His eyes are shut but his mouth opens and he gives a yawn.  He opens his eyes and sees me.  "I agree", I mouth to him.  He grins at me.  He is sitting on a chair against the back wall of the Collegiale Church in Neuchatel rather bored, I think. Quite by chance, we have walked into the graduation ceremony. We, and a couple of other tourists, haven't interrupted the celebration, merely stood at the back of the church for a few minutes to admire the interior. Neuchatel, which means 'Newcastle' in Old French, has a small old town and is easy to explore in a day. We pick up a copy of the old town walking tour from the Office of Tourism. The lady tells us to try coffee at Schmids Tea Room for a nice coffee and pastry. We do and it is a very pleasant start to our day. We begin at the docks where there are ferries sailing in and out of the little port. From here we walk through the market square with its busy restaurants and a group of buskers playing Strauss waltzes to entertain the lunchtime diners. As we head up towards the chateau, we come across a film crew videoing their next production! We watch for a few minutes and then continue on past the city walls and the nine watchtowers built into them. The Collegiale Church is next to the chateau and there is a lovely shaded area between the two, a perfect spot to have our lunch. There are several wooden benches to sit and, as we do, we notice a white van with a large group of people around, some wearing black academic gowns with capes bordered in red. I hear English spoken so go over to one of the men who seems to be an organiser. "What degree is the graduation ceremony for?", I ask him. "Oh, it's not a university degree," he tells me. "It is the graduation ceremony for a Canadian high school whose students spend year 12 in Neuchatel." We have a chat and I return to my seat where Colin and I eat our lunch. We are fascinated and totally entertained watching the year 12 girls trying to walk across the cobblestones from the van to the church in the highest stilettos imaginable! No-one falls but my goodness, there are plenty of wobbles! There is a tour of the chateau at 2pm and we are the only two people on it. Our guide is a lady in her 70s and she is very interesting to listen to and has excellent English. The chateau is where the Neuchatel parliament sits and is where all official business of the Canton is carried out. The tour is free because if parliament is sitting or some of the officials are working, it is not possible to view every room. But there is no-one in attendance and we see every room. The lady insists we visit the church at the end of our tour which is where the graduation ceremony is still continuing. On our way down to the town, we stop at the prison tower. There is no-one at the ticket office, just a slot to insert a 1CHF coin each. We have 1:95CHF in coin between us and no shops within cooee to change our 10CHF note so we decide to give it a miss. As we walk down to the town, I find a shop selling knitting wool! And while I am choosing some wool, Colin is enjoying the street theatre across the square. We eventually walk back to the docks and enjoy a very pleasant stroll along the shore.   Transport: Neuchatel is just under an hour on the train from Fribourg and the trains run every hour.                   It is a very pleasant day trip from Fribourg. Swiss Trains    www.sbb.ch