Urban golfing in Fribourg

We started the day with a little unconventional city tour. Golfing through the city combined with sightseeing and discovering new places. The golf clubs you can get at the tourist office of Fribourg and don't worry you reach   It is good if you have enough time to take this special tour of the city because you definitely discover interesting things and stunning views along the way. Our personal favourite was the hole No. 5.

Golfing in the city

Hole Nr. 5 - what a great view of Fribourg!

Focus

Back swing

Drive off & cup

Enjoying the view along the golf tracks

A long the way we discovered "Le Port", a very nice, little, green oasis. It is definitely an insider tip for all visitors of Fribourg. This cool place only pops up in summertime and offers homemade specialties in its restaurant accompanied by a rich cultural programme. What an extraordinary place to spend a sunny summer evening.

A green garden with many things to discover

Lovely graden & decors

At "le Port" its self-service at the bar

The bar in the inside of the storehouse

Cute gifts - homemade specialties

Ingredients are freshly grown in their own garden

Enjoying the drinks in the garden

We simply love this place

On our way back to the city

Fribourg also a place for cute little grocery stores like this one

Back to the center with the funicular

A night in Wonderland

When we entered this charming old mansion we knew right away it is a special place - Auberge aux 4 Vents. It has so many things to discover. The furniture is somehow wildly mixed together but also inherently consistent - a mixture of elegance and craziness. The way we felt was exactly how I imagine Alice must have felt when she found herself in wonderland.

Reception area and dining room

Garden view of the Auberge Aux 4 Vents

The yard of the Auberge is such a relaxing place that it attracts visitors from all over. If you don't have enough money to spend the night a this wonderful place you should at least pay it a visit and have a coffee or stay for dinner. It is definitely worthwhile. 

Crazy and original - the garden decors 

The garden

Nice and relaxing - the pool

We spend the night at the room called Babylone. Each room has a different name and a complete different furniture. 

The inside of our room "Babylone" - as if reverted to another time

Fancy bathroom

The bed

Our room definitely had the best view. Through the trees you can see the bridge and the church tower of Fribourg. 

A room with a view

Of course we were curious how all the other rooms would look like. Since the these unique designed room are what the place is famous for we had to take a sneak peak. Luckily the room all have some kind of binoculars on the doors where you can see staged scene of the room with people in it. 

Steffi is checking out our neighbours room

Big barbecue for dinner

Our delicious dinner fresh from the barbecue

We had the best night of sleep and woke up relaxed and ready for some more adventures. But at first we wanted to fully enjoy the delicious breakfast in the garden with the sun.

Morning glory

Breakfast buffet

Spectacular Creux du Van

Our way along the Grand Tour of Switzerland kept leading us to one of Switzerland's most spectacular sights, the Creux du Van.  This definitely belongs on every bucket list. 

On the way to another highlight of our tour

 Once again we had to leave Paul & Paula behind and start a hike through the beautiful landscapes of the Jura. The reload our batteries we decided to take a little break at "Le Soliat". This nice little restaurant is situated just 300 meters apart from the incredible rock formation.

Le Soliat from afar 

The food served here is mostly directly form the region or even self produced, like the fresh stone oven bread. Interesting is that the restaurant does not use electricity for the preparation of the food, which makes this place even more special.

Regional specialties

The donkey in the yard

After our break we were ready for the excitement and the great view of the alps. We walked straight to the Creux du Van and started the panorama hike along this impressive rock formation. The funny  this is, whenever someone (Swiss people included) sees these pictures of the Creux du Van, they ask  where it is. And guess what? No one would ever imaging it is in Switzerland.

Enjoying a spectacular view

Are we still in Switzerland?

Obligatory photo stop

Joking around at the edge

Back to the safety zone

What a wonderful day

Making new friends

"Route de l'Absinthe"

Back on the road again we made our way on the "Route de l'Absinthe" through the wonderful Val de Travers. This beautiful valley extends from the Lake Neuenburg across the Jura all the way to the French border. Excited to learn more about the myth of the Green Fairy we were looking for a distillery that goes way back to the time when absinthe used to be prohibited and the distiller had to work in secret. 

Route de l'Absinthe, Val de Travers

The drive through the valley offered us a perfect sight of green meadows, pine forests, precipitous chalk formations and Jura hills. 

Val de Travers

Along the way we came across several small towns and decided to try our luck in the village of Môtiers where the famous philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau used to live in the 18th century. To find a perfect parking space is not always easy with Paul & Paula but fortunately as we were we found an ideal space for our Fiat500 and our retro carriage close to the train station.

The perfect parking spot for an extra large vehicle

By foot we started to discover the town and soon discovered the distillery Absinthe Bovet La Valote. The history of this distillery goes way back, exactly what we were looking for. As we later heard Willy Bovet the owner of the distillery learned his trade from Robert Bollier, a secret absinthe distiller. Producing absinthe one must have a comprehensive know-how since every grasp and every act involve a number of secrets. Until today Willy Bovet cherishes and protects these secrets.

Distillery Absinthe B

At the distillery Willy Bovets daughter showed us everything about absinthe. We got to know the different spices and plants, we could have a look at the room where the absinthe is distilled and she also showed us all the different products that they produce at the distillery.

The best part of it was of course the degustation. Sabine only took a sniff and a teeny tiny little sip because she still had to drive for a while but the others tried the different types of absinthe, each stronger as the one before. An interesting thing about absinthe is, that it changes its colour when it comes in contact with water. The clear schnaps turns into a milky substance. That's also why people colloquially like to call it milk.

Absinthe degustation

From Lausanne to Yverdon

After our way through the alps with lots of mountains, we went trough a totally different landscape with vineyards.
We passed Lausanne and saw the famous Rolex learning center of the EPFL. All students are jealous of this 20,000 sq metres building with it's libraries, it's social spaces and spaces to study.

Rolex learning center of the EPFL.

The castle of Vufflens is one of our discovery on our way to St. Georges.

Castle of Vufflens (in the region of Morges).

On our way through the canton Vaud.

 At St. Georges, a little village at 936 meters, we decided to have a break. As it was Sunday, we couldn't go into the cheese diary of the village. But to our surprise, the little shop of the village is open even on Sundays!

The little shop in St. Georges.

Although it is a little shop, you can find special type of cheese from the diary next to it. Evelin's favorite: the paprika cheese.

Special cheese from the cheese diary that you can find in the shop of the village.

After a little snack, we were ready to continue our trip.

View on our way to Yverdon-les-Bains.

In the evening, we finally arrived at Yverdon-les-Bains. After parking Paul & Paula at the camping next to the sea, we decided to have a little walk through the town.

View onto the castle.

Prohibition sign with a new look.

The place of Pestalozzi is the ideal place to have a drink or to enjoy a good dinner. We decided to go to the "Restaurant de la Place".

Place of Pestalozzi in the center of Yverdon-les-Bains.

Sabine's appetizing dinner.

Evelin's appetizing dinner.