Neuchatel

Laura and I are learning a lot about being proper tourists. This morning we decided to go to Neuchatel because a friend of hers from work was playing a free show later tonight. How hard can visiting a new town be? We figured we'd do some hiking, see some castles, find something to eat and then go to the show. Problem is, when we got off the train we didn't know where we were going and without a plan it's easy to waste lots of time and put in extra miles on foot.
We went down to the lake first thing after getting on the train. We walked around for about an hour after that trying to find a tourist center. When we did, we realized that we had gone in the wrong direction from the train station--hence adding several miles of walking to our hot and sweaty day. We were getting sunburnt and the sunscreen was at least 15CHF in the pharmacy. Ugh. Luckily, there was a castle nearby.

Seeing all the old stuff in town is exciting but it really only took about an hour. The rest of the day we spent wandering around, trying not to get sunburnt too terribly. Staying hydrated was not hard because putting up fountains every 50 yards was apparently a popular thing to do in the 16th century and they all have drinkable water--assuming there are no large fish in them.
As for eating, we're not very good at ordering food yet--and vegetarian fare is nearly impossible to find--so we bought a loaf of bread, a tube of mustard and a chunk of cheese. We sat on the stairs outside some government building and ate it, ravenously. I'm sure we looked positively scraggly, but everything is so expensive in Switzerland that we can't afford the proper restaurant food anyway.

In summary I can offer this advice to the poor-tourist. Get a map first, read the weather forecast and a tube of mustard and a loaf of bread goes a long way.

And now for a photo essay of our delightfully cranky trip to Neuchatel:

We put on long pants and boots. We were planning on hiking. But when we got down the hill to the lake, we saw people swimming. Jeans and boots and wool socks are definitely inappropriate swimming attire. We rolled up our pants and dangled our feet a bit, which was a sorry excuse for swimming.

The castle at Neuchatel was not terribly impressive, but there was one open room (the ancient kitchen) and free bathrooms. The church near the castle was pretty cool. The Count's tomb inside the church was built in 1349 and is the oldest art-y thing in Neuchatel. The knight on the left side is my favorite knight statue I've ever seen. He has two dogs at his feet and is frozen in the middle swinging his hips in praise of the Lord (clearly), how cute!

After the castle and church we walked up the prison tower. At the top we took in the view--you can see the Alps across the lake--and played Yatzee.

If you look carefully, you can see the Alps on the horizon. This is the view from the church/castle wall.

Laura in front of something Old. Castle #2 for us. This arch was built in the 13th century

13th century carvings (the brochure calls the grotesque) on the outside of the church.

14th century tomb with figures of the Neuchatel counts and countesses. This is inside the church.

The Swishy Knight!

There are no figures standing on the bottom left hand side of the tomb--but this is painted there. Creepy!

The bridge leading away from the castle and church, the dungeon is down there too I think.

Then we went up the Prison tower. It was castley. It's like castle 2.5 I think.

An old cell in the prison.

The castle and church seen from the top of the prison tower.

The city of Neuchatel from the top of the prison tower.

Laura packing her bag. She spends 10% of every day doing this.

Then we played Yatzee on top of the tower. The end.