Strolling along Lake Geneva and the Chillon Castle

We only had a few hours left since, quite unfortunately and maybe surprisingly to some of you, Jeff and I do have to work in exchange for getting to live in Europe.  We loved the walk around the lake with all the flowers, fountains and Freddy.



Flowers

 

Fountain

 

Freddy Mercury

 The mountains dive straight down into the lake and as you walk for miles on the lake side, you can imagine how cold it must be.  I didn't know who Freddy Mercury was although I can sing along with several of the songs he wrote and sang with Queen.  Jeff enjoys making fun of my complete lack of musical interest.  




Fun evergreen characters along the way



Beautiful apartments and hotels to enjoy

A great shot of our hosts. 
This is actually the walk that Donnell took to get to her grocery store!



 



We arrived at Chillon Castle and thoroughly enjoyed learning about its history.  It was constructed over several centuries beginning in the 12th.  You can see three models of the castle depicting the evolution.  It is built on a solid rock island very close to the shore and was used to control movement between northern and southern Europe due to its strategic position.

The British poet Lord Byron apparently spent some time in the dungeon for some sort of wrong doing.  Or maybe it was just someone who liked his work who added to the graffiti?

 

The castle is really large and in pristine condition since it was rarely ever attacked and never lost a skirmish.

 

 

For those in need of a refresher on castle architecture, this is what is called the Keep.  The keep is generally centrally located in the castle or fortress and is very difficult to access.  This is where the head of state or whomever everyone was defending would be kept in times of danger.

What an amazingly beautiful place!  We will be back!