Lunch, not by the lake.

Friday, 2nd October

We had a plan. We always have a plan; life rarely goes to plan. The plan was simple, after breakfast we would set off straightaway and  visit the corner of Switzerland that people rarely visit - Lac Neufchâtel.

First of all we needed milk for breakfast cereal - Jordan's Crunchy, the fragment of England we carry around with us, until it runs out and we go native and resort to croissant, cake, salami or cheese, or whatever else the natives start the day with - lettuce and coleslaw even, if you are in Japan. Anyway, yesterday  Monsieur Cheese-maker had proudly announced in his best English, "I av ze meelk ninety O'clock zamorrow." So at fifteen minutes past ninety we nipped across the road to his shop. We were not disappointed. There standing in the chiller amongst small drums of yellow cheese stood a shiny stainless steel pail brimming with milk. He took an equally gleaming ladle and funnel and poured a litre into a plastic bottle. This milk was really fresh, it had still been in a cow a couple of hours previously.

Back  to the cheese shop for ultra-fresh mik.

It struck me how we live our lives disconnected from Nature on the whole. On occasions when the Matrix momentarily fails and we reconnect with a reality that is not served up to us secondhand,  mediated through technology - the smart-phone screen, the rear view mirror, the Amazon click - it comes as a slight shock. The sight of a pail of fresh milk provoked a mixed response. I was happy in the moment, but troubled with thought of the high  price we had paid for modernity,  our convenient, readily accessible and risk reduced world.

Back to the plan, lunch by Lac Neufchâtel; we had the local cheese, the Waitrose condiments (well you can't go utterly native can you?)  A quick visit to a nearby Intermarche furnished us with 'une baguette rustique', Switzerland here we come,well once we'd stumped-up 40 Swiss Francs for a motorway vignette.

I don't really know why I decided I wanted to visit Neufchâtel, partly I think because it's tucked away from the main routes, and little discussed. In order to find a lakeside spot to stop for the lunch it was important to avoid the motorway. This can be difficult, as in Switzerland the main roads are signed in blue, and the motorways green, exactly the opposite to what we are used to. Gill had barely uttered the words, "We must remember not to follow the green signs when I approached a roundabout, read a green sign that said Neufchâtel, force of habit said 'main road' and there we were, scooting along the motorway. I did manage to glimpse the lake occasionally, mostly though, the motorway avoided built up areas by tunnelling beneath them. I may have visited Lac Neufchâtel, but I cannot really claim to have seen it.

In my head my lunch time view was going to be to be...

In reality it looked like this ...

The cheese was really tasty, so that's something.

OK, it's a motorway service area, but it's hardly Watford Gap..

The morning had been misty, and as the day warmed the fog lifted and the sky became cloudier. We drove towards a towering wall of cumulus, as it got closer we could see the glistening peaks hidden amongst them. No matter how many times you drive towards the Alps, the prospect never fails to excite. Then suddenly as the mountains drew closer the clouds dissipated and a grey, broken wall of rock appeared in the windscreen, smooth and featureless in the lingering mist.

First, a few peaks peeking through the clouds...

then moments later, a wall of 3000m mountains - magic!

The next question where to stay? There were two ACSI campsites nearby, one at Interlaken, the other in a village a few miles beyond at Lungern. Despite a short rant from me about Interlaken being "Switzerland's Keswick - over developed, overrated and frenetic" in the end we stayed there, at Camping Alpenblick. The facilities were great, but they should have been, for the combination of rounding up on the exchange rate, tourist taxes and other add ons, somehow the 18 euros advertised in the ACSI book had mysteriously become almost 30 Sfr. It had been a long day, we just paid up. 

Camping Alpenblick, Interlaken, nice site, friendly staff, faultless facilities, but not quite the advertised ACSI rate.

Before dark we managed a bike ride into the town to visit a bank machine, and a pleasant stroll down to  Thunner See to watch the evening light on the lake and mountains.

Thunner See - evening light.

A morning stroll

Early mist liffting,

A stunning day in prospect

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