John Edward Cooper’s Notes

DAY 8
RETURN FLIGHT
You transfer by coach back to Geneva airport for your return flight back to the UK.

Janet wrote: “As usual, I took about an hour to ‘drop off’ [to sleep], then awoke before 6am and dozed — ‘our’ swifts [were audible] outside from first light. [I got] up [at] 8am.”
 I got up, and shaved and showered, as usual, after Janet vacated the bathroom. After shaving, I returned the shaver adapter to reception, at the same time asking for our invoice (printed, 09:35).
 Janet had, early on, asked about late check-out from our room; they’d initially procrastinated, suggesting that she enquire closer to the time. I think it was yesterday morning that Janet had finally arranged something with one of the receptionists on duty, a pleasant young woman with a Russian-sounding accent (“Tetiana”,[i] I think her name was spelled on the lapel badge). “It will cost at least 150 francs,” she warned us, and advised us to check later, when the charge would be definitely known. When we did, the receptionist on duty confirmed that it would be 150 CHF (exactly).
 So the invoice included 150 CHF for “Late Departure”. But it didn’t include the 5 CHF for a Coca Cola yesterday evening.

[i] I’d have expected the name to be “Tatiana”, but there was an “e” instead of the first “a”. I have since then looked up “Tatiana” in Wikipedia, and found that the Ukrainian variant of the name is “Тетяна”.

We went down for our last breakfast at Hôtel Royal-St. Georges, after which we went back up to the room, where Janet packed the second suitcase. (The first was already packed and ready.) Then we went out. “A very hot and sunny day,” Janet commented in her journal. On the Riviera web-site version of the itinerary for Day 1 of the tour “Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland” there was a picture with a church on it, which was supposed to give an impression of Interlaken. (Actually, as we discovered, it wasn’t in Interlaken at all, but in Unterseen.)



I wanted to go and see it, so that’s what we did.


Map from OpenStreetMap, with some additions of my own to show where we went in Interlaken and Unterseen [click to enlarge]

When I looked at the map we’d got from the hotel reception, the only likely candidate seemed to be a church west of the Aare; so we went down Höheweg, as we had done on Monday when going to find Albert Schild, turned right along Marktgasse, passing the Café de Paris that we’d visited on Monday, crossed two branches of the Aare, and found that the church just off from the north-west corner of Stadthausplatz was indeed the one.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 10:56:56
View more or less southwards from Höheweg, of the Jungfrau and the valley of Lauterbrunnen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 10:59:34
View in a more south-westerly direction from Höheweg


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:07:32
Proceeding along Marktgasse


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:11:14
About to cross the Grosse Aare


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:12:14
Grosse Aare, upstream


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:12:56
Grosse Aare, downstream


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:13:36
About to continue along Spielmatte


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:15:58
About to cross the Kleine Aare


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:17:44
Kleine Aare, downstream


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:18:38
Kleine Aare, upstream


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:20:08
Stadthausplatz, Unterseen

This, a Protestant church, was closed, but we had a walk around it, then returned to Stadthausplatz.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:22:00
Swiss Reformed Church, Unterseen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:24:14
Swiss Reformed Church, Unterseen, seen from Auf dem Graben


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:26:18
Tower of Swiss Reformed Church, Unterseen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:27:16
Swiss Reformed Church, Unterseen, seen from Auf dem Graben


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:30:08
Jungfrau, seen from the north-west corner of Stadthausplatz, Unterseen

In the square there was a fountain, with a statue of a young girl, whom I fancied to be “Swiss Alison” from Class 4 (September 1957 to July 1958).[ii]

[ii] See Class 4, par.8. The statue, though, I later found out, had been put there in 1934!

Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:31:52
Ruchti Fountain, Stadthausplatz, Unterseen, erected in 1934 in honour of hotelier and philanthropist Eduard Ruchti (1834–1902)


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:32:34
Cobwebs on the little girl figure atop the Ruchti Fountain, Stadthausplatz, Unterseen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:33:34
Little girl figure atop the Ruchti Fountain, Stadthausplatz, Unterseen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:36:58
Looking north to the Stadthaus, Unterseen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:37:56
Looking south to Schloss Unterseen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:39:04
Looking farther south along Hauptstrasse, Unterseen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 11:45:26
Schloss Unterseen

We retraced our route back into Interlaken, along Marktgasse; and after I baulked… about going in Café de Paris (perhaps… because it was now geared up to serving food, which we didn’t want; we just wanted something to drink), we went in a bar called Las Rocas Latino Bar in Marktplatz on the opposite side from the Café de Paris. I had a couple of 30cl glasses of draught beer there, and Janet had a couple of Coke Zero. After she served the second beer, “Maria” also produced a little ornate glass chalice or goblet containing crisps. I sampled them, one by one; but as is the way with such savouries, the bowl was empty when we left.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 12:10:12
Las Rocas Latino Bar, Marktplatz, 3800 Interlaken


“Rocas Latino Bar” bill, printed at “12:35:26”


Friday 19 July 2019 — 12:49:10
Las Rocas Latino Bar, Marktplatz, 3800 Interlaken

From there, we made our way to the Aare, along Postgasse, or perhaps turning right into Neugasse, then left along Standbadstrasse.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 13:12:00
House on the north-east corner of Postgasse and Neugasse

We proceeded eastwards along the Aare,—


Friday 19 July 2019 — 13:21:30
Walking eastwards along the River Aare


Friday 19 July 2019 — 13:26:02
A passing train


Friday 19 July 2019 — 13:26:26
A passing train

—turning right just after going under the Beaurivage Brücke and skirting the English Garden,—


Friday 19 July 2019 — 13:30:54
Blackbird basking in the sunshine

—and going for lunch to the big Coop across the square from Interlaken Ost railway station. As yesterday, we went to the supermarket first, where Janet bought items for her lunch — a tuna salad, a bread bun, a tub of fruit and a 45cl bottle of Sprite Zero — and two bananas and bread buns for later (13:55).


Till receipt, printed at “13:55”

Then we went up to the cafeteria. There was nobody at the griddle, so I selected chicken pieces in crumb, peas, cabbage, and chips, from the adjacent heated display. I also bought a 20cl bottle of red wine, which, I noticed when I got to the table, was different from the one I’d had on previous days; this was Campofranco-brand Katerersee (English, “Lake Kaltern”; Italian, “Lago di Caldaro”) wine from the Italian South Tyrol. Like the other, though, it was light red.


Till receipt, printed at “14:01”

We consumed the items, which we’d bought, in the cafeteria,—


Friday 19 July 2019 — 14:08:00
Lunch at the Coop cafeteria


Friday 19 July 2019 — 14:58:16
The Coop cafeteria

—before leaving, ca.3pm, to return to the hotel.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 15:04:06
Interlaken Ost railway station


Friday 19 July 2019 — 15:04:06 (detail)
Interlaken Ost railway station

We went up to the hotel room, got all our stuff together, then travelled down to reception in the lift. We checked out, paying the invoice in cash because despite getting 300 CHF from the ATM on Monday we hadn’t actually spent very much when we’d been out and about. Janet had some difficulty making them understand that the total was wrong — I guess that most people complain if they’ve been over-charged, but we needed to explain that we’d been under-charged — but eventually we persuaded them to let us part with 201.40 CHF. We sat in the lobby as fellow Riviera tourists were also assembling. Janet was a bit miffed with me — she always argues that we never used to get tips when we worked in public service — but I gave Jan 50 CHF, along with others who were pressing money into her palm. At ca.4pm we all started to make our way out to the coach which had arrived outside.…


Friday 19 July 2019 — 16:11:20
Aboard the coach to Geneva Airport


Our likely route, plotted on Google Maps [click to enlarge]. Cf. the route outward, 12 July 2019.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 16:16:22
Views from the coach: Last sighting of the Jungfrau and the valley of Lauterbrunnen


Friday 19 July 2019 — 16:29:40
Views from the coach: Thunersee

The only notes, which I scribbled in my pad, about this leg of the journey home, were: “Sunflowers near Geneva” (which proved to be unnecessary because after some failed attempts, I managed to get visual evidence of the same with my camera); and: “E25 E62 (1)”, which I wrote after that. When I wrote the latter note, then, we were travelling on the same road as on the outward journey, though before that, after passing Bern, we’d gone on a different route.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:11:30
Views from the coach: Rolling countryside beyond Bern


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:12:32
Views from the coach: Rolling countryside beyond Bern

On the outward journey, I’d noticed initially that the motorway exits were signed “SORTIE” and later that they were “AUSFAHRT”, but I hadn’t observed where the change of language had occurred. On the way back, I wanted to know exactly where the change would take place. As it turned out, I couldn’t ascertain where that had been on the outward journey, because between Bern and Lausanne we took a different route. But, judging by the timings of the photos below, by sheer good fortune I may well have captured the last “AUSFAHRT” and the first “SORTIE” on the route that we did take[iii] (very blurred, because I was sitting well back in the coach, so I had to use a lot of zoom, and the coach was bouncing about like billyo).

[iii] By sheer good fortune I may well have captured the last “AUSFAHRT” and the first “SORTIE” on the route that we did take: For the Grandfey Viaduct in the photo “17:17:00”, between the two, according to the German Wikipedia article (translated) “crosses the language border between Romandy and German-speaking Switzerland (the ‘Röstigraben’).”
 “Röstigraben”, I gather, is a facetious term used to refer to the boundary between German-speaking and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, derived from the Swiss German name for hashed potatoes, rösti, which originated in the canton of Bern and are considered typical of Swiss German cuisine. In French it is called “rideau de rösti” (“rösti curtain”, reminiscent of the “Iron Curtain”).

Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:14:14
Views from the coach: “Ausfahrt”


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:17:00
Views from the coach: Grandfey Viaduct over the River Saane or Sarine (humorously termed the “Röstigraben”)

The position of the viaduct is shown by a yellow circle in this Swiss topographical map (© Federal Office of Topography swisstopo) [click to enlarge]

Note that the river north of the circle is labelled with its German name “Saane” and south with its French name “La Sarine”.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:19:24
Views from the coach: “Sortie”


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:27:58
Views from the coach: Castle ruins on the Île d’Ogoz in the Lake of Gruyère

We stopped for a comfort break beside the Lake of Gruyère.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:32:34
Lake of Gruyère


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:33:52
“Restoroute Motel de la Gruyère”

Janet and I visited the loos first, which cost 1 CHF apiece; but the automated turnstile issued a ticket that counted towards purchases in the retail part of the establishment. I had a bottle of still Valser Silence mineral water and Janet a Coke Zero.


Till receipt, printed at “17:41”


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:51:26
Lake of Gruyère


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:51:50
Lake of Gruyère


Friday 19 July 2019 — 17:53:30
“Heath Robinson”-ish contraption at Restoroute Motel de la Gruyère

We met back at the coach at 6pm and continued our journey to Geneva Airport, arriving at ca.7.15pm.


Friday 19 July 2019 — 18:22:20
Views from the coach: Lake Geneva


Friday 19 July 2019 — 18:27:02
Views from the coach: Southwards across Lake Geneva


Friday 19 July 2019 — 18:30:56
Views from the coach: Vines


Friday 19 July 2019 — 19:01:04
Views from the coach: Sunflowers


Friday 19 July 2019 — 19:02:48
Views from the coach: Vines

 …We had “speedy boarding” (“SB”) on our boarding passes, so on arrival at the airport we went to the appropriate desk for that, to hand over the cases. It would have been very speedy, had it not been for the woman in front of us, who after searching herself and her belongings, still couldn’t find her travel documentation, and was sent aside. Passport control and security checks occurred without incident. We proceeded to the area of Gate 43, where we purchased a 50cl bottle of Cristalp (a Nestlé company) sparkling mineral water for me and a 45cl bottle of Coke Zero for Janet. She ate one of the two remaining bread buns and the two bananas from Coop, and gave the other bread bun to me.


Till receipt, printed at “20:19”


Friday 19 July 2019 — 20:36:52
Geneva Airport: Waiting at Gate B43


Friday 19 July 2019 — 20:37:40
Geneva Airport: Waiting at Gate B43

The flight was scheduled for 21:40, and the boarding passes said “Gate closes 21:10”, but the aeroplane didn’t draw up, and the people start to disembark, till ca.9.15pm. Janet and I joined the shorter “SB” line, and were allowed on to the plane earlier than the others. We started moving ca.9.55pm, and took off at 10.03pm CEST. When the snacks trolley came by, I asked for a bacon roll; but they were out of them, so I decided to have nothing. We made good time and landed at 10.33pm BST. Automated passport control and baggage reclaim were uneventful, then we passed through Customs and to the way out — then wondered: “What next?” We had a look outside, and here and there. Then a text message came on my phone (23:08):

Hi, it’s Bryan from Minicabs. I am in [the] terminal near W. H. Smith’s.

So we went back in, and found him. He led us out to the car park, and we were off. There were signs saying that the M62 was closed between Junctions 22 and 24, so traffic was being diverted. My notes say, “Rishworth”, “Sowerby Bridge”, “Halifax” — the last referring to a sign that we passed, not that we went to the centre of that town. Even before we came to the urban areas, through which most of the diversion led us, there were long queues of slow moving traffic; and at midnight we were stuck fast in a traffic jam that showed no signs of moving anytime soon. Then it was stop, wait a long time, crawl for a little bit, stop, wait a long time, crawl for a little bit… The delays were partly due to urban traffic lights, but also due to street-parked vehicles making the road effectively one-way. And Janet found herself desperate for a pee, with no opportunity for relief in a situation that just went on and on. Even after we rejoined the motorway, it was another 10 miles to the nearest services, Hartshead Moor. Anyway, she made it, much to her relief — and surprise! — without “accident”.


Our route back, plotted using Google Maps [click to enlarge]. Cf. the map of the outward journey, 12 July 2019


Detail of the diversion, plotted using Google Maps [click to enlarge].

We finally rejoined the motorway at 1.20am. “During the final hour,” Janet wrote, “I had restless leg syndrome, low back pain, and I was desperately uncomfortable.” We got home ca.3.05am.… Janet showered. I brought the cases upstairs. We finally got to bed just before 4am.

[2019]