Geneva - Day 2 🏔️

This blog is (also) brought to you by Barry

In our last instalment I promised that Ellie would be guiding you through our trip into the Swiss Alps. However, since our return she has been the busiest of bees, including celebrating her birthday, so I’ve decided to take one for the team and break the usual cycle of alternate blogs while things are relatively fresh in the mind, to save the eventual entry from being ‘we went to the mountains, it was nice’.

But off to the mountains we were! It was a relatively early start for a Sunday as we knew we had to circumnavigate Lake Geneva, see some icy slopes and then return in time for our flight home that evening. Ellie started her day by making the short walk to a nearby patisserie to obtain some baked treats for the journey, as is her tradition on these short eurotrips. With a fancy looking box (containing an incredible apple pastry and cinnamon bun) and takeaway cups of tea in hand we made our way over the street to Cornavin station. Although it was very mild at ground level we were fully prepared mountaineers today, by which I mean that we’d both gone full Big Coat, plus a festive woolly jumper for Ellie.

Our journey was to take us on a 90 minute trip around the lake to Aigle, followed by a shorter 30 minute climb up to the ski resort of Leysin. Two round trip tickets came to the pricy sum of 90 Swiss Francs (which is around the same value in pounds), so while staggering after being shot in the wallet we made it to our train, which arrived bang on time. I’d been hoping for a classic double decker European carriage but sadly this wasn’t on offer, but although our vantage point wasn’t as ideal as I’d hoped I still ensured we were on the right side of the train for the best view of the water and snowcapped peaks beyond.

The only stress came from the fact that both the train announcements and the signage on board were only displaying a selection of the stops on offer rather than everywhere the train would be calling at on the journey. Although I was 99.9% sure I had us on the right track, it wasn’t until enough stops had passed that they deemed Aigle a significant enough destination to display on the board that I felt we could truly relax.

As the journey wore on, the scenery outside of the window became more and more impressive. We’d moved beyond the cityscape of Geneva and then Lausanne to some of Switzerland’s fanciest homes for tax exiles - I explained to Ellie that if you were a 70s rock star and wanted to protect your cocaine budget from all that pesky tax then Montreux and the like were definitely seen as the place to be.

We arrived into rainy Aigle with time to spare to transfer from one train to another. As we moved from the swish high speed train to the tiny cog-driven machine that was to take us the final stretch of the way, I was surprised to see that Père Nöel himself (aka the French-speaking Father Christmas) was on the platform to wish us a merry bon voyage. Why was he there? What was his purpose? I honestly have no idea. There didn’t seem to be any kind of organised tour group or outing with us that would have justified such a celebrity visit. Still, Père Nöel and Brendan Fraser in one year - we might need to rename this blog ‘hobnobbing with the stars’.

Our next journey began with us trundling through the streets of Aigle, feeling more like a tram than a train. We then hit a dead end where the driver had to transfer ends of the train before turning left instead of right on the switch track to begin our slow ascent into the Alps. It certainly was a steep climb that first gave us some spectacular views of Aigle’s castle from above before we ascended into the forest and our first hints of snow. Constructing this railway must have been a serious undertaking with the amount of viaducts and tunnels involved at a serious gradient - indeed each tunnel came with a little plaque showing the date of construction, most of which seemed to be during the years of World War 2. Don’t mind the scourge of fascism rising over Europe lads, there’s a cute train line to be built.

The town of Leysin itself is built into the sides of the mountain with numerous stops in the town itself. Our plan was to leave the train at its highest point within the town (Leysin-Fereday) and wind our way down to the final point before the line disappeared into the forest (Leysin-Village). Upon exiting it was definitely much colder at altitude, albeit not enough to turn the rain to snow. Having said that, there was plenty of the white stuff all around us to give things that magical alpine touch, and a heavy fog over the peaks themselves made our surroundings moody and mysterious.

We started our winding descent through the town. We quickly found ourselves at a ski lift, which intrigued me to see if we could get any higher, but after enquiring we learned that they weren’t really open to non-skiers so sadly a quick round trip to the very peak was off the cards. Instead we meandered towards the most built up section of Leysin, passing countless large wooden chalets, each more adorable than the last, that were perched overlooking the valley and mountains beyond.

Feeling peckish, we stopped off at a cosy cafe seemingly populated by visitors from most nations of the world and a uniformly friendly staff. I settled for a simple sandwich whereas Ellie went for a hot focaccia - seeing one of these delivered to our fellow diners I knew I’d be having a serious case of food envy. It was roughly the size of a baby’s head and came laden with toppings more akin to a pizza. Thankfully Ellie took pity on me and let me try a couple of bites. After enjoying a leisurely hot chocolate, we completed the rest of our wander down to the Village station, and actually a little way past it as we had some time to kill.

Our train back arrived on time, and would have left on time too if one of the passengers on board hadn’t left their bag in the waiting area and had to scurry back to get it, earning some stern glares from the train driver (if you’re wondering which passenger, their name rhymes with Eleabor Hunnard). Aside from this mishap our journey back to Geneva was smooth and we had a final chance to wander around the town and lake at dusk, via a very expensive Starbucks visit and a stop at a local supermarket for some sweets and souvenirs.

That’s all for this trip and this year. 2026 will be a big one, who knows where our next adventures will take us?