6 July ’05, Wednesday. Medieval Town of Murten
After an impromptu soccer game with Drew last night, I awoke this morning a little stiff. I guess I’m not quite in the same physical shape I thought I might be in… I’ve found that I am the first to and out of the showers in the morning…I guess it must be they are waiting in bed for my coffee to be served. Ha, Ha, they will have a long wait…
As Mikleane mentioned yesterday, we had a good and busy day in Bern yesterday. Bern is a very pretty city that is just about fully surrounded by water. Bern is the Swiss capital, and the city does have the “classy” feeling about it. I was disappointed in the “bear pit” that they displayed “their emblems” in…it really felt like it was nothing more than a temporary hole that was dug in the ground, with a few old dead trees put in, and then completely lined with cement. This is “The Capital”, and they are “The Emblem” of the capital…give them something that represents the status they deserve !!! OK, I’m off my soap-box… Today’s drive was rather short…I think we were on the road for 35 to 45 minutes, and we were off the road looking for the turn off to the campground. We are camped on the shores of the Lake Murten, along with at least 60 permanent caravan/mobile homes. We are among 6 tops, that are temporary. There is a path from the campground, along the shoreline, that goes directly into Murten. We hadn’t hardly set-up before we were on our way into town. On entering through the gates, we were met with a very picturesque town that is surrounded with a medieval wall on 3 sides, and the lake on the other. After a walk through the main street, and looking for a place to eat, we settled for a neat little restaurant with a alphorn and castle style chandelier, called Freiburger Falle. In Switzerland, for some reason, they have quite a few businesses that have “storm door” entrances directly off of the street. The 2 old wood “Storm Doors” swing out of the way, and you go down the steep stairs, into the business. In this case, it was a restaurant with a ton of atmosphere. Our goal was to have a cheese fondue, as the weather was cool and wet, and that sounded like it was just what we needed…it was fantastic (although, like everything else in Switzerland, it was EXPENSIVE…). We were also introduced to a local wine, that was really good. Fact is, it is one that Rick Steves recommends…now, we can recommend it too…Vully Nant…a locally grown brewed, crisp, and VERY tasty white wine. After lunch, we headed for the town walls. The walls are covered with a peaked roof, and it was really needed today as it rained off and on throughout the day. From the top of the walls, you can see over the whole town and all the hills that surround the lake. Murten is just a few miles from France, so there are quite a few locals that speak French as their first language. The Murten castle, has been converted into “City Hall”. From the front, it looks very much like it did many, many years ago, but the interior has been changed to fit their needs. This medieval town does deserve the press it gets, it is a treat seeing and tasting it…Tomorrow…Avenches and then onto Lausanne

The Bears in Bern - 5 July 2005 – We hope everyone had a great 4th of July. After settling in Dragonfly for the night here in Bern, we were surprised to hear fellow Americans setting off fireworks. You are never too far from home. We awoke this morning to sunshine and after showers (each time you turned the handle you received 30 seconds of water – a heavy participation shower), we caught the bus into old town Bern. A beautiful city right in the bend of the River Aare, Bern founded in 1191, is full of beautiful fountains, sandstone buildings, and bears – the symbol of Bern. We enjoyed walking through the city, browsing the markets, and enjoying the occasional beer or Starbucks coffee (actually, a coconut Frappacino). Louise purchased a souvenir this morning – a Swiss army knife. She then promptly dropped it through the cracks in the square in front of the Swiss Parliament Building. After trying many solutions (including gum on a stick) Mom borrowed a wire tie off one of the merchant signs, and after several tries, Dad was able to hook it and bring it up through the crack in the floor – to give to a very relieved Louise. We enjoyed feeding the Bern bears (mixed fruit) – they obviously were used to this routine as they expected you to throw the food directly to them, as they lay on their backs – very funny. We returned from town and Lou went for a swim in the pool, while the rest of us relaxed out and planned our route for tomorrow. Dad and Rick heated up the barbeque and we had another wonderful dinner of sausages, pomme frites, olives, dark beer, Chianti, and fresh pressed apple juice from the market. We are really settling into our routine and enjoying our new home “dragonfly”. We bought a dragonfly lawn ornament today to put out with our awning. Many campers go all out with gnomes, flower planters, flags, lounge chairs, and sofas – we are just trying to fit in.

3 July ’05, Sunday.
Here we are, in the land of William Tell. Luzern is a town that is split by the river Reuss, is crossed by 7 bridges (one, the oldest, wooden, and is roofed), is lush, with flowers, trees, and other various vegetation, and is more than inviting, with the beauty of the old city, the lake, and the surrounding mountains. Today we enjoyed all of them at once… We were up early to catch a boat for an hour and a half cruise around the lake. Our destination was Mount Pilatus and the location of the “cog wheeled” tram that would transport us to 7000’ above sea level, on the steepest grades in the world. There were areas where the grade was more than 48 percent, and areas where the tracks just seemed to hang in mid air, with a huge drop to the void below. The day we chose was bright and sunny, and our hopes were of the “large” views of the Alps. Unfortunately, just like Mt. Rainier, there are days that are bright and sunny, and the mountain has a cloud that circles the top. Today, was that day. There were moments, when the clouds would part just enough to give you a peak of the total view, but those were rare. This didn’t ruin our day though, as we had lots of trails to follow, and the vistas, although local, were stunning. Our ride up on the tram was really wonderful. It took us about 30 or more minutes to reach the top, and the views looking out from the tram were great. Once we reached the top, we all searched for the first place that had the best food for our taste (and took off on a lot of hiking…most of it seemed up, but it was all enjoyable. We spent more than 2 hours at the top and then took another “modes” of transportation down. Our first, was a large cable car. That took us to the location of the “luge” ride with the most stunning view of the day, but who had time to look…we all boarded our own “luge”, and set off on the longest luge ride in Europe….winding, twisting, jumping, bouncing, going through tunnels and completely out of control most of the time… I heard Mikleane screaming a lot through the hair-pin turns!!! Exhausted, we were onto the next mode of transportation, a much smaller cable car to the next port. There, we boarded a city bus to take us into Luzern. In Luzern, our final leg of our day journey was by boat. We boarded right beside the train station, and it took us on a very comfortable ride across the lake to the campground. This was a big day, and there wasn’t one of us that wasn’t dragging our butts at the end, but we did have a great outing. Tomorrow, ….Bern….

2 July ’05, Saturday. Dragonfly
Hello dear friends! We have arrived in Switzerland! The flight from Seattle to Zurich was uneventful and after a restful night in a hotel in Luzern, we picked up our RV (camper) and promptly named her “Dragonfly”. We had to pick an insect bigger than “Bumblebee”, and my suggestion of “Praying Mantis” was quickly shot down. So, Dragonfly it is. Dragonfly is a 21 ft. 2004 Knaus Sun Traveller, with three beds, a toilet, shower, stove, refrigerator and no air conditioner- very European. Our first campground (across the street from Lake Luzurn) is very nice. We are parked next to Mom and Dad, and share a nice space of lawn, on which we set up our table and chairs tonight to enjoy a delightful dinner. During the Luzern Saturday market, we picked up some smelly cheeses, proscuitto, breads, chili peppers, olives, eggplant, and other treats which we enjoyed with German and Italian wines, before a wonderful pasta dinner prepared by Mom. No doubt, that this is our kind of camping! Tomorrow, we are heading to Mount Pilatus. We’ll start in the morning with a 90 minute cruise down the lake, take a funicular (world’s steepest) up the mountain, enjoy some hiking and a picnic lunch, and then travel by gondola down. Bring on the sunshine!

29 June ’05, Wednesday. Lake Luzern
The trees are blooming, the hay has been cut and they are “sweeping” it so that it dries, and what ever else there is that could be blowing around….I’m getting so plugged up, wheezing, and coughing, I haven’t had a good nights sleep in a month. I’m not normally a pill taker, but now, I am seeking them out, and I’ve got to get this under control. The hot weather stayed with us all day yesterday and even moved into this afternoon. Yesterday, we stayed close to the pool and “Bumble Bee”, with the exception for a short trip into town for groceries and the internet. Other than that, we were at poolside. This morning we left Lindau. Lindau is an island, sitting in Lake Constance, and within about 4km from the Austrian border, and about 6 miles from the border with Switzerland. As we pulled into Austria, we noticed the long lines at a gas station, and then we noticed the prices…they were .20 euro per liter less than that in Germany (Landau). Everyone, filling up with gas, was from Germany. While we filled our tank, I went in and purchased our permit to travel on the Swiss Motorways. I think this is the 4th or 5th country that we had to purchase these permits. Today’s Swiss permit cost us $27 Euro for a year. We had heard it would cost us about $40, so we were excited to get such a “break”. Now that reminds me, every time we as travelers, get instructions, hear about the cost of items, km or miles to be traveled, it changes with reality. The cost of this permit is only one example, and another real quick is km…the distance advertised is never the distance realized. I think the standard was thrown out a long time ago. Our drive this morning took us around the southern side of Lake Constance, on our way to Zurich and then onto Luzern. Lake Constance is a large, long lake that is a beautiful blue/green in color. It reminds us of the waters of the Mediterranean. It is fed from the surrounding mountains, but it is far enough away to let it warm up enough to be comfortable and allow the water color, to clear from the opaque colors of the glaciers. As we wound our way through the lower foothills of the Alps, we even found cooler weather…it felt good for a change. Later, as we got closer to Luzern, the weather warmed up again to about 85 to 90, and the humidity was just about the same. Later in the afternoon, we got a heavy, but short rainfall. About 5, we decided to take a long walk into Luzern, along the boardwalk. This is one of the prettiest of the European cities I have seen. It also seems to have a lot to see as well, so the next few days will give us plenty of exercise. As we left the town area and finished our shopping, we noticed that the clouds were building, turning dark, and looking very threatening. Sure enough, we hadn’t made it 1/3 of the way back and all hell broke loose…we got drenched. As we walked into the campgrounds, the little outdoor restaurant/bar was open. I just had to have a beer, and there were a couple of guys standing at a tall table, so I joined them for a couple. Tomorrow will bring lots of new sites, but we can’t do too much prior to the Chouinard family getting here.