A Change of Scenery.

I have just read my last post to see what I said, and realised it was 11 days ago, time is flying, and the opportunity to have good internet has been limited.

We are now staying with our son, Joel, in Chamonix for a couple of days. We are 5 weeks into our journey and it is a chance to take stock, service bikes and clean and sort all of our kit out.

Our last blog was from Strasbourg, which seems a long way away now. After that we continued along the Rhine, and back into France, more vineyards, pretty towns and villages, and some tentative trips up into the hills of the Vosges, away from the easy cycling along the Rhine.

This all changed about a week ago when we got to Basel, on the border with Switzerland.

We had always planned our route to start with a series of river valleys, the Meuse, Moselle and Rhine, to give  us an easy reintroduction to cycle touring, and after 4 weeks we had tried a few hilly areas to stretch ourselves.

However, we knew that Switzerland would be a different matter, and would at some stage involve some serious climbing. While we knew that we could eventually get over any climb, we were not sure what daily distances we could manage, and how difficult it would be.

The first climb we reached took us up from 300m to 734m, crossing over the Jura mountains. Not the biggest climb in the world, but a tough start considering the weight we are carrying, and also the temperatures we are still experiencing. The hot weather continues, and the effect of the mountains seems to produce more thunder storms later in the day.

What goes up must come down, so a long descent into Solothurn followed, and from there to Bern and then Thun, in the heart of the Bernese Oberland.

A continuing experience of cycle touring is the ever changing geography, culture and architecture, sometimes gradual, sometimes rapid. While the previous parts of our journey had excellent scenery and architecture, Switzerland is a step up in both categories. I have always loved visiting this part of the world, and cycling through it is a delight.

Thun is a place we have visited a number of times over the years. The area has outstanding scenery, with the Eiger dominating the views across the huge and beautiful lake. However another reason for our visits has been to visit old friends, Nicole and Martin and their family, including Pascal trying out my bike below, who again were wonderful hosts to us, giving us a warm welcome, and a few hours of luxury after our many days in a tent.

Leaving Thun we set off for Chamonix and our son, Joel.

Now we had some proper climbs in front of us. A late start saw us climb from 550m up to  900m, with another 400m to go to the top. Fortunately we arrived at a town with a campsite just seconds before the thunderstorm did, which made it an easy decision to stop for the night.

The next day saw a day of serious climbing, rising from 900m to 1270m, then dropping back to 880m at Chateaux d’ Oex, then climbing to the top of the Col de Moses at 1450m. And some pretty clear skies to appreciate some stunning high Alpine scenery.

This was a tough day for us both, but it was inspiring to see the progress that Sylvia has made in 5 weeks. She has certainly got her cycling legs back now.

We camped close to the top of the pass, which brought another surprise. After experiencing some extreme heat over the last weeks, it was a shock to experience cold weather again. Especially the following morning after a clear night, with the thermometer just keeping above zero. We were wearing nearly all the clothes we had.

Once again what goes up must come down, and what a down, an 1100m drop to the Rhone valley. Another high col stood between us and Chamonix, but this time we cheated a bit, and Joel brought the car (on loan from us) to pick us up.

So, a day or so of taking stock before moving on for the next part of the journey. Joel will have to take us through the Mont Blanc tunnel, and then it is Italy and downhill to the Med.

The original route has been changed, for a variety of reasons, and the plan is now to head to the Med in Italy, Through the South of France and into Spain, swinging west beneath the Pyrenees and then up to our final destination of Bordeaux.

We are getting close to halfway through our 12 weeks, and are about halfway through the route above, with just short of 2000 Km done and just over 2000 to go.

The next days will bring another rapid change in architecture, culture and geography as we head to the Mediterranean, and another language for me to struggle with.