CHILLON CASTLE!!! (or, Don't you think castles are super cool!!)

Bonjour, y’all! Guess who went to a castle???

It was me. I went to a castle. AND IT WAS LEGIT!

So Chillon Castle is in Montreux, Switzerland and was in fact the inspiration for the castle in the Little Mermaid. Look that stuff up, I ain’t lying. Anyway, We did that and then went to Lausanne and saw some stuff, but mostly I’m just going to post a ton of pictures because they are super beautiful and we had an awesome view. Enjoy!

That view though!

Seriously feeling like the queen of the world

Say thank you to Gabby for her awesome panorama shot

And this is the jerk machine that ate our money

CASTLE!!

CASTLE!!!!!!!!

Start in the courtyard, of course

They make their own wine here!

Dungeons were angsty poets (like Byron) can come and visit for inspiration

There were many interesting things here...

...Like a crazy number of chests

That had pretty decent decorations if we're honest

And FIREPLACES!!

BEDROOMS!!

SWEET VIEWS!!

AND BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!

I love books

So much

I just thought this sign was adorable

Of course, there must be a moat for the lakeside castle

And I took pictures of it all!!

(And Gabby took pictures of me. You're welcome, Mom.)

GAH, IT WAS SO PRETTY

Like, are you kidding me with this??

For your viewing pleasure, some awesome scenery

CHILEAN CASTLE, EVERYONE

So yeah, long story short, the castle was super cool. While we were still in Montreux, we stopped along the lake because there is a statue of Freddie Mercury there in memorial. Apparently, he lived in Montreux and really loved the town. He also owned a recording studio there. It is still in existence and proceeds go to maintaining his house (which was farther away, otherwise I totally would have gone). 

(I sang Bohemian Rhapsody because...because.)

Then we went on to Lausanne where we saw the amazing Notre Dame Cathedral (no, not that one) before heading home in the early evening.

Olympic train station awesomeness

MARIA RITA, GET AWAY FROM THE EVIL SWAN

Look at all the boats though!

THE CATHEDRAL

Quite lovely

Gorgeous stained glass

I love me some stained glass

I tripped over this jerk. Rude.

And the obligatory giant organ

So over all, I would say this weekend was a success. Work is going to kick into high gear soon and I'll probably have a lot more to tell you all about the UN things I'll be doing. We're also making good progress on our side event flyer. Maybe next time I'll be able to post a draft! Until then!