The weekend would be foggy and cold. What to do? Smart Jon checked forecasts all over Switzerland. Warmest temps would be in the South Valley. He’d been wanting to bike there after reading about the bike route from Oberwald to Lake Geneva. Oberwald is rather high into the mountains, meaning colder and a longer train ride to get there, so we decided to start at Visp. GPS tracks were laid in, train tickets purchased, lunch packed and off we went.
Route #1 in the Swiss Veloland system, www.veloland.ch, follows the Rhone River. So it’s downhill most of the way. We anticipated easy riding.
And it was, except for the freezing temperatures. Frost thick on the pastures, mud icy on the paths, and fingers and toes just wouldn’t warm up. Our midpoint and overnight town was Saillon where there is a huge fancy thermal bath, www.bainsdesaillon.ch. Daydreaming about submersing myself in those warm waters, I gritted my teeth and carried forward.
In Roran they excavated a cavern to build a church.
The new (1974) St. Michael Felsenkirche is entirely inside rock.
We guess folks got tired of climbing up to old St. Romanus.
The massive rock formations on both sides of the river are awesome. The towns are necessarily small, snuggled into corners of land. But this valley has a lot of sun, despite the mountains, and has become famous for wine. Wherever possible, and in some spots that seemed impossible, they plant grape vines. Our respect for Napa growers has diminished since we’ve seen what other people do to make wine.
What would be barren rock produces wine grapes on terraces.
Small town, big rock. The faint stripes at the mountain base are grape terraces.
We made it to Saillon just before the early winter sunset. But the baths, which we passed on the way to our hotel, were noisy with kids and further from the hotel, www.sarvaz.ch, than we had thought, so once established in our room we chose not to go back.
Sun setting in Saillon on the Bayart tower, a 19-meter keep built by the Count of Savoy.
Unfortunately, the hotel restaurant (the only restaurant anywhere near) which we had relied on for dinner was completely booked for the night! They did offer a set menu in the Bistro of roasted chestnuts, cheeses and dried meats with bread and fruit. We ordered that, but it felt like an appetizer, so I explained to our waitress that my husband was still hungry and could they prepare something else for him. She asked the chef, who agreed to accomodate us (perhaps because most of the real dinner crowd were not yet there). Fed and warm at last, we cuddled under the duvets, watched a little French TV (Saillon is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland), and slept well.
The next day was, unlike the forecast had predicted, a whole degree warmer. The ride was enjoyable, at least for the mid-day hours.
Requisite shot of cows, waterfall and rock.
We particularly enjoyed the church of St. Maurice Abbey. Built on the ruins of a 1st cen. BC Roman shrine, it was itself rebuilt after a 1942 rock fall.
Stone baptismal font and wall mosaics are new but fit well in the old rock church.
It was pleasant to watch the landscape change. After St. Maurice, the valley widens, there are few vineyards and more pasture land.
Rhone River valley
Then as you ride along Le Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), you pass through marshland which is a bird sanctuary. We made good time lakeside despite the traffic and the uphill from Villeneuve to Montreux.
Chillon Castle from Villeneuve
We were very pleased with ourselves when we boarded the train to go home. We had only 3 minutes from ticket purchase to train departure and we made it despite having to take an elevator with our loaded tandem!
A side note for this trip was how much easier it was for both of us to deal with French than with German. As people spoke, words kept coming back. Bodes well for our sabbatical which starts in southern France.