Tuesday was a travel day by train from Geneva to Vevey and visiting with my step-mother Sylvia.
The night before we stayed at the Ibis near Geneva airport, which is a 15 minute walk from the terminal. The first part, through the train station then along the convention center, isn’t too bad, but then you come to a two story high flight of stairs leading to a bridge over a highway, with the hotel on the other side of the bridge. Hauling your luggage up those stairs is daunting, but there is an elevator under the stairs. To use the elevator you have open a door and enter into a small pitch black room and then fumble around for the up button. Until the elevator door opens and throws some light into the situation it’s a spooky experience. That dark anteroom has been like that for years, which is unusual for Switzerland. The Swiss are usually very good at maintenance, perhaps the best in the world.
Vevey was beautiful as always.
Wednesday was our day to explore. We took the MOB mountain train towards Gstaad and got off at an “on demand” stop at La Tine. It’s just like a bus, you can press a button and the train stops at a rural siding in a mountain valley to let you off.
We had a lovely hike up the valley to Châteaux d’Oex. About 20 years ago, at Christmas time, we had gone to Châteaux d’Oex as a family to go skiing, and then went back then next day to try luge (i.e. sleds). There was tons of snow and we all took some crazy spills but had a great time.

Sadly Châteaux d’Oex doesn’t get much snow anymore and the ski slope closed several years ago. The town is still pretty though. Michele and I stopped for a crêpe before walking a loop around Châteaux d’Oex and taking the train back. In late September it was more green fields than deep snow.
Châteaux d’Oex is still looking good, I hope they find their footing as a year round destination.
Another favorite of ours that has closed is Ze Fork down on the quay in Vevey. It has been replaced with a more beef focused restaurant. It looked like it was still a good restaurant but like a lot of people we're eating less red meat than we used to. We ate instead at a restaurant near the market square, which was highly rated on Google and recommended by some AI that I used but I would say wasn’t really what we were after. It was more flimsy outdoor tables and ashtrays than I was hoping for.
I’m getting annoyed by online reviews, and the AI opinions built on them. I think I need to focus more on sizing things up in person. That crêperie we stumbled on in Châteaux d’Oex was great, no AI guidance needed.