The Italian Lake District

Lake Maggiore by Train via London and Colmar

Our third (and possibly last) holiday based in Italy was booked almost as soon as we were home from the previous one, and again it was a Great Rail Journeys escorted tour. They offer a selection of holidays by train in the Italian Lakes but the one that stood out for us was a week or so in Stresa, on Lake Maggiore, because it included a trip on the Centovalli Railway which we had done once before in poor weather and wanted to visit again in the summer. It also included a stopover in Colmar (where we have stopped before and enjoyed) on the way there and Dijon (which we have never seen before) on the way back. It also included quite a lot of free time and would therefore be quite a relaxing holiday as well as a further exploration of Italy and eastern France. And although we would not be stopping there, a passage through the Alps would be good to do in a year in which, for once, we had not visited Switzerland!

We had tolerated a cool, fairy wet, summer and had been looking forward to getting away to some sunshine, and as we were about to leave the sunshine suddenly resumed, temperatures rose and England started enjoying summer at last, although, if anything, it was a bit too hot and we began to look forward to the slightly lower temperatures on the lake shore in Italy!

We began with London, as always when bound for the continent, but this time instead of going late in the day (Sunday, when we have no local trains until lunch time) simply to stay overnight we went earlier so that we could take the chance to see the King's and Queen's coronation robes on display at Buckingham Palace. In order to fit this in we asked both of our sons for favours: one to drive us to Peterborough to catch a Sunday morning train to London, and the other, in London, to look after our baggage while we visited the palace: it is always nice to see the family anyway, especially those in London whom we see only occasionally.

We had our usual breakfast at home before leaving by car for Peterborough station, but on boarding the train the smell of bacon rolls required me to have another breakfast on board the train! With orange juice and coffee this was a very satisfying start to the day. Sunday engineering work had closed the Hammersmith & City Line, so our journey to Shepherd's Bush for the personal left-luggage facility was more complicated than usual, but the Underground still delivered and we arrived there via a short visit to the Westfield shops where my wife had some pending business ...

Free of encumbrances, then, we made our way to Buckingham Palace, via an ice-cream break in The Green Park, and although we were half an hour early for our ticket time we were admitted and after the security check we were handed our audio-visual personal guides and began the tour of the Palace state rooms, which included the coronation robes displayed in the ballroom and quite a lot of information about the coronation service, the work of the monarchy and the life of King Charles III. It was all very well done but slightly amusing that the commentary spoke several times about what His Majesty normally or usually does each year, but he has not been doing it for a year yet! Clearly it is a description of what the monarch normally does, based upon what Queen Elizabeth II had established and often what the King has done just once.

We had tea with cake and sandwiches before leaving the Palace and returning to our son's home. We stayed a short while and took up their offer of dinner, although we did not need a lot after our royal tea.

For our overnight accommodation in London we try to get as close as possible to St Pancras International station and have often stayed in the Premier Inn opposite the British Library in Euston Road, but even the Premier Inn can be expensive in central London, so this time we tried The Hub (by Premier Inn), an even more budget hotel, and slightly further away, on York Way, east of Kings Cross station. Our room was two floors below street level but it had all we needed just for a night's sleep: a bed and an ensuite shower/wc, with space beneath the bed for two cases. There were mains and USB sockets for charging our devices (interestingly, continental as well as UK mains sockets), air-conditioning (no window, of course) and huge towels. We did not book breakfast and from getting up on Monday at 6am we were at St Pancras, after a ten-minute walk, just after 6.30 to check in with our tour manager before making our way to the Eurostar departure area.

I could not believe how efficient the operation at St Pancras had become! There was no queue at the ticket gates and I was caught off guard, not having bothered to have my ticket ready because I am used to taking five minutes to get to the barrier: still, with no-one behind me it did not matter that I had to ferret for my ticket before scanning it at the barrier. The security check was only slow owing to the need to put all my metal stuff, including my belt, onto the tray and then take it all back again after passing through the scanner. Then before I has time to get my passport ready I was being ushered towards the UK border post, fumbling now for my passport, for there had always been a queue here in the last few years, plenty of time to get ones passport ready. Once through the UK check at least I was now ready for the French border police who inspected and stamped my passport quickly and efficiently All done in less than ten minutes from turning up to being ready to go - with still an hour before departure. My wife had come through even faster and had found a couple of seats in the waiting area and then I went to buy coffee and we had our first breakfast: coffee and the apples we had brought from home, and in my case a croissant from the coffee shop.

We made our way early to the travelator up to the platforms, our tour manager having had a tip-off about the platform number. We were the first people up to the platform when the train was announced: never done that before, although we have been the first off when arriving.The train left London on time and our second breakfast was soon served, the usual Eurostar light meal on an early train, included in the price of our Standard Premier tickets. Engineering work in France made us just a few moments late into Paris, but that was not significant as we had a couple of hours there to walk to Gare de L'Est, have some lunch and board the train to Colmar where we were to spend the first night of the escorted tour. 

Bob the tour manager asked me to walk at the back of the group as I happened to have hat like his and he would know where the rear of the group was if he looked back and saw me, and he could tell the group to stay between the two hats! I have been chosen for many things in my life, some more pleasurable than others, but this is the first time that my headgear has been the criterion of selection ...

The TGV to Colmar was very comfortable, as TGVs generally are, but it was very disappointing that the bar car was not open ("il y a une problème"), so no after-lunch coffee. Colmar is a place we have stopped overnight a few times before, and it was good to have a chance to walk round for a bit before dinner. Just as on the last few visits the weather was very hot. In one shop we even managed to do a very little very early Christmas shopping! Colmar is a lovely town, and one of the great benefits of overland international travel over flying is that you do get the chance to see other interesting places on the way to you main destination.

Dinner, a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast completed our stay in Colmar and then we met the rest of the group and crossed the road to the railway station for the train into Switzerland on Tuesday morning. This was a local train to Basel (Bâle in French) and we were all together in the First Class coach at the rear of the train. We had about an hour between trains at Basel, a station we have used several times in the past, both on group tours and on our own: it is really two stations in one, a French section and s Swiss section. We sat in the sun for a while outside the station and then joined the next train which would take us on through Switzerland to Domodossola in Italy. The original plan has been to stay on this train all the way to Stresa, but engineering work on the line had cut this particular train service short and so we had to take a coach for the few kilometres to our hotel on the lake shore in Stresa, but not before we had seen the beautiful Swiss Alps and several towns we have visited in the past, including Brig which was our first Alpine destination almost ten years ago.

We had a beautiful hotel room on an upper floor with a balcony (where I am sitting typing this post!) overlooking Lake Maggiore and the islands we would be visiting the following day. We went for a walk around the town and then returned for a shower and dinner with the rest of the group at the hotel. And so to bed. It had been a fairly murky evening after a sunny day, but the sky was beginning to clear by sunset and held some promise for the morning, but with very thick curtains to our room we would not see the weather until we opened them after a good night's sleep ...

Dazzling Sun, and A Dazzling Palace

Our room had very thick curtains and when we finally awoke, on our alarm at 07:30 on Wednesday I opened the curtains and immediately had to close my eyes and back off as the sun was shockingly bright, straight across Lake Maggiore and into my face! Once I had recovered my composure and my eyes had adapted to the light I could see that it was a wonderful sunny morning and a brilliant day was beginning. 

The morning and early afternoon were completely free and so after breakfast I spent some time in the morning writing my weblog on the balcony and then we walked into town again did some of the Town Trail of interesting buildings, with a stop for a gelato at a place where we bought one last time we were in Stresa, but to be honest, not many of the buildings were particularly interesting ... then we sat by the poolside (or, rather, I did: Alison swam, after much grimacing at the cold, in the pool) at the hotel until it was time to get showered and dressed ready for our first included excursion.

We all gathered in the hotel reception and Bob the tour manager led us out to the landing stage opposite the hotel where, a few moments later, a hired launch arrived to take us to Isola Pescatori for a brief visit - we had been there before for a slightly longer visit, but it was good to see it again - and then we were taken by another launch across to Isola Bella, the island we could see from our balcony and which we had never visited before. Isola Bella is the island on which the Borromean Palace stands. We had a swift guided tour around tha palace, which is still in use by the Borromeo family and in which the current Princess was actually in residence when we visited. The place was stunning. Buckingham Palace was still in our minds as we had been there just a couple of days before, but although the Borromean Palace was a lot smaller it beats anything else I have ever seen for decoration - except possibly some of the rooms at Burghley House ...

After the tour of the palace we visited its gardens and were served Prosecco and nibbles there before returning by another boat to our hotel for a later dinner and straight to bed to recover from the day: it did not seem that we had done a lot, but it all added up to some miles of walking and a lot of sunshine.

Freedom and Adventure

Normally on a Great Rail Journeys tour the free days are interspersed among days with included activities but for various reasons of non-availability on certain days it turned out that our two completely free days fell together, and immediately followed the first full day in Stresa when there had been only the island tour beginning late in the afternoon. Unfortunate in some ways but a free day is a free day and there was plenty we could do to fill them, or we could sit and do very little as I had tried in vain to do on Wednesday morning! We had toyed with the idea of visiting another lake, but the railway works which had caused us to use road transport for the last stretch to Stresa would also make reaching another lake rather long-winded, and in any case, there is much to see around Lake Maggiore without travelling so far. We decided to go to Verbania, the largest town on the lake and just across from our hotel. It could be reached easily by public boat service, by bus or, according to the timetable, by train. We decided to take the train, although I soon realised from the map that Verbania station was some kilometres from the town centre, indeed from the town, and even then I was daft enough to buy return tickets ...

Stresa station was about a ten-minute uphill walk from the hotel, pleasant enough, and although a little tatty in places with a faded splendour, a nice little station. We bought our tickets and went via the subway to the opposite platform to await the train. With a minute to go I remembered that the tickets had to be validated before travel so I nipped back and inserted them in the validation machine and returned to the platform just as the train was drawing in. No-one checked the tickets in any case.  Our train was a semi-fast from Arona to Domodossala, the first stop being Verbania. The station there was modern and pleasant but now we needed a bus to the town. Apple maps showed a bus stop on the main road nearby with a bus in a few minutes' time. It took a while to find the stop, but find it we did: nowhere to stand but the newly-mown verge (which must have resembled a meadow before mowing. The bus picked us up and then took us via a stop right adjacent to the railway station, but on the other side of the tracks and which we had not noticed, and would have been much more convenient. It was about twenty minutes into town and we were pleased we had not attempted to walk. We were already beginning to reassess the value of the return halves of our train tickets, the distance from the station to Verbania being roughly the same as the distance we had travelled on the train! I am not complaining: this is supposed to be an adventure, and an adventure it was! 

We had coffee at a café at the town hall and then went for a long walk along the lake shore, enjoyed a cold lemon drink overlooking the lake and then walked back into the centre of Verbania for a gelato and a bus back to Stresa. For our evening meal we had promised ourselves a cocktail and a pizza at a lakeside pizzeria near our hotel and that was what we did. While we were there two other pairs of people from our Great Rail Journeys group turned up, and we had seen another couple there earlier in the day. I hope they all liked it as much as I did. A good meal for two, with cocktails and coffee, €53.00, that's under £50: brilliant.

Friday was the last of the free days and we had decided to take a bus in the other direction to Arona, farther south along the lake. Buses around Stresa were not a big tourist thing and it was not easy to find all the information we needed; stops were not always easy to find and the online data available to Apple Maps and CityMapper, our usual public transport information sources, was patchy and difficult to understand, but we were able to get a timetable and information from the tourist office. The buses were actually quite useful once we found them and stops included one at the rail station (we'd alighted there on our way home from Verbania) and one by the lake boat terminal, so there was some effort at integration, but not a lot. After a quick look around Stresa Friday market, we waited at the (unmarked) stop by the boat terminal, soon encouraged by local people turning up to wait for the bus, too. It was a little late which would have made us concerned if it had not been for the others at the stop. The vehicle was more like a coach than a bus and was very comfortable. Like the buses we had used the day before, they did not take card payment as we were used to in Britain, but only cash, although they did offer change so were able to pay with no difficulty.

Arrival in Arona was by the rail station in the centre of the town, by the boat terminal there, where there was also a tourist office where we were able to pick up a map of the town. Again we walked along the lake shore and stopped for our morning coffee at a little restaurant that was just opening for the day. We decided that from there we would walk up to the statue (described as a "colossus"!) of St Charles Borromeo, a member of the ruling Borromeo family who had become a Cardinal and Archbishop of the Counter-Reformation and was very popular locally. When you read of his reforms to the Church in his diocese you wonder if he had come a little earlier in history the Reformation, with its great divisions in the Church, might never have happened. It was a long, uphill walk to the church and the great statue, sometimes along the roadside, sometimes a long stepped footpath, sometimes on the road itself. It was hot and sunny, but we got there! Apparently this is second in size only to the Statue of Liberty in New York of the type of statue that one can climb up inside: I did not try that ...  We returned to Arona town centre by a different route which was a lot easier going but just as hot and sunny and with much more walking on the carriageway. On arrival in the town a gelato was the most urgent thing to find, and we sat looking over the lake and recovered from our exertions of the morning before taking the bus back to Stresa - once we had found it! We  knew it would go from the rail station forecourt but did not really know exactly where: a bus in the right livery stood among about ten others but with its engine running, so we walked to the front and saw that the destination was, among other places, Stresa, and the door was open. So we asked the driver, paid him and sat down. About three local people were already aboard and one more joined us. It was not at a bus stop but just among a pack of coaches and would have been easy to miss! The adventure continued ... back in Stresa we bought salad and fruit for our evening meal at our room and one to relax. We would be up a little earlier the next day for what would be, for me, the centrepiece of this exciting holiday.

The Centovalli Line in Sunshine at Last - and in Its Centenary Year

We last rode the Centovalli Line almost ten years ago, but it was in winter and on a wet and murky day. Winter is not a bad time to travel a scenic line, actually, when the deciduous trees are bare and there might be snow highlighting some features, but the rain and mist were, well, a dampener. We looked at doing it again one summer but on that particular day the forecast, although warmer, was not much sunnier, so we didn't even try. Third time lucky: the inclusion of this scenic line in Great Rail Journeys' itinerary for this holiday was one of our reasons for booking it, and it was sunny. Along with the rest of the group we walked up to the station from the hotel and awaited a train to Domodossala where we had just under an hour before taking the Centovalli Line train, just right for the morning coffee break. The station buffet operated the traditional Italian coffee bar system where you pay at the till and take the receipt to the barista who then makes the drinks listed on the receipt. We had become used to the concept on out earlier visits to Rome and other cities, but it was the first time we had come across it on this trip, the first time, I suppose, that we had been at a bar not specifically aimed at foreigners. The entire transaction was conducted in Italian; we are getting there.

The group had a block of seating reserved on the Centovalli train, Second Class in this case: I suspect there would not have been enough First Class seating on the four-coach multiple unit that comprised this train. It is a two-hour ride to Locarno on the express service we were on, and it is scenic for all but the first and last couple of kilometres. I did not take photographs because they would never do justice to the scenery: if you want to see it you'll have to travel the line yourself, well worth doing!

There was a party atmosphere in Locarno when we arrived, with a large music festival happening in the streets, a sort of urban Glastonbury.

Above: Locarno market place this summer

Right: Locarno market place on our previous visit

In Locarno we revisited the pizzeria Al Portico where we had had lunch the last time we were there, but this time we could speak to the staff in Italian. On my iPhone I showed the waitress my blog post with a photograph of the restaurant. It had barely changed, although we did notice that the menu now had a German translation of each item - not that that was any use to me. By the time we had eaten our salads and enjoyed the coffee it was the to wander back to the rendezvous with the group to await the boat ride back to Stresa. Our tour manager was keen to ensure that we boarded the boat fairly early in order to give us the best choice of seating, and as it was so hot and sunny we chose a shaded area on deck, bt eventually moved under cover with an iced drink from the on-board bar. It was a three-hour journey back to Stresa, the boat calling at several places on both sides of the lake on the way, including two stops in Verbania, which it was nice to see again from a different angle. By then the sun was much lower in the sky (we arrived at Stresa at seven o'clock), so we were out on the sundeck for the last part of the voyage, from which we could see the side of the Borromean Islands that we not visible from Stresa, and could spot our hotel among the buildings as we approached the town. Dinner was back at the hotel after a very quick shower.

Another Lake

Sunday dawned with another sunny morning but we had a chance to recover from the three preceding days' adventures in the heat as the included tour to Lago Orta did not start until 13:30. After a snack lunch in our room we joined the rest of the party for the coach trip to the small town of Orta San Giulio: it was not far as the crow flies, but was in the next valley and so further by road (and would have been even further by rail!). From the coach park we took a little road train down to the town centre and lake shore where we had a few minutes (another gelato stop!) before we all boarded a boat to visit the tiny island of San Giulio on which stands a church founded by Saint Julius and in which his body is buried. The church is beautifully decorated with wall paintings throughout and well worth a visit. The island is densely packed with homes and a large Benedictine convent and there is a walk around the island, the "Walk of Silence" in one direction, with plaques about the value of silence, and the "Walk of Meditation" in the other direction with plaques of platitudes which really did not make a lot of sense to me. Either way round, though, and we had ample time to do both, was a very pleasant walk. Lake Orta itself is much smaller than Lake Maggiore, much more the size of the lakes we know in England and Scotland. The boat to the island took us the long way round so that we could see something of the lake and the island's numerous boathouses where the residents keep their boats. The boat back took the shortest route and we were soon walking back to the little road train and our coach back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

Food and Wine

Bob the tour manager had warned us to have a light breakfast on Monday morning because we would be fed amply during the day! It was quite a long day out by coach into a wine-producing area some way south of Lake Maggiore, and began with a visit to Ghemme, including a tour of the Rovellotti winery, which must be unique, followed by a tasting, with accompanying nibbles. The winery is situated in the town centre in a collection of building which began as a fortress in which the citizens could try to hold out in the event of an attack on the their town when it was situated between two warring dukedoms but which become surplus to defensive requirements when peace broke out between those families. We were shown around by a young member of the Rovellotti family who have had premises in the former fortress since its founding in the medieval period Two generations of the family and a couple of other employees currently run the wine-making business and we sampled four varying wines accompanied by light bites to suit them - trying to keep consumption of food as low as possible because of what was to follow ... but needing something to stop this being nothing but wine, and before noon, too!

This followed by a drive through the countryside (which was possibly gorgeous but most of us slept through most of it after all that wine) and lunch, a generous lunch, with wine, at Cascina Monchucchetto, an agriturismo even farther south. The views from the agriturismo were fantastic but it was so hot in the sun that we did not want to enjoy the sun for long. It was necessary to go a bit steady on the food and wine as well after the morning's indulgences at the winery. No dinner was necessary that evening.

We spent some time that evening packing our bags, for this was our last night in Stresa: the next day we would begin the journey homeward, and although it would be quite possible to get home in one day (as we have done from, say, Neuchâtel when travelling on our own), we still had one more interesting place to see.

Burgundy

We were all taken by coach with our luggage to Stresa railway station where we caught a Geneva-bound express through the Alps to Lausanne where we changed trains for a Paris-bound TGV as far as Dijon, a city we had never visited before. We arrived in Dijon on-time mid-afternoon and after finding our room at the hotel, the Oceania le Jura, a short walk from the rail station, we set off for a stroll in the city centre. We bought a gift, mustard, of course, for our kind neighbours who have kept our plants watered in our absence, and by then a little rain had begun, so we started back in the direction of the hotel, past the miniature version of the Arc de Triomphe which graces the city centre, and went for a drink in the hotel bar. By the time I had ordered the rain was very heavy and we were soon joined by other members of the tour who had baled out of walks around the city centre, looking considerably more bedraggled that we were. Later we heard tales of those who had ventured farther and who developed a sudden need for coffee or for prayer, sheltering in a café or the cathedral ... 

The evening meal was a fixed menu of local specialities at a nearby restaurant and the eggs in a burgundy sauce were especially good in my opinion, as was the cassis-flavoured sorbet with which we finished. Unlimited water, and coffee, were included but we had to buy the wine and I must say that for a cheap house red the wine was magnificent. My opinion of Burgundian cuisine and wine has been enhanced by this visit. We brought a selection of mustards home for ourselves, too.

The rail station at Dijon has a large cylindrical booking hall very reminiscent of Charles Holden's inter-war designs for the London Underground, in white concrete rather than brick as in London. We were back there in the morning to take a TGV train to Paris (it was the same service, earlier in the day, as the one on which we had arrived the previous afternoon from Lausanne). This time we arrived at Gare de Lyon and Great Rail Journeys had provided a coach to take us through the streets to Gare du Nord, where we arrived neatly in time to check in for our Eurostar train to London. By the time we had all been through passport and security checks (and, like London, this all seems to have become much slicker now) it was almost time to board: I don't think I sat down in the departure lounge at all!

Taking a seat on Eurostar now I almost feel like I'm already home even though I still have two more train rides after this one and a time zone to cross! The light meal, lunch to us, was soon served and we had our final conversations with the people who had shared (some of) our adventures of the past week and a half and before we knew it we were in the familiar space of St Pancras station. It was a long walk from the last coach of the train to the exit, but that did mean that we got to enjoy the vast and glorious railway station that London St Pancras has now become. We walked across to Kings Cross and although I had booked seats on a train to Peterborough at 16:06 we had a look at LNER's app and saw that pairs seats were still available on a train that would be leaving in about twenty minutes, and hour earlier than that, so I reserved a pair of seats on that, cancelled the ones I already had and by then its platform was announced and we took our places. Again, a light meal was served, although I kept the pudding course to eat later at home since it did not seem long since Eurostar had fed me! There were only four minutes in the timetable between the arrival of this train at Peterborough and the departure of the train to Stamford, so we knew we might not make that connection. The idea was that we would shop at Waitrose in Stamford if we got it and in Peterborough (it's right by the station) if we didn't! As it happened our train from London slowed down to a crawl on approach to the station and we began to give up hope of getting the tight connection (so tight it was not advertised) but by being first at the door, and choosing a door near the footbridge steps we were able to get over the bridge and be going onto platform 7 for the Stamford train just as the whistle blew, and the kind dispatcher had the doors opened for us to board. For whatever reason it was still held at the platform for several more minutes, so perhaps the haste was not necessary after all ...

Back in Stamford we took the familiar walk across the Meadows and stopped for tea at the open-air Italian restaurant at the Sheepmarket square, a last little glimpse of Italy as we made our way home. While we had been away there had been a heatwave at home, and we were actually less hot (high twenties Celsius) than England, and specifically Lincolnshire, had been. Now both places were beginning to cool down and autumn looked like it was coming at last!

I’ve Been Expecting You, Mr Bond

Alpine horn for the tourists at Schilthorn: cut-out of James
Bond disguised as Sir Hilary Bray lurks behind!

A week by train in the Bernese Oberland

Ever since our first visit to the Alps five years ago we have wanted to return to visit some places we had not then had time to see. I had begun to think about spending a week at, say, Interlaken, which would enable us to trip out to The Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch plus any other places that might come to mind, and when I opened my latest Great Rail Journeys catalogue I saw the Inclusive Jungfrau tour which provided all that we needed and more, with seven nights in Grindelwald (and, bonus, a night in Colmar on the way there, a place we had wanted to revisit after a short stop there on a previous trip). A visit to Jungfraujoch was included, as well as visits to Röthorn and Schynige Platte, and there were two free days on one of which we could arrange to visit Schilthorn, so we simply booked the Great Rail Journeys package, with a night in London before departure, and waited for the date to come!

It was an early start from London St Pancras International so we did not have breakfast at our hotel but went straight to meet our tour manager Stephen at the Great Rail Journeys office at the station. Once through check-in we had coffee while we waited for our train to Paris, and then enjoyed the light breakfast served on the train (as usual we were travelling Standard Premier Class, with a light meal included). There was supposed to be a coach transfer from Paris Nord to Paris Est but it was a tight connection and an easy walk so Stephen decided it would be quicker simply to walk between the stations rather than find the coach, load the luggage, struggle through traffic and unload the luggage again, so we had a little exercise between stations in Paris before continuing by TGV to Colmar.

At Colmar the weather was almost as hot and sunny as on our previous visit, but we had both the evening and the following morning to enjoy this delightful little city, well worth seeing. And I am pleased to say that the Grand Hotel Bristol, conveniently opposite the station, was much improved on our previous visit.

We left Colmar earlier than planned so as to travel on a TGV straight through to Basel where we changed trains for Interlaken. Because we had started early we had a couple of hours at Basel and as well as enjoying coffee under the trees at a pleasant pavement café also had a walk though the city centre to a river bridge, a bakery supplying our needs for lunch.

From Basel we took a train through to Interlaken where we connected to a mountain railway train to Grindelwald, at the foot of the Eiger. We stayed with the rest of the group (forty including the manager, the biggest group with which we’d ever travelled) at the Romantik Hotel Schweizerhof, and I would recommend it to anyone. Our room was huge and stylish, reminiscent of a James Bond film set! We had a view of the Eiger through our patio window, a walk-in wardrobe, double bath (!) and separate shower and a control panel for lighting and window shutter that took a few minutes to learn! We were going to be there for a week so we unpacked and made ourselves at home.

Unlike any previous Great Rail Journeys tour we had done, we were supplied with a packed lunch each day by the hotel, so days out did not have to include a search for lunch; and after dinner, sleep and breakfast we picked up our little paper carrier bags and made our way through the village centre to the cable car station for first exciting excursion, to Grindelwald First. For me this was a bit of a test run: the planned trip to Schilthorn would involve several cable cars, many of them very high above the ground and very long, so this little trip to First would reveal how comfortable I would be with cable car travel. Fortunately it was fine, although in terms of the experience itself it was disappointing that there was dense fog - or cloud if you prefer - nearly all the way up. There was not a lot to see from the peak, either, but we did do the Cliff Walk around it even though the scenery was nowhere to be seen, and we enjoyed coffee before travelling back down to the village, eating our lunch in the cable car on the way. In the afternoon we discovered the local church and the local museum and browsed around these. Dinner at the hotel and bed, ready for the first Big Day tomorrow!

Approaching Schilthorn by cable car

"Tomorrow" was Day 4, Friday, the first of two free days, and we had planned that if the weather was suitable we would visit Schilthorn, one of the highest peaks in the region and from which great views could be had (in suitable weather) and which appeared as "Piz Gloria" in the James Bond film, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." After taking invaluable advice from our Tour Manager we set off for Grindelwald station and bought our travel tickets for the day, out via Kleine Scheidegg and Stechelberg and return via Mürren and the short route via Zweilütschinen. All we needed was three tickets, all of which we were able to buy at the station using our half-fare passes supplied as part of our holiday package.

The view from the terrace

We set off on the next train to Kleine Scheidegg and changed trains there for Lauterbrunnen. We had been this way five years ago in winter and it was interesting to see it in June: not much different, really! Once we had climbed out of the valley from Grindelwald there was still plenty of snow until we descended the other side through Wengen to Lauterbrunnen, where we caught the connecting bus to the cable car terminal at Stechelberg. Here we started the long climb to Schilthorn. There were three changes of cable car on the way and each time we just had a few minutes walk, with a huge crowd of other people, and then continued onto the next stage. One change was at Mürren where would be leaving the cable car on our way back. The views on the climb were great, but nothing compared with what awaited us at the top. From Schilthorn it seemed that we could see most of Switzerland! We could certainly see the Jura mountains in the northwest (which we had visited twice on other occasions), and Mont Blanc in France to the southwest, and the huge stretch of the midlands plain looking north and east. The great bulk of the Eiger and Jungfrau hid the southeast from our view. It was said that you could see the Matterhorn from here but that did elude me. It was a very slightly misty day, but not far from perfect for the panoramic view.

Looking down on the 007 walk of discovery - a bit
snowbound for us

We ventured into the revolving restaurant which had been the set for Blofeld's base in the film, but we did not eat there, having our packed lunch from the hotel. Beneath was a number of 007-related displays which we visited but which were not the reason for our visit - although without the finance from the film the restaurant might never have been completed and the cable cars would not have survived so we would never have been able to visit at all! I am a bit of a fan of the film, actually, as it is one of those which fairly closely follows the book (apart from having Bond drive an Aston Martin instead of his Bentley).

Going back down we were bogged down in the crowds and twice had to wait half-an-hour for cable cars, but this cannot be helped if we visit a popular place on one of the the few days with good weather! We left the cable car at Mürren and walked through this cliff-top village to the rail station at the other end. On the way we visited a gift shop where we bought our souvenir (a gift for ourselves!) for the holiday, a fondue set - quite reasonable prices, unusual for Swiss resorts. We boarded the train and travelled to the other end of the line at Grutschalp where a waiting cable car took us down the cliff to Lauterbrunnen. From there we returned to Grindelwald by the shortest rail route for a shower, change of clothes and dinner with the rest of the group. I was hailed by one of the men, "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond:" four of the group had been behind us in the cable car queue on the way down, but we had not spotted them!

The train stops at a viewpoint on its way up
through the Eiger

On the Saturday was the inclusive trip to Jungfraujoch on the famous Jungfrau railway which actually climbs up through the Mönch and (the north face of!) the Eiger, to the highest railway station in Europe. Again there were lots of people (and we actually met a young couple who had been beside us in a cable-car queue the day before!) but this time we had group reservations on the trains so there was no problem with travel. We began with the train to Kleine Scheidegg again and this time crossed to the Jungfraujoch platform to the dedicated group travel area from where we were escorted to our carriage. Only the first part of the journey is in the open air, and all of it climbs steeply; soon were we in the tunnel and then the train stopped at an intermediate station for five minutes, the sole purpose of which was for us all to leave the train and look out through windows cut into the rock of the mountainside. (If you look at the north face when the sun is low and shining in an appropriate direction you can see the light glinting off these windows).

The view from the terrace of the
High Alpine Research Station

Back on the train we climbed up to the underground station at the "Top of Europe" and made our way through the pedestrian tunnels into a large sunlit space with a gift shop, coffee bar and the start of a suggested tour through all that the Jungfraujoch had to offer. Unfortunately a panorama viewpoint was closed for improvement work (indeed the station was full of contractor's plant as well, so we did not have the best introduction as we left our train, but there is not much space up there!). There were active things to do outside, but for me the main point was the view across Switzerland once again. We tried to see the Schilthorn where we had been the previous day, but cloud kept intervening and we never did see it. The view down over the Aletsch Glacier, still covered in snow, was breathtaking.

Aletsch Glacier

Speaking of which, we had to move slowly and carefully at these altitudes with thin air! No rushing about possible. There was an "ice palace" with sculptures made of ice - incredibly difficult to photograph - and much else to occupy our time until it was time to gather and make our way slowly to our train back down. Only in Switzerland have I ever experienced altitude ear-popping on a slow train!

From Kleine Scheidegg we went back to Grindelwald and dinner. Day 5 had come to an end, and with it the sunny weather. The rest of our time was to be murky and damp, but still exciting and rewarding.

The locomotives on the Brienz-Rothorn line are angled to
keep their boilers horizontal on the steep gradient

Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost and was a public holiday along with the Monday after it, but the tourist attractions were still open, although many shops were closed. Yet another mountain ascent awaited us, although this time the train itself was part of the attraction, for it was steam-powered and climber steeply up from its terminus opposite the main station at Brienz to the top of the Rothorn. We had to travel to Brienz via a change of train at Interlaken, following the coast of Lake Brienz. After a short wait we took our reserved seats on the Brienz-Rothorn train and were pushed up the steep gradient by a powerful little locomotive that made a great deal of noise with each exhaust blast. I had experienced nothing quite like it in all my years of train travel (going back to the days when steam trains were normal).

Again we climbed up to where there was still snow. The snow was staying longer this year than usual and many normally-open walking routes were still closed - this is June - and some mountain railways only started operation this week. From the peak we could look down on the line and see other little trains making this way up and down. It was cold and damp and many of us went down on an earlier train than the one booked because walking was limited and the views restricted by the mist and rain.

We were among the "advance party" on an early train back and so had an hour to spare in Brienz, where we walked along the promenade on the lakeside, then up through the town and past the shops - grateful that it was a Sunday and we could not spend any money! Amazingly both the greengrocer and a hardware shop had wares on display outside with no worry about theft. This is an amazingly honest part of the world. The town was preparing for a yodelling festival, but we would be long gone before it began.

The day out ended with a cruise along Lake Brienz from the mooring by the rail station in the town where we met those who had stayed the course at the mountain-top. Our Tour Manager had been given a free upgrade to First Class for us all on the lake steamer, and so we sat on the upper deck (under cover!) and enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine - pushing the boat out, as they say, at Swiss prices - as we travelled in style back to Interlaken Ost for the train home to Grindelwald. It had been a really great day out in spite of the cold and rain at the mountain-top. I would not have wanted to miss the train ride up there nor the views when we could see them, and it was not so cold or wet down by the lake.

The train at its mountain terminus

 On the Monday came our last mountain railway of the holiday. I don't think I've ever travelled on so many, or such odd, railways in one holiday before. We began by travelling towards Interlaken again but this time leaving the train at Wilderswil, just outside Interlaken, to take the mountain railway to Schynige Platte. Like the train to Rothorn, this one had trains of just two coaches pushed up the hill by a locomotive in the rear, but this time they were electric locomotives and considerably quieter. They were antiques nonetheless and the ride was amazing.

The Alpine Garden

Schynige Platte is worth visiting for itself, as well as for the views from the top. We could only see well for the first ten minutes after leaving the train, and this was the first time I had been able to study the territory in which we had been staying for a week and which I had visited five year before on a day trip. We could see the valleys of the two branches of the river which come together at Zweilütschinen, each with a high cliff along each side. On the high plain between them sat Kleine Scheidegg and Manlichen and on the west clifftop was Mürren; beyond the cliffs on either side and in the distance beyond the plain were the enormous mountains that surround the whole Jungfrau region which we had been exploring on this fantastic holiday.

Looking back up the valley

There are many walks available from the station around the mountain top, but again with little to see and a cold rain we decided not to wander far and spent our time looking at the Alpine Garden and its little exhibition before going back down on an earlier train and then travelling back to Grindelwald the long way round via Lauterbrunnen and Kleine Scheidegg, back in time for dinner. It was so misty that at Kleine Scheidegg as we changed trains we could not see the Eiger!

A Neuchâtelois farmhouse at Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg

The next day, Tuesday, was our last complete day in Switzerland and was a free day. We had no agenda for the day when we set off from England, but while in Brienz we had found out about an open-air museum not far away at Ballenberg which had a collection of about a hundred historic buildings re-erected there from various parts of the country when their removal was required. The two areas we are most interested in, Neuchâtel and and Graubünden Cantons, were not well represented, but it still sounded like and interesting place to visit and so in the morning we set off once more for Grindelwald station. Again, they were able to sell us tickets for the whole day, including vouchers for entry to the museum at a reduced price for train travellers; the travel tickets included the bus from Brienz to Ballenberg and back and well as the train to Brienz via the change at Interlaken Ost. It is all so much simpler in Switzerland than at home: even though a variety of public and private bodies provide the transport it operates as one system so changing to bus or cable car is exactly like changing trains, with through tickets available.

Although a free day, the hotel still provided the packed lunch again and we ate ours during our time at the museum, which was like a long country walk punctuated by visiting the old buildings, some of which were just as they had come, some restored extensively, and some re-purposed to display artefacts or bygone ways of life, crafts etc.. The rain came and went, but we had a great day before taking the bus back to Brienz then the trains "home" in time to shower and change before our last dinner at the hotel. Back to our splendid room to pack ready for the morning's (fairly) early start, for we were returning to London in one day.

International trains at Paris Nord

LNER "Azuma" at London Kings Cross

The trip back via Paris went well apart from a twenty-minute delay to our Eurostar to London: it came in late and left late, and the carriage numbers were wrong, too, so staff had to redirect us to the right part of the train - chaos but once aboard it was a good trip with the usual light meal. We had booked a hotel room in London for the night just in case we were late and could not get the last train to connect for Stamford at Peterborough, but on reflection it would have been cheaper to take a taxi from Peterborough than to stay overnight in London! However, staying did mean that we had an opportunity to visit family in London for a good part of the day before travelling home at our own convenience, having the flexible tickets which Great Rail Journeys had provided for us. Icing on the cake was that our train to Peterborough was one of LNER's new class 800 "Azuma" sets which it was nice to try; our first class 800 ride.

Back to the Valley of the Watchmakers

By train into Switzerland

Into Switzerland!

It began with a message from a VERY distant relative that there was an exhibition in Le Locle, in Switzerland that we might be interested in seeing, Le Locle Past and Present. It was at a historic site and museum that we wanted to see eventually anyway, and this temporary exhibition was the catalyst for making the visit this year.

Six years ago we had visited Switzerland for the first time to see places associated with my wife's ancestors in the watchmaking region of the Neuchatel Canton and we were intending to go again when more research had been done, so we planned just a short trip to see the exhibition, and a couple of tourist things that we had not had time to do when we visited in 2012. We would go again in due course, when more family history research had been done, and visit the village of Valangin as well, near Neuchatel, where there were also family connections.

Last time we went I had planned my own itinerary and booked the accommodation and many of the rail tickets myself, engaging an agent to book the travel on the continent because it was difficult to do that oneself. After our more recent experience with Great Rail Journeys Independent I telephoned them an asked them to arrange the trip for me this time, specifying that we were to stay at Maison DuBois in Le Locle, the bed and breakfast house that was my wife's ancient family home, and specifying that we were to arrive there on the branch line from Besançon as we had the previous time. We would stay in London the night before departure rather than Paris as we had before. All was fixed up and then we had to wait, but because we had to travel soon in order to get to the exhibition in Le Locle it was not too long a wait, and we had our summer holiday on the south coast of England to keep us occupied - but it did mean that I had to pay Great Rail Journeys straight away for the whole project.

On a Monday evening we were driven to Peterborough station by our family, the first time we have started one of our adventures by car: it was great to say farewell, and it did mean that we were not observed leaving together with our luggage, better for security. We caught the next LNER train to London Kings Cross, travelling First Class as we had booked throughout this trip when available. Booking through Great Rail Journeys Independent meant that the open tickets cost about the same as Advance First would have cost us booking ourselves, as they are part of an international package holiday even though we were the only participants. We had to carry our itinerary with us in case we needed to prove it was a package. It was a smooth, easy journey to London and although this was a long-distance train in the last stretch of its journey we were well-served by our hostess who managed to find a pasta salad and a glass of wine for us. In London we were staying at a Premier Inn in Euston Road, almost opposite St Pancras station and very handy. I had never stayed in one of this chain before and was very pleased with it: nothing special but all very competent, with comfortable bed, enough space and an excellent buffet breakfast before making our way to the Eurostar terminal the next morning.

Unlike some trips we have taken, Great Rail Journeys had given us a very easy itinerary with plenty of time between trains and no early starts, so we were able to pack after breakfast without rushing and  walk to St Pancras. This time we entered through the Underground station so as to be on the correct level for the Eurostar check-in, and when we got there check-in for our train to Paris had just begun so we joined the queue, which kept moving, and scanned our tickets to get through to the security and passport checks. This is all a bit of a nuisance but it is as well to be safe, and it's much less fuss than flying. We waited for our train and then made our way to the platform when it was announced. This time we had a refurbished original Eurostar train (E300, I think they call them), very comfortable in Standard Premier class, and our second breakfast of the day was served as we sped through Kent. For once I declined the second bread roll.

No matter what your view of the London Underground, if you're looking for grot London has nothing to beat Paris. Once we found a ticket machine that worked we struggled to understand how to buy tickets even though we could and did choose the English language option on the machine: in London you could just go through the barriers with any contactless credit or debit card and pay for your ride without a ticket at all. When we got to the RER line D platform for our train to Gare de Lyon there was a train already at the platform so at least we did not have to wait on the dark, smelly platform, but it was a bit tight on the train with our luggage: you would think that a service linking two main rail termini would have space for suitcases, but not in Paris. It was a short ride, though, and we were soon in the light, airy surroundings of Gare de Lyon, in a part of the station we'd never noticed before, because we never come out of the RER the same way twice. We had plenty of time and went for a stroll down to the river before returning to the station for our next train, enjoying a glass of wine at a bar on the concourse right opposite our platform, as it happened.

Our train from Gare de Lyon was a TGV through to Besançon Viotte where we had a couple of hours to await our connection for Le Locle. In First Class the TGVs are very comfortable and the journey soon passed. There is no included catering on French railways but there is an at-seat paid-for service in First Class.

Besançon is down there somewhere!

At Besançon we walked from the station into the town centre just to see the place: it was farther than we thought it might be, and was all downhill towards the river, but we did have time a for little exploration. We do try to make these trips into tours by leaving plenty of time between trains at changes, and this also helps to "soak up" any delays that might occur on route - not that there were any delays this day. To avoid having to climb back up to the station we caught a tram from the town centre at Besançon to the station - so easy to use here although I did have to buy the tickets in two separate transactions: the machine does not seem to be set up for people travelling together!

And so on to Switzerland! At Besançon Viotte station we had the picnic tea we had bought in the town and then went on to the platform to await the train, and then we realised it was already there, waiting in the distance in a bay platform at the end, so we made our way there and boarded. No First Class on either coach, but standard was very comfortable with a good view through the large windows, and the train was not crowded. We left in bright sunshine but darkness fell before we reached the Swiss border. I emailed ahead to the B&B to say that we would be arriving about 21:30 and received a message back that our hostess would not be present then but she would leave the key in our room, and entry to the house is by a combination which she included in the message - all in French, of course! Arriving at Le Locle station, we took the route we knew from our previous visit and were tapping the combination into the keypad on the front door within five minutes. And so to shower and bed, having had a terrific day of travel and exploration and with some exciting activities on the agenda for the morning.

In the morning the sun greeted us when I opened the curtains, and our hostess Céline was waiting to serve our breakfast when we went down: hugs and kisses (three each: this is Switzerland, not France) like old friends and coffee, bread, fruit and yogurt for breakfast. We had checked bus timetables in advance and knew we needed to leave swiftly to get a bus to our first visit, the underground mills at Le Col-des-Roches just this side of the French border: miss it and it was a couple of hours before the next. We got to the bus stop to find that it was temporarily closed by roadworks - and the instructions where to get the bus were in French and required local knowledge: I had just about translated it when a road sweeper kindly pointed the way, just as the bus went past, and said, "À droite; à gauche," and we moved swiftly to arrive at the stop just as the end of the queue was boarding. We were on our way.

We did not have to pay a fare for this five-minute ride. Indeed, we hardly had to pay for anything at all in Switzerland: Neuchatel Canton tourist board operates a scheme whereby anyone staying at least one night in a hotel or B&B in the canton receives a Neuchatel Tourist Card - Céline gave us ours at breakfast - giving free train, bus and funicular travel for the duration of the stay, plus one free entry into most tourist attractions in the canton, including the place to which we were heading that morning.

The Moulins Souterrains at Le Col-des-Roche is one of the most amazing sites I have ever visited and as we chatted with the lady at the reception desk it transpired that it was founded by a member of my wife's family tree, which added a certain extra interest to what we were about to see. The reason for building the factory underground is that at this point the valley suddenly ends and the water cascades under the rocks through a series of caves. This provided a great opportunity for water wheels in the day when water power was essential to industry; there was still plenty of space left in the caves for the millstones and workshops of a factory making multiple products - there was a sawmill as well as flour mills and and edge mill. The whole complex closed when electricity put it out of business and was used as an abattoir in the twentieth century, processing meat crossing the Franco-Swiss border nearby. It took volunteers months to remove foul sludge from the caves in order to create the museum installation that is there now, with some machinery replaced in order to get a flavour of what was done there and other spaces left as they were. Audio guides are available in several languages to explain what is there. I'd thoroughly recommend a visit, but if you go you need decent footwear and reasonably warm clothing, and if you are mobility-impaired there will be very little that you can access - it is in the nature of a cave.

Where the narrow-gauge ends and the
standard gauge begins at Le Locle -
train for Neuchatel in the background

This was where the Le Locle Past and Present exhibition was staged,and we visited that and bought a book of its pictures at the museum shop before we caught a bus back into Le Locle ready for our next outing, to Les Brenets, a lakeside village on the French border. We had consulted the timetables and knew that our bus would give us ample time to get to the rail station but without too long a wait for the narrow-gauge train up through the hills (and I mean "through" - there are tunnels, as ever in Switzerland!) to Les Brenets.

We took the new cliff lift up to the station from Sidmouth Place in the town centre (Le Locle, rather incongruously in my opinion, is twinned with Sidmouth in England) and crossed the tracks via the subway to the far platform. Le Locle station is unique among all the stations I have ever visited: it has one long platform at which the main line trains from Neuchatel terminate and then commence their journeys back to Neuchatel via La Chaux de Fonds, and the far platform is split into two halves, one for the French train that three times a day travels between Besançon and La Chaux de Fonds, and the other half for the metre-gauge branch line to Les Brenets. One platform face, two track gauges. The people awaiting the service to Les Brenets were interesting, quite different from those who might use such a service, where it still exists, in England. There were a few other tourists, a handful of young people of student age, a couple of shoppers and a good few business people in suits and ties, as many of them speaking German as French. Curiously, too, when we got to Les Brenets many of the signs were written in German first with French beneath whereas in Le Locle most signs are in French only.

I had pictured Les Brenets as a small place but it actually turned out to be fairly large in the sense that it took up a lot of space, and the walk to the lake was quite long - and downhill! The walk back was a daunting prospect but fortunately this has been considered by the authorities and there is a taxi bus available at the quayside which would take us back to the station when had finished on the lake - although the fare for that was not included in our Tourist Card. We went to the lake cruise booking office and exchanged our vouchers for boarding cards then bought lunch from the quayside café while we waited for the boat. The other shore of the lake was in France: this lake is a EU border, and both French and Swiss tourist boats ply the lake.

Where the waterfall wasn't. The viewing platform on the
French side had no better view!

The water level in the lake was very low and we had to walk out over a muddy shore - on timber decking provided for the purpose - to reach our trip boat. Quite a few people came ashore but only three of us boarded, so we had a quiet trip! The lake is long and quite narrow with sides wooded in many places and the cruise was reminiscent of the trips on the River Dart in England, but with France to port and Switzerland to starboard. The trip took us to the top of the lake, the farthest point possible. A rock-strewn dried-up river bed went on further and we walked alongside this towards the reputed waterfall from which the water supposedly cascaded down to a lower river. But we never saw any more water. There was a bridge across the rocky river bed, and on the Swiss side a notice about customs and passports (but no officers), and eventually we found the sheer drop where the fall might have been - no water. The lake, the river and the falls are fed from mountain meltwater and by this time in the summer it has all drained away: early spring is probably the best time to visit, when the snow is melting and lake filled.

Back at the pier we found many more passengers waiting to return, many looking like a German (or German-speaking) tour party and we had a commentary in French and German on our return trip. We made our way straight to the ticket office at Les Brenet quay and paid for the taxibus, the driver helped us aboard and we were straight off to the rail station; when I say "straight" we actually followed the usual Swiss winding road, crossing several times the fairly straight path by which we had walked down. The trip only took a few moments and it happened that the little train was already standing at the platform so were straight on board and soon on our way back through the hills to Le Locle. We did not need a lot to eat that evening but went to the crêperie next door to our boarding house for a light supper and went to bed. With the early start and the fortunate connections, we had already do one in one day all that we came to  Le Locle to do, so we had to plan what we would do on our free day in the morning, and that was to bring more excitement on the ancestor front, and more value from our Neuchatel Tourist Card!

One thing we had not expected to fit into this trip but were planning to do in a couple of years' time was to visit the village of Valangin where we knew there was a castle which was associated with the family (don't ask me exactly how: I only married into this family!) and a church which had windows with images of the arms of the DuBois family, and we decided attempt a visit on our unexpected free day. By using a fantastic Swiss public transport app we were easily able to plan the journey - a bus from LeLocle to a suburban bus stop in Neuchatel from where another bus would take us to Valangin, a small place where the bus dropped us right in the centre.

The castle towered over us but was not due to open until the afternoon, so we went first to the church and were delighted to find it open. We went in and photographed all the windows and the interior of this amazing little church, including the window we had come to see, with the DuBois family crest. From there runs the original village street, direct to the castle gateway, and as we walked along this we came across an inn where we were able to stop for lunch while we awaited castle opening time - again, it all fitted in brilliantly. For me, the views from the castle were well worth the climb to it I had never really seen a castle anywhere but England before. From here this part of Switzerland was once governed, and this little village was therefore as important as Neuchatel is now.

The lake steamer Neuchatel

Mural at Neuchatel station

We caught a bus back to Neuchatel and walked to the lakeside with a view to taking a short cruise. We found where the ship was due to leave and again exchanged our vouchers for boarding passes and were delighted to find that the ship was a paddle steamer. We did try to sit on deck but a light rain began and we moved inside where we found a buffet bar for a snack and a glass of wine: amazing what you can afford when the cruise is free - I 'm beginning to understand how the canton decided it could afford to give away these passes!

We decided to catch a train back to Le Locle and stumbled across an entrance to an underground funicular railway that took us straight up to the concourse of the station and bought coffee while awaiting the train. We would be returning this way in the morning, but for now we bought salad for supper in our room and had a stroll round Le Locle for our last evening.





Céline's own holiday started that night, so she had prepared breakfast for us in advance which we had before packing and making our way to the station for the train down to Neuchatel where we were to change trains for Paris. Except it was not quite that simple! What was shown as a TGV to Paris in the timetable had a mysterious note about Frasne on the ticket, and the online public transport information which had been so useful throughout our stay also had a codicil about passengers from Neuchatel to Paris change at Frasne. At the station we enquired about where to get our train to Paris and we were told the platform number and departure time (it was the time we were expecting) and to change at Frasne for the TGV to Paris - the actual TGV apparently comes from Geneva. So we had an interesting regional express from Neuchatel to Frasne and then boarded the expected TGV, which did not actually travel at Grande Vitesse until it joined the high-speed line about half-way to Paris. We had never been to Frasne before and it was not an ideal place to change trains: it was OK for us but there was absolutely no cover on the platform, so on a wet day it would have been decidedly unpleasant. Still, it was warm and sunny and our train was soon there and wicked us off to Paris. We bought lunch from the at-seat service in First Class, including a rather splendid craft ale rather in the English style, quelle surprise!

Impromptu wine-tasting
on Eurostar

In Paris, the usual RER journey to Gard du Nord (we got the ticket-purchasing lark sorted out this time!) and then Eurostar check-in. Once aboard we enjoyed our ride home, assisted by rather more wine than might have been wise - so much so that we brought one of the small bottles home: that all started because I asked for a second wine but they did not have the sort I asked for, so the hostess gave us both two others to try ...

We had a little while to wait at Kings Cross for the train we wanted back to Peterborough for Stamford. Although our tickets were valid on any train it is better to wait in the First Class Lounge at Kings Cross than on the platform at Peterborough, so we aim for a train that makes a neat but not tight connection. And so home. We were intending to take a taxi home from the station but met a friend there who was meeting another friend off the train and she kindly drove us home. Stamford is that sort of town.

A short trip but we packed a very great deal into it and apart from the cost of the accommodation and fares there and back (plus mementos of places with family connections) we spent very little indeed.