Month: June 2013

Just a short note to let everyone know we have made it all the way, with a final stop at the Gumligen Autodesk office. We left early in the hope of beating some predicted afternoon thunderstorms in Bern, and had planned to have lunch in Lyss, where we had done the same on two previous trips.

But we are stronger now and got there by 10:00am, so ended up arriving at the office by noon and having lunch there instead.

The total distance was 2,638k – which makes this our longest European tour yet. The bike now has 12,300k on it – all, of course what we have ridden together.

Sometime after we have settled back in the US next week, we will add better photos and fill in some spots here and there. (We will even go back and finish our Swiss Blog!). We are looking forward to using a keyboard again. Jon’s finger needs a break, from doing all these entries on the iPhone.

An underlying theme has been plaguing the trip, which we have only alluded to so far. It seems that Jon and the Tandem have been running a little contest to see who will fall apart first.

It all started on the Canal du Midi when Jon started getting a rash, and the tandem broke a rear wheel. After a Pharmacist, a Doctor, and 3 tubes of goop, Jon was ready to move on. The Tandem however took an extra day to find and replace the wheel.

The next round was on the Atlantic coast when an oyster shell slashed our tire, and we had no more spares. It took two days to find a poor substitute for insurance, and we ordered new spares from a bike shop in Tours. So, Tandem 2, Jon 1.

The Tandem problem continued when the bike shop turned out not to have the right tire, and Jon added one when the rash started to spread, we saw another Doctor, and another tube of goop. 3 to 2.

Jon finally caught up in Bourbon-Lancy when he did his own research and realized the problem started with Tick bites in Gumligen just before leaving. So a third Doctor and antibiotics for the rest of the tour made it 3 to 3.

Not to be outdone, the Tandem retaliated with a grinding in the front crank that started before Dole, but not able to fix until 120k later, when it turned out to be a lose crank. We were also able to find a tire that looked like it would work, as a spare, at the same bike shop. 4 to 3.

Jon was able to tie the score again, at dinner in Dole when he broke a tooth. Fortunately, it has not exposed any nerves, so it can wait till we return to the US next week. 4 to 4.

Finally, today we knocked the scores up one more. The antibiotic Jon is on makes one sensitive to the sun! Imagine what it takes to stay out of the sun on a bike tour. His attempts the last several days has been to cover up in the morning, then put on 50SPF sunscreen when the temps rise above 90. But this morning was so hot he almost had heat stroke. After 3 water bottles, shedding the long sleeves, and slathering a white coat of 50, we were able to continue.

As for the Tandem, our hopes of making it the rest of the way without even another flat – were dashed in Olten. Jon had the brilliant idea to put on the new tire, and leave the old in Europe. After an hour in the hot sun, it turned out the new tire didn’t fit, and we are back to the insurance spare.

We hope that we will complete the tour in Gumligen tomorrow with the current 5-5 tie. We cannot remember another tour with so many problems. Guess that happens when the equipment, and the riders, are both getting older.

And MC, well she wisely decided to stay out of the contest. It was enough to just have to ride so many days outside of the ideal cyclist’s comfort range: cold, rain, 9 days straight with headwinds, flooding, bad paths, lack of signage, and now heat.

But it still beats work, and the rewards, food, wine, scenery, Chateaus, Museums, physical exercise, sense of accomplishment, and time together – makes it all worth it!

Besides, how else can you get one of these cool bicyclist’s tans …

Or get to say Hi to cows every day …

An additional perk when cycling Switzerland.

If you read yesterday’s blog, we had determined that the EV6 was on the German side of the Rhine. So we were surprised to start seeing EV6 signs posted with the Swiss #2 route. So this meant that we were still on the EV6, and we officially left it today, where the Aare river comes into the Rhine.

So this was the end of our longest journey in Europe on the same bicycle route. We started on the EuroVelo 6 in St. Brevine, at the mouth of the Loire, on the Atlantic Coast 3 weeks ago. It’s been a fantastic journey!

If you combine this tour with our past ones, we have covered all of the EV6 from the Coast to Vienna, with the one exception from the Bodensee to Kelheim Germany, essentially the upper Danube. Someday we hope to complete that section, but probably won’t attempt the final section from Vienna to the Black Sea. We’ve become less interested in truly “roughing it” touring, as we’ve gotten older.

A most enjoyable part of our day, was repeating our route from one year ago, and trying to reach back and feel what we were like then, having just arrived in our new country. So much has happened, and the year has been so full, that it was like watching an old movie, where you don’t remember the plot until it unfolds.

As we came around each bend, the memories returned: Here’s where we saw storks nesting! This is the horrible path when we first started to consider switching from the trailer to using panniers. And our favorite, here’s where we took the photo that was used in the Swiss Times article about our year-long exchange!

It will be fun to compare the two photos, the wide eyed newbees, with the seasoned expat tourists!

Oh, and what are the two new waters? Well, the Aare river of course – and then sweat! At the beginning of this trip temperatures were in the 13c/50f range. Today was our hottest day of the trip (we hope!), 35c/95f. Ouch! That’s the hottest it ever got all last summer. Is Switzerland trying to make up for the late spring?

Something tells us we are back in Switzerland!

Actually we were both surprised how familiar and comfortable it is to be here again. It has come to feel like home. We asked in German for the nearest lebbensmittal and were told there was a Migros 100m around the corner, and we knew what that meant!

Our day began riding the final section of the Doubs Rhine canal to Basel. Along the way we got to see a very different lock – one for BIG boats. It was actually very impressive how the massive barge slowly moved into the lock with about 1/4 meter clearance on each side, and never once touched. (Film later)

Just north of Basel we crossed the Rhine, leaving France, and the French language, behind, after nearly 6 weeks.

Jon had done some checking, and it looked like the EV6 stayed on the German side of the Rhine, so we thought we would try it, and not use our planned route in Switzerland, #2. However, within a kilometer, the EV6 signs disappeared. We ended up picking our way along the river to Reinfelden where we could cross into Switzerland, and continue our route there.

This was actually a bit exciting for us because we had been at this same bridge almost exactly one year ago, on our second short tour in Switzerland. We had ridden from the Bodensee to Basel our second weekend after arriving.

Another event on that trip was a hope to see the Feldschlosschen Brewery, but it was closed. Today we returned and got to see a little of its museum, and some of it’s art deco architecture.

We ended the day returning to the same campground we had stayed in last year, which is where the Swiss Burgers came from.

We’ve reached the end of the Doubs (river/canal/canton/county)!

For the past couple days we’ve been watching green squares with kilometer markings counting down from 135 to 0, without knowing what they were for. Nothing seems to excite (some) cyclists more, than a bunch of mysterious numbers counting down along the route!

This was not the total trip along the Doubs, as we first joined it about 5 days ago. But apparently it is a section of pathway that is built by the county, and is one of the best we’ve been on so far.

But it does mean that we are not only moving into the next river basin, but we are also moving across the divide from the Mediterranean to the North Sea.

We are not sure when we switched from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. But we remember the experience. On this trip it has happened 3 times. It has always been along a canal, and suddenly the locks are all running downhill.

This is our third and final divide crossing. We will now follow the Rhine and Aare rivers back to Bern and Gumligen.

So we catch up to three women and Jon says, they must be from the U.S. because one of them has a helmet mirror. (We have not found anywhere in Europe to get them.) And MC replies, they probably are – they’re all riding Bike Fridays. So we lined up our Tandem Tuesday next to their Fridays and found out that they are also nearing the end of a ride along the EV6.

We accidentally ended up doing one last century today, 100k. We had tailwinds, and our original destination, L’ilse Doubs, seemed a little dubious – so we went on to Montbelliard, and will have a shorter day tomorrow.

More signs we are getting close to Swizerland:

More, and bigger hills

We heard our first cowbells

One fourth of the TV channels are in German

They had spaetzl on the menu

Today was only our third day off, or “rest” day of the trip. We had originally scheduled 6, as past experience has shown that it can be difficult if you cycle more than 6-8 days in a row. But our schedule was altered, first due to the extra day at Leiven’s for fixing our rear wheel. Then we hit the 9 days of headwinds, which put us behind schedule.

But the last “day off” was an experiment. Since we were in the middle of Chateau country, we instead had 3 short riding days, taking the remainder of those days for Chateau visits. It worked, as we were then able to do a week of riding longer distances to make up the schedule and now recover in Besancon.

This town is wonderful. As usual it has a number of Churches, like Saint Jeans.

But the high point of the day, both in the tour and very literally, was the Citadel. It’s ramparts reminded us of Dubrovnik.

From there we could see our path by the river, when we entered town yesterday.

And from the other side, we could see the bike path we will use tomorrow as we continue up river.

Rather than a single wall around the Citadel, it has an elaborate defensive network of multiple walls, valleys, and fields. Most of these have now been turned into one of the best zoos we have seen. Here is one of those sections.

Then, starting tomorrow we will have a somewhat different trip. Looking ahead to traveling in Switzerland, not only will our lodging costs increase significantly, but we will need to have reservations well in advance. So instead of planning each day as it comes, we now have a 6 day plan all the way to Gumligen, already knowing where we will be each day. But the daily distance will be 15-20k less than we have been doing this past week, so we feel confident we can do it.

Over the past 6 weeks we have stayed in a wide variety of places with a large range of quality. We’ve stayed with friends, in campgrounds, AirBnB, Gites, Chambre d’Hotes, Auberges, tourist Hotels, and even some large business Hotels. Although most of these places cater to tourists from across Europe and worldwide, not one has offered any TV channels in languages other than French, and we came across less than 10 who had anyone who could understand or speak English.

Another cool phenomenon about cycle touring is that you only travel a short distance each day, so changes in your environment evolve slowly. You move from coastal dunes into vineyards, then farmland. Prairies become hillsides, cliffs give way to mountains, and rural countryside slips into urban centers. It all happens not much faster than the escargot we have come across along the paths each day.

Now we are witnessing the approach of the edge of France. It’s not some sudden demarcation, like moving from a German to a French Canton in Switzerland – and the freeway off-ramps suddenly go from aufgangs to sorties. Instead we are watching the purity of our French emersion being corrupted little by little as the end draws near.

Several days ago we had a TV channel selection that included CNN International, but it had no audio. The next day, at a large business hotel, the receptionist knew some broken English, and we had 3 English news channels.

Last night we stayed in a hotel where the receptionist spoke perfect English with a German accent. The menu was in French, English, and German – and even offered sauerkraut. And the wine list was broken down by variety, rather than by appelation.

It has been an interesting 6 weeks deep within France. Our experiences were very mixed. Many French are wonderful, friendly, and great hosts. But there is another side of France we never did adjust to.

For one, they can be very abrupt. We witnessed two minor auto accidents. The first reaction in both, was the drivers jumping out and yelling at each other. Many times, when we would ask if a restaurant was serving in the afternoon, we were verbally treated as if we had committed some social outrage – to have even dared to ask.

Another characteristic we will not miss, is an attitude that things don’t need to be finished, made well, or kept in working order. We took our bike to a shop yesterday because of a noise it had started to make. Instead of looking into it, the repairman said, “Will it cause you to fall?”, “Then why fix it?”

We can’t tell you how many hotels had parts missing in the bathroom, heaters or outlets that didn’t work. The TV, internet, and cell phone systems often stop working at different times throughout the day. And at least 15 times we came upon “Route Barree” signs across the bike path – but no detour signage or help as to how we need to get around the construction.

But the bright side was that there was so much construction! We saw dozens of projects to improve the bike paths, and more than one city putting in new mass transit systems. So, if you are willing to overlook some French attitudes – France is, and will continue to be, a great place to do cycle touring!

And at the same time, we can feel the edge of our 2nd home – Switzerland -approaching, and look forward to cycling routes where you can depend on the signage not only being present, but also being understandable and correct.

It was another beautiful cycling day with good paths and roads. Tomorrow we will have made up all the extra three days we spent at the Chateaus, and will be back on schedule.

So we were busy cycling today, but as we look back at the only three photos we took – we see that each represents a mystery:

We’ve come across many signs that we don’t really understand. Perhaps this one is letting us know that swimming with your bicycle is not allowed? We just hope none of them were important!

Here is where our path today came to a dead end. After this was a closed gate and a farm field with no further road. But our GPS track from Euro Velo 6 went right through it! So somebody took a bicycle through here once!?

And this was the best of all. Two obelisks standing side by side at the river. Nothing else around. MC went to investigate while Jon watched her disappear behind them – fearing they might be a star gate, and she was now being transported through time and space …

Actually, our working theory became that they are the towers of an old suspension bridge, but that proposal sounded too ordinary. There seems to be a tendency for long-distance cycle tourists to keep their minds active through fantasy, song creation, and categorization of road kill.

But that’s for another blog.

Normally, any serious touring cyclist would never admit to accepting a ride. But since our ride was only 1k, and probably took 5 times longer than we could have cycled it, we’ll make an exception!

As we were cycling along the canal, Jon noticed that the boat about to enter the Lock was registered in San Francisco! We stopped to talk with the owners, Jim and Mary Niel – and they invited us on board to join them through the next lock.

So, we got to experience a tiny bit of the canal, from the “other” side. Jim and Mary have had their Dutch canal boat for 10 years, and spend 6 months each year traveling the canals of France and the Netherlands. They are currently on their way to Paris.

We thought we’d only be cycling along canals in southern France, we had no idea there were so many interconnecting canals all across Europe. We’ll be sharing more/better photos when we are back on a computer.

It was a wonderful surprise, and a fun couple – sharing their boat and journey with us.

In other news of the day, do you notice anything unusual about this picture?

This is the first day of the entire tour that the wind was calm all day. We also ended the day on some of the best paths yet, with information from a west-bound cyclist, that there is a lot more to come.

There was just one small shortcut we took which included single-track. Just a reminder of the “old” days on the Canal du Midi …

But it was while we were on this shortcut that we passed 2,000k and our odometer flipped over from 999.99 a second time.

This is further than our entire last tour from Vienna to Amsterdam, so we are now setting a new record.