N1. Lac Gruyere 9 Oct

No use crying over spilt milk or on missing out on fresh milk each morning for that matter. Today as we walked to the bus stop we met a lady whom we often chatted to on the way to the bus in 2014. As we passed the Schalleberg farm she pointed out that they are now offering a Ferienwohnung (holiday apartment) for rent so we could have potentially stayed with the lovely Reusser family last week instead of being elsewhere. So be it.       

We stopped at Aperto at the station and selected bread rolls for lunch.   

We then caught the regio train to Friboug and into the French speaking part of Switzerland. When one is concentrating so hard on speaking German it is hard to switch the mature age brain over to French but we improved as the day progressed. We caught bus 336 from Friboug stationed and enjoyed the fairly extended journey through lots of villages heading in the direction of Bulle. Orange seems to be a popular colour here! Certainly fits well with Autumn.  

 

We got off at Le Bry and after a couple of false starts found the road leading down under the impressive freeway overpass high above. This overpass was even more imposing when seen a bit further on around the lake where you can see the massive pylon actually in the lake.

 At the lake we could see Isle d'Ogoz with its ruins and tiny chapel which was our intended destination. It was closer to the shore than I had anticipated. Since it was not particularly warm we decided to keep walking around the lake rather than wait around for an hour a half for the barge boat that takes you there on Sunday afternoon for CHF 18. 

We really enjoyed the hike along beside the lake, most of it through lightly timbered forest and a path littered with fallen leaves. We passed a few Km sign posts and fiqured out in the end that we had done about six kilometres. We stopped for a picnic lunch an watched some people go past on their paddle boards.

Since this walk was unplanned we really had no idea where we were going but trusted that one is never far from a village in Switzerland. We ended up at Gumefens where we waited 4 minutes for the next bus back to Friboug then trains to Bern and Thun and bus to Heiligenschwendi all with just a few minutes in between even on Sunday afternoon.  It is so easy to travel with the amazing transport system of Switzerland. As we walked the road home for the first time on this trip we were treated to a surprise of the goats and cows coming past on their way in for the night. They were curious to see us beside the road and one cow even licked my jacket sleeve while I was videoing!