Saturday, June 13, 2009

Back to the Big City


We left Le Locle. I think we were all kind of sad to leave :(.
(Picture is of LeLocle from the train)
Our last day there we kind of went separate ways. While we were still sitting in the B&B discussing te day wonderful cousin Valerie showed up to see how we were and what she could do to help. She gave us many suggestions of what we should all do and then walked those of us who had not already seen it to the old Wenger house. The rest of the day Thiel girls pretty much just hung around town and wandered and shopped and relaxed. Others went to the watch museum - which they said was wonderful. Cooler than they thought. Then some went to the underground mill - which they did not have time to tour, but did spend some time at the museum part. We were going to go to the underground mills too, but couldn't quite figure out the bus schedule in time. Tami, Michele and Mom left the Aunts at the bus stop to the underground mill and came back to town. Tami and Michelle did some shopping then returned to the B&B. Mom left to do some shopping.

After a few hours and Mom didn't return we got a little concerned about Mom wandering alone in a city where she did not speak the language and so we left on "Operation Mommy Find" -- we found down at Cousin Jaquie's store where Jaquie and Mom and Christian were managing to communicate fairly well about more family history. Mom gave them a Montana picture book which they loved and they gave us a poster of Neuchatel and a bottle of wine with these instructions: "No glug glug here -- glug glug in Montana". Jaquie took Mom to see the old Mayer house and a cemetary. When Mom returned to the B&B she could not remember the code to get into the B&B -- but a 5 year old neighborhood kid came by and entered it for her (I don't think this is the way it is supposed to work).

When the Aunts attempted to return to the B&B they missed a bus and where waiting for the next one and a van pulled up and asked them some questions -- they showed them the address for the B&B and the driver nodded and smiled and they climbed in with him (isn't this what they warned us against as children?). The van winded around the town and ended up at the train station where they disembarked and walked back down the hill to the B&B.

By this time we've discovered Mom and Aunt Judi's room is locked -- both Mom and Aunt Judi returned and said they had not locked the door and they did not have the key Linda and Aunt Judi left to make a phone call to Celine --- with the help of some friendly Swiss people messages were left and Linda and Aunt Judi joined the friendly Swiss for a beer. Celine never did return the message or come to the B&B so after some rummaging around in drawers a key was found.

We were off to Bern! Everyone on line told us to skip this town and they were so wrong! It is a beautiful city with old Midieval towers and fountains and buildings. The people are VERY friendly. We all split up with no plans to meet back as a big group. So we wandered the city, shopped, looked at the sites and ran into eachother throughout the day. It was so hot the Thiel girls stopped for a few beers with friendly bar tender Domonique. After he let us take pictures of him, ensured our beer glasses didn't stay empty for long, washed the beer bottles so we could take them home with us, tried to teach Jeanie how to pour the beer and then offered "we do it together" and then let us buy him and his friend (the other bar tender whos name we can't pronounce) a shot of some Swiss alcohol (the best we could say for it is "It's not as bad as Jaggermeister") we told Domonique we would be telling everyone to go to Bern and to go see Domonique at a bar near the Ogre Fountain.

Oh yeah --- Linda lost another suitcase wheel and had to buy another suitcase in the Bern train station!

Today we head to the Bernese Oberland with a stop on the way in Interlaken and then a tour of the castles around Lake Thun!

Some random thoughts and impressions about Switzerland:

The sound of the kids playing --- they play in the streets and on the sidewalks, riding skooters and playing ball and everyone just watches out for them. Kids are allowed to be kids and no one complains that they are flying down the sidewalk on skooters.

Everything closes (except restaurants and bars) between 12 and 2:30 in LeLocle (and I think other places) including the schools. Then it seemed like they all got off work around 4 --- would be a refreshing pace.

The French part seems more relaxed but we've only been in cities in the German part so that may be a thing of "rural vs city".

As you ride the train you pass fields of poppies, yellow flowers and blue flowers.

The lawns in LeLocle were mixed grass and little flowers -- very beautiful!

In LeLocle we had Church bells ringing every 15 minutes outside our window. Everywhere you go there are Church bells ringing.

In LeLocle, as you sat in the small cafes, everyone who entered looked around and said "Bonjour!

As we left the restaurant in LeLocle the owner stood at the door and shook all our hands.

There are dogs dogs everywhere! The population of Switzerland is 7.7 million and they have 1 million dogs.

They have windows that open wide, real working shutters, and no screens -- so the windows are thrown wide to let the air in and they hang out the window to talk to others as they pass.


Michele has had some great places to run, but said that as she ran in LeLocle the people sweeping the streets stopped and looked around as she ran by so most must people must not run on the main streets.

Well -- that's all for now! Still having a great time!! The weather has been wonderful....a rain and hail storm during dinner our first night and major rain in the morning before we left Zurich. Otherwise it has been sunny and a slight breeze keeping it cool, until yesterday in Bern where it got a little hot. Today it is supposed to be 86 in Thun, so a good day for a boat ride. Tuesday in Lauterbrunnan it is supposed to be a high of 34 (yes, that's farenheit) so that will be a good day for a fireplace and hot toddy :).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like your trip is turning out better that you all expected. I am so glad you are having such a great time. Keep the blogs coming. They are great. I look forward to reading them.
Shirley

Anonymous said...

It sounds like Linda is tuff on luggage. Next6 time she better go duffle bag. :~)Ryan

E L Cork said...

I'm with Ryan--a duffle or "skooter" wheels.

You are taking a lot in--in a very short time. It sounds like Ellen Rae might need a GPS attached so you can keep tabs on her and spare keys all around.

Are you eating? I see a lot of references to bier, vino and Jaeger. I'm just sayin'...

Keep the updates comin'...

-E