Lake Geneva to Interlaken

Trip Start May 29, 2005

Trip End Dec 17, 2005

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Flag of Switzerland Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, Bern, Thun, Interlaken, Switzerland
Thursday, July 14, 2005

Chapter Summary
City tour of Geneva, cross the lake to Lausanne, Fribourg, Bern, Thun and Interlaken

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Lake Geneva to Interlaken

Geneva city tour
08 July, Friday
Start point: Gex (Near Geneva)
End point: Geneva

Made Contact with Maurice, as it was cold and raining I decided to cut short plans to sightsee around Gex and head straight for Geneva instead. Located his apartment, had coffee and cake, left my bags and headed into town.
Maurice lives about 1Km from the 'Palais des Nations', the second centre of the UN after the one in New York, my first stop on the tour. It was founded by a Swiss business who witnessed the aftermath of a battle in 1859 which left troops lying on the ground for days in need of medical attention. He mobilised the local population to care for the wounded and wrote a book about his experiences and suggested that an organisation be setup to "Formulate some international principle, sanctioned by convention, which once approved and ratified might serve as a basis for relief of the wounded". Soon after two doctors drafted the Geneva Convention, which is on display in the museum.
They have an interesting exhibit of 7 million index file cards of containing records of 2 million POWs in World War I.
More city roaming and into the Cathedral St-Pierre to climb the tower to take some pictures, but when I got to the top they decided to turn the Jet d'eau (Jet of water) off. It's the defining landmark and without it, the pictures could be anywhere!
Posters advertised a music event in a park to the east of the city, so I went to investigate. A Brazilian band started at 20.30 with a mix of rhythmical easy listening numbers with much encouragement from the audience. Mosquitoes drove me away just after 10.00 and I headed back to Maurice's flat. We stayed up until 3.30am chatting, eating, exchanging views and drinking wine.

Without it, you wouldn't know where you are...

View over the mountains back into France

United Nations, Geneva

Red Cross

Red Cross: 7 million index file cards of containing records of 2 million POWs in World War I

One of the few quiet backstreet squares, Geneva

Cathedral St-Pierre, climbed the tower

Park

Outdoor music festival

I'm having a RAVE, The Lake Parade, Techno
09 July, Saturday
Start point: Geneva
End point: Vesena (near Geneva)

Coffee then into town to find a connection to the outside world. For the exorbitant rate of 6 euros an hour I could answer emails, update journal, backup photos and check weather. Finished at 16.00, partly due to the fact that I left the flat at 13.00. Things in town were starting to get lively. The "Lake Parade" (www.lakeparade.ch) was about to start and looking at what was on offer, I wanted to turn round and head straight back in; so that is what I did. The nearest campsite was a mere 4.5Km away. I pitched dined and made my way back. The papers the day after they said 300 000 people turned up for the celebrations. For the evenings entertainment a full on street party was held. All along the south promenade was lorry after lorry and stage after stage pumping out Techno music. The lorries were modified into imaginatively decorated, brightly coloured, brightly lit mobile sound systems and stages. If you got bored of one, simply move to the next - there were 30 or more to choose from. 1-2Km of the promenade was devoted to music and dancing. Soon I was jumping around like the rest of them. David, Swifty - you should have been there, it was just the sort of thing we love. My energy reserves ran out at 1.30, early, and I hoped on the bike and was soon tucked away in bed. Luckily the rain held off for the course of event, but the chill was most welcome as dancing like a loon can be hot work!

Lake Parade, outdoor Techno music festival, Geneva

Lorries lined up for the evening

One of the many stages

I heard of a beer jacket, but never seen one before!

Some inspired dancing

VIDEOS
Video1
Video2
Video3

Take me to the otherside
10 July, Sunday
Start point: Vesena (near Geneva)
End point: Chatel-a-Gobet (near Lusanne)
Via: Lussane

You can't come to Switzerland and not take a ferry across the lake, I just didn't bank on it taking all day. Grubbed up and Headed out the campsite towards Thonon-Les-Bains, not that far way. At 13.10 I checked the timetable and to my disappointment I read the 13.00 had already gone and the next departure was at 16.00. Looked round the town and killed time. I had unfortunately misread the information and upshot was I arrived after a windy crossing on the other side of the lake not at 14.20 as I should have done, but at 18.30. People always say my interpretation of such things is different from everybody else - and this is a classic case!

See if you can work it out.. If you arrive at 13.10, when is the next departure?

Answer 13.50, 13.00 is its arrival time.
And the 16.00 leaves at 16.40

Is it a case of just me?
Anyway, I quickly looked round Lausanne. There was a gospel show in full swing on the promenade. I listened to the speaker, who was a great orator. The ease at which he could whip the audience into such frenzy disturbs me somewhat. Preaching messages of love and forgiveness to cries of "Praise the Lord" and "Jesus loves you", is a good thing. If he was preaching messages of distrust and hatred, would an audience be as equally passionate about following what he said? My guess is yes, but thankfully there are laws against such things.
All clapped out I toured the city and soon stumbled upon an internet cafe - a good cheap one. Backed up photos and resized the existing ones on my website for faster download.
Now raining, I sped to a campsite near Lausanne and pitched at 22.00

View over Lake Geneva from the French side

Lausanne

The Cathedral at Lausanne

Tent Rant
11 July, Monday
Start point: Chatet-a-Gobet (near Lusanne)
End point: Montecu (near Fribourg)
Via: Oron-le-Chatel, Romont
Odom(Km): 73.92
Moving(hrs.mim): 6.02
Ave(Km/h): 12.2
Total Ascent(m): 1534
Max Altitude(m) 815
Max Speed(Km/h): 53.4

TENT RANT
Mountain Equipment promise to fly spare parts to replace workmanship / materials defects. I now have both.
After spending 340 pounds on a Mountain Equipment Dragonfly, 2 person tent, I hoped it would be well designed and well made. They got the first one right, but the build quality is far from acceptable. After two weeks of use I noticed one strap holding the inner and outer tent together had detached from the inner tent and was literally hanging on by a thread. Not too concerned as it is something I could probably fix if it detached completely. Soon after that all 3 straps down one side were hanging on by a thread. Not in a position to do anything about it I continued using it.

The next thing that started to happen after a couple of days of use and has got progressively worse is the waterproofing on the inner tent floor. The plastic coating is blistering and coming away (see pic). It comes off in a blotchy pattern indicating some sort of manufacturing defect. In some places it is still perfectly fine. The underside of the roll mat gets wet and should I pitch it in a dip, the tent will fill with water. Being in the middle of nowhere I am unsure what to do. Ideally I would like to go to a distributor where I can swap my inner tent for one without such defects.

I managed to repair it with cable ties

Then the pole started to break through its holder in the outer tent

And it now leaks... see this puddle when I woke up.

Lastly the pole material has oxidised and its increasingly difficult to collapse them. By removing residue and re-greasing the poles regularly, the problem is manageable, but it takes ages to do!
In conclusion, I would be upset if I purchased a 25 pound Wendy tent from Argos for my bike tour that had such defects. I did not expect it from a company that specializes in high end camping gear or is it the case that image is everything and product counts for nothing?

Tent rant over
Today the sun shone and there was even a time between 16.00-18.00 where it was actually warm - above 20 DegC. The next problem was the wind. At 25Km and hour it was a relentless stiff breeze that sapped my energy for the whole day. Mountains I can deal with because there is a view from the top and a rewarding decent at the end. A strong wind turns a flat road into a mountain climb with no decent, no rewarding views, lots of noise and no sense of achievement. This combined with my favourite sweatshirt falling off the bike somewhere en-route made me question my sanity. I backtracked to see if it was still there, but I had visions of it blowing like tumbleweed across the countryside and mountain peeks. As luck would have it some kind and charitable soul had seen it, stopped and tied it to an electric fence. I carefully removed it and spirits lifted, continued on my way.
Stopped off at Romont, a walled town with castle built in the 13th Century. The museum was closed so I wandered the parapets taking pictures and then visited the church. There were some pleasing views over the countryside from the ramparts.
Stopped at a farm to buy some Gruyere cheese, and got an unfeasibly large slab for my 4 Euro.
Final destination, the closest campsite to Fribourg and after asking around I confirmed it had closed two years ago. The leaflet given to me by the tourist information was dated 2003. The next one was 4Km away, back in the direction I came and all up hill. The thought of stepping in the shower and eating pasta in a posh cheese source kept me going. The site was small and friendly. Chatted to some lads from the Netherlands and the usual evening activities took place to the sound of cow bells ringing in the distance.

View from Romont

What is this for? I've no idea? Please tell me!

Me

I slept in someone else's tent...
12 July, Tuesday
Start point: Montecu (near Fribourg)
End point: Cordast, lake Schiffenen, 7Km NE of Fribourg
Via: Fribourg
Odom(Km): 27.47
Moving(hrs.mim): 2.13
Ave(Km/h): 12.3
Total Ascent(m): 482
Max Altitude(m) 803
Max Speed(Km/h): 45.8
Ave(Km/h): 12.2

I didn't plan on doing much cycling today which was lucky as I spent most of the morning lazing in bed. The thought of a bowl of porridge was my incentive to get up.
I picked a good route into Fribourg that followed quiet country lanes (thank the GPS for that one) until quite close to the town centre. My first view was from a bridge spanning a valley with the whole town spread out below. Fribourg is built on a rocky spur circled by a bend of the river Sarine. The old part of town has many squares tucked away with old fountains supplied by its many springs. In a hilly location you are never short of a view of the surrounding countryside and I spent most of the day hunting photo opportunities. Fribourg marks the end of French speaking Switzerland and the beginning of German, from now on I will have to accept communication with most people will be quite difficult. Perhaps Dave R it is time for you to stop decoding the FTE test specs and come over here to act as my interpreter, you always said you needed to brush up. Failing that I will just have to try and pick up a few words like, "Take me to your daughter", or "can I eat it", etc...
Impressions of Switzerland
Camping is about double at 8 Euros a night. Food shopping, as in France you have to search the supermarkets for the low cost brands. I refuse to spend 5 Euro on a tin of sausages and beans when there is a different brand - usually hidden away - for 80 cents. In Switzerland you have to look very hard for the low cost brands, if they exist in the first place.
The roads in general are busy with traffic. A road on the Michelin map in France where you would expect to see little to no traffic takes about 1 car every 15 seconds and a lorry every five minutes. This has been true for all places I have visited so far including the more rural areas. Only going off the yellow roads onto the white roads or those not on the map do you get the freedom to daydream as you ride. Without GPS navigation these roads would be impossible to follow (for me at least) as they lack a classification. This is the same as the UK where many of the country lanes in the UK that don't make it to 'B' road status.
The parts I have visited so far have all been more densely populated than I thought would be the case. The only time you don't get a mesh of roads in rural areas is when there are geographical constraints, i.e. the ground is too hilly.
Back to the tour
A jazz festival was about to take place in the evening and the place was starting to buzz. Since I had already attended the mother of all festival two days before I made the painful decision to sacrifice this one for the sake of progress. I exited the town in a northerly direction along an unfeasibly narrow and busy road. The turn off I took me to a lake and the quiet back roads again. Not far along this road I can across three tall tipi tents. Not wanting to pass these things by I stopped and made enquiries. The place was first and foremost a working farm with accommodation for children learning activity holidays. Since there were no children to be heard, I made enquiries about the cost to stay the night. A bed in the tipi was 14 Euro for the night and included breakfast. I agreed and then set off looking around the farm. It was mostly a cattle farm. 30 cows, 4 goats, 10 pigs, Chickens, Peacocks - although I don't think they were for eating. For a true learning experience the farm was mechanised and I watched the young Russian lad plug the goats into the pump and suck them dry. The cows each gave 20-35 litres of milk a day depending upon age and health. That's whole cream milk, not the processed stuff you pour on your cereal. No wonder cows eat all day - I don't know how much fat is in 35 litres of milk, but I would hate to have to eat the quantity of grass or feed to generate it. Learning experience over I cleaned and serviced my bike ready for a pleasant spell of weather that's on its way, ate - I've taken a simple but tasty recipe that Maurice gave me - Spaghetti al dente - a 250 gram serving with salt, butter and cheese washed down with white wine. Light to carry, quick to cook, filling and energy providing.
Since not much happens on a farm in the evening I did a bit of stock taking and route planning. So far this holiday I have felt completely unchallenged by the mountains. The route I plan after Interlaken through central east Switzerland should cure me of this madness. With mountain passes over 2500 meters, Glaciers and winter ski resorts, I've lost the plot don't you agree?
I may moan about the weather being poor, but I chose to be here. For guaranteed sunshine go to the South of France, Spain or Greece. The reason I am here now is it may be the only time in my life I get to experience such a landscape on a bike. July and August are the two months in the year when it can be done and I hope at the end of it I feel suitably fulfilled otherwise I'm just going to have to find a bigger hill to climb!

City view of Fribourg

Viaduct, Fribourg

City Cathedral

Russian farm hand

Giant Tipis, They really where huge!

Bern city tour : More festivals..
13 July, Wednesday
Start point: Cordast, lake Schiffenen, 7Km NE of Fribourg
End point: Bern - Swiss Capital
Via:
Odom(Km): 43
Moving(hrs.mim): 3.10
Ave(Km/h): 12.8
Total Ascent(m): 640
Max Altitude(m) 654
Max Speed(Km/h): 45.4

I'm glad I only had to get up to go to the toilet and not to give birth. The cow in the field next to me produced a calf at 5.00am . It was the cause of some commotion on the farm but I easily slept through most of it.
Although breakfast was provided, I thought it polite to turn up with my daily dose of porridge. I arrived at the agreed time and was invited to sit with the farmer and two farm hands at a long wooden table in the farmhouse kitchen. A seat; absolute luxury!
We merrily chomped our way through what was on offer, mostly products of the farm - eggs, butter, cheese, milk. The farmer gave me some useful advice about avoiding the dreaded saddle sore - a lamb pelt seat cover. He swore by it when he did a motorbike tour around the US some 30 years ago.
After breakfast I went to look at the new calf - it was 4 hours old and was still trying to find its feet. The mother looked knackered and just lay there looking a bit bewildered.
Bern was not too far away and after passing through some typically Swiss villages with near perfect cycling weather, I rolled into the campsite. I knew there was a music festival on in Bern the day after but the campsite was the main gathering area for the festival goers. Lenny Kravitz, The hives, Prodigy and loads others were playing over a period of 4 days. After the "Lake Parade", I decided not to stick around for this - anyway it was ticketed entry. The campsite was starting to fill up fast and I pitched and introduced my self to a tent of girls from Liechtenstein. I ate with them and learned the difference in dialect between Swiss German and German. After leaving Fribourg I was now into true Swiss German speaking territory. Learned phrases such as please, thank you, yes, no and "I don't speak German". Before I headed into town I suggested we meet up in the evening, only they didn't know where going to be so I waved goodbye and carried on into town.
Getting to the town centre could not be easier. I followed the river, lined with bathers and sun seekers into the town centre. A favourite pass time seemed to be jumping into the _very_ fast flowing river; faster than running, and floating down for 5 minutes then getting out an walking back along the path to where you jumped in. As a result you have a promenade packed with people wearing nothing but skimpy bikinis or shorts.
Visiting many cities in quick succession can cause them to blur into one. Not Burn. For a capital city it is not big, but uniquely it is not over-run by traffic. That is if you want to go to a shop on the other side of the road, nothing stops you. The town centre is located on a rocky spit of the river Aare and access is difficult by car. It is ideal for discovering the squares and arcades at a leisurely pace. So pleasant infact, I locked the bike up and continued on foot. In front of the imposing parliament building is a computerised jet water fountain where kids played, covered walkways, wooden staircases off the main high street and collection of museums. I spent a good 4 hours taking pictures, exploring and touring. Afterwards I hopped on the bike, and was back in the campsite in no time at all. There was a festival feel to the place, WOMAD style, drums, laughter and music carried with the wind. I wandered around and identified a group of 3 sitting by a charcoal fire cooking thick German sausages on sticks. I said hello and was invited to join. They were locals from Bern who came down to the river from time to time to light a fire and have fun. The girl who I was trying to chat up got a call from her boyfriend, but I was having too much fun to care. At twelve o'clock they headed back home and so did I. Again there where two girls camped near my tent so I and struck up conversation. I asked them questions, turned on the charm, smiled, told them what I was up to (about the cycling) They we polite but not interested so I got the hint and zipped myself into the bag to get some shut eye. There were others - I showed them to reception, said there was room in the area where I was camping (without actually telling them I was camping there) - Others putting their tent up - did they need help? But it was all to no avail!

A 4 hour old cow

Passing through some typically Swiss villages

Bern skyline

Parliament building

Pounding the city centre streets

In case you forgot why you went to church!

Tram Viaduct

Camp fire next to the river at the campsite

Lauterbrunnenn, in the mountains south of Interlaken, Switzerland
14 July, Thursday
Start point: Bern - Swiss Capital
End point: Lauterbrunnenn, in the mountains south of Interlaken
Via: Thun
Odom(Km): 84.26
Moving(hrs.mim): 5.53
Ave(Km/h): 14.3
Total Ascent(m): 1027
Max Altitude(m) 803
Max Speed(Km/h): ??

I never expected to have the best day of cycling this holiday exiting a capital city, but I did. The weather was fine, the wind died down, the sun shone and there is a national cycle route going to where I want to go. The signage of the route from Bern via Thun to Interlaken is clear, regular and unambiguous. The surface is flat and even. I sped through woods following the river Aare upstream, mesmerised by the mountains in the distance growing ever more prominent. At Thun I looked round the streets - which are on two levels; the picture explains what I mean! Then to the church on a hill with an exhibition about the previous ecclesiastical buildings that occupied the site. There are relics, old clocks, old bells and once again, I had no room to fit it all in my panniers - as there is nobody there, again its all taken on trust.
Onwards to Interlaken, a town which I was very unimpressed with and again it's to do with traffic. It's a town of noise, rushing around, waiting for gaps in traffic before you cross a street and lots of people circling waiting to find that precious town centre parking space. I had provisions to buy before the mountains, so it served its purpose well.
I took the advice of one of the girls I'd talked to in Bern. "Don't go up Faulhorn, it's the mountain that all the tourists go to. Not only that, it will cost you 50 Euros to get up. A far more interesting place is a valley to the south of Interlaken with a mountain called Jungfrau. It's higher, better views and cheaper".
Once in Interlaken, mountains surround you. I sit in the campsite now which is situated at a warm (meaning I only have the one jumper on) altitude of 781m. On the east side of the valley is a cliff that rises a further 1600 meters with a waterfall cascading over it. Well, it is a torrent of water and the drop takes a total of 15 seconds, by which time it has turned into a mist. The campsite is not what I expected though. There's easy access by road and funicular railway. Facilities include games room, bar, disco, supermarket, coach parking, cabins and Australian teenagers on tap. I've too many jobs to do so I must be unsociable this evening, shame!