Yesterday, we took a day trip to Chateau d'Oex (pronounced "day") for a spectacular visit to their international hot-air balloon festival. The area is a micro-climate that caters to hot-air ballooning year-round and in 1999, the first recorded around-the-world hot-air balloon flight left from Chateau d'Oex. We certainly got a glimpse of their great weather -- blue skies, warm sun, no wind. It was a very welcome contrast to the overcast skies in Basel. Suprisingly, there wasn't really any snow on the ground where we were at the festival, only in the hills.
Chateau d'Oex is located east of Lake Geneva and is a small valley town with skiing and, as mentioned, alpine ballooning. The town lies on a scenic train line that runs from Montreux to Zweisimmen. We took the train from Zweisimmen to get to Chateau d'Oex, and it was so picturesque as we were winding through the mountains. As we were getting close to the town, we could see about 10 balloons in the sky in the distance. And we also stopped at ski towns along the way where skiers got on and off the train to go straight away to the nearby lifts with their ski boots on. Gstaad is an example of a posh ski town on the train line.
This was another great day trip from Basel -- although there is plenty to do near us, I'm really glad we decided to make the trip. I wish we could have stayed longer to watch the balloons; it was just stunning to see them in the winter with the mountains in the background.
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