Black Forest Museum, Arrival in Murten, Day 7

Day 7 of our trip was another long bus ride day. We traveled to Murten, Switzerland, via some very scenic routes. We left Baden-Baden and drove along the Black Forest to the Black Forest Museum. The museum is an open-air museum with houses that were brought in from all over the region, rebuilt and set up so that the historical and cultural folk-ways of the area are preserved. Most of the houses had thatch roofs which caused problems with my hay allergies, so I was really only able to enjoy this museum from the outside. They had goats, calves, chickens, etc., and while it was somewhat interesting (what I could stand to see) I could have lived without the stop.

We ate lunch in the stalls at the entrance to the museum, then as a group had black forest cake and cherry schnaaps. The schnaaps were horrible, but the cake was quite yummy. It's chocolate cake with cherries, cream and almond icing. I think there are some schnaaps in there as well.

It was back to the bus for a long drive into Murten. We arrived in the late afternoon and as we were getting our room assignments on the bus, Rolika, our tour guide, said "Aah, David and Leslie have the best room in the house." So, everyone in the tour group had to come look at our room. We had a huge room with a dinette and refrigerator, large bed and a real soaking bathtub. The tub was set up righ in the middle of the room. It was hilarious. Then Ernie, another of our tour guides, had the most "interesting" room so we all traipsed to Ernie's room to see his round bed.

It was free time after that, and David and I headed out to dinner at an Italian place. It was excellent. We then decided there was enough light to head out to the ramparts and play around up there, but we had left our camera in the room, so we went back to get it, only to duck in the hotel door as the skies opened up. I decided that was a sign that I needed my nice long bath right then and there, so that's what we did for the rest of the evening.

Murten is a wonderfully cute little town. They have taken it off of the Germany, Austria, Switzerland tour to shorten the tour and save a little money. I am disappointed because, while the Berner Oberland is awesome, Murten and Lake Geneva (which I'll discuss in my next entry) were really wonderful and show a completely different part of Switzerland. The historical ramparts are amazing. I've not seen the likes anywhere in my travels in Europe. I'll have pics of them up on the next blog entry as well.