Day 21 Lausanne & Europe's Best Castle: Chillon, Switzerland. August 19, 2007

Well, today was really my last day touring, so I'm slowing down, but it was a really good day.





I only had one thing planned for today, and that was to make a trip about 20 miles out of Lausanne to Castle Chillon. I had heard that it was the best castle in Europe, and it did not disappoint. What a fabulous experience!

I took the milk run train along the lake, and the views were fabulous. It made about ten stops before we arrived. The "station" was just a stop at a little empty building, with no one to ask directions, so I went under the tracks and found a little sign with an arrow. After about 100 yards, the castle came into view. It sits right in the water on the edge of the lake.

Chillon was actually built on a little rock island near shore, which made a natural moat. This was a critical location, because the mountains are so steep and squeezed right next to the lake, and this was one of only 3 routes through the Alps. So the castle was only attacked once in a thousand years, but it was built for business purposes. The Savoy family built it and the road through the Alps, and charged a tax to everyone who went past! They became fabulously wealthy.

The castle is not really large, but you get to go through almost all of it. Dungeons, crypts, great halls, bedroom of the prince, circular towers, tall square keep, and walk on the ramparts and peek through the slits to the moat down below. There are about 40 rooms and you get a little sheet that tells about each one.

I felt like I should take a guided tour, so when I got there I signed up for one. It turned out to be the best guided tour I have ever taken, and that's saying some! My old Swiss guide was a colorful character with a beard and a wealth of knowledge. I loved the way he tied everything into what else was going on during those time periods. It turned into a giant humanities/ history/arts/medieval/renaissance/30 years war lesson that I hope I can remember. He made everything make sense.

The history of this area is very much a war story of Protestant versus Catholic. I knew that the Protestant art styles were much simpler than the Catholic, but he explained that the Baroque style, with all it's big fancy gold decoration, and Michelangelo-type ceilings and Da Vinci paintings, was a Catholic "propaganda" style. It was meant to say, "Here is the side that will get you to heaven, just like this beautiful church."

The corresponding Protestant style of the time was simpler depictions of fruit and vines and flowers, like God's own creations. For example, when the Protestants won Castle Chillon, they scrubbed the colorful paintings off the wall and repainted them all white! Where it was too high to scrub, they just painted. Then they put simple vine and flower decorations on the walls. Recent restorations have uncovered some Catholic ceiling paintings.

Do you know what a halyard is? It's that long pole, a war weapon, with a deadly hook and a point and an ax blade on the end. With the hook, a footman could unseat a knight on horseback, and then stab him, and then chop him up. It was much cheaper than a coat of mail or armor, and pretty efficient, too.

Another cool thing. Did you know that the Swiss cross was a fighting formation? Pack a bunch of guys tightly together in the cross formation, and give them all halyards. Then let any opposing forces try to run through them! Also cheaper and more efficient than knights on horseback.

A little boy was carrying his own toy sword during his tour of the castle. I thought, "What a smart mama he must have!" I also thought how much fun it would be to give Michael and Andrew and Jared and Justin and Hayden toy swords and Tiff and Sarah and Amy princess dresses, and just sit in one of the courtyards and watch them play hide and seek! I wished that the other tourists wouldn't mind! I have enjoyed this thought a lot.

I rode the boat all the way back, because there was no one at the train stop to sell me a ticket, and no ticket machine at the bus stop. It was a 90- minute boat ride back to Lausanne, and I sat on the bench in the sun and took pictures and dozed.

The boat brought me to the park I mentioned yesterday. Today was Sunday, and it was full of people and activities. I rode several buses home to avoid having to climb uphill to my hotel, even though it was only about 10 blocks. I came in and slept for an hour!

Tomorrow I go to Zurich, and fly home from there the next day. I have loved this trip, but it's time to be home.