Our First European Road Trip - Day 2

DAY 2 - Reims, France to Interlaken, Switzerland

The sun shone for us, a hot shower and breakfast set us up nicely for another day of driving, and we were ready to drive from the fairly flat countryside of this part of France into the alpine landscape of the Bernese Oberland.

We had roughly 380 miles to do but our reward was to be a lakeside pitch in the shadow of the Eiger, the Monch and the Jungfrau mountains at Manor Farm Camping in Interlaken.

I stayed at this site as a seven-year-old (which was quite a long time ago!) so it was partly for sentimental reasons that I booked it this time. I remember thinking Switzerland was the most beautiful place I had ever seen (to be fair I didn't get out much as a seven year old) and I wanted my kids to experience it too.

We had a pretty good journey through the flat, Champagne producing areas of France, across the border into Switzerland. We had pre-purchased a Swiss vignette for 40 Swiss Francs (they don't have the Euro in Switzerland) which allowed us to drive straight through the border without stopping. The vignette is required for driving on all class 1 & 2 roads throughout Switzerland. It is valid for 1 year and has to be displayed on the windscreen of your vehicle. We were glad we had bought one in advance because all of the vehicles without one were directed into a very long queue to buy one!

We arrived at Manor Farm Camping around 4pm and were welcomed, in perfect English, by a very helpful member of the reception team who provided us with a lot of information and also 4 free passes for local public transport, by bus or boat, into Interlaken.

Manor Farm Camping is located on the shores of Lake Thunersee. One half of the campsite in on the lake side of the road that runs all around the lake. The other half of the site is located away from the lake but access can be gained to all of the facilities and the lake shore via an underpass, making it safe for children.

The beach & lake at Manor Farm Camping

The site has a very well run shop that remains open until 9pm every night. The toilet and shower facilities were superb and cleaned regularly and there is also a lovely restaurant, the Landhaus, specialising in Italian food, on-site. Their pizzas were to die for! There is also a lovely 37 hole (!) crazy golf on site.

Like a lot of continental campsites, the pitches can be a little on the small side and also fairly higgledy-piggledy. Having said that, our pitch was more than generous and we were very pleased with our choice. Booking some way in advance does mean that you have a choice of pitches. I did it all by email and was sent a map of the site and a list of available pitches. We chose one very close to the lake shore with a small inlet behind the pitch, allowing for easy launching of our inflatable canoe.

Our pitch and our own private canoe launch!

The situation on the lake is what really makes this campsite special in this area. The lake bed is gravel and the water was perfect for swimming. Many campers spent their whole holiday pottering about in or on the water. Quite a few campers had bought some very impressive looking inflatable dinghies with outboard motors with them to play with too.

So, we pitched-up, changed for swimming and went straight in to the water to cool down after our long drive.

Lake Thunersee

Cooling off after a long and very hot drive!

Later, as the sun went down, we opened a bottle of wine and sat on the lake shore before heading back to the van for supper and our first night in it on foreign soil, dreaming of adventures to come!