Saturday 4th October 2008 – Romont, Switzerland

We had ordered four bread rolls at the campsite and Jane picked them up before breakfast – they cost nearly £2.50 – Switzerland is very expensive! After eating £1.25's worth of rolls, we followed the Garmin's suggested route that took us towards Lucerne. The area around that city was busy and densely populated but the roads started to get quieter as we headed on towards Berne. Soon we were in Alpine scenery and in two villages we came across decorated cows being lead down from the high pasture to their winter quarters. This was obviously similar to the event that we witnessed in Zell am Ziller but the traditional Swiss costumes of the cowherds here was quite different and there was also a distinct lack of tourists watching. The weather could have been kinder for them as it was raining sleeting and hailing. At times the snow level was only about 50m above the road.
When we got to Fribourg we noticed a sudden change – all of the road signs had changed from German to French and the names of the villages became French. It seemed very strange to be in the same country and to see such an overt change of language. Unlike the move from England to Wales, where the signs are in both languages, there was no assistance for the German (or Italian) speaking Swiss. Fribourg itself was very pretty, a river ran in a deep gorge and the town perched on cliffs above. It looked really attractive and it definitely deserves a longer visit – when its not raining.
We arrived at Romont and found the camperstop against the walls of the Mediaeval town. The weather was improving and we decided to investigate the town. There are six towers around the town that is situated on a hill with commanding views over the countryside. We walked up to the highest level and were amazed at the view of the distant mountains. The dense black and white clouds of earlier had cleared and the sun was shining on the mountains, covered in snow. They looked extremely pretty and, although we saw some snow on the peaks, we hadn't realised how much had fallen. The 13th century Château of the town (it would have been called a Schloss if we had seen it earlier in the day) was also very attractive and had a huge animal-powered wheel to raise water from its 40m deep well.
We returned to Henrietta and I discovered that there were electric sockets on the camperstop services stand, so I connected up and it worked. A free camperstop with electricity, next to a very pretty Mediaeval town - perfect!
Photos: Jane climbs the many steps to the top of Romont town; The 13th century 'Tour a Boyer' – the door at the bottom was a late 19th century addition – the original door is the one half way up; One part of the mountain view from the town; The Romont Château; A familiar name of a hotel or pub – The Golden Lion.