Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Well, I am so behind in my blogging. I'm going to post pictures of our weekend trip with CD and JD. We were there December 21 and 22 - see I told you I'm behind. I'm a bit cranky and tired today so I have a feeling most of this post will consist of photos...but who knows I could get diarrhea of the pen. A lovely image isn't it? My high school government teacher used to say "diarrhea of the mouth does not constitute constipation of the pen." It always made me chuckle to myself. Anyhoo, what am I writing about? Oh yeah, Neuchâtel. Neuchâtel is a lovely town on, yep you guessed it, Lake Neuchâtel it has narrow windy streets, medieval buildings, was actually a town in the Roman days they've found the structure of a huge Roman Villa in the area), and is truly very beautiful. It's even more lovely in the summer when you can see the surrounding mountains and lake. When we were there most everything was obscured by fog. A pity considering JD and CD had made sure we got rooms with a view of the lake - the view would have been gorgeous if we could have seen more than a few feet! It's the thought that counts and the DH and I enjoyed watching the fog swirl above the lake in the mornings.
In our hotel room was a scooter, or micro-board as they called it. Which we could use during our stay! How fabulous is that? We just rode it around the room, but I know DH wanted to take it for a spin around town he just never had the opportunity. I was tempted to borrow JD & CD's and have races in the hall but my common sense prevailed.
We arrived late on Friday night so just enjoyed a relaxing evening sipping cocktails in the hotel bar and having some dinner there while we enjoyed the vocal warblings of a local performer. CD was convinced she was a transvestite, I just think she liked having a mullet. All in all an enjoyable evening. The next morning we were ready to hit the streets and explore the city. Since I had been there once before (for a few hours with the French language course I took this summer) everyone looked to me for guidance despite my repeated protestations that I really didn't know where we were or what exactly there was to see. I knew that if we kept heading upwards we'd come to a large church with a pretty view of the city...that was if we could see the city through the fog. So we started following the narrow windy streets that led upwards. We passed through a charming market in the medieval square.
Yum, those olives looked so delicious! As we ventured through the city I pulled out my nice Switzerland guide book (given to me by JD before we left the States) and recited the information to my companions as we strolled along. I don't really think anyone was listening, but I enjoyed myself and that's all that really matters, isn't it? I found the fact that Alexandre Dumas described the town as, "looking as if it were carved from butter" due to the majority of buildings being built of pale yellow limestone. Butter buildings...our little butter thief would have a field day in a town made from butter! Alas, she and the slobber hound were back homing being watched over by the neighbors. Back to Neuchâtel, we wound our way up the narrow streets and found the church I had remembered, the Èglise Collégiale. According to the guidebook it is, "a combination of Romanesque and Burgundian Gothic styles" and was "consecrated in 1276." Who wouldn't want to attend a church that looks as though it were carved out of butter? Sign me up - but only if they serve some sculpted butter with the sermons! They views from the top were not so great (see above comment about all encompassing fog). It was unfortunate that our friends' trip was filled with fog, but really I can't be held accountable for the weather.

After wandering around the church in the cold we decided to head back down into the center of town and search out a nice place for a warm drink, food, and a whiskey for CD (in Ireland he has his G&T breaks, in France/Switzerland he has his whiskey breaks).

We found a great little cafe packed with people warming up and JD found the best cup of chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) around. It arrived with melted chocolate in the bottom of the mug and a steaming pitcher of milk to pour into the mug. It looked, smelled, and to all accounts, tasted heavenly. DH and I regretted not getting chocolat chaud especially when we returned the next day to find the cafe closed for the day - darn these Europeans and their Sunday day of rest! that night we enjoyed an amazing and filling meal of cheese fondue. Oh how I have come to love fondue. I usually end up eating so much I end up waddling instead of walking the rest of the night.

A quick word of advice for anyone traveling to a cheese rich country - do not go overboard on the cheese. You will regret it when you have...er...digestive issues for the next few days. Work yourself slowly into a cheese heavy diet, don't just throw yourself in whole hog! 'Nough said. Oh, hey I forgot something. Before dinner we went to the Latenium - the Archeology museum. JD and I thought this was pretty cool. I'd been there before with the French class, but I really enjoyed wandering through again and this time I didn't have a pounding headache from concentrating so hard on understanding our teachers French tour. We wandered through at our own pace and really enjoyed it. If you're in the area I think it is worth the trip. If you make arrangements ahead of time you can get a guided tour in English (and many other languages) or you can do what we did and guide ourselves. There is the drawback that all the labels are in French so if you don't understand any it might get frustrating. But, if you're like many people I know you don't read the labels and signs anyways, you just look at the stuff. A couple of my favorites at the museum is the model of the Roman villa and the bottom of huge boat that they excavated from the lake (it's a long boat or a Roman galley or something like that) pretty cool though. JD was ecstatic because she discovered the museum ha some Celtic cauldron on display in it's temporary exhibit. She's going to kill me because I can't for the life of me remember what it's called. It's very famous and is the quintessential Celtic cauldron (or something to that effect - Sorry JD). She was over the moon about seeing it - seriously I think it made her trip.

So, that was pretty much our stay in Neuchatel. We took it easy and had a great time. I think DH and I will head back there in the warmer months to check it out again. It's only about an hour and a half drive so it's a totally doable day trip.