"We do that in England" - 25 June 2014

Today was move on day, we leave Barabara and Charlie to continue our holiday on Lake Luzern staying in a B&B at Brunnen. But first I got up early to have some time down at Neuchatel Railway Station, this enabled me to give Charlie one final farewell before he departed for work.

I find being on a railway station early in the morning during rush hour but not having to travel to work very satisfying. I had arrived at 06:40, the sun had risen and was throwing some great light on to the railway and platforms. The station was not that busy, there were a few people about, grabbing a quick smoke before boarding their trains. As 07:00 approached more commuters arrived and so did more trains. The busiest period was between 07:00 and 08:00, and I noticed that Neuchatel is really a terminus, most trains come in from the east and depart for the east, only a few come in from the west and continue out to the east.

Neuchatel Station early morning

I noticed some shunting going on down the far end of the station, but by the time I got there the engine and moved out to the sidings. There was a road running alongside the railway with a low fence which I noticed from the railway overbridge and made a B line for it and was rewarded with some shunting as an engineers train arrived.

Having had my fix of train movements I went back to join Beverley and Barabara for one last breakfast before we walked down into town to purchase a Swiss Army knife, what else would you buy in Switzerland other than Chocolate! I've had a number of Swiss Army knifes but the most recent one has been mislaid, being on holiday I feel a little lost without it as it's so useful, we had seen them in Bern yesterday at between SF19 and SF20 but was not sure how that compared with the UK, a search on Amazon showed the same knife would cost about £12, so basically the same price. I'm now the proud owner of a new knife, I expect the old one will turn up now, just like the video battery.

We had a wander along the lakeside as far as the harbour before returning for lunch on the bus, that is lunch back at the house, returning by bus. Then it was time to say goodbye, we caught the 13:01 from Neuchatel and finally arrived at Brunnen at about 16:10, having changed at Bern and Luzern, we missed the connection at the latter as we were at the end of the train and our departing train was not on the platform I expected. We got to the right platform jumped on the train but nothing happened, it was the front four coaches only. I expected to wait another hour but there was another departure in 9 minutes.

The B&B was only 3 minutes from the station in fact it over looked the end of the platform, you had a good view of the trains whilst sitting on the throne! It was a traditional Swiss chalet but for some reason a petrol station / garage was opposite it and behind it was car dealership. We were located in the loft of the house where there was a shared bathroom ( but luckily no other guests) and a small kitchenette with fridge and kettle. The bed was very low but comfortable. I paid SF 120 per night which is expensive compared to the Uk, but it was comfortable, clean and the breakfast set us up for the day the following morning.

I always feel a little lost on arriving at a new place aboard I don't know and where I don't know the langauge, this being the first time we had experienced German, generally I can get by with Spainish, Italian and French but German is a different thing altogether. I thought a Zimmer was a walking aid but in German it parking.

We wandered around the small town down to the lakeside, looked in the various bars and restaurants for somewhere to dine, I'm always a bit cautious as I continuously believe I'm going to be ripped off, which is very unfair on the locals. Beverley suggested going back to the B&B to check out Trip Advisor. On the way back I thought the lady crossing the road was from the B&B, she wasn't, and I expect she is mightily confused when some middle aged Englishman says hello not just once but twice, with the second one being very loud. She turned round and mumbled a hello and hurried on, if that was you I apologise 

We finally settled on a very expensive restaurant, Gasthaus PLUSPUNKT, just around the corner, where we had a very nice meal, in a very nice setting with good service, they were surprised when I left a tip 'We do that in England" I said.