We spent the next two days familiarising ourselves with the campsite, stocking up on some food for the week to come, swimming in the lake, reading, messing around with the inflatable canoe and generally relaxing.
The first thing to say about Switzerland is that it is expensive! We knew this and were prepared for it but it still took us by surprise just how expensive everything was. A pizza in the on-site restaurant (and it was a very nice pizza) was around £18.00! A bottle of wine that might be £5.00 at home will cost you about £10.00. Don't let that put you off visiting this beautiful country but do go prepared for it. I took quite a lot of (non-perishable) food with me and for the first few nights we ate very simply but cheaply (and it gave me an excuse to do an M&S shop before we left!)
During our stay we did treat ourselves to a meal at the Landhaus Restaurant on the campsite. The restaurant is typically Swiss in appearance but the food was predominantly Italian. We just had pizzas and they were very good. In warm weather there is a lovely terrace to sit on and look out over the lake too.
When we arrived at the campsite we were told that the weather in the previous fortnight had been glorious - very high temperatures and not a hint of rain. With a wry smile the nice man in reception told us that was all about to change! The weather we experienced for the 7 days we were there was, we were told, much more typical of this mountainous region - warm sunny mornings followed by thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening. The advice we were given was to get up early and visit the sights in the morning - this went down well with the teenagers as you might imagine!
As part of the tourist tax that you pay when you stay in Switzerland (this is incorporated into your campsite or hotel price) you receive a free travel pass for the immediate area. For us, this meant that travel by bus or boat into Interlaken, the nearest town, was completely free. Before we left home we had read that most Swiss people use public transport and leave their cars at home because the transport system is so well integrated and this was our experience too. Unlike in the UK, the bus, boat, train, cable car and funicular railway timetables are coordinated to make your journey quicker and easier. We didn't need to move the van from our pitch during our stay which was great.
Manor Farm Camping provided us with everything we wanted for our first two days in Switzerland. We all enjoyed the crazy golf (especially as we had never seen a 37 hole version before) and we spent a lot of time either swimming in the lake or paddling around in our kayak. We had decided against trying to transport our sit-on-top kayaks so we took the inflatable Sevylor kayak instead to save space and weight. The Sevylor is only intended for two people but most of the time one of us straddled the back of the kayak while the fourth person was towed behind! Needless to say, progress was slow! This was the first time we had used the inflatable although we had blown it up at home to make sure we didn't look like idiots on the site. The kayak inflates very quickly and easily with a hand pump and is really very easy to paddle.
It was a shame we had rain on most days and I was very glad that we had a selection of campervan games to play. Our favourites are Grab a Pig (a ridiculously silly game that is even funnier if the adult players have been drinking!), Bananagrams (like Scrabble but without the tedium of waiting for someone else to go) and card games (we never go anywhere without a pack of cards).
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| Our favourite rainy day campervan games |
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