Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Switzerland 2 (13th - 20th August 07)

We headed back into northern Switzerland from Freiburg and started riding towards Geneva. It took us 5 riding days to get to Geneva but there was plenty of nice sights and towns along the way. We spent a day in a town called Biel-Bienne which is at the frontier of the German and French speaking part, so they gave the town two names, one in each language. The town is the home of swiss watch making, with huge offices belonging to Rolex, Tissot and Swatch to name a few.

Next stop was Lausanne, where we visited the Olympic museum. This was one of the best museums we have ever been to. A great display on the history of the games and some amazing sculptures in the gardens. It was interesting to read about each games, and view it in relation to the current events of the time. For instance why countries boycotted particular games depending on political situations.

Nick practising his aero-dynamics outside the Olympic museum


A days ride to the other side of Lac Geneve, took us to Geneva, the multi-national capital of the world. Apparently only 40 percent of the city is Swiss, the rest are foreigners. A highlight was going on a guided tour of the UN headquarters, where we visited some of the conference rooms and learnt the history of the UN.

Typical tourist photo outside the UN


We also visited the Red Cross museum, which interesting did not disclose any information into its funding or expenditure, but rather more about the foundation of the Red Cross itself. One of the mian criticisms of the Red Cross is how they did nothing for Jews in concentration camps during WW2. We got the impression that they skimmed over this part quickly in the museum.

Waking up the morning we were to leave Switzerland, it was pissing with rain, with rain forecasts for the next 4 days. So we decided to catch a train to Lyon, France where we could then ride south down the Rhone valley. We will now spend the next week cycling towards Montpellier, where we will catch a train to the Basque area of France, Bayonne. From there we will cross the Spanish border and spend a few weeks exploring the region.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Germany (7th - 12th July 07)

From Zurich we thought we better see a bit of Southern Germany as it was only a few days ride away. We headed up to the Swiss border city of Basel, then crossed into Germany. We chose to head to Freiburg in Germany as we had both heard fantastic things about this town.

Cycling in Germany however, does not compete in the slightest to Switzerland. There arent really cycle paths, and on the occassion when there are, they are poorly signposted. So we had to stick to main roads most of the way up to Freiburg.

It rained every single day we were in Germany. Which when you are camping, makes all your belongings damp and horrible. We thought about hostelling it for a few days, but then didnt want to camp-quitters, so we stuck it out in the tent. It was the first time we got out the wet weather gear on our whole trip to cycle. The rain cleaned off the moth-balls in no time.

Despite the rain, Freiburg was a really nice town that we enjoyed just sitting in cafes and people watching. It is a really green town, with lots of cyclists and environmentally-friendly people.

Half an hour of sun in Freiburg


Then we headed up to the Black Forest town of Titisee. It was set on a glacial lake, high up in the hills. We literally had to ride through the clouds to get there. As it was a pretty touristy town, one night was enough there before heading back to Freiburg to head back to Switzerland towards Geneva.

Riding in the Black Forest


The rain in Germany did give us a chance to spend more time in German cafes enjoying the food and beer. The white wheat beers in particular were great, and there were fantastic bakeries everywhere.

Our 5 day German experience was only a little taster for what the rest of the country has to offer. But while it was nice, and the people were friendly, Switzerland takes the cake for us at the moment. So back to there, where the Franc suprisingly goes much further than the Euro in Germany.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Switzerland - Fondue, chocolate and fantastic cycling (22nd July - 6th August 07)

After leaving Nick's family in Milan we headed north to Switzerland. Since being in Europe we have changed our travel set up. We are now camping so we needed another set of panniers for our new gear. We purchased a new pair of ortlieb panniers and Nick now has two small panniers on his front wheel, two big one on the back and the tent sitting across the rack totalling 40kg of gear. Nat has upgraded to large panniers on the rear totalling 20kg.

Setting out fully loaded in Milan


We decided to catch a train just out of Milan then rode north to some lakes near the Swiss border. There are plenty of camping sites so it is just a matter of stopping for the day when we get tired, or when we find a great spot.

Going to Switzerland was an impromptu decision so we had not done much research and did not have a guide book but upon entering Switzerland we were confronted with sign posted cycle routes and an abundance of cycle lanes. There is a fantastic network of cycle routes over the country and there are maps and books that detail all of the routes at a country, regional and local scale. We got onto the north-south route which would take us to Luzern, then to Zurich.

The south of Switzerland is italian speaking, so not much changed from crossing the border and it is not until you cross the alps over the San Gottardo Pass do you enter german speaking Switzerland.

We stopped at some charming towns on our way north. Bellinzona is a UNESCO world heritage site with 15th century castles in the centre of town. They were used to protect the Lombardy people of northern italy from germanic tribes. Who ever said that Switzerland was too sterile with no culture?

One of the charming villages in southern Switzerland


After Bellinzon the road started heading up into the alps. We were heading for the San Gottardo Pass (2109m) which was a 2 day ride away. The ride up was great, the cycle route took us off the main road and through small towns set on the river running down the valley.

There are 3 routes over the San Gottardo Pass, the highway (via a 20 odd km tunnel), the main road with many tunnels or the old cobbled road. Being traditionalists we took the old road which was a 900m rise over 12km (for the day we climbed 1500m over 30km). There were plenty of other cyclists doing the climb, but we won the prize for hauling up the most gear. It took us 2.5 hours to get to the top but upon arriving we had the mandatory photo with the altidude sign then enjoyed a bratwurst sausage each.

The many switchbacks


We decided to take the main road down and had 45km of descending to Altdorf where we finished for the day.

We then headed to Luzern, a charming but touristy town located on the edge of a lake (like all swiss towns). We camped about 10km out of town and stayed a few nights exploring the area. We met some other kiwi cycle tourers who have been living in London so it was great to chew the fat for a few days with them.

Camping is not so bad afterall with a spot like this


Zurich was only a days ride away but we managed to take two, partly because the ride was so nice and we found a nice campsite by a river to hangout at.

In Zurich we stayed with Alistair, a kiwi who is doing his Phd over here. Al showed us the highlights and the best kebab shops of Zurich and it was great sleeping in a futon instead of a thermarest mattress for a few nights. Zurich is a fantastic town and reminds us alot of Wellington....but better. It is definately not `all banks` and there is a great young, ethnically diverse cultured feel to the city. There are more cyclists than pedestrians and the city is very compact given there are only 300,000 people here.



We both know that sometime in the near future we will be living in Zurich, whether it be study or work.

The Familia in Italia - Meeting up with Nicks Parents (2nd - 22nd July 07)

We flew from St Petersburg (Russia) to Milan (Italy) to meet up with Nicks parents - Alison and Brian - and his brother Tim. In Milan, we were extremely lucky because we were had a true Italian experience of staying with an Italian family. This was with Cecilia's family who stayed with Nicks family in NZ a few years ago.

Cecilia had a fantastic apartment in central Milan so we spent a few days roaming the city and doing some frantic sightseeing including the Milan Duomo, Leonardo's Last Supper, and the fashion district of Milan (where we felt totally out of place in our tired travelling clothes). We had some fantastic meals cooked by Cecilia's family, including one amazing night sitting on her grandfathers balcony which has a stunning view of the Duomo.

After a few days in Milan we caught a train south to Genova followed by and overnight ferry to Sardinia, a large island off the west coast of Italy. We then went to the far north of the island to a place called La Maddelana where Cecilia has a holiday house. When we turned up we were mind-blown. The house was set up on a hill above the small town and had a huge deck with stunning views of the La Maddelena archipeligo. (Unfortunately we burnt a CD with our photos and that went back to NZ, so we cant show any pics of how beautiful it was).

We were in La Maddelena for a week and had a great time on the beaches, cooling ourselves with gelato or cafe shakerato (shaken ice coffee). On our penultimate day we hired a boat and driver and 8 of us went out crusing the islands, stopping at secluded beaches for swims - magical.

After Sardinia, Nick's family hired a campervan and we did a whirlwind tour of Northern Italy. Bologna - a bohemian uni town that we loved, Lucca - a small historic town, Pisa - known mainly for its leaning tower, and the Italian riviera. We then left Nick's mum and brother in Cinque Terra while we and Nicks dad headed for the french alps for 4 days to follow the tour de france.

The alps were packed with cyclists riding over the cols (mountain passes) or getting ready for the tour. On the col de galibier there were campervans parked up 4 days before the tour came through!!

We watched two stages of the tour where we parked the campervan at the bottom of a climb then rode our bikes up over the top then found a good position to watch the race. Then we waited..........First was the 80 sponsor cars and trucks throwing freebies into the crowd and we were happy with our free coffee. Then about 1 hour later the riders came through. Even though we were near the top of the mountains that they had been climbing for hours, they flew by....and the field passed with 25 minutes.






Then we headed back to Italy and spent a few days at Como Lake north of Milan where we visited a church which is blessed by the patron saint of......italian cycling.



After Como we all went back to Milan to go our seperate ways - Alison and Brian to NZ, Tim to London then Greece and us north to Switzerland. Our decision to head north was mainly due to the unbearable heat in Italy, and the cooler climate that the higher altitude Switzerland held was very appealing.