Saint-Blaise, Switzerland
We're enjoying our visit to Saint-Blaise, a charming little village, just outside of Neauchâtel. The marina provides a Euro-Relais spot for motorhomes (basically a parking lot with self-serve station for electricity, water and dumping). We're oversized for the lot, but with virtually no one else here, it's no problem. Our guide book indicates the cost should be 8 CHF per night, but the man at the marina declined to accept payment from me. (Note to other European RV'rs - on one side is the autoroute, on the other train tracks so it has quite a bit of road & train noise.)
The town is quite tiny and everything is closed on Sundays. In addition, most shops are closed from 12/12:30-1:30 or 2:00! We keep wondering how businesses stay alive around here. I guess it's a part of the culture we still need to learn about. We arrived Sunday in dire need of going shopping. No such luck - everything but the bakery was closed! Dan and Megan headed out to get bread and came back with chocolate eclairs! YUM. Photo of the bakery that initiated us to all that is yummy and chocolate:
We've been mostly taking it easy - relaxing a bit and enjoying the scenery in the area. There's a playground at the Marina and the kids love it. Megan is so proud that she can use the rope glide by herself. She was a little scared of them when we left the States. She now loves them! She's growing up so fast - it's amazing to watch her play on the climbing rope structures and mastering how to ride her scooter. She's a great fan of small hills that she can glide down.
I was struck by the sunlight on the back of the church. It looked like the church was glowing and I couldn't help but snap a quick shot. Hopefully we'll visit the inside during our stay here - I'd imagine it's quite beautiful.
2) Sunset at the marina
The temperatures are dropping. It dropped below freezing last night (was 32-degrees outside at 9am this morning) and I think today's high was 45-degrees. So far it only rained one day - we went out for a walk anyway, but it was just plain unpleasant with the wind. The mountains are still hiding behind clouds, though when they peek out, you can definitely see the snow line creeping down.
We're hanging out here for a few days - mostly to get caught up on Megan's schoolwork and to allow for some packages from the US to arrive. We're finally in a spot that is central to shopping and a post office. It's great. We plan to take a day trip to Neauchâtel. Dan's bike was fixed today, so I think we can bike it - the trails are clearly marked from the marina.
We're also looking in to either a day-trip to Bern or we will relocate to a campground closer to Bern. The train from Saint-Blaise is about 40CHF per person for a 50-kilometer trip. Seems kind of expensive for such a short trip - but we may do it anyway given that we are enjoying a relief from campground expenses right now.
Not sure if anyone is reading the blog or not - feel free to post comments, even if it is just to say "hi." We miss our friends and family and love hearing from you and we would be thrilled to meet other travelers as well as folks from the towns we're in or near.
