London  Netherlands  Belgium & Luxembourg  Rhine & Mossel  Switzerland  France  Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck  Denmark & England 

GuttenTag,

Switzerland, the land of three national languages, beautiful scenery and a bunch of banks.

Train to Sun 

I had enough of the rain on the Rhine so I opted to train for sun and go to Switzerland. My train ride in was awesome I was able to see a distinct difference between the punctual, but curt service of the German train service, and the more relaxed, helpful service of the Swiss.

The train ride provided exactly what it was suppose to SUN O'Glorious SUN. I fell in love with Switzerland just on the ride in. Beautiful alpine lakes, vineyards, mountains, etc., with every outdoor sport you could imagine.

Once I arrived in Geneve I knew it was going to be an awesome visit just by walking along the lake.

B-Day 

While I was in Geneve I managed to celebrate my 34th B-day, nothing special, but I am on a three month Holiday in Europe, so what more do I need.  I did however have a very relaxing day with an awesome sunset, and a one legged duck to share it with.

I do however have to be honest with all of you. I do not feel at all like 34 although I don't know what 34 should feel like so maybe I am..

The Day 

I have not tried to share much detail of individual days etc., both to keep you from being bored and me from writers cramp. I do however need to attempt to describe this one day for you.

It started by breaking camp and leaving Vevy which is located on the north shore of Lac Leman. The route was going to include a climb up to Chatel St. Denis and then continue into Bulle. I had just finished the climb which was brutal and I was biking through Chatel St. Denis when a truck speed in front of me to come to a stop so I braked some and then shifted up to allow me to start out, as I shifted up; my slightly bent rear derailleur (another story) spun into my rear wheel and wrapped my derailleur up like a 5 year olds first mother's day gift. The stress on my derailleur also caused my rear drop out extension to crack. So I am in a small alpine village with a complete bike failure. I asked a gentleman on the street if there was some where I could get a new derailleur, he pointed me to what he felt would be my best bet. It ended up being the local hardware store. I know some of you come from small towns and know what I mean when I say "A little of everything and a whole lot of customer service." After the owners son gets his sister who is better with English we come to the determination that they do not have the part but a shop in a village about 2kms away might have it, but they close at 1:00 which gives me 20 mins. I thank them, but then the daughter offers to drive me, I say no but she insists, so off we go in her BMW (first time in one with manual windows). We make it to the shop and they actually have one. So we get back to the store and the son wants to know if I need tools etc., he then brings out hand cleaner and a bucket of water. You have to love experiences like that to remind you that there are beautiful people in this world you just need to find them.

The derailleur is fixed, but the drop out is a Cannondale only part so it is still bent and cracked, but I have a few gears to hobble my way across the alpine meadows to Bulle. (The ride was very beautiful)

In Bulle I find the first bike shop but no Cannondale's so I am directed towards the next shop. As the next shop assessed the damage they managed to break the derailleur completely. What was worse was they did not have the part, but one of the mechanics became extremely handy and Jerry rigged up a solution with some grinding etc. so I could at least bike. The best part was that he did not charge me anything.

The part was going to get me around, but I did not trust it to carry me over the pass that I needed to bike to get to Interlakken so I opted to take the train. One of the gentleman at the bike shop understood this so he offered to take me to the train station. We put my bike into the back of the cheese wagon (Owner of a local shop) and we were off. The route to the station was light on conversation since he spoke little English and while I am lucky to get out thank you in the right language. There was though one moment of cultural connection; it occurred as we passed two beautiful ladies. He simply proclaimed WOW, and I just smiled and knew exactly what he meant. You have to love the simple words that mean a lot in this little world.

Once at the station I inquired about a ticket, and they did have a way for me to get there with my bike. I was excited and purchased the ticket only then to notice that I had to take a bus and make three train changes to get there. So after a bus and three train rides I found myself in Interlakken. I now only needed to find a place to stay, as I was biking towards my first choice I managed to see a bike truck advertising Cannondale so I flagged them down so I could get directions to the shop.

WOW, what I can fit into one day on Holiday.

Interlakken 

Talk about one area that has a ton of things I love, WOW. Just about any outdoor activity that you would like to do is available to you in one gorgeous setting. Interlakken sits between two beautiful alpine lakes and among some of the more impressive mountains within the Swiss Alps.

The Interlakken area will be one area I Add to the need to return to category.

The Pass 

With my bike problems solved I could not come up with any real good reason not to accept the challenge of climbing my first pass in the Swiss Alps. The name is Bruinigpass at 1002 meters. The climb was intense, but not as bad as I thought it might be. I did however make it more challenging by taking some of the pass on a bike path before it turned into a MOUNTAIN Bike path with rock hopping and all, so I back tracked and attacked it on the road. Some 13% grade stuff, but mainly just the length. I probably have not mentioned traveling with bike touring gear is not that bad on flats, but throw some incline in and the added weight means a lot.

Bottom line I peddled up about 500 meters of incline over about 10 kms, and towards the end even managed to pass some cars because of traffic problems caused by the singing (Yodeling) competition being held at the top of the pass.

All that work and about 20 minutes of coasting later I found myself back down at the elevation I started.

Jeannette, & Zurich 

Okay, Zurich is not the tourists capital of the world, but hey I managed to get a picture of the largest minute hand on a clock in Europe. (I know ranks right up there with the ball of twine)

Zurich was however celebrating Switzerland's Independence Day while I was there so it was fun to see how another country handles fireworks etc., let me just say I saw more than one accident waiting to happen.

The highlight though of Zurich was I managed to meet up with Jeannette, a friend from my Reno days. Jeannette is doing some traveling for a while also so we had a couple days of great conversation putzing around the city of Zurich and then she also spent some time with me in Paris.

Tot Straks,
DUKE

Date	From	To	Miles
7/22	Geneve Train Station	Geneva Campground (Walked Bike)	6
7/23-25	Run & SUN	Fixed Bike
7/26	Geneve	Vevey	57.95
7/27	Vevey (Bike Broke)	Bulle Train to Interlakken	25.18
7/28	Sun Bike Fixed Tour
7/29	Interlakken	Obsee/Lungren (climbed pass)	44.11
7/30	Obsee	Lucerne	29.61
7/31	Lucerne	Zurich	46.14
8/1-8/3	Run & Relax 18.5 miles
8/4	Zurich Camp	Zurich Train Station	6.8

Comments or for letters to the editor email me at duke@systemscoach.com