S2. Vevey 20 Oct

Today we travelled with a friend to Vevey in the French speaking part is Switzerland and were blessed once more with blue sky and sunshine. We travelled by train via Visp and Matigny and noticed quite a difference in the tree and vine colours in just 2 weeks.

At Vevey we walked down to Lac Leman to photograph some sculptures before going to visit the Swiss Camera Museum.

Begonias I think? 

 

A horse on the old fashioned carousel.

 

Spent about an hour at this camera museum which covers several floors. Very interesting and requires more time.

Remembering those expensive films from 1979 holiday in Europe. Glad to be in the digital age. Who knows what will be next.

 Back out to the lakeside to walk along to our next museum. Actually we passed two other museums on the way! The Alimentary museum near where the fork is in the lake and a little further on the Vervey Historical Museum. 

The steam ship made its way past as we wandered along and I liked this statue of the children and goat. Difficult to photograph as my fill in flash is not strong. The other statue is of Charlie Chaplin and I believe there is a museum near here of his memorabilia.

 

Our next stop, albeit far to brief, was the Swiss games museum. It is housed in a castle, has a resident resturant and a tower you can climb for a magnificent view. The top part is see through metal stairs and a bit spooky for those not confident with heights. The museum definitely needs more time for adequate inspection but we had only the one day and wanted to fit in one more thing.

From the museum we walked up to La tour-de-peliz station to get a train back to Vevey station in time to transfer to the 'Vineyard Train' to Puidoux-Chexbres. The sun was shining on the golden vine leaves and the lake was glistening. The problem with bright light is that it causes reflections on the train windows making photography difficult. I had originally planned a walk down through the terraces here but there are only so many hours in an Autumn day!

From Puidoux-Chexbres we caught the train to Lausanne and after a quick coffee break continued on through farming country side to Bern and Thun. After farewelling our friend we headed home and once again there was a photo waiting on the road through the farms.

S1. Thun & Steffisberg 19 Oct

A day with only 13 photos! What's going on? A short day in town to finish off the gift shopping and to have lunch with a friend at the Steinmann Resturant in Thun. I did take some photos of the lovely decorations available to celebrate Autumn.

And the of course there's one of the girls watching us scurrying home into the head wind!

R2. Thun Panorama & Iseltwald 18 Oct

In theory today was meant to be a shopping day but in this area there is always sightseeing to be done as well. Started in Thun at the Panorama. This circular building houses an amazing 360 panoramic painting of the city of Thun created by Marquard Wolker over a five year period in the 1800s in Basel. It was subsequently sold and languished under the floor of a school before being restored and located in Thun. It was undergoing its second restoration in 2014 which is why we didn't get to see it then. The painting is definitely wel worth a visit and the story of the restoration process is also fascinating.

From the Panorama building we walked a little way along the edge of Thunersee which was resplendent in Autumn colours even on a dull day. From there to Spiez and train to Interlaken the a bus to Goldswil/Riggenberg to the old Park Hotel (Steiner's Second Hand Store) which has been converted into 5 or 6 floors of antiques and collectables of every imaginable sort. 

Next stop Iselwald where the shop we were after has apparently relocated to Interlaken. This gave us plenty of time to wander through this delightful village built on a rock in Lake Brienz. 

 

 

And ... there just happened to be a boat heading back to Interlaken. This is one of my favourite trips especially going past the little row of boat sheds as you approach your destination.

 

Stopped in Interlaken to shop for gifts before heading back to Thun along the peaceful Thunersee shining in the evening light. Late arrival in Heiligenschwendi meant we had to walk home in the dark.

R1. Tellskapelle & Seelisberg 17 Oct

Weather forecast not brilliant for today but the intrepid pair set off before the crack of dawn to travel with the early commuters to Bern and on to Luzern and Brunnen. This journey passes lots of lakes and as the early fog lifted it was very pleasant. Here we see Rigi reflected in Vierwaldstattersee.

 

We went by boat from Brunnen to Tellskappelle stopping at Rütli and Sisikon on the way

On to Tellskapelle where we had time to photograph the building and interior before contining on uphill to the  'plus grand carillon de Suisse'  Inside the Tellskapelle there are four murals depicting the historical story of William Tell.

Not sure that all the buttons for choosing which songs the Carilon will play were working but we did recognise  'Vo Luzern uf Weggis Zue'

After absorbing great views over the lake We returned to Brunnen and crossed the lake on another boat to Treib.

 

We transferred to the Seelibahn for the funicular ride up th Seelisberg.

 Here we walked on up the road to Schillers-Balkon which affords amazing views over the mountains, lake and way down yo the Rütli fields below.

 

We walked past numerous bus stops until it was time to wait for the bus to Stans which once again afforded great views of the lake. From Stans we caught a local train back to Luzern for our connection back to Thun.

Q2. Heiligenschwendi EMK, Spiez & Faulensee 16 Oct

Spent a delightful morning at EMK Heiligenschwendi, listening to the choir, stories and sermon in Swiss German, catching up with friends and sharing lunch together. The desserts were made during the morning with everyone peeling and cutting up the apples as part of a story that was told before the sermon.

In the afternoon the beautiful blue sky was conducive to wandering so we set off down hill and decided to walk part way towards Thun and covered at least six bus stops before we waited for the bus for the rest of the way. From Thun we caught the train to Spiez and walked down to the lake to check the boat timetable and buy icecreams. Then we walked around the lake to Faulensee. So did hundreds of others! These two sort of fitted in to the environment.

It really is a great pathway along the shore of the lake with huge trees hanging their branches over the water.

 

From Faulensee we took the Schiff back to Thun with great views in all directions.

 

And a welcome home at the end of the day.