Europe Travel Diary 1987 47

We finished packing and cleaning up the zimmer at 10:00am. After we had finished packing, the last thing we did before leaving was to ask Liesl to take a photo of us with our car at the top of the pathway from the zimmer up to the parking space on Terrassenweg where we parked our Citroën throughout our stay – this was her first photo, the first time she had ever used a camera, and I think she did a brilliant job (see photo to the right). After going to the post office, we left Grindelwald at 10:20am on a day that – finally – had lovely weather.

We drove to Interlaken and then followed the southern edge of Thunersee (Lake Thun), stopping briefly at Spiez for some photos of the beautiful Spiez Castle, set in impressive surroundings on the shore of the lake and surrounded by vineyards. We then continued west through Schwarzenburg, leaving the German-speaking zone of Switzerland and driving into the French-speaking city of Fribourg. Upon reaching Fribourg, we had lunch by the roadside and then had a brief walk through the old city centre.

Despite somewhat greyer architecture than the German-speaking areas we had left, the scenery of Fribourg was gorgeous, in part because of the city’s situation on and around some deeply incised winding meanders of the Sarine River. The Pont de Berne was an especially pretty highlight, being a covered bridge across the river with a cobble-stoned roadway and flower boxes lining the sides.

Having explored Fribourg, we drove south-west through Lausanne, a city on the northern shoreline of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) where the French influence could easily be seen, and then north-west to cross the border into France at Vallorbe.

One sight that certainly warranted a stop on the way to Dijon (our destination for the day) came upon us as we were approaching the city of Pontarlier. A straight stretch of the road revealed the impressive sight of the 11th century Château de Joux on a high rocky outcrop to the left of the road and the almost equally impressive 19th century Fort du Larmont on the top of another hill composed of spectacularly upswept sedimentary layers of limestone facing it on the right.

Our Youth Hostel in Dijon was the Centre de Rencontres Internationale at 1 Boulevarde Champollion, an easy to find but noisy and ugly location beside a main road intersection and railway line. Although this Youth Hostel had an official one-star rating, the dinner it provided of roast chicken was excellent.

Day 47

Grindelwald to Dijon

Friday 28 August 1987