-Naye vistas

On the free Saturday 25th April, the remaining participants from the Roundtable decided to take a cog train ride from Montreux up to Rochers de Naye, a viewing point 2045m above sea level, providing an outstanding panorama over Lake Geneva and on the other side, the Alps. The photos of the train (see above) and the peak - vistapoint 2 (see below) are from Wikipedia*.

And where is Rochers-de-Naye, you might ask? Here are Google maps to the rescue.
The terrain map to show the layers of mountainuous land ascending from Montreux to the knife-edge cliffs of Rochers-de-Naye (R-d-N) :
The street map to show the railway lines snaking it's way up to R-d-N:
And a satellite map to show how it looks like naturally:
Everyone was in high spirits, after a very successful event:


The view was spectacular going up the steep incline railway (nice houses with nice views) :


The train has to go through multiple tunnel-like structures to avoid the snow (see if you can spot 3 in front of the train in this photo from Priya):Here's the Google satellite map of R-d-N, showing the 2 vistapoints we went to :


At Vistapoint 1, there was a sheer cliff that provided incredible views of the Alps and Lake below.
A nice pose with Saul (Mexico), Juan (Colombia) and Priya (Sri Lanka) taken by Margareta :
I just had to pose for this shot a-la-Titanic style (I'm flying!) :

Here's everyone (except the camera woman, Margareta) who took this shot (note it shows Vistapoint 2 behind us):

We got a bit adventurous and decided to climb a steep, slippery,snowed-in incline to the top of R-d-N (Vistapoint 2). It was a great workout just getting there. Made it without slipping, although I was in my wrong shoes (office wear) instead of sneakers.

Here's everyone, resting and eating strawberries and banana cake at the top (Priya's camera shot taken by another visitor we met up there):

The view at the highest point of R-d-N was well worth it. Lake Geneva as it curves towards Geneva. Vevey is the extreme right center of the photo, with Montreux just in front, blocked by another hill.

And on the other side of this vistapoint is the Alps.



Zooming in to the 3 mountain tops : Eiger (if any of you are old enough to remember the movie the Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood), Mönch and Jungfrau (the roof of Europe), where I will be heading to during my June vacation:


Going down from Vistapoint 2 was treacherous as it was slippery with icy snow. We had a few incidents, but also had our heroes like, Roberto 'Jones' to save the day.

Here's Priya's photo of Robert 'Jones', the guy in the center with the 'Indiana Jones' hat (notice the "yurts" in the background - authentic mongolian 'mattress camp' for staying overnight) :







Ah...memories of R-d-N and Montreux will linger.....

...until I come back again!

* GFDL image : Les Rochers de Naye et son train.JPG Author : Sumspic Simon LEPETRE

* GDFL image : Sumspic Rochers de Naye en hiver.JPG. Author : Sumspic Simon LEPETRE

"We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline..."

One of the places I always wanted to visit since I heard those starting lyrics of a famous rock song was Montreux (pronounced with a silent 'x'). I got my chance on the week of April 22-25 2009.

Most people know the famous guitar riffs in "Smoke on the Water". But many may not know that it was about a real fire (and smoke on the water) that happened in Montreux. Check out the story and hear a audio sample of it in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_on_the_Water

Also, a rare photo of the actual fire and smoke can be found at :

http://www.songfacts.com/songimage.php?id=1284

So where is Montreux, Switzerland. It's at the opposite end of Lake Geneva. This MSN Virtual Earth map should help :

ITC (International Trade Centre) held the MLS-SCM Global Network Roundtable 2009 in Montreux, where almost a hundred people from over 40 trade support institutions from all over the world attended the two and a half day conference, sharing, listening, discussing, networking & participating in a multitude of keynote, plenary & workshop sessions on the Modular Learning System (MLS) in Supply Chain Management (SCM), ITC programmes and company presentations.

Fortunately, I was in Geneva at the right time (3 weeks before) to be able to help in the organising and coordinating of this very successful event, with my co-team members, our Advisory Board members and Swiss Government officials :

And here's our MLS-SCM organising team :

It was a lot of hard work and long hours, but everyone participated enthusiastically, whether in the conference, breakout rooms, along the hallways, over meals or in the social events. The cultural night was a kaleidoscope of costumes, singing and dancing from the four corners of the world (Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe).

All this, admist the serenity and beauty of Montreux and the Alps.

The bathroom window view from my hotel suite, greets me every morning :

Everyday, it got clearer and clearer (compare the last two photos of the same view).

The hotel is just beside the lake. So are the Alps mountains.

You can see green trees, and pure white snow from a distance..

and the grandeur of the mountain tops (if you can zoom your 10 Mega pixel camera 12x optical)

In Vevey, a town nearby (home to the international headquarters of Nestlé) , the lake and mountains turn into a mystical place (like 'Smoke on the Water')

with seahorses and mermaids, merman and swans.

The flowers are in full bloom,

framing the beauty of the mountains,

presenting Nature's palette of colours.

As the hours went by, spectacular sunsets closed the day,

beckoning the flowers to rest...

so that they will be fresh and bright for another day.

To top it off, I found out that the restaurant where the Deep Purple band sat, watching the fire at the old casino was Hotel Eden Palace au Lac, where I and the hundred other people worked and stayed in, 37 years later.

http://www.gillan.com/wordography-17.html

What a great way to get what you wished for....

Renting an apartment

As part of settling in to Geneva, the next big task was finding a more permanent place to stay rather than Hotel Montbrillant (at CHF160+ per night).

Luckily, the timing was just right, as another ITC colleague had just vacated a rented apartment in Ferney-Voltaire (France) to move into her own apartment in the next block.

It is at the edge of the border between France and Switzerland. In fact the farm in front of the apartment was cut in half by the border. Here's the Google Earth view of my apartment, with the blue dot on the left, and the white border in front of it :

On Microsoft's Virtual Earth version, you can even have a "birds-eye view" of my apartment :

The apartment comes fully furnished with 2 bedrooms, a living room and a well equipped kitchen. Landlord, Patrick, taking me around :

The best part was the countryside/farm view from every room, with the Alps (and Mount Blanc) and the Jura Mountains.

Bright yellow canola flowers in bloom, in front of the apartment :

Farmer at work in the canola or rapeseed field :

Alps on the right :

Jura mountain range on the left :

Natural beauty everywhere :

The sun rises at 6.30am, better than an alarm clock!

And sets at 9.00pm, making for a very long spring day.