Besançon, France - Bern, Switzerland

Wednesday 9th June 1999

It was goodbye to France for the second time because we needed to get back to Bern and collect the rest of our stuff from our friend Frank who'd been very kindly taking care of things for us.

We headed east to cross into Switzerland near the town of la Chaux-de-Fonds. From there we headed south towards Neuchâtel but took the pass over the mountains rather than the tunnel that runs through them. From the top we were greeted with a marvellous vista with Lake Neuchâtel below us and the mountains all the way to the Jungfrau in the distance. It was nice to return to Switzerland.

Once in the town of Neuchâtel Mum and Anita took a stroll along the lakeside whilst Dad and I went in to the local museum to check out one of the marvels of the Swiss watchmakers. Three automata built in 1774 that could perform various tasks. One played a small organ, the organ was real and her fingers actually played the keys. Another could produce five small drawings, with remarkable detail of shading. And the third could write any message of up to forty characters. The precision of the interlocking gears is so fine that in hot weather the scribe will make spelling mistakes. They were quite remarkable to see although the museum is so protective of them that they only operate them once a month.

We then headed across to Bern and settled ourselves into a campsite on the side of the Aare river, not far from the centre of town. The river was still flowing very fast although it had come down a little from the flood-levels that we had seen when we last left. Evening was approaching so we settled in and watched the night approach.