Tuesday 4 October: Switzerland

Our overnight train from Rome was quite comfortable. We woke early to see little wooden houses, lakes and snow-capped mountains - we had arrived in Switzerland!

The train was an hour late leaving Rome, so we asked the conductor if it would be on time arriving at Speitz. "I don't know" (?!!) A train conductor who doesn't know if his train is on time? Anyhow, we assumed it would be late and unhurriedly got dressed and started packing. All of a sudden he was banging on our door - We're in Speitz. You have to get off! Hurry! Hurry! (Did I mention he's Italian?) So it was a somewhat undignified entry to Switzerland.

At Speitz we transferred to a regional train to Interlaken then walked to the Goldey hotel. Interlaken is a small town totally devoted to tourism. It is in a lovely setting on the river between two lakes, surrounded by mountains. There are a large number of hotels, restaurants and gift shops. However there are none of the crowds or gaudy tackiness we have seen elsewhere. This place is a class act.

The Goldey really impressed us when we arrived. The receptionist welcomed us warmly and offered us coffee and something to eat.

Book it to our room.
Don't worry about that - it's on the house.

Although the official check-in time was 13:00, our room was made ready by 10:30. There is a very comfortable lounge overlooking the river, and free afternoon coffee and cake. (Well, not really free - it's a fairly expensive hotel). The place is very much the preserve of the older set - I think we're the youngest guests. But it has a wonderful friendly comfortable ambience. Not cheap but highly recommended.

We spent most of the day exploring the town (didn't take long) and doing our washing (which did take quite a while). We were impressed by the friendliness of the locals - even the laundromat attendant (a very elderly lady) walked with us all the way to the nearest ATM to make sure we found it OK.

We like the place so much we've changed our plans to stay an extra day. We have dropped Nimes and Millau from the itinerary and substituted one night in Geneva. From there we'll take the TGV direct to Paris.