July 7, 2015. With the last views of Lake Geneva behind us, we head back toward Vevey then north. The route to Gruyères takes us through a beautiful, broad, flat farming region with Alpine foothills rising on either side. Twenty five miles ahead is the medieval Château de Gruyères which is about midway between Vevey and Fribourg (Freiburg in German). This is our second major destination for the day, and even though it is still morning, the temperatures are already in the 90s. The village is on a 270 foot hill above the River La Sarine (Saane in German) with a wonderful view of the modern town of Gruyères below. The heat rising off the cobblestones made it almost unbearably hot, but we were carried along by the the beauty of the town until we found a shady spot near the quaint Church of Saint Théodule.

(Click to watch YouTube video)