Neuchâtel (9/27/1981)

Sunday, September 27, 1981

Decided to sleep late. In the wee hours of the night, I suddenly remembered this was the night to turn the clocks back to regular time.  Woke up “late” at 8:30. Later when I went to the train station, I saw the new sculpture out front, depicting skinny iron figures of perhaps children.

Biel Bahnhofplatz/Train Station Square sculpture

Caught the 11:04 train to Neuchâtel where they were having the Winzerfest/Winegrowers Festival that weekend. I arrived in 20 minutes. Kids were selling programs for 2 CHF/$1, not free like in Geneva. Saw signs pointing to the Fête des Vendanges/Grape Harvest Festival. A couple bands started parading down the hill and I walked alongside.

Marching bands

Cars pulled off to the side of the road and the trolley buses followed behind. Down at the lakefront, there were stands selling all kinds of food, some flea market stalls, and carnival rides and games. The carnival was even bigger than in Geneva with more sophisticated rides. Kids were selling bags of confetti from crude wooden wagons. The area was very crowded and only the trolley buses were allowed to pass through. There were a scattering of food and souvenir booths even beyond the waterfront.

Place Numa Droz

Carnival rides

From Place Numa Droz, I saw a very modern tram down a side street. It was gone by the time I got to Place Pury, but I saw that this was a transportation hub with all sorts of buses and trolley buses. Walked over to Place des Halles where a huge tent was set up for a popular music band. Buildings around this square seemed very old and the Renaissance les Halles house was particularly impressive.

Place des Halles

Maison des Halles (1569)

Took the pedestrian-only street up to Rue du Château/Castle Street with a typical fountain.

Fontaine du Banneret/Banner-bearer Fountain (1581)

I had heard that once wine was used in a fountain to commemorate certain events. I found another fountain farther up Rue du Château; perhaps this was the wine fountain since it had a griffin.

Fontaine du Griffon/Griffin Fountain (1664)

Château de Neuchâtel/Castle (late 10th century)

Rooftops

Continued up some stairs to the La Collégiale de Neuchâtel/Collegiate Church (1270-1280) with its brightly colored tile roof. Inside it was dark and drab with many statues of the Counts of Neuchâtel. Walked around outside the church, which appeared to be surrounded by the castle walls.

La Collégiale de Neuchâtel/Collegiate Church

La Collégiale de Neuchâtel/Collegiate Church

Found a nice simple cloister. Limped downhill back to the festival; the knee was acting up again.

Cloister

Old town stairs

Walked along the boat-filled port to Osterwaldquai with its “sculpted” flower beds.

Port

Hôtel des Postes/Post Office

As I rounded the western end of the quai, I saw along the lake the modern tram approaching, so I hurried to arrive at Place Pury when it did.

Tram along lakefront

Tram at Place Pury

It was an articulated light-rail train with a pantograph. There were a couple ultra-modern ticket vending machines in the square.

I went to the Musée d'art et d'histoire/Museum of Art & History but couldn’t find the entrance because of plywood barricades. Apparently the parade was about to begin. I did not go to see this parade; and I was not enticed by the fact that often people on the floats handed out glasses of wine! Saw where they are turning a parking lot into a park.

Went to the Hôtel Du Peyrou, a magnificent 18th century building with a lovely garden out front.

Hôtel Du Peyrou (1764-71)

Returned to the train station to catch the 13:51 train back to Biel. Looking at the vineyards, it doesn’t seem like the grapes are ripened yet!