Switzerland

Finally got to Switzerland - but border posts both French and Swiss appeared to be totally deserted.  Decided to head for the grand St Bernard Pass, intending to look at the museum there. This involved ascending and descending the Col de la Forclaz, and then ascending to the col of St Bernard. By the time we got to the top, we needed a cup of tea but the gas wouldn´t light due to the altitude. Everywhere covered in snow, and the few people there were speaking Italian. Went to get coffee and cake in a cafe, and OUCH, it cost and arm and a leg. The museum did  not open for the season until the next day. Having already done two ups and one down, we then had to go back down. Our cooking gas by this time was getting a bit low, having changed to the reserve tank, so we asked at the next town if they had LPG or GPL (which is what it is known as in France), but they looked at us as if we were from another planet. Moved on to a motorway service area, and they did not have it, but the girl dfirected us to another station to buy ´Gas Natural` so we could now cook again, and keep our fridge cold.

Found an aire at Champery, and stopped overnight in what is essentially a supermarket car park.  The Euro Relais (Service Point) was not working so the man from the supermarket helped us to plug in to the shop cellar power point, but we had to buy yet another electric adaptor plug for our cable. This meant we were using three separate adaptors to plug into Swiss power. Supermarket does a lovely selction of Toblerone and Swiss Army knives.

Rudely awoken the following morning by a herd of cows being driven, clanking, up the street. Drove on to Vevey near Montreux, to find the English church there ready for Sunday. When we eventually found the campsite, we were pleased to find it was 20 Francs per night (roughly 15 pounds) per night.

Church was absolutely packed on Sunday. After the gathering, when the children went out, it was reduced by about a third. There is a weekly congregation of about 300 divided between 2 services.

After church we got the trolleybus to Chillon, which is through the other side of Montreux. The castle here is very interesting, dating back to before 13th Century. Audio guided tours ( available in at least 5 languages), gave many details of the history and growth of the castle.

Early impressions of Swizerland - generally more expensive, and drivers don`t know how to indicate. Also the French they speak does not sound very French to me - more like French with a heavy dutch accent.