Interrailing for Seniors!

Visiting the oldest city and the biggest city in Switzerland

I have been following Byway Travel on Instagram for a while; their advocacy of slow travel and of the journey being an important component of the travel experience matches my own view very well. As a company they not only promote this philosophy but help people explore it for themselves by selling curated or tailored trips by surface transport, notably rail. If you like the look of some of my adventures and would like help to do this sort of thing yourself, then Byway Travel might be worth a look (no, they are not paying me). My most recent trip to Switzerland could easily have been arranged booking travel from London to Zurich with Eurostar and then using a Swiss travel pass while there and booking my hotels with Booking.com, but we thought it would be interesting to give Byway a try. This adventure is how it worked out (and some of the new experiences began while we were still at home)!

On the Byway website we input the elements we wanted to include, First Class rail travel, three nights in Chur, two in Zürich and one in Paris, and a night in London before departure. They came back with a suggested itinerary which we adjusted slightly and then accepted. This was an interesting experience because by the time we had filled in our details on the booking form one or other part of the itinerary had become unavailable and we were invited to try again. Each time we were offered a different selection of hotels. Now I could not believe that they were all filling up that fast, so after several of these attempts I just went an ahead and booked anyway. It all seemed to work and eventually we received confirmation of our booking and information about tickets and timing. 

This was the next adventure! We were to travel using Interrail passes, and while we had used these before on a Great Rail Journeys escorted tour they were paper passes then and we had a tour manager looking after seat reservations etc.. Now the passes were digital and we were responsible for everything ourselves. I am, as you might guess from the amount I publish on line, quite comfortable with digital media on the whole and I often use digital tickets, held on my iPhone. But the combination of the digital pass and the journeys having been planned by an agency meant that there was plenty of room for error in getting the right journeys on the pass on the right days! Byway even provide a weekly seminar on using the Interrail app alongside their Journey Guide which contains all the information we need for our trip. Those journeys needing reservations, that is the Eurostar journeys from and to London and the TGV Lyria each way between Paris and Zürich, had pdf tickets supplied by Byway which we both printed and filed in iCloud for access on our devices: it was these printed reservations which opened the ticket barriers at St Pancras and Gare de Lyon. We attended the seminar and all was ready for departure. As we were travelling to London one day before our first international train, we had to buy tickets for that part of the trip, but we were to return home from Paris in one day which ment that our Interrail passes would cover the UK journey as well: that’s the way Interrail works!

And so we were off! It had been a while since our last international adventure and it was great to be setting out again. A normal Friday morning in Stamford, although no need to buy anything from the market, which was just as well because the Mid-Lent Fair made it a pretty minimal market. We did join the ecumenical Lent Lunch and then wheeled our cases down to the station to take a train to Peterborough for a simple connection to London, First Class on LNER. We did not need the rather delicious-looking meal on offer as we had dinner to come, but we had a drink and a biscuit, keeping the crisps for later.

Byway had booked us a stay at a Point A hotel in Grays Inn Road. We had never stayed in a Point A before, always tending to go for Premier Inn, and we were very impressed. Next time we need a stay in London I’ll see how the cost compares and will definitely consider it. We had been invited to our son and his family for dinner and set off there after checking in, then returned for a good night’s sleep and a good continental breakfast before walking down to St Pancras International station to check in for Eurostar. With dire warnings about queues and delays we had allowed far too long for the formalities which were over as quickly as ever, and we did not even need breakfast to pass the time! We did eventually have coffee (we don’t rate the coffee served on Eurostar trains, not as good as LNER!) and then, still with thirty minutes to go, boarding began. '

As we have discovered before, the light meal served on Eurostar trains from mid-morning is lunch, so, soon after breakfast we were eating our light lunch with the Eurostar signature refrigerated cutlery! (The meals are made up in advance on trays complete with napkin, cutlery, glass and cup and the whole trolley is kept chilled so everything is cold. I put the wrapped butter pat in my pocket to warm up …) The journey to Paris was uneventful - at least it was for those of us who have been this way so often: if you’re new to it the transit under the sea is probably quite an event! We were in coach 2 and the corollary of having a short walk in London to join the train was a long walk in Paris to leave the train. I had an electronic Metro ticket on my iPhone to use in Paris but my wife had none and try as we might we were unable to add one (even though at one stage the app did take some money), so at Gare du Nord we enquired about it and could not understand the explanation. She was sold a Navigo card (€2) and a single ticket loaded onto it (the normal €2.55 fare) I bought the same, ready for the journey home; I had thought that when we installed the Île-de-France de France app last year we were set up for easy purchase of Metro tickets, but the Paris Metro remains a mystery!

We do not like the experience of using the RER to Gare de Lyon even though it is quick and convenient, but we had time in hand (I think Byway are set up to help people migrate from flying to rail and go out of their way to make it stress-free!), so we went by normal Metro through to Gare d’Austerlitz, just across the river, and walked from there. We had coffee at the station and bought water to take with us and then boarded the TGV Lyria bound for Zürich where we were to change trains for Chur. We had First Class tickets on our Interrail apps and printed reservations for upper-deck seats. This was a great journey: no catering included but an excellent buffet from which we enjoyed a good salad dinner.

At Zürich we had about half an hour before our connecting train to Chur: this was a station we’d get to know in a few days’ time. By now it was dark, so the hour’s ride to Chur was not its usual scenic self, but the train was swift and comfortable and we were soon walking up Bahnhofstrasse towards the Hotel Stern where we had first stayed twelve year earlier on our first Great Rail Journeys escorted tour.

We checked in and went straight to bed, well after our usual bed-time, both excited and tired.

Our first day in Chur was Sunday, and although we had thought of attending church, circumstances were such that we changed our minds, not only because were we still recovering from the late night, but the choice of church was a bit problematic. St Martin's, the same dedication as our church at home, might have been good, but it is protestant, and Swiss protestantism is a bit extreme and I was not at all sure we'd have a clue what was going on. There is also the Roma Catholic cathedral and although we'd recognise the service (for it would be similar to our Church of England liturgy) the sermon in German would be opaque to me and technically we would not be welcome at holy communion. So a short lie-in and a slow start to the day prevailed.

At the hotel reception we picked up our tourist passes for the city, complimentary to hotel guests and covering free museum admissions and local buses. We had printed a city map before we left home and had a good idea of what we would do, starting with the Museum  where we learnt a lot about the history of the city and the canton. Chur qualifies as the oldest city in Switzerland because it was the first town to have a bishop appointed to it, and therefore the earliest to have a cathedral. There was a great view over the city from the top floor of the museum, and a decent cup of coffee to be had from the reception.

We had a stroll around the city, punctuated by a stop for beer outside a bar in the old part of the city centre - typically Swiss with outside tables supplied with blankets, but in the sunshine it was quite warm enough not to need these.

From the old city we strolled out along the riverside and then back towards the rail station area where we planned some of the following day's activities and then visited the city's natural history museum.

After a brief history of every beast known in Graubünden we went for a walk around the city centre following a published trail and found the "Chur Foot," a standard measure set into the wall of the town hall. The Foot is a familiar measure to us as British citizens but will be less familiar to locals these days!

We gradually made our way back to our hotel where we had dinner in the informal setting of a lounge bar trying some of the local Graubündner dishes on offer.

On Monday morning our plan was to complete our travel over every part of the RhätischeBahn by travelling up to Arosa on the line from Chur. I did not really know what to expect: the line began as a separate tramway, much like the Bernina Line further south, and was acquired by the RhB and absorbed into its network, and the destination was completely unknown to us (except that it was uphill!). These days the services are operated by Allegra electric multiple units towing a handful of older passenger cars and a driving trailer to enable them to work in either direction without shunting after each turn.

Our journey to Arosa began at 10:08 at the dedicated Arosa platforms at the front of Chur station, outside the main SBB/RhB building, with day return tickets bought from the station ticket office; our Interrail Passes were not set up for enough travel days to cover that day. The journey begins very much like a tram ride through the streets of Chur: once off the station forecourt we followed very much the route we had walked along the riverside the previous day. It begins as double track and we're riding on the same side of the road as the other vehicles, then after it singles out we are on the right-hand side which feels OK going this way, still with the traffic, but this is no tram: it is a train of six or seven full-length coaches! It is the same feeling you get in Tirano where the Bernina Express goes through the streets for a short distance. Eventually, well outside the town, and after an intermediate station in the street, the road and the railway do part company and we climb steeply into the mountains. 

Gradually we saw more and more snow on the ground and in the trees and by the time the train arrived in Arosa there was thick snow on the ground and a frozen lake covered with snow. As we walked around the town a few snowflakes began to fall. We called at a small café for coffee and nusstorte and then went for a walk around the lake, by which time there was a light, steady snow shower. It was quite magical. Arosa is a popular place for skiing, which is not something I had realised until I got there. We took the next train back at far as an intermediate stop at Langweis where I took a few photographs and made some notes for the intermediate station on my model railway. 

From Langweis there is a great view of the Langweis viaduct and a small display in the station about its construction. For me, though, much of the interest was in the way the station is used: the nearest track to the building is a siding and you have to walk over the siding (on a proper crossing) to the hard standing which passes for a platform (as at many minor Rhâtischebahn stations), but when our train arrived there we had to pass a late-running train on its way to Arosa, and when we descended it was all the way down onto the gravel ballast: there was no platform at all there! My model station Mitteldorf will definitely be built this way, complete with level crossing right through the station!

We took the next train down to Chur and Alison spent the rest of the afternoon shopping, having seen some things while exploring the preceding day. Dinner was again in the lounge bar at Hotel Stern.

On Tuesday morning we validated our tickets on the Interrail app and left Chur for Zürich, Switzerland's largest city (although very modest by British standards), and we were able to enjoy the scenery we had missed on our way there by night on Saturday. We arrived in Zürich mid-morning and decided to go straight on to Luzern for the day, leaving our exploration of Zürich for the following day. Our hotel was some distance from the station here, so we kept our luggage with us. We each had just one  modest-sized wheeled suitcase and these were no burden. From the station in Luzern we walked along the river and crossed one of the famous wooden bridges - not the shortest way across but it's what you have to do as a tourist! I am not ashamed to be a tourist: this trip was definitely a tour. As this was a day when we were travelling on our Interrail passes, we were able to include the trains to and from Luzern on our passes by searching for the trains and adding the tickets to the pass - so we were travelling First Class on a short journey which we'd never do if we were buying tickets. We had our lunch in Luzern at Wirtshaus Taube, a restaurant we had identified from Trip Advisor and made this our main meal of the day, the usual filling Swiss delicious-but-not-slimming meal that keeps you going for the whole day.

We returned to Zürich in peak travel time and avoided a crowded four-coach train in favour of the less-crowded eight-coach one that left a few minutes later. The we walked to the hotel - this was interesting, along a river much of the way, but involved quite a climb and in retrospect was a mistake. The trams were cheap and frequent so for the rest of our short stay we used these in both directions, having discovered that three tram routes stop right outside the hotel and one route just one block away in the next street. We checked in and had a good night's sleep ready for the next day's adventures.

Wednesday was our full day in Zürich and we explored the streets in the morning, roughly following a city trail we had found and incorporating a visit to the Globus department store where we bought a souvenir glass to replace one we had bought in Interlaken a couple of years before and had been dropped and broken at home. Our trail took us to streets of interesting old buildings and streetscapes, as well as through the world-famous financial district, home of the "Gnomes of Zürich".

After a morning's exploration we made our way to the Landesmuseum for lunch and afternoon's study of Swiss history.

We had earlier identified the restaurant at the Hotel Adler for dinner and booked a table, so we returned there at the end of the day and then took a tram back to our hotel. The weather had varied throughout the day, but the increasingly frequent rain showers in the afternoon had given way to a dry evening and nothing spoilt our enjoyment of this great city. After a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast we were ready for another country in the morning.

We left for Paris late morning on Thursday and had our coffee at Zürich main station while waiting for our train to be announced. There is a myth in Britain that Swiss railways always run to time and are never cancelled, but this just isn't true. On our many visits ti Switzerland we have found the railways to be, yes, a bit better than ours, but not perfect. Breakdowns and trespassers can happen anywhere and Switzerland is not immune. International trains to and through Switzerland are also affected, of course, and contrary to popular belief at home, snow in Switzerland does affect the running of trains and the condition of the roads. This morning the departure board showed several trains delayed and one cancelled, but not our 11:34 departure for Paris, the usual TGV Lyria, operated jointly by the Swiss and French national railways.

Arriving at Gare de Lyon, we made our way to our hotel, the Sleeping Belle, and then set out for a walk through the city, following the River Seine and passing across the Île de la Cité and on the the now-open Cathedral of Notre Dame (although we did not visit on this occasion). We then made our way back towards our hotel looking for somewhere to have dinner, settling on a steak at an art deco themed restaurant near to the Gare de Lyon.

Breakfast on Friday morning was at our hotel and then we made our way to Gare du Nord for the train back to London and thence home. We had all morning and although we had Metro passes on our iPhones we decided to walk. This whole trip had been about "slow travel" and this would be a way to enjoy Paris while on our way home. With wheeled suitcases this really is not a hard thing to do and the walk was very pleasant.

At Gare du Nord check-in for our train to London was just beginning and when the attendant controlling the queue for check-in saw my Sunflower lanyard she beckoned us across the priority queue normally reserved for Premier Class travellers and made sure that we sped through check-in: this was very welcome as although I can walk any distance, more or less, I do find standing and shuffling a bit hard and this was largely avoided. I had my usual difficulty with the passport machines and had to have mine checked manually at the French passport control. The we had a short wait with a cup of tea before boarding the train and speeding across to London. We were on our way home with a short wait at Kings Cross, our travel from London to Stamford covered this time by our Interrail passes as it was an international travel day on them. We arrived home late afternoon and had plenty of time to unpack and read our mail.

Full video of the whole trip is now here, and on my YouTube Channel, @Marks_Rail_Adventures

It had been a great break, and now my attention turned to the final preparations for exhibiting my model railway at the forthcoming Stamford Model Railway Show. No shortage of things to do in retirement!

On the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Travelling home from Venice on a special train service

On our last morning in Venice our journey with Belmond began: the centrepiece, of course, was their luxury re-creation of the Orient Express train, but it began with a representative meeting us at our hotel and taking us and our suitcases to a private-hire water taxi for the trip to Venice Santa Lucia railway station to wait for our train. It did not properly end until we arrived in London St Pancras in Eurostar's Business Premier Class which was an integral part of the Belmond package.

Given the gastronomic experience we were expecting during the 24 hours on board the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express it might have been better for our health to have walked to the railway station, but the boat service was provided as part of the through journey, and it was in any case great to have one last trip up part of the grand canal. On arrival at the railway station waterbus terminal a team of porters was standing by to take our luggage which would be delivered to our allocated compartment. Those with more luggage than ours would have their larger cases stowed in a baggage car, just taking to their compartments what they would need overnight.

And so we arrived at Venezia Santa Lucia railway station and made our way to platform 2 where our escort went to the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express desk that had been set up there, ensuring that our arrival had been noted. The train was brought into the platform about half an hour before departure so that there was an unhurried boarding and loading of luggage. As a fan of Art Deco style and the inter-war "Dieselpunk" era, this journey was something I had wanted to do for a long time, and I was not disappointed in the slightest. The Art Deco feel of this train has been so well preserved, restored and enhanced, even though modern features like wi-fi and, discreetly hidden, electric charging points have been installed. 

Our steward Gloria took our passports in case they needed to be seen at a border in the night, put our luggage on the rack and introduced us to the features of our compartment - critically, how to lock the door! -  and a waiter came along and poured Champagne into the two flute glasses that stood waiting on the table. The Maitre D came along and asked our preference for the noon or two o'clock sitting for lunch, which, of course, was linked to the seven or nine o'clock sitting for dinner (we went for the earlier in both cases).

The train trundled away falteringly from Venice to begin with, with frequent stops and often moving slowly, but soon it was noon and we washed our hands in our little wash basin and made our way to the third restaurant car,  l'Oriental, for lunch, which was an unhurried affair with included Champagne and a wide variety of wine available, most of it included, but you could easily spend a few hundred pounds on special vintages if you wished to do so. The three-course lunch was delicious and relaxing: we accompanied it with a non-alcoholic rosé, given the amount of Champagne we had already had and that dinner with more alcohol would be coming along later. A meal on a train is always rather special, and in an Art Deco restaurant car in Italy especially special!

 

The train eventually arrived at Verona where the first locomotive change took place. Here we took an opportunity to have a stroll on the platform - just a little more exercise - and reboarded the train when the rain started. It was a fair while before we got going again, and the next service train from the same platform was indicated running 72 minutes late, which made us wonder what sort of disruption was holding us up and for how long. But once we got going we moved fairly swiftly, more like an express train, and were soon into Alpine mountain scenery. Before long Gloria came to our compartment offering afternoon tea, which include a variety of teas and some small pastries, both savoury and sweet. 

I wrote some postcards to the family (which I knew would arrive long after we were home, but they would be posted with the special Venice Simplon-Orient-Express postmark and would be nice for our family members to receive) and then we repaired to the bar car, which we had not yet seen, for a cocktail before dressing for dinner. I could not resist ordering the Vesper Martini, but I am unsure whether it was shaken or stirred. The bar car had a very relaxing lounge-like atmosphere and our drinks were served with a selection of nibbles - you do not go hungry on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express! And so back to our compartment to dress for dinner. Now, smart clothing is required throughout a journey on this train, and I did wear a jacket and tie for lunch, but for dinner, "formal" wear is required and so we did wash and change into formal evening wear. Two people changing their clothes in the confines of a railway compartment is quite a challenge but we did manage within the hour we had allocated to present ourselves smartly attired ready for dinner.

Dinner was in a different restaurant car from lunch, the idea being that we would get to experience everything the train had to offer in our twenty-four hours aboard. This time we were in the Côte d'Azur car, all decorated in blue. This was my favourite, and it was good to have the longest mealtime there. Most people played the game and turned up in formal clothes, some really spectacular, and no-one was in less than a jacket and tie. Once more this was a leisurely meal with all the water and wine you could wish, and started with Champagne. We were not far into the meal when darkness came and we were travelling through the night. The route took us through the Alps to Innsbruck in Austria where the train reversed and made its way eastwards through Liechtenstein towards France. No murders so far, although there was a party of some fifty Americans on board, so the Agatha Christie scenario was not impossible. No Russian assassin attempting to kill a British assassin, either. Time to get ready for bed, and if dressing for dinner in the daytime compartment was a challenge, undressing for bed in a compartment which had been transformed by our attendant into a bedroom with a ladder to the top bunk was even more so! At least the ladder meant that we could easily access our cases on the luggage rack if we needed to get something out or put something away, and actually the compartment was so well designed that we really did not get in each other's way very much. 

The bed - I had the lower bunk - was surprisingly comfortable and I had a decent night's sleep (better than our last night at the Venice hotel, in fact), until we stopped somewhere and our compartment was immediately next to the cooling fans of a locomotive on the next track. Neither it nor our train was going anywhere for some time, and noise came and went frequently as the locomotive's thermostat required it. This felt like it had been going on for a long time, but this can be deceiving, before at last the sound began to fade and I realised from the slight sounds from below that we were on the move again. By now it was two hours to our accustomed morning alarm, and I had the best part of that asleep.

It was still dark when we awoke and dressed, taking the opportunity to repack our suitcases as we went along, so that by the time we went for breakfast our compartment was reasonably tidy. It was daylight when we arrived at the restaurant car Étoile du Nord for breakfast. There was a small basket of pastries on the table which we ignored until after we had eaten a fruit salad and, in my case, the best-tasting poached eggs on toast that I have ever eaten. We stayed at our table for some time enjoying the views of countryside not unlike that at home, and drinking coffee and water, then we returned to our compartment which in our absence had been converted back into a sitting space. The train was by then through Dijon and making its way eastward on time towards Paris. The sun was shining, it was a lovely morning to be travelling.

When we arrived at Paris Gare d'Austerlitz it was still sunny and although the air temperature was quite cool, it did not feel particularly cold in the sunshine. The train crew had taken our luggage onto the platform and we collected it and wished them farewell, but our exciting and special journey was not yet over. Since the withdrawal of the through service to and from London Victoria using Belmond's British Pullman train, the Venice to London service now uses the Eurostar in Business Premier Class to complete the London stage of the journey, so we were now to experience Business Premier Class on Eurostar for the first - and quite possibly only - time. But plenty of time had been allowed before the Eurostar train departure from Paris Gare du Nord, so we decided to go for a little stroll along the Seine rather than just take the Metro straight there. As we walked we felt warmer and warmer in the sun. We went as far as the west front of Notre Dame cathedral and then took the Metro from Cité station direct to Gare du Nord, where the signage all seems to have changed since our last visit, with the Eurostar terminal now being designated "Hall 2", with the Union Flag appearing next to it. 

Even after our stroll we still had lots of time before the train to London, but that was fine, because a big part of the Eurostar Business Premier Class for Venice Simplon-Orient-Express passengers is the availability of the Business Premier Lounge while waiting. Another advantage would have been the fast-track queue at the ticket gates, but there were only two or three people in front of us anyway, so that didn't make any real difference! We did get nice smiles from the Eurostar staff, though, amusingly. The lack of crowds made the whole security process so much more relaxed, and I was pleased to note that the scanning of luggage etc at Gare du Nord seems to have improved since my last visit, and the electronic passport gates on the UK passport control had worked this time and let me straight through. There was no queue at all at the French passport control desk, either. Once through passport and security checks we took the lift up to the Business Premier Lounge, showed our tickets, sat down and relaxed. I could not get the phone-charging sockets to work, but that was not important this time, fortunately. We helped ourselves to coffee and snacks, then later a cold drink, while we awaited the boarding of our train, which was scheduled to leave three minutes earlier than when it had been booked, such is the way with Eurostar trains.

As soon as our train left Paris we were served drinks. We chose Champagne; after all, this was a part of our Orient-Express experience! The meal was soon served, but I missed a trick in not asking for wine to go with the meal when the drinks were brought, but we did have plenty of water. In Business Premier Class there is an option of a hot dish, and on our train it was trout and very good indeed. This was a light three-course meal with starter, main and dessert and although not quite Orient-Express standard was pretty good. The meal finished before we reached the Channel Tunnel and before long we were at St Pancras International station, with plenty of time to go before our booked train to Peterborough and connection home to Stamford - I dare not arrange it any tighter because of the multiple opportunities for schedule to slip before we got to London, but in fact nothing held us up at all and we had as long in the First Class Lounge at Kings Cross as we did in the Business Premier Lounge at Gare du Nord.

Our train left Kings Cross on time and we were served the usual refreshments, although we did not need a lot after the week, and the day, we had been enjoying. The train did encounter a few shorts delays which made the connection to Stamford rather tight, but we made it with a couple of minutes to spare and arrived at Stamford exactly on schedule - and without having to hang around on Peterborough station. Our kind next-door neighbour picked us up by car and drove us the last half-mile home: it's a lovely walk in the summer but we were glad of a lift this time.

When we left home six days before I said it was hard to believe that we were going on this adventure (and as I write this I have not yet published that part of the story!), and now we are back I find it hard to believe that we have done it! The legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, ticked off the The List. 

Video presentation of the whole holiday in Venice and 

the journey on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Neuchâtel via Paris and Le Locle, part 3: Neuchâtel, city, lake and castles

Value for money

All our travel so far within Switzerland had been free of charge, included in our Neuchâtel Tourist Card, as had been the trip on the lake at Les Brenets. Even the journey from Le Locle to Neuchâtel city was covered because the card was valid until midnight on the last day (hence the shuffling back-and-forth between Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds without having to keep buying tickets!). Knowing that we would be given a new Tourist Card at our next hotel it occurred to us that if we could fit in the intended Lake cruise at Neuchatel on the first evening, it might be possible to take another later in the stay if we so desired, using the vouchers in our new card! In the event, once round the lake was enough in the weather as it turned out, but that was how we entertained ourselves the first evening in Neuchâtel.  

The weather was still sunny and very hot when we arrived and we walked straight to our hotel, the Neuchâtel City Hotel, which was not far and all downhill. Our room was really great, with a huge amount of space and a balcony onto the street with a view of the lake, albeit between buildings. Typical of Swiss hotels, there was no air-conditioning, although a very good electric fan was provided, but this time there was a coffee machine (but not tea!). Having unpacked we made our way down to the port and found the trip boat for which our vouchers were valid and waited a short while for boarding. There were scarily few passengers on board: tourism is a long way from "back-to-normal" here yet and the boat was run with as small a crew as could safely be used. We bought drinks from the bar and sat on deck until the light rain started but it was easy to find a seat under cover when it was raining.

Family history

Back on land, and back in blazing sunshine, we explored a bit and enjoyed on the balcony of our room a salad we had bought at a local supermarket before leaving Le Locle, no substantial dinner being needed after the lunch at the crêperie there. Shower and early night were called-for after the exertions of the day.

We did not get up early on Wednesday and were among the few customers in the breakfast room at the hotel when we went down. After breakfast I went back to the room and started this blog while Alison went off to the local archives office at the Castle to begin some of her research: this was apparently a fairly complex process involving standing outside the right doorway in the castle quadrangle and telephoning a number to be let in - all in French, of course.

We then visited the Galeries d'Histoire together, learning about the development of the city and then walked to the terminus at Place Pury of the "Littorail" (which may be translated, "coastrail") tramway to Boudry by way of continued exploration. There was not a lot there to see, but this is the only remaining tram route (number 5, the others all having been converted now to trolleybus operation) in Neuchâtel, so we thought a ride on it along the lakeside would be a pleasant was to spend a few moments. We came back only as far as an interchange with a bus service that took us up the hill to the district of Peseux in order to see the castle there which is in private hands and so not open to visit but has a distant family connection and we were able to photograph its exterior well enough from the street. From Peseux we caught one of the aforementioned trolleybuses back to the city centre and to our hotel to prepare for dinner. 

The castle at Peseux, in the west of the city of Neuchâtel

We had identified from TripAdvisor a great place for fondue, which is so typically Swiss and yet which we had not yet had a chance to try on this visit. Thunder and rain were expected so we carried our waterproof jackets with us and set off for La Taverna Neuchâteloise where the host greeted us with, "Good evening," as we walked in: are we that obviously British? Maybe he'd overheard us talking to each other as we approached, for he was standing on the doorstep! The fondue was great, and the service very friendly, efficient without rushing us, with Neuchâtel wine, of course, and we determined to return the following day for a raclette, bidding our host, "À demain," as we left. During our meal the rain had come and the rain had gone, but we were able to sit outside throughout because there were a couple of excellent canopies over the outside tables and it remained just warm enough for it to be a pleasant atmosphere around our fondue set.

Thursday was our last day in Neuchâtel and we were down to breakfast somewhat earlier and otherwise began our day in a similar way.  We reconvened late morning and set off to explore the city using a walking tour in a leaflet picked up from the tourist information office, discovering its thousand-year history and including a climb to the ancient castle which gives the city its name (or did when it was new!). After slogging up the hill and having a good look around the castle, as well as enjoying the views from it, we continued the tour through the main shopping street, stopping off for an ice-cream at Suchard (who else?) and finally strolling along the lakeside which is about as near as Switzerland gets to a seaside promenade!

I had found a toy and model shop and popped in to see if I could find anything useful for my Swiss-based model railway innsdorf.com and came away with only some bridge fencing. our final excursion was to take the bus to Valangin where we had once before visited another castle with a family connection: we did not feel the need to visit the actual castle again, but the bus ride was quick and simple (and free!) and it would be nice to see the village again and to see how it had fared. We had a beer at the café where we'd had lunch on our previous visit and were pleased to see that the village seemed to be looking more prosperous than before, although, as in so much of England, the shop had closed. After all our exertions we went back to our hotel and prepared for our last evening meal, a raclette back at La Taverna. Heavy rain and possibly thunder were predicted for the evening and indeed it was very much like the previous evening but with much more and heavier rain. The meal was excellent although we did have to rein back the amount we ate and drank. We went for a short stroll along the Jardin Anglais after dinner but soon realised that the rain was restarting and so we returned rapidly to our hotel and started preparations for departure in the morning. We needed to do as much packing as we could so the we would be ready for check-out and breakfast first thing because the plan was to go home in one day.

Travelling home

On the Friday morning we took our cases down to breakfast and bade farewell to the City Hotel, using our Neuchâtel Tourist Cards for the last time to ride the trolleybus up to the station to catch the 08:34 to Geneva. We had over an hour to spare there and I did enquire about changing the tickets for the next stage to see if we could leave earlier but that would have been more trouble than it was worth and we stuck to the original plan: after coffee we made our way to the international platforms as we have done before. Unlike last time there were actually border police at the passport and customs posts on the way through to the international platforms but we saw no-one stopped as we swept through with our luggage and up to the waiting train for Lyon. This was a SNCF (French) locomotive-hauled train on which reservations were not possible and which had only half a carriage of First Class accommodation in which it was a struggle to find seats (should not have lingered over coffee ...) and we had just decided to sit together in Second Class rather than apart in First when someone offered us some seats together that he had "bagged" for friends who seemed not to have turned up. We were soon away from the lakes and into the hills of France, eventually approaching Lyon Part-Dieu where we had a short break before boarding our TGV to Paris. Here we did have reserved seats but although our agent had booked us "Club Duo" vis-à-vis seats again  on this train we found that they were together but one behind the other this time, the seats in that carriage apparently having been rearranged. Oh well, I was intending to be typing this blog most of the way in any case, so perhaps it did not matter too much, but it would have been all the same if we'd been intending to play cards with each other! The TGV got us into Paris Gare de Lyon on time and we walked through to the Metro station, with our tickets ready, to take RER Line D as usual to Gare du Nord but wherever we looked there were no signs for the direction we needed to take. We asked advice from a staff member by a barrier who advised that there was work being done on that section of line today and that we should take line A instead, changing at Châtelet Les Halles to Line B for Gare du Nord. That little bit of kerfuffle did not add much to the time taken but did add quite a bit to the stress levels as we tried to find a route that, for that day at least, did not exist!

The Gare du Nord operation of ticket, passport and security checks is nothing like as smooth and efficient as the St Pancras check and it was stressful getting through there with different ticket queues depending on nationality (why? A ticket is a ticket!) and the automatic gates were not working so we all had to queue for human checks and the issue of revised seat reservations (we had those at St Pancras, too, but the automatic gates issued them). There was only one security scan conveyor belt in use and unlike in London there are no trays so all your possessions come out mixed up with other people's, a right mess, but we all sorted ourselves out and with automated passport checks (plus one person to stamp the passports now that we are not in the EU ...) we were soon in the waiting area having a long-awaited drink. The train, another refurbished E300, started boarding on time and departed on time for the run to London. This went extremely smoothly with the usual light meal served en route and the tunnel under the sea barely noticed. Soon we were at St Pancras International and just had time to pop into Fortnum and Mason for our favourite St Pancras Blend tea before making our way to Kings Cross for our booked 20:33 train to Peterborough. Again we were served a light meal on this train (very light in our case as we did not need much after the Eurostar meal!) and arrived at Peterborough in plenty of time to take our 22:00 connection to Stamford. After all that travelling it was at this stage that it all went wrong! A road vehicle was blocking the railway somewhere near Ely and although our train home had been started back from March and was approaching Peterborough, the platforms there were full of trains that could not continue their journeys because of the blockage: in particular one train for Nottingham had no crew to take it forward and the crew was on its way by taxi from Norwich with the station staff not having been given a clue about when they might arrive ... so we had no idea when our train would be able to go. It was now 22:10 and a strike was due to start at midnight. Taxis, of course, were in short supply as these were needed to take people to destinations in East Anglia beyond the blockage, but we were fortunate to have a son living in Peterborough who was free and agreed to come and collect us by car and take us home. I have no way of knowing whether that was quicker than if we had waited for the 22:00 train to turn up (which may have been just a minute after we had given up), but it got us home and it's always nice to see our family anyway!

With all the little things that had not quite gone according to plan, this trip was more of an adventure than usual, and at times our command of the French language had been put to the test, but we really had a great time. The weather was hotter at the start than I normally like and wetter towards the end (although not too bad), but we did a lot of exploring and thoroughly enjoyed the travel. It was wonderful to be free of the form-filling and testing, too. Lets hope things continue to remain at least this simple for we have two more European holidays coming up and need to ensure that we remain vaccination-compliant for those.

Neuchâtel via Paris and Le Locle, part 2: Le Locle and Les Brenets

Last Train to Les Brenets

International trains - that is, the trains between Besançon and La Chaux de Fonds - stop at Platform 2 at Le Locle, being the northern end of the platform face opposite the disused station building. The other end of that platform face is numbered 3 and serves the narrow gauge line to the small town of Les Brenets. This is the only place I know personally where trains of two gauges use one platform face and where such a local services is so close to international service. There is an exit up a step stairway for those wanting to go straight to the horological museum, or the few homes up that hill, but the main exit for the town, mercifully for those of us with luggage on such a hot day, is through the subway and down hill into the town centre. Indeed, since our first visit here there is now a short cable railway which took us down in a few seconds to Sidmouth Square in the centre of the town, named after Le Locle's British twin town of Sidmouth in Devon. 

From there is was a short walk to the front door of the Hôtel des Trois Rois where we were booked to stay for the next two nights. We had normally stayed at Maison Dubois itself, my wife's ancestral family home, now a B&B, but this had no space for us on this occasion, so we thought we'd give the Trois Rois a try. Its online reviews are very mixed but I have to say we were very happy with it. There was no air conditioning, but that is very rare in Switzerland anyway, and there were no tea and coffee facilities in the room, but again, there seldom is in Switzerland. The décor and general style were very 1970s (purple featuring strongly, and brown) but contrary to what we had read in reviews it was all in good condition and very clean. Staff were friendly and helpful (although few, as in a lot of places at present) and we were soon happily at home in our room on the top floor where our windows were shaded from the strongest of the sunshine by the overhang of the roof - a great place to be in the weather as its was. The hotel provided us with our Neuchatel Tourist Cards which gave us free travel within the canton from the time of issue until midnight on the day of check-out along with a sheaf of vouchers offering free admission to almost every attraction in the canton, effectively turning the entire canton into a massive holiday camp with everything included in our hotel bill.

Sunday afternoon is an unfortunate time to arrive in a small town (even one that is the canton's third largest!) because the choice of where to eat is more than somewhat restricted. The Trois Rois currently offers only breakfast (its restaurant is available to let if anyone fancies a go ...) so our often-tried technique of booking dinner at our own hotel for the first night would not work there. We went for a beer at the Casino (a cinema and restaurant rather than a gambling den) and then after a train ride to La Chaux de Fonds and back (just because we could!), we walked off round the town and discovered that, contrary to its website's information, the crêperie at the Lion d'Or was open, so pancakes it was, then! On the terrace, under a parasol. Parfait! And so to shower and bed, tired but happy.

The train to Les Brenets at the platform at Le Locle

Monday morning was just as hot and sunny. We had earmarked it for the lake cruise at Lac des Brenets and in order to leave some of the day for other things were aimed to take the 10:00 cruise departure. This outing would also be our last chance to ride the little electric train through the mountain from Le Locle to Les Brenets as it is to close next year and be replaced two years later with an electric bus service using part of the same route but then serving more of Les Brenets than the train is able to do. We took the lift up from Sidmouth Square and arrived at the platform at Le Locle station in good time to board the little train and travelled the few kilometres to Les Brenets and just as last time, we walked down to the lake shore through the village and exchanged our vouchers for tickets to ride the lake cruise. We were disappointed to see that the water was no higher than last time we came: it had been a very dry year and the people who run the boats were anticipating that within two or three weeks they would be unable to operate until the water returns next spring. Very disappointing for us, but even more disappointing for them: few tourists now, and nothing much to sell them when more begin to arrive in the summer! Even on the day we were there the 10:00 departure was cancelled due to low demand, so we went for a stroll and had coffee and caught the 11:00 instead, by which time there were still only about eight of us on board. The boat cruises the lake and the River Doubs which forms a lengthy part of the border with France but with the river so dry there is effectively no border; you can just pick your way over the boulders of the river bed. We took the easy way, though, and crossed the footbridge to France, had a brief look through the souvenir shops and returned to Switzerland to go and look at where the waterfall should have been and then took the 12:30 boat back to Les Brenets and the taxibus back to the station. It was a lovely walk through the woods (reminiscent of Dovedale in Derbyshire) and we were glad to have done it even though there was no more water in the river than last time. I took few photographs because it all looked just the same as on our previous visit. Perhaps next year or 2024 ...

Back in Le Locle we went back to our hotel, left my camera and collected our swimwear. On the edge of the town is an open-air swimming pool and we caught to bus there from the bus station near our hotel - Le Locle is a small town about the size of our home town of Stamford, and yet there are frequent local buses to every part of town all day long: you just don't get this in England. The pool was just amazing: once we had paid at the turnstile (reduced price for pensioners!) we were in a huge area typical of a town park, with a large swimming pool in one corner. The pool was divided into three: half of it was Olympic size and 2 metres deep throughout; the other half was again halved with a very deep diving pool one end (boards at 5 metres and 10 metres high!) and a shallow pool the other, only 0.8 metre. Not a frequent swimmer and not having swum for some time I was torn which pool to use - the idea of swimming 50 metres entirely out of my depth did not appeal to me: 25 metres is more my usual length before I take a rest. So I swam in the shallow pool although it was really only just deep enough for me and, of course, it was hard to swim lengths because it was popular with children who kept popping up or jumping in (or just jumping!) everywhere. No matter, it was good to cool down on a hot day. Dinner that evening was a superb pizza at the Casino.

After our sweet crêpes on Sunday evening we had resolved to return to the Lion d'Or for a savoury crêpe at Tuesday lunchtime, the crêperie, like most other restaurants in Le Locle, being closed on Mondays. Before lunch we checked out of the hotel, asking them to store our cases, and went for a long walk, beginning by taking a bus out to the edge of town and then walking through woodland up the steep slope to an agricultural settlement where there was a tenuous family connection to investigate. The footpath through the wood was marked on maps and was just about discernible on the ground but it was plain that not many people had walked this was recently and we were pleased that the knee-deep grass and plants did not include stinging nettles nor many thistles; it all added to the adventurous feel of this trip! We walked back down along a lane between farms as far as the outskirts of Le Locle where we bought chilled drinks from a supermarket before walking into town and having lunch at the Lion d'Or as planned. Then it was time to retrieve our luggage and go to the station to begin the next stage of the trip.

Actually, it was not quite that simple because after we had passed it we thought how good it would have been to have looked down from the train and seen where we had walked in the morning ... so we got off the Neuchâtel train at La Chaux-de-Fonds and caught the next train back to Le Locle (only a couple of minutes), looked out properly and stayed on board to be taken back to La Chaux-de-Fonds where this time we had to change trains to continue to Neuchâtel, emerging from the air-conditioned train once more into the blazing heat and light at Neuchâtel station.

Neuchâtel via Paris and Le Locle, part 1: by train into Switzerland

Almost normal international travel

Since the last time we visited Le Locle we have wanted to return in the hope of seeing some water in the lake at Les Brenets and the reputedly dramatic falls on the Doubs river. We also wanted to visit Neuchâtel, the cantonal capital, where another (!) castle connected to my wife's Swiss ancestors had been identified and where the local records office is located. The revisit was delayed by pandemic precautions, but we finally took the plunge and booked hotels and travel for the middle of June 2022 and we were successful in one sense, in that by the time we left home all the travel restrictions had been dropped in the UK, in France and in Switzerland for those who are vaccinated against Covid-19. The only document we needed in addition to our passports and tickets was a vaccination certificate, available through the NHS app on our smartphones: no passenger locator forms, no test results. Although official websites still mention masks on public transport there were very few people wearing them and no-one asking us to do so: I kept a stock of high-grade masks in my case but never needed to use one.

In another sense we were unsuccessful, in that the water level in Lac des Brenets was no higher than in our  previous trip which had been much later in the year. We shall have to try again in an April! Indeed, in many ways there were little disasters all through this trip but it was still immensely enjoyable and full of delights and surprises. I am typing this paragraph several days into the adventure and it is the first time I have had the time to switch on the MacBook to do so - we have packed in so much. Until this morning (Wednesday) it has been hot, very hot, and now with light rain and temperatures "only" in the mid-twenties, it is a bit cooler and I have decided to take morning easier, sitting on the hotel balcony and writing up the adventure so far, while I can still remember it!

We left home on Saturday morning and that was when the "little disasters" began to happen! Our first train, Stamford to Peterborough, was on time, but it was very busy. As we had a lot of luggage (by our standards) we decided to stand in the spacious vestibule rather than squeeze into available seats with cases all over the place - there were seats even though several people were standing. We noticed that the train after ours was cancelled, and after that was the two-hour gap in Cross Country's "temporary" timetable. Not good, although it did not affect us, fortunately. The first little disaster was that when we went to wait in the coffee lounge at the Great Northern Hotel in Peterborough, which is what passes for the First Class Lounge there, staff shortage at the hotel meant that the lounge was unavailable. We sat in the easy chairs in the hotel lobby until it was time to go over for our train: the lack of coffee was not such a big deal because we knew we'd be served coffee on the train. The train was on time and although busy, again, we had our reserved seats and there was plenty of space on the luggage racks. The breakfast menu was still on offer but as we were planning an early lunch in London we took only coffee and a satsuma, with the biscuits and loafcake wrapped as a snack for later in the trip if required.

The second little disaster was that by Hitchin the train had slowed to a crawl: a points (and possibly signal) failure at Stevenage had caused problems and by the time we picked up speed again had lost 25 minutes which meant we were just a tad late for our midday luncheon appointment. It was, though, a great joy to see the family on our way through London and enjoy lunch together in one of the many new restaurants between the stations at Kings Cross and St Pancras. It was a very warm, sunny day and time passed all too quickly before we parted company at St Pancras as we made our way into the throng of international travellers waiting for trains to the continent. 

We were rather early and had to wait our turn to join the queue for the ticket barriers, priority being given to ticket-holders for the preceding train to Brussels. An hour before our train's scheduled departure we queued for the barrier, scanned our tickets and went through for the baggage scan - all over in a moment once we were through the barriers. I do wonder if the station is short-staffed because it seems to me that there could have been many more barriers open at such a busy time provided that there were enough security staff for the baggage scanning to keep up with the incoming passengers. In any case we were soon nodded through the vaccination pass, UK passport control and French passport control and into the waiting area. We were among the first few through, and the Brussels train was already loading so there was a huge choice of seats in the waiting area. Great.

The next little disaster was that, for what ever reason, it seemed to be taking a long time to get everyone through the checks - announcements said it was because of Covid precautions but really there weren't many - and we had been promised that the train would not leave until everyone was through, so the train left St Pancras over half an hour late. It was a refurbished E300, one of the original Trans-Manche Super Trains, and never made up any of the lost time. Normally this would not have been a big deal but on this occasion we had dinner booked at Le Train Bleu restaurant at Gare de Lyon in Paris and, taking into account that France is an hour ahead of the UK, time was a bit tight. I do not think we had ever been late on a Eurostar service before and had come to regard it as completely reliable (statistically, I think, it is 95% on time, so we are probably not alone in seeing it that way). There was the usual light meal served, and we did not consume all of it, knowing that dinner was coming soon. The buffet bar on Eurostar trains sells Paris Metro tickets in carnets of ten, so to save time struggling with the ticket machines in Paris I went and queued to buy our tickets in advance there: these would see us both ways on this and our next trip and still leave us with tickets to spare. a great investment.

On arrival at Gare du Nord we made our way swiftly to the Metro and too RER line D to Gare de Lyon. The heat was striking as we descended from the Eurostar train, and even more so on the RER station. It was on the RER train that we met the last British person we would speak to for many days, on his way to work in Italy from his home in England. Yes, things are getting back to normal! On arrival at Gare de Lyon we went straight to the restaurant to explain that we were running late and asking if we could delay our dinner while we went to our hotel to check in and change. They were really relaxed about that and said we could be as late as we wanted, they were not busy. So good; we could have been on time but would have had our luggage with us and been a sweaty heap after lugging it through Paris at 39 degrees! It was hotter in Paris than in Cairo on that day.

I had, I thought, booked the Mercure hotel next door to Gare de Lyon, but had done so through the Trains Europe agent who booked the train tickets, and he had mistakenly booked a different Mercure just a couple of blocks away, but we did not find this out until we had queued for ten minutes at the wrong hotel, which was the next little disaster! An understandable error: both hotels had "Mercure Gare de Lyon" in their names! In the event, though, once we had found the hotel in which we actually had our reservations, we were very happy with it (except that the lift had broken down and we were on the fourth floor ... next little disaster ... but the kind receptionist helped us cary our stuff up to the room). In future I shall book this hotel if we need a night or two at this side of Paris, so I was glad to have stumbled across it. But four floors up in 39 degrees I can do without! 

The room was air-conditioned (yay!) and we washed and changed and walked, free of luggage to Le Train Bleu and settled to a great dinner in great surroundings. It was all lovely, but in very hot weather my appetite is greatly diminished and in spite of the best French cooking and the relaxed (although hot!) atmosphere I could not manage the whole of my main course and declined the dessert. Alison just had to have the crêpes Suzette, though, with flaming Grand Marnier (just to add to the heat)! The staff were lovely and looked after us as if we'd been there every week! Like everywhere else, I think they were just delighted to have customers - not just because of the pandemic, but there were also major building restorations going on all around their restaurant.

And so back to our hotel and a good night's sleep with, I think, no further little disasters but an exciting day, and indeed several days ahead of us.

It was, then, Sunday morning when we returned to Gare de Lyon, calling on the way at a small Monoprix supermarket to buy take-away salads and fruit for lunch. By the time we had walked through to the correct part of the station ("Hall 2") and bought our coffee and croissants the TGV to Besançon had been announced and so we took our seats and had our breakfast on board awaiting departure. Fas at Trains Europe had done a great job with this reservation: a "club duo" pair of seats aligned with the window on the upper deck of a duplex carriage - just the perfect seating for a couple on this sort of trip. The first time we went to Le Locle we had come on this train travelling Second Class on the lower deck and it was a great experience, but this was even greater. After a suitable interval I went to the bar car to buy coffee - there did not seem to be an at-seat service on this train - and soon after coffee we arrived at Besançon TGV station where we had to change trains. 

That first time we did this we had been surprised to find that the local train waiting for us had been a through train to Switzerland which required no further changes, but this time it was as shown in the timetable, a connection to Besançon Viotte (the town's main station), where we had to change again for Le Locle. It was all very civilised and straightforward, although with temperatures still in the thirties and with luggage to handle it was as well not to rush - and we did not need to, the connections being very well timed. So we settled into our seats on this strangest of international trains: a three-car stopping train, second-class only and the only diesel-powered train we had used since leaving our local train at Peterborough, the rest having been electric throughout. No disasters this day: everything had been on time and had worked exactly as planned! We stepped off the train into the heat at Le Locle's international platform and so began the next stage in our adventure!

Well into the trip from Besançon to Le Locle, just after Gilley station. The train the turns and makes its way to Morteau, the French watchmaking town, before crossing the Swiss border to Le Locle and termination at La Chaux-de-Fonds.