Gstaad and Montreux

The road to Gstaad.

Gstaad.

This photo has nothing to do with the car in front, or with Gstaad, but if you look at the hillside off to the left, on both sides of the trees, you can see grapevines. It's kind of hard to tell from this photo, but the vines are planted on extremely steep slopes. I imagine that this is partly just because that is what the terrain has to offer, and partly to maximize drainage and sun exposure. I know that in Germany, people who work in the vines (which are also grown on incredibly steep hills) have to be harnessed to the land above to prevent them from falling to their deaths, and I imagine here they must have to do the same.

On the way back from Gstaad we decided to stop off in Montreux. The view from the walkway along the water is beautiful, a bit like the French Riviera.

As luck would have it, we arrived in the midst of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Even the crowds were Swiss: so organized and well-behaved! Extraordinary food stalls with everything you could imagine cooking in enormous copper pots.

We got some noodles and sat down on the rocks by the water with a whole bunch of other people. We wound up chatting with a woman from across the water in France.

Amazingly enough, she had been to the United States: to Manhattan and North Carolina, of all places. She declared Manhattan to be fabulous and NC to be full of Rednecks.