We left Interlaken and made our way to another lake town, Estavayer-de-Lac. This little town had been on and off our schedule multiple times as we plotted and re-plotted our path into and through Switzerland. Estavayer is a little medieval town on the southeast bank of Lake Neuchatel. And though not necessarily a tourist hotspot, we were heading there to visit friends.
Zarina and her husband Jean-François had invited us to their home(s), yes, that’s plural, but more on that in a minute, and we were happy that the timing finally worked out. Zarina and I attended school together at TASIS in Lugano when we were teenagers. And though we were a year apart and on opposite sides of the campus, it takes only a genuine invitation and a warm welcome to make the years melt away.
We met at the sailing club where we parked Bijou, then we headed to their place for a delicious lunch. I had emailed Zarina to let her know that I wanted to cook dinner one night for the gang, and I mentioned that I was pretty good in the kitchen. It was during preparations for lunch that I discovered Jean-François is a professional chef. LOL, oh how I wish I had kept my mouth shut! After he busted out a gorgeous lunch of sauteed fish and Moroccan-spiced lamb served with multiple dishes of fresh vegetables from his garden, I enlisted him as my sous chef. He made quick work of my two measly onions and garlic cloves for my chocolate chili. What I would give for such knife skills! He added a couple of chilis and fresh tomatoes from his garden and we turned the burner on the lowest setting and headed back to the yacht club. We were going sailing!
It was a sunny day, so perfect for being out on the water, unfortunately, there wasn’t much wind. Jean-François has an app on his phone that tells him when and where there is wind, so we went out on the lake to find it, and find it we did! Sailing seems to me to be a lot of work, pulling this line and that one, making little adjustments that do something or other. Steven and I are clueless, so we mostly tried to just stay out of the way and not lose a finger or fall overboard. Why, oh, why can’t I be a good Pisces?
Zarina’s daughter Charlotte and her adorable baby Frankie joined us for dinner. If I say so myself, the chocolate chili was an especially tasty batch and the cornbread was delicious. Maybe that’s just the Texan in me, but yummy. That dinner would be the very last cooking I was involved in during our entire stay and I can only say it was a glorious break for me. Starting with breakfast the next morning, we were spoiled for choice with good food and drink and it was such a wonderful treat. Jean-Francois makes his own jams and we were gifted a few jars for which we are so appreciative.
The next day we packed up and headed for our hosts’ mountain home in the wonderful Swiss ski village of Grimentz. At an elevation of just over 5,000 feet, Bijou had some climbing to do. It’s times like this that I am so glad Bijou is a stick-shift and not automatic. She seems to love the mountains!
We parked up on a fairly severe slant, but the brakes on and chocks under her tires and hoped we didn’t find her at the bottom of the hill in the morning! We got settled into our room in the condo and took a walk around town. Grimentz is such a cute place, known for the red geraniums folks put in their flower boxes. It takes just a few minutes to walk around town, as it is quite small in the center. But the side of every mountain is filled with holiday homes. As I’ve said before, there is no mountain the Swiss can’t build on or tunnel through!
We had expected rainy weather, so when the skies cleared a bit, we took off to the nearby glacier with all the makings of a delicious happy hour. I can honestly say it was one of the most beautiful places we’ve enjoyed our libations. Wild camping is allowed along the lake at the bottom of the glacier, but on the way there, the narrow and steep road made me think twice about taking Bijou there. Yet, once we got to the lake, there were plenty of rigs our size and bigger parked up with the most beautiful views. If we had been staying longer perhaps we might have ventured up there, who knows.
The next day we once again were expecting rain, but none came. We made our way from one mountain to another to attend a jazz concert in the neighboring village of St. Luc. It was a stunning setting, but I’m gonna be honest and tell you, it wasn’t really my kind of music. Frankly, I thought they were just warming up the whole time. But everyone else, including Steven, seemed to enjoy it, except for this other lady who desperately wanted to dance, or at least sway, but it just wasn’t swayable jazz, so she finally gave up. I admired her spirit, though, and her smile never left her face.
To get to the location of the concert we had to take a fairly steep funicular ride up, but after the concert we decided to walk back down. I thought it was going to be a nice mosey, stopping along the way to pick blueberries for our breakfast pancakes the following morning. Everything was going swimmingly until I heard Steven say, “Uh, oh, she’s not gonna like this!” What’s funny about that is he thought the part I wasn’t going to like was just a small section, like taking the shortcut between two big switchbacks. Turns out this is how the entire trail was gonna be for the rest of our hike, downhill shortcuts without the switchbacks! It was steep, and went on forever. In total our hike was 5.5 kilometers and we went descended over 2,000 feet! If I had known what to expect, I’m not so sure I would have taken on this challenge, so I’m glad I didn’t know, because I really enjoyed this hike.
When we got back to the condo I submerged myself into the bathtub and stayed there with my glass (*cough* bottle) of wine until I soaked away the pain. I was sore for a week afterward, but I’d do it again. That’s easy to say because we are far away from there, but, yeah, I think I’d do it again.
The following morning as we enjoyed our delicious blueberry pancakes, we decided it would be best for us to get Bijou off the mountain. Zarina and Jean-François had to return home and to work the next morning. We had considered moving over to an aire in the town where we could sit for a few days and get some chores done. That would have been lovely, except there was a storm on the way and with it, some snow and ice. It would have been fun to experience Grimentz and the surrounding areas with snow, and Bijou is capable of keeping us quite warm, but we didn’t want to get stuck up there and have to drive down in less than optimal conditions. So we said our goodbyes and headed down. We had such a wonderful time with Zarina and Jean-François who spoiled us to pieces and we are so very appreciative of their hospitality. Just to make sure we see them again, Steven and I left behind our hats. No, we really didn’t do that on purpose, but we do intend to retrieve them at some point. 🙂
Steven had located a campground that accepted our ACSI discount card – there are not many of them in Switzerland – and we headed there to hunker down for three days. We didn’t get much rain or any kind of inclement weather, so we managed to get in a few bike rides, some shopping and of course, the never-ending chores. We had been keeping an eye on the weather in Lugano, our next destination, and it looked like we were two days away from a week of gorgeous weather. It was time to go.
As the crow flies, Lugano was not far from where we camped, but between us were some fairly significant mountains. These are not ones we want to drive over in Bijou after three days of snowfall. The alternative was to head back toward Lucerne, which itself was about a three-hour drive around more mountains, then make our way to Lugano. It would be a long day. Jean-Francois had mentioned something about a car train/ferry, and I had also seen it on Google Maps, as in “this route requires a car ferry”. I had no idea what that was and didn’t even know enough to ask about it. But as we were driving to the campground, I had seen signs of a car on a train platform, so I decided to check into it. Sure enough, there was a car train not far from us that would take us through the mountains and cut off nearly two hours of our drive back to Lucerne. Because we’d never been on a car (land) ferry before and had no idea how it worked, we of course fretted about it. Turns out it could not have been easier. We bought our ticket online, drove to the train station (at 4,000 feet!) and literally drove right onto the train. It was a 15 minute ride through the mountain tunnels and then we arrived, drove off and that was that!
We could have driven on to Lugano, but we had found a gorgeous spot to boondock overnight and we wanted to take advantage of the weather to enjoy the views. It was such an amazing place, overlooking the gorgeous Lake Lucerne. I think it will have to go to the top of my list of “Most Beautiful Places We Have Stayed”. The next morning, though, the rain and wind came and so we made our way to Lugano. Fortunately, we avoided mountain passes by going through multiple tunnels, including the Gotthard, which is nearly 17 kilometers long. We arrived in Lugano in the pouring rain and settled in for what was coming: a week of glorious sunshine and warm temps.
UP NEXT: Lugano: A Homecoming
~
So happy you found the boon docking spot in Hergiswil, with it’s amazing view of Lake Lucerne. We too stayed there overnight (August 2019), although it was a tight squeeze with 3 other motorhomes/vans … so much so that (having parked in the left-hand space) we managed to leave a wee dent in that green rubbish bin!
Oh dear, poor trash can! And I hope it didn’t put a dent in your camping car! That last space to the left was the longest, but it was lacking a view with the hedges grown so high. We squeezed into the slot on the right and were in position before anyone else showed up, so they had to work around us! Hope you guys are doing well, still in the UK?
Missing Texas?? hahahahahahahaha…. too bad, so sad that you are away suring this election season…
I AM SO ENVIOUS!
You have no idea how happy we are to be missing this election season. I have snoozed every news site, and every one who constantly posts political messages for the next 30 days. I am doing my best to stay focused on our travels and not the news. And that cornbread? I just happened to have a few mixes that I brought for our trip to Norway, which of course didn’t happen. Maybe next year, although we will have eaten all the food we brought from the states by then!
What a fabulous time for y’all! Were those yummy nasturtiums I saw on your lovely salad at your red champagne meal? I’m hungry just looking at all the lovely food❤️
Yes, don’t those flowers make the salad look so beautiful? I’d never had red champagne before and it was delicious! The food was really lovely, as were our hosts. We had such an enjoyable time with them.
Sailing in Switzerland while being hosted by a professioal chef……..you are living the dream!! So many stunning pics. That hike definitely looks grueling but I love the planet sculptures and that lovely water fall. All those unmasked faces sitting so close together looks even scarier! I’m assuming the numbers are way down over there – must be nice. I know your chili was a big hit. I can think of so many ways those train ferries could be used here in the states – what a great idea! Your top spot is magical, so, so pretty. Loving your travels and missing you both.
Switzerland only required masks inside and everyone had them for that purpose. In Italy, though, masks are required inside and outside! That was announced a couple of days after we got there. We thought it would be in effect on the 9th, but it was the 8th. So we were walking around without a mask and a guy came up to us and told us in no uncertain terms that masks were required in Italy. We thanked him and put them on. 100 percent compliance! Sure, there are grumbles, but they do it. Refreshing!
WELL!!! Those are some LONG tunnels!!! Once again wonderful pics…..
Thanks, Delores! Seventeen kilometers is a long tunnel indeed! I read about a fire they had in there when a fuel truck was hit and it exploded. Can you imagine? I kept my eye on all the exits as we passed by just in case…
That Lugano view was definitely one of the best I’ve seen posted from anyone! And we need to find a personal chef. Such an awesome visit with your friends. Looking forward to the next installment.
The photo of the boondocking spot was Lake Lucerne. You might be confusing it with the gorgeous photo of Lake Lugano I posted on Facebook. In any case, yes, they are both stunning. Yes, how lucky are we to have folks who open their homes to us in such beautiful places. And the food…you know I love the food! Looking forward to following you building adventures!
Just to many gorgeous spots that I get confused! You guys are lucky to have so many stunning places to admire from your front window. Building from scratch has certainly been an “adventure”. Keeping us busy for sure.
What an awesome hike!!! Loved the lake picture! Delicious food and wine. Nice visit!!
That hike would be right up your alley! And the recovery wasn’t bad either! 🙂
Wow!!! You know how to pick excellent friends!!! All of the food looks outstanding. Oh, and so does the scenery, LOL. That video made me dizzy, though.
The actual experience of the drive up and the train was dizzying enough, but when you speed it up, it is worse! And I agree about our friends!
Wow…spectacular friends, food, scenery, and a train ride!
Safe travels!
Thanks! If you haven’t visited Switzerland yet, put it on your list when things calm down! It’s special.
What a wonderful visit with ole friends and a chef to boot. The places you are visiting are stunning. I am almost certain you are ready for that hike again…..
Yeah, that was a pretty awesome recipe for recovery, right? I know you’re out there hiking and biking you should try it. 🙂
You two post the most amazing videos. Thank you so very much!
Thanks, Donna! That’s all Steven’s handiwork, he films while I drive!
That short video was INSANE!
I know! It made me a little woozy when I first saw it, and I was there!
Wow Lake Lucerne is gorgeous. So glad you got to spend time with friends!
Loving the blog but where are you now? We’ve just passed a couple in Porec and thought they might be you guys. Safe travels