I had already done some pre-planning and knew that we would be going on a cruise on Lake Neuchatel, in fact a return trip for both of us on Lake Neuchatel would cover the cost of the Swiss card for today (Swiss Cards are valid for a predetermined length of time, in our case four days). What I hadn't done was study the boat timetable in any great detail and it turns out that there was limited services on the lake and that we did not really want to spend hours in say Murten or Biel/Bienne apparently it's a boring trip by boat there.
So with Barbara's help the night before we worked out an intinary that would take us on a boat cruise to Murten, give us a few hours in Bern and then another train trip to Interlaken and back, total ticket cost at face value Swiss Francs 213, pounds in already!
So we set off to catch the 10:00 ferry to Murten, the weather was overcast and a little drizzly. We were joined on the ferry by two groups of school children all wildly excited, one group were taken outside onto the top deck and thrown overboard, the younger ones left inside with the rest of the travellers. I gues there was something like 14 or15 other passengers a young couple with a baby who went all the way, an elderly pair of women obviously going walking decked out in boots, with Leki sticks. Most passengers were, what shall we say, I know older than us
One group of children got off at the first stop and the other group midway through the canal that links lakes Neuchatel and Murten. I spent a little time on deck, whilst breezy it was not really cold although raining a little. A pretty peaceful way to travel, although the the chairs were not that comfortable being dining table type.
Once we arrived at Merton we had to shoot through the very charming town to catch a train to Bern, we did have time to stop at the chemist to purchase some lip balsam, now that ws fun. Merten is in a German speaking part of Switzerland whilst Neuchatel is in French. We know a little French but very little German, limited to 'Donwater blitzen', 'Shoot the Englander' and 'Himmel, snell snell ( can't even spell it) all, sayings picked up from reading a Commando War books and The Victor comic. Beverley ended up spending SF10 on 'veery good ceam'.
The trip from Murten to Bern was pleasant enough through nice open countryside, lots of fields growing lots of Market Gareen produce. A number of the stations were hail and ride or I should say 'Halt Auf Verlangen' in fact a number of the stations were really small and in the middle of nowhere, well at least they appeared to be - Ferenbalm-Gurbru and Gummenen being particular examples.
Bern was a particularly horrible station, deep underground dark and dingy very much like Birmingham New Street. These Swiss stations have vast numbers of Platforms with trains arriving and departing all the time, never a dull moment and a train spotters paradise.
Having negotiated our way out of the Station we headed for the old town of Bern. Bern boasts the Parliament building for the Swiss confederation, unlike the Houses of Parliament you can get up close and touch the building fabric, if you want to, I didn't I might add.
Bern was a very attractive City, the main Street (Martgasse, Kramgasse and Gerechtigkaitsgasse) down to the river were flanked on each side by impressive buildings and a covered walkway where the shops were and then under the shops were cellars opening into the street which are also used as shops. There we a lot of tourist about in big groups being led by guides with poles (no not the Eastern European type).
The bottom half of the Main streets are for people only apart from deliveries and trolley busses. Once you are at the far end of the City you cross the river (Aare) and you come to the Bear pits. Bern and bears go back a long way, why I don't know but they are displayed on their flag. I guess it's a bit like the Ravens at the Tower of London or the Bamboons on the Rock of Gibralter. There were I think four bears in the enclosure, brown ones they appeared happy enough, having been born in captivity I guess they don't know any difference, Beverley found it a little sad.
We returned to the Station via another route and picked up, some great postcards, pricy but really good, old posters of Swiss Travel and local paintings. We spent a good two and half hours in Berne and then moved onto Interlaken. I had seen this railway on Sunday when Charlie had driven off down to Grund. It's pretty scenic running along the length of Thuner See (Lake Thurn). Unfortunately we got off at Interlaken Ost rather than West which is in the centre of town. We only had a hour before the return trip so visited the coop, and had a coffee, I also bought at padlock for my rucsac as I had felt a little vunerable at Bern station following the events at Paris on Saturday.
The return trip was the same way back but without the boat trip. In all we caught four trains none of them were late, none of them cancelled, in fact I did not see any cancelled or delayed trains advertised.
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