Cycling through Switzerland

On Sunday 24th March we crossed the border from France into Switzerland.

First impressions were as usual when we visit Switzerland: public places look very clean and maintained, Police cars have changed from Citroen (France) to Teslas (not standards issue though) and everything appears to be almost twice as expensive than at home.

It was a beautiful sunny day, lots of families with kids were out and about and we made our way to Dornach, where we stayed at a former monastery for the night. There were clearly marked bathrooms on the floor for the ‘nuns’ and the ‘monks’. But at least, the 'nuns' and 'monks' were allowed to share the same bedroom…

..Staff training..

Whilst I was writing some notes in the restaurant I had the pleasure to listen to the very wordy manager explaining to a new employee how to get the restaurant ready for the breakfast the next morning and how to close down the place at the end of her shift.

What most guests probably wouldn’t be interested in listening to, I’ve enjoyed being part of it in the background... To cut a long story short, an A4 sheet of paper with the necessary information could have done the job better than the 45 minute talking at the poor new employee whose head looked like it was just about to burst!

I felt sorry for the poor person receiving the talking to but it did add to my evening entertainment as an ex-hospitality worker! How cynical of me!

Back on the bike the next morning, we cycled through the lovely Laufental (Laufen Valley) where the landscape is characterized by the Jurassic limestone with its karst formations. Whilst cycling along the Birs river at the bottom of the valley we enjoyed the ever changing views; small to medium sized businesses along the way (including the Ricola sweets factory), dairy farms with happy, bellringing cows and every few kilometers another small, pretty village to pass.

..Scheltenpass..

We were on the way to visit my cousin Ruth in the Canton of Jura, the youngest of the 26 Cantons in Switzerland. 1291 Switzerland was born, 1979 Jura became an independent Canton, not through war, but I certainly remember seeing pictures of some graffiti, broken windows and demonstrations when the political ‘fight’ about independence was at its maximum!

I was looking forward to seeing my cousin and family again which has only happened three times in the past 30 years! And not only this, there was also the antcipation of cycling over Scheltenpass, a small mountain crossing from the Jura (French speaking) into the Canton of Solothurn (German speaking). Another test for our equipment and our endurance!

To our surprise, my daughter Shimona and her partner Levi planned to join us for the day! Them, on 8 to 9 kg road racing bikes, us on our fully loaded steel horses weighing around 45kg. However, Rebecca took up the offer of my cousin to have her luggage transported to the top of the pass which left me being the slow-coach at the end of the pack!

Apparently they had lovely conversations whilst cycling up the hill!

Gravity took over on the way down the other side though! What a blast it was! The 1 ½ hours of hard work got paid off by a very scenic and long downhill into the Canton of Solothurn! Approximately 15km of going down with hardly any pedal strokes needed, leaving the few patches of snow behind, freewheeling into the warmer areas further down, enjoying the vistas, the spring flowers, sunshine and the company we had on the day!

Cycling should be every day like this – but it isn’t… and I am sure there will be blog about this at some point in the future!

From Solothurn to my hometown was only a three hour cycle along the Emme river towards the Emmental (Emme Valley) on the next day. The weather wasn’t as kind as the days before and we set off into a cool and grey morning with rain clouds waiting to burst.

It must have been the first time my mother saw us arriving for a visit in the state we were in –  totally wet and totally dirty. Her welcome to us was certainly a bit different too than usually and her command was: “First you can go in the cellar and sort yourself out before you come in. Here is the key!”  

Nevertheless, my favourite sausage from the local butcher served with roesti and salad tasted extra nice after we dried out and looked presentable!

..Holidays..

Over the next eight days, apart from servicing our bikes, we’ve enjoyed spending time with family and friends. It was great to catch up with everyone we saw and spending some quality time together! And, as many times before, we were able to stay at the local Airbnb run by Marianne. Thank you all!

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to see everyone ‘on the list’ but there’s always a next time!

Last Friday morning was time to say goodbye: My 86-yeard old mother, pragmatic with most things in life said: “Bye bye! Who knows, we might only see each other up there again!” pointing up to the sky…

Sobering – and off we went! The sunshine was back and helped by a little backwind we followed the Emme river in the opposite direction back towards Solothurn with the aim to reach the source of the Danube river withing the next three days.

Spring definitely has arrived. The smell of wild garlic and the colourful looks of dwarf iris’, dandelion, primroses, grape hyacinths, crocuses and more – on a bike, one has lots of time to enjoy those natural wonders!

In fact, I probably never before enjoyed the waking up of spring so intensively as this year, from the saddle of my bike, seeing the small changes happening in nature on a daily basis... Great!

Danube, we are coming!