Today Esther joined us for our ride out to Lake Neuchatel. We left Bern around 9.30am after another excellent breakfast prepared by Esther. It was great having a local guide to take us out of town and onto the cycle route 9. The route went mostly through farmland and we admired the steep pitched roofs of the farmhouses typical of the area. The wheat fields are getting ripe and are now a yellow colour. There was also corn, and lots of vegetables near the lake. Esther explained that the small village of Rosshausen means “horse house” – however there were no horses in sight.

      

The first village of notable size was Laupen – after a good little downhill run. We stopped for water from the central village fountain. Most of the village fountains in Switzerland have water that is good enough to drink.

27km into our ride we stopped to celebrate our 3000’th kilometre of the trip so far.

We had another fantastic downhill run and huge view coming into Murten, complete with lake and castle.

         

We passed along the east side of the Murtensee and then a little way along a highway. Esther suggested a left turn, which took us onto quieter roads and across a little bridge over a river. There were many people out on the river on boats. We rode alongside this river for a while, on the flats between the two lakes.

The Marin-Epagnier campground where we stayed is only about six kilometres from the Neuchatel town. We stopped to check it out and decided that we would stay there for the night, so we set the tent up.

There was a beach on the lake by the campground, full of families and children paddling in the shallow water. It was very beautiful – the lake is large and surrounded by mountains in the far distance. The water is very clear. Neuchatel is the largest Swiss lake that is entirely surrounded by Switzerland (The Bodensee is much bigger, but is partly in Germany).

We ate some nectarines and also had a paddle in the lake, the water was warm and refreshing. Then we cycled into Neuchatel to find the station, as Esther had to return to Bern by train. We did some shopping at a small supermarket near the station. Most shops are closed on Sunday’s in Switzerland, except some near petrol stations or train stations. There was a nice looking cafe nearby, with outdoor seating so we had some beers and a rice dish.

After seeing Esther off, Kris and I returned to the camp-ground to do our washing. We had our late on a bench by the lake, complete with some red wine.