Sion

Last weekend, I was pretty restless at the middle of the day as boredom struck on me again. I was inclined to visit Basel and Zurich but due to some logistical reasons, I decided to head off instead Sion in the neighbouring canton of Valais.

It was already half past two when I departed Geneva which I was really glad to do so as staying further in the city would somehow drive me nuts. As it was a Saturday, I actually envisioned to stay in the city overnight but since it was a public holiday the coming Monday, all the places in the hostel have been actually booked.

Anyhow, it was a pretty much scenic ride with the train passing through lakeside Swiss cities of Lausanne, Montreaux, Vevey and then suddenly shifted into sceneries of valleys. The route was actually the one going to Italy but since I am one of those citizens that require a permit to go there, I could just dream and imagine how it looks like if I would take the train until the destination.

During my entire trainride, I had to endure French-speaking teenagers yapping out loud (yes out loud) throwing their frisbies inside the train and acting as if they had the entire train carriage for them. Listening from their conversation, I reckon that they are vacationists from France. How I wish I had the guts to compose something in French and tell them to please quiet it down. But anyhow, me being the reserved and uncomfrontational persons did not bother to talk to them and instead just turned on my mp3 volume out loud.... what a looser! Along the route, I was able to see houses on the hill/mountainside.



After about nearly two hours in the train, I was able to reach my destination.

Sion is a small city which is sort of isolated with other towns. It is on a city set on a valley surrounded by countryside. But because of its picturesque setting, the town has been invaded by tourists mostly from France.

The streets in the city are intricately tree-lined with manicured side gardens in the traditional Swiss fashion.

Walking by the shopping alleys of Sion :

Who says guns aren't sold in Switzerland?

albeit toyguns :)

And just to have a sampler of the town's ambiance:

As nighfall starts to fall, I started to ascend into one of the most visited landmark of the city, a castle on top of the mountain overlooking the city. It was a mighty ascent with my heartbeat reaching 175 bpm by my estimate.

This was the start of the ascent

And that's what I needed to climb, the Chateau de Tourbillon

On the opposite side, we have a basilica:

the Basilique de Valere (sorry no accents, my keyboard is not French)

Ascending further into the top with my heartbeat getting faster, I was able to see some plantations by the hillside.


After about 400+ steps, I was finally able to reach the top (huff, puff)! I now know why the Swiss have a very high life expectancy, they get a lot of exercise! Good workout though.

I was rewarded of the following views:

Getting the attention of a bunch of a Spanish tourists as well as trying it out with my limited Spanish, I was able to have a picture of myself on top of the mountain:


You may wonder why most of the pictures I post here in my blog are of sceneries. Well, it is becase I am the only one travelling most of the time and every time I take a picture of myself, ackward results come out. Well, it will be possible to ask other tourists to take your pictures as well but that is actually coupled by the language barrier and sometimes the not-so-friendly attitude of people towards tourists sometimes who outrightly refuse your request to have them take your picture.

On top of the hill, I was able to see a colliseum. It's pretty awesome for a city the size of Sion to have its own sports arena. Its a true show of this country's financial werewithal.


Once I was back in the city centre, I was looking for some Chinese restaurant as it would possibly be the cheapest meal in town. Well, being a touristic town, you can expect that prices here are kinda inflated. I, instead went into an Italian restaurant where I had a good spaghetti bolognese meal plus a dessert for a meagre Fr 25 (~ CAD $23) (when I say 'meagre', 'meagre' by Swiss standards, don't misinterpret me). I didn't had any problems at all as the waiter did his business to me in English and with that I gave the guy an extra tip (n.b. tipping is not obligatory in Switzerland).