by train, bus and boat. - Chiral Dynamics 2009

The lake region and Jura. Three glistening
lakes set against a blue-green backdrop.
Depending on the weather and distance, the colour of the hilly
backdrop that is the Jura changes from blue-grey, to blue-green
and to fir-green. It is practically present everywhere on the northwesterly
horizon in the Swiss Central Plateau. For the towns at the
foot of the Jura – Neuchâtel, Biel and Solothurn – the dark backdrop
of the nearby fir-covered slopes with their interspersed white
cliffs is a part of the townscape. It also fashions the lakescape of
Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Biel, the two larger of the three Jura
lakes. The smallest of the three, Lake Murten, remains that little
bit remote, possibly because of the winds that spill down the slopes
of the Jura on summer evenings.
The Three Lakes cruise starts off from Biel and takes you on a visit
to all three lakes. At Lake Biel, small pretty wine villages catch the
sun on the southern slopes of the Jura. You will travel towards Jean
Jacques Rousseau’s retreat on St. Peter’s Island, the other
end of which protrudes into the lake like a tongue. There, at Erlach,
you will enter the Thielle Canal towards Lake Neuchâtel. It will
receive you all at once, across its entire expanse of water. The boat
greets the lake by steering a heading that assumes an elegant curve
toward the Broye Canal. At its debouchment, you will travel through
the La Sauge bird sanctuary and then toward Lake Murten. There,
on the opposite shore of the third lake, Murten awaits you. A medieval
town with its battlements and towers, your destination on this
cruise. You can also embark on smaller cruises on all three lakes.
The Jura remains ever watchful.
40
Above Lake Neuchâtel
You’ll certainly now want to know what things
look like from the top, from the heights of
the Jura. There’s even a railway up here, the
Jura Railways (Chemins de fer du Jura).
The SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) will take
you to its departure points in Tavannes,
Glovelier and La-Chaux-de-Fonds from
Biel, Neuchâtel and Delémont.
Another world, the Freiberge region, awaits
you up there. Where high fir trees stand individually
and in groups, becoming more den-
A boat awaits you between Solothurn and Biel for a cruise along
the River Aare. The boat will take you past Altreu where the billclattering
of storks drifts down from the masts and gables, past
Büren, the charming small town with its impressive timber bridge.
And past a hundred idyllic places alongside this slow-flowing river.
www.bielersee.ch
se here and there to form dark forests, horses
graze on green meadows. Squat farmhouses
duck down broadly in between. A wide, gently
undulating plateau awaits you. Who would
have ever thought so, from the bottom?
The small red train will take you through this
elevated plain at a leisurely pace. It departs
hourly. Get off, talk a walk, have a good look
around. It will collect you again when you are
tired.
www.les-cj.ch
Ligerz on Lake Biel
Three Lakes cruise
Jura Railways