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| K and Charlotte at Nestlé |
The weekend after our trip to Aosta, we got to play host to our friend Charlotte who was between business trips to Israel and Germany. After picking her up at the train station in Neuchâtel Friday night, we had a homemade fondue and salad and stayed up late chatting.
Saturday, we drove down to Broc to do the Nestlé-Cailler chocolate factory tour and had a light lunch of panini and crepes in Gruyères. On the way back, we stopped in Avenches, to the west of Lake Murten, to see the Roman amphitheatre there. The amphitheatre is still in use today, and there was actually a very elaborate rotating stage in the center which had been constructed for an upcoming opera. We had heard that there were other Roman ruins in the area, but we did not have time to go exploring as we had to be back in Neuchâtel to meet some people.
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| Amphitheater at Avenches |
On our way back to Neuchâtel, however, we decided to stop briefly at one of the local wine tasting rooms in the Vully region. It took us awhile to find one that was open. The first one that we found that was open didn't have very good wine. The second one we talked our way into, as the proprietor had forgotten to remove the OPEN sign that was posted in front. The wine at this one was much better. While we drank the wines, K and M tried to converse with the man in French. While Charlotte was able to catch a few words, K and M did only marginally better as the man spoke very, very fast. When we finished our tasting, we bought a bottle and headed to downtown Neuchâtel where we met up with Sarala, Claire, and Sacha, coworkers that also know Charlotte. We enjoyed the early evening in the Place des Halles, sipping local wines, and then Sarala and Claire joined the three of us for dinner at the Cardinal Brasserie. Dinner was delicious- M and Sarala had constructed veggie plates and the other three each ordered big buckets of mussels.
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| Cigognier Sanctuary |
Sunday morning was leisurely. M made scones for breakfast, and then we went for a walk down by the lake. Unfortunately, halfway through our walk, the sky opened up, and we wound up in the middle of a downpour. By the time, we had dried up a bit it was time to head back to the apartment and take Charlotte to the train station for her trip to Stuttgart.
The following weekend, on Saturday, we caught up to a lakeside pub crawl sponsored by some members of the Neuchatel International Club, of which we were members last year. We were about 2 hours behind the start, but we managed to catch up near Auvernier and stopped at 3 places with the small group before we took the tram back to Neuchatel.
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| Roman Theater |
Sunday, with the gorgeous, warm weather, we decided to picnic down by lake. We stuffed a bag full of radish and camembert sandwiches, chips, and cold white wine, and biked down to the lake near the big pools. We had a wonderful lunch on the grass under a shady tree with the lake and the Alps laid out before us. After lunch, we met up with Sarala and Claire and biked, mostly along a canal to Le Landeron, a half kilometer from Lac de Bienne. We had ice cream and beer before we biked back to Neuchatel.
This Friday night, after a long work week, we went over to our coworker Lindsay's apartment (building next door) for a wine and cheese tasting party. We had a great time, had Swiss, Belgian, Dutch and Spanish cheeses and an equally varied selection of wines. Additionally, there was American-style spinach dip flavored with imported Ranch seasoning; what a trip! It was a really pleasant evening with the food and drink and chatting.
This past weekend, we decided to go back to Avenches to find the rest of the Roman ruins. The village of Avenches overlaps with the ancient Roman city of
Aventicum, the capital of Helvetians. Today, there is a Roman archeological museum in the tower behind the amphitheater that houses many of the findings from the area. The
Roman archeological monuments of the area, which include the amphitheater, the theater, thermal baths, and the city wall, are open to the public. Most of them are within easy walking distance of one another. We started again at the amphitheater and then walked from the Cigognier Sanctuary with its two standing columns to the Roman theater (at which an Alpen horn ensemble was practicing) to the East Gate.
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| M at the East Gate of Aventicum |
The East Gate includes a portion of the city's walls, as well as a tower known as Tornallaz, which is known a conglomeration of Roman, medieval and early 20th century architecture. You can climb up on the wall and in the tower for a nice view of the area. After we played and explored the wall and tower for a bit, we headed back towards the theater and across the corn and wheat fields to find the covered thermal baths. The baths are enclosed so you can't play in them, but you can see parts of the tiled floor and the columns that supported the floor for the hot and warm rooms. You can walk around and get a feel for the different areas of the baths. After the baths, we walked through another field to the road and then headed back to our car.
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| La Tornallaz |
Sunday we lazed about the apartment with the cats. Ken managed to get a pretty nice sunburn across his stomach from a leisurely day of reading outside.
Lessons Learned:
1. Black currants (cassis) and red currants (raisinet or groseille) are two very different fruits. The black currants are considerably larger and have a piney, astringent taste. The red currants are tart and sweet and are considerably softer than the black variety. We prefer the red currants.
2. Even when it's not that hot out, you should still make sure you have on sunscreen when you are outside in "high-altitude" Switzerland.
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| Ken climbing up Tornallaz |
