European trip....the last post.

After Interlaken, we drove into France to a site we had stayed at 5 years before.

The chick on the saddle is my grandaughters and she lent him to us for the trip but had to have his picture taken wherever we stopped.

It was interesting going back to Colmar, just to see how much things have changed.
Colmar is old town and over the years has gone back and for between France to Germany.  Its microclimate is one of the driest in France and the area is ideal for wine growing.

It's also famous for being the birthplace of  Frederic Bartholdi who designed the Statue of Liberty.

From Colmar, we moved onto to just outside of Reims and stayed in the lovely quiet village of Guinicourt.

Quiet that is until we discovered a Motorbike festival was on over the weekend.

I thoroughly enjoyed as there were some fantastic machines there.

Onto Reims for the cultural bit because when in Reims you have to go to the cathedral.

After Reims we made our way back to Calais and home via the horrible M26 and M25.  Driving on these roads is a complete contrast to the European roads, which are far more relaxing to drive on and I found that the drivers were better and more considerate than in the UK.

All in all, we did about 2000 miles which when spread over a month is not a hardship.

European Trip ....part three

 Interlaken.

Interlaken is built on a narrow valley between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.  The town itself is on either side of the river Aire and is an interesting mixture of old and new buildings.  You have modern stores and then further along the same road, you come across a traditional Swiss farm complete with cows in the fields, and then further along more shops.

The river Aire

with fish ladder

Not a bad view from the van.  The Eiger is there somewhere but because of the cloud cover we only saw it once, and that was a fleeting glimpse.

Again, using the campsite you get free local transport to get around the area. 

Aquilegia was everywhere.

A local resident

Switzerland is so clean and tidy, no litter anywhere and should there be any litter then people just pick it up and bin it.  Even smokers don't throw their cigarette stubs on the ground.
Interlaken was super clean and at the station, they even painted the trees.

A beautiful place to visit, and so pleased to have been there.   We stayed here a week and could easily have stayed longer as there was plenty to do and see.