Julie's Papercraft

A sleepless night, the church that was right outside my window rang it's bell every half hour, once on the half hour and the number of times that matched the hour on the hour throughout the whole night. Also one of the patrons of the hotel decided to play the bongo drums to entertain the other patrons. Luckily that stopped between 11 and half past.

We went to Neuchatel this morning after breakfast to check out the last of the three clock museums in the area.

We got there about 9:15 but the museum did not open until 11am so we sat on the edge of the Lake of Neuchatel in the warm sun and just watched the ducks and fish until it opened. The weather has been so good since we got here, I am not looking forward to returning to the cold weather of Adelaide next week.

The museum we saw today specialized in mechanical clocks and ornaments, so musical birds in gold cages, female dolls that play the piano which stands about 4' high and a boy doll that writes using a quill and ink well. You can change the letters that he writes by changing the discs in his back.

When you consider that these things were made in the 1700's you have to marvel at the workmanship and advanced thinking that was employed to create these and similar items.

There was a metal mechanical hand that was created by watchmakers in the 1400's to replace a hand that was lost by a gunner, and as he was an important part of fighting brigade they made him a new hand. Unbelievable!!!

We had lunch at a restaurant right on the shores of the Lake of Biel. It was just beautiful. Warm, sunny and a nice cool breeze and a magnificent view.

I haven't got any photos for you today as they don't allow you to take photos in the museums and the photos I took of the scenery did not turn out all that clear.

Time for bed to try and catchup on a bit of the sleep I missed out on last night

Thanks for dropping by
Till tomorrow
Cheers
Julie