37 - Saute Forward - Fribourg & Neuchâtel

Sunday, March 30

Europe had the pleasure of jumping forward an hour this morning; fortunately, the hotel coffee machine was right outside the hotel room.  A few items from Migros for breakfast and we were on our merry way to Fribourg.

Fribourg is right on the border of the French/German language barrier, and while it often makes the list of Swiss towns worth visiting, it's quite a small medieval gem.  We didn't have much planned for Fribourg nor did we expect much to be open but we had a good time.  We walked around the old town for a bit before taking a brunch break at a place a colleague had recommended (I think she'd recommended simply having a coffee on the terasse).  The brunch was a neat buffet meal but it's outdoor seating was juuuust obscured from the view out from the city ramparts.  

Apparently "o" and "e" are roughly equivalent when making the translation between French and German.

Towering over the rest of the city, the cathedral certainly was an impressive building in this small, medieval town.  

The river serves as the border between French speaking and German speaking Switzerland.  The locals are reportedly true bilinguals.

The inside of the cathedral wasn't too shabby either.  Not too much to admire aside from a view stained glass windows but an enjoyable experience all the same.  

Could be a fun toboggan run in winter, no?  The climb back up wouldn't be so much fun, but at least it's feasible with stairs.

Some of the fortifications were built right into the stone of the cliffs turning the river, though in this case it was the heart of daffodils that caught my eye 😆 

Ye olde bridge still stands, it's juuuust wide enough for a line of pedestrians and a car.

I feel the switch kicking in now, en commencement ici, on parle français.

I couldn't figure out how to walk along the walls, but I suppose this section would've been handled my wooden beams and a catwalk.

Ye new bridge, there were very faded info plaques across it's span but I couldn't read any of them, so I assume the bridge just fell out of the sky maybe 60 years or so ago.

A spur of the moment détour onto a small alley revealed an official street sign for a very unofficial-looking ruelle.

The tower of cats!  About 10 steps towards it and the tower was already living up to its not name 

The view from the new bridge to the river bend, the town once had some extensive walls and fortifications from this angle. 

The emblems of the different cantons along the bottom of the window impressed me, how fun that Bern gets a bear but someplace like Zug settles for Blue Panel.

The view from this terrace was basically the only recommendation we'd received from coworkers 😂 it's not a bad vista but it does drive home how sleepy a town this place is.

Taking a break for brunch, I approve of this kind of modern art.

Since almost everything was closed, we tucked into our brunch (sadly, the restaurant terrace doesn't have the same view as just the coffee counter) featuring a wide variety of salads, cold cute, cheeses, and desserts. 😋 

I see the discourse is alive and well here in Swiss toilets; I can't tell if this is two artists or one artist making a poignant display on zionistic colonialism.

Too bad we didn't get to see the clock strike the hour, I wonder if those little figurines move in the bell tower.

After brunch, we worked out way back to the station and caught the next train to Neuchâtel.  Neuchâtel is a larger city than Fribourg but the old town was easily walkable in a couple hours as well.  Where Fribourg managed to kept a bit of a medieval charm about it, Neuchâtel felt more Provençale.  The old town of Neuchâtel wasn't too large to walk about but the town's real appeal is it's lakefront ,built up during the Belle Époque.  I can imagine the place being very popular in summer for people wishing to bathe, water ski, and observe the Alps.  

The country side was very peaceful as we voyaged from Fribourg to Pays du Trois Lacs and finally rounded the corner for Neuchâtel.  Plenty of pastures and fields, I think there was a difference between the different cantons but I don't have the words to describe it's subtlety.

So that's how gulls are made, eh?

Ooh, where's the party?  As tacky as it is, I do enjoy when pedestrian streets put a little flair up 😆 

Watch your step, or you'll land right in the gutter!  What an interesting design choice for the street, there were even occasional bournes for electricity and fire water.

The church in the castle of Neuchâtel had dueling organs!  The one on the ground floor might be the first I've gotten close enough to to see the pedals.

The rest of the church was nice too, sadly, that's about it for what can be accessed in the castle area: the rest of the building is actively used for the provincial government.

The view from the castle ramparts is still worth the climb up.  We really lucked out on clear skies today.

I poked my head in and found the castle decorated with a few coats of armor, I'm guessing for the cantons of Switzerland.

You never quite know what you'll find around some of these older buildings.  Maybe it's a fun info plaque about an inhabitant or a neat spiral staircase cached away in a throughway. 

All the way out at the end of a cantilever beam, you have the unobstructed view of Lac Neuchâtel and the Alps in the distance 👌

Per the plaques, Neuchâtel became a popular destination for people who couldn't access the Alps (they weren't nearly as accessible as they are today) but wanted to enjoy them with a bit of bathing.  Seems like a logical plan to me.

I ended up dozing off whilst doing my Duolingo lesson on the train ride from Neuchâtel to Lausanne.  I suppose getting around a country on trains is a novel experience for me but circadian rhythms do their own thing 😂  Despite not having a lot to write about in each these towns, I did have a good time traveling the countryside by train, storing our bags at the station, and walking around freely for a few hours; having company during all this was nice and my friend was on top of managing routes and timetables.  

My friend has also been a good source of info regarding francophone humor.  I was informed of a joke regarding road signs for three specific towns in the area of le petit lac: Gimel, Aubonne, et Gland.  If pronounced quickly, it can roughly be translated as "I put in the pretty, my ...gland"

The weather in the late afternoon was making for very clear viewing conditions of the mountains past Lac Léman, so I put on a brave face and avoided sleeping as soon as I got home to better observe the peaks 😂 

And what a view we had this evening 

Looks like Mt Blanc came out to play this evening!

The Monk's Head cheese (la tête du moins) is served by help of such a device: the head is shaved révolution by revolution to yield a little flower of paper-thin cheese.  😋