Changing of the guard

Our bike tour arrived at Buckingham Palace just as the guard were marching by.

May 2012

In May, we went for a hike near Solothurn with friends from Minnesota who are now working at Cambridge University, but were in Switzerland doing research that week. Zak ran four of the six Tour de Canton races, and I nearly photographed him once. We celebrated our second wedding anniversary. And we took a long weekend trip up to southern Germany to visit a friend from our Portland days. Paul took us punting on the Neckar River in Tübingen, to Bebenhausen Abbey, and to Hohenzollern Castle, and shared his encyclopedic knowledge of European church history with us.

Château de Colombier

 

I love the variety of shapes and sizes in the building material of Colombier's château.

(As the last four posts have shown, Neuchâtel and its neighboring towns are predominately yellow and grey.) 

Spiez castle

On Friday, we scheduled a two-hour stopover in Spiez, just enough time for a picnic lunch and quick tour of the town's castle, which sits on a narrow strip of land jutting into Lake Thun.

Lord Byron, tourist

Byron was one of many tourists to leave his mark at the castle. He wrote a poem, The Prisoner of Chillon,

after his visit, inspired by a man who was imprisoned in the dungeon of the castle for six years.

Château de Chillon

The Château de Chillon sits about four kilometers south of Montreux. We walked along the 

beautifully landscaped lake shore, stopping along the way for a picnic lunch.

Avenches

We revisited Avenches on Saturday. Another view of the Roman amphitheater with the chateau and older

part of town in the background.

Avenches château (part 2)

Carvings over the entryway to the castle.

Avenches château

Avenches' castle, built in the mid-1500s.

Thun's castle museum

We stopped in Thun (pronounced "tune") on our way to the Alps to meet up with a friend of Katie's 

and to visit the Schlossmuseum Thun. One of five castles built around Lake Thun, it is now 

a museum of local history, with great views of the town, lake and mountains.

Neuchâtel skyline

Neuchâtel is named for the new castle that was built here in 1011. This is a view from the hill 

where the castle sits. The belltower of the Eglise Rouge can be seen in the distance.