So we posted our last blog on empty stomachs, waiting to head out to dinner in celebration of McKayla's 20th birthday (which is actually on Tuesday). McKayla's sociable grandparents already have many friends in Lutry, including the Schneider family (Ulla, Phillip, and their two little daughters Helena, 5, and Jessica, 3). The Schneiders are German but now live and work in Lutry, and speak perfect English, French and German. They have been exceptionally helpful to us in planning our route to Interlaken where they used to live. Ulla took us out to her favorite restaurant, Madame Lutz', which is an incredibly classy restaurant on the top of the hill surrounding Lake Geneva. We sat underneath grapevines, looking over the glittering lights of the lakeside towns. Words can't even describe how amazing dinner was, so I won't try, and we topped off the night with a "Tart au creme" decorated with Smarties (european m&ms) courtesy of Helena and Jessica.
Saturday we soaked up our last day of rest and relaxation with the grandparents before our schlep to Interlaken. We took care of our bikes (good for us!) and we planned our route and lodging for the week. Dinner at home was unbelievable as usual (it's going to be tough getting back into our one-pot routine and eating with sporks....).
That brings us to today. We took our time this morning, and finally left our beloved Lutry around 10:30. Turns out the first part of our "bike" was actually a hike... I'm pretty sure most of these Swiss roads came into existence before governments regulated their grades, because we walked our bikes a few kilometers up a vineyard-covered cliff. At one point, McKayla dared peddle sitting down.... which pulled her front wheel right off the pavement. Our slow morning gave way to rolling hills and adorable, almost cliche, swiss villes. The day was cold and foggy but the fall foliage is in full color right now!! We had lunch in Oron, but didn't stop much this ride because of the cold weather. We found the hostel in no time! We've gotten SO much better at that business... Currently we are Internetten... guess where... MacDonald!!!! Never before have we spent so much quality time in fast food establishments (granted, at a Swiss McDonalds you can buy a 12-dollar burger...it's much classier here). Pretty soon we'll check into our hostel, cook some dinner, and have a relaxing evening. We love and miss you all blog readers :)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Update from Lutry
We've been enjoying incredible weather here at McKayla's grandparent's house in Lutry, Switzerland. It feels like August again, it's been 21 degrees celcius, sunny, and blue skies. McKayla's grandmother and grandfather have been so welcoming and hospitable, and they are so fun to chat with. We've really been enjoying our stay. Our first full day here (Wednesday) we spent relaxing and exploring Lutry. The town is really cute, and McKayla's grandparents live in an amazing location. The front door of the house is on a little cobblestone street, lined with small local shops (a meat shop, a winery, a cheese shop, etc.). The back of the house has a lovely porch overlooking a small garden and the lake (Lac Leman, also called Lake Geneva). There is a perfect view of the Alps, jagged and predominate across the lake. It's incredible, I (Erin) keep thinking to myself, "this is unreal," but it is real...
Yesterday, Thursday we rode our bikes along the lake to Montreaux where we then rode up the hillside, locked up our bikes and hiked up a bit. Our trail ended a bit earlier than we expected, but the view was already so amazing that we were unmotivated to hike any further. So we stopped and ate lunch overlooking the lake and the Alps. That night Granddad Jerry made a delicious chicken soup for dinner (he loves to make soup) and even cooked up some Fera (a white fish found only in Lac Leman), which was amazing!
Today we slept in, went running alongside the lake (there is a path that follows the lake within inches most of the way). Then we did an insanity workout -- definitely the most beautiful place we've done Insanity so far. After, we jumped in the lake, it felt so refreshing and wasn't too cold! There was even a high-dive board that we jumped off a few times. Can't imagine what it's like to go swimming here in August!
Tonight we're going out to eat for an early birthday celebration for McKayla.
Yesterday, Thursday we rode our bikes along the lake to Montreaux where we then rode up the hillside, locked up our bikes and hiked up a bit. Our trail ended a bit earlier than we expected, but the view was already so amazing that we were unmotivated to hike any further. So we stopped and ate lunch overlooking the lake and the Alps. That night Granddad Jerry made a delicious chicken soup for dinner (he loves to make soup) and even cooked up some Fera (a white fish found only in Lac Leman), which was amazing!
Today we slept in, went running alongside the lake (there is a path that follows the lake within inches most of the way). Then we did an insanity workout -- definitely the most beautiful place we've done Insanity so far. After, we jumped in the lake, it felt so refreshing and wasn't too cold! There was even a high-dive board that we jumped off a few times. Can't imagine what it's like to go swimming here in August!
Tonight we're going out to eat for an early birthday celebration for McKayla.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
"The Way We Ride" sound clip
As we were riding, I (McKayla) wrote a song to the tune of Ingrid Michaelson's, "The Way I Am." Enjoy...
The Way we Ride
If you are chilly, here take my jacket
It's quite flourescent, so we'll be seen
CHORUS:
And everyone will know we're not Parisians on the Metro
We're just tourists from aux etats-unis
-----
If dehydration is your dilemma
I've filled my nalgene, right from the tap
------
CHORUS:
Et si tu dois aller pisser later tonight
I-I-I-I'll help you find the light
--------
If you are "hangry"
or your eyes tell you that you are
we'll go to cafes
eat palmiers
------
then we'll go to the exotic isle of the Carrefour
and buy our fill of buerre de arachideeeee
"......"
More pictures from today (french alps and lac leman)
http://picasaweb.google.com/111756067304857775012/LutrySwitzerland#5525354115061576242
Check them out! It's hard to believe they are real. We are in such a beautiful place.
Check them out! It's hard to believe they are real. We are in such a beautiful place.
New Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/111756067304857775012/CrossingToSwitzerland
Check out our pictures from the last few days!
Check out our pictures from the last few days!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Amie's Marvelous Munich Memoirs
Hello friends,
Here's a recap of what I did while Erin and McKayla were heading toward Switzerland on their bikes!
We parted ways Thursday morning, and I spent the day making my way to Lausanne on a train to meet my friend Shelby there. Shelby is living and working in Switerland this year while studying French. I felt like an idiot all day for trying to speak french, trying to find my train, getting yelled at by the train conductor for where my bike was, charged extra for the bike, and finally trying to pay in euros once I hit switzerland (they use Francs...). But I survived the day and finally Shelby came to meet me, took me back to her host mom's house on the metro, and we went to sleep.
Friday we spent the day traveling to Munich. They don't do TGVs here in Switzerland (treins a grand vitesse, aka REALLY fast trains) and so it wasn't until a nauseous 8 hours later that we finally pulled into the Munich station. Luckily our hostel, the Meininger Hostel, was only about one kilometer down the road, and we walked there no problem. There were drunk Germans EVERYWHERE. It was Friday night after all, and people were parading the streets singing drinking songs in German, wearing Leiderhosen?? (spelling completely wrong, but that's how it sounds and it's the traditional German garb for men, with the cuttoff brown overalls, long socks, collared shirts, hats, you get the picture). There were also many frauleins equally decked out in puffy German dresses. Shelby and I walked around town, but didn't make it out to the actually festival grounds that night, opting instead for a beer at the hostel bar and an early night of sleep.
For those who don't know: what Oktoberfest actually is, is the world's largest public festival. It started in 1810 as a celebration for a royal wedding (prince Ludwig i think?) and every year since, for about 2 weeks in early October or late September, they rope off a huge area of Munich, and have a dozen beer tents, and hundreds of food stands, shops, rides, etc. Apparently about 50 million visitors come to Oktoberfest over the course of the 2 weeks, and the festival itself actually feels like a small city. Outside, it's very fair-like, and inside the beer tents, it's a massive shitshow of people of all ages drinking excessive amounts of delicious German beers from liter-sized steins, amidst endless cheers, toasts, and drinking songs. They also serve traditional German foods the entire time, all brought to you by an army squadron of Frauleins in dresses with arms the size of my thighs from carrying all the beer.
So that's what we did on Saturday... We had booked our hostel though a company called First Festival Travel, based out of London, with the happy result being a hostel full of ENGLISH speaking friends, even if it was kiwi, aussi, and british English. We befriended our roommates at breakfast, Sophie and Mouse of New Zealand, and we headed down the tents with them that morning. By 9 AM the tents were already PACKED with drinkers. We're lucky we even got a table, which was in the back corner. Shelby, Sophie, Mouse, Stephen, I, and about 6 young to middle-aged Wimbledon tennis workers then sat around drinking steins of beer and acting foolishly. The day was one of the more fun I've had, EXCEPT when I had to battle hordes of drunk, uncomfortable women in the lines for the bathroom.... Eventually I tired out, and went back to the hostel to siesta before evening festivities. I woke up at bedtime with massive hangover, and went back to sleep.
Sunday morning I was doing better than my hostel mates at our delicious buffet-breakfast. We hit the tents again, starting around 9 am, though I postponed the drinking a bit this time around. The tents were quieter Sunday and Shelby and I made many random friends with the others who came and went from the tables around us. We also met some swiss-french semi-pro soccer players, Bruno, Johann, Andrea, and Cedric who were rather sexually agressive, flirting with the closest girls they could find. Bruno even kindly asked if I would care to "faire l'amour" with him... which I politely declined. So if any incriminating pictures turn up on facebook, that was the situation. Took another evening siesta, and actually made it back out at night, when Shelby and I opted to experience a little more of the fair aspects of the festival, and less of the booze-soaked drunk-men-filled antics of the beer tents. We rode a MASSIVE ferris wheel, I ate a bratwurst, bought a present for my lil' bro, and then we went to bed.
And that was it. The next morning we were back on a painful (though unbelievably gorgeous) 8 hour train ride from Munich to Lausanne, where I was finally reunited with Erin and McKayla! Phew.
Here's a recap of what I did while Erin and McKayla were heading toward Switzerland on their bikes!
We parted ways Thursday morning, and I spent the day making my way to Lausanne on a train to meet my friend Shelby there. Shelby is living and working in Switerland this year while studying French. I felt like an idiot all day for trying to speak french, trying to find my train, getting yelled at by the train conductor for where my bike was, charged extra for the bike, and finally trying to pay in euros once I hit switzerland (they use Francs...). But I survived the day and finally Shelby came to meet me, took me back to her host mom's house on the metro, and we went to sleep.
Friday we spent the day traveling to Munich. They don't do TGVs here in Switzerland (treins a grand vitesse, aka REALLY fast trains) and so it wasn't until a nauseous 8 hours later that we finally pulled into the Munich station. Luckily our hostel, the Meininger Hostel, was only about one kilometer down the road, and we walked there no problem. There were drunk Germans EVERYWHERE. It was Friday night after all, and people were parading the streets singing drinking songs in German, wearing Leiderhosen?? (spelling completely wrong, but that's how it sounds and it's the traditional German garb for men, with the cuttoff brown overalls, long socks, collared shirts, hats, you get the picture). There were also many frauleins equally decked out in puffy German dresses. Shelby and I walked around town, but didn't make it out to the actually festival grounds that night, opting instead for a beer at the hostel bar and an early night of sleep.
For those who don't know: what Oktoberfest actually is, is the world's largest public festival. It started in 1810 as a celebration for a royal wedding (prince Ludwig i think?) and every year since, for about 2 weeks in early October or late September, they rope off a huge area of Munich, and have a dozen beer tents, and hundreds of food stands, shops, rides, etc. Apparently about 50 million visitors come to Oktoberfest over the course of the 2 weeks, and the festival itself actually feels like a small city. Outside, it's very fair-like, and inside the beer tents, it's a massive shitshow of people of all ages drinking excessive amounts of delicious German beers from liter-sized steins, amidst endless cheers, toasts, and drinking songs. They also serve traditional German foods the entire time, all brought to you by an army squadron of Frauleins in dresses with arms the size of my thighs from carrying all the beer.
So that's what we did on Saturday... We had booked our hostel though a company called First Festival Travel, based out of London, with the happy result being a hostel full of ENGLISH speaking friends, even if it was kiwi, aussi, and british English. We befriended our roommates at breakfast, Sophie and Mouse of New Zealand, and we headed down the tents with them that morning. By 9 AM the tents were already PACKED with drinkers. We're lucky we even got a table, which was in the back corner. Shelby, Sophie, Mouse, Stephen, I, and about 6 young to middle-aged Wimbledon tennis workers then sat around drinking steins of beer and acting foolishly. The day was one of the more fun I've had, EXCEPT when I had to battle hordes of drunk, uncomfortable women in the lines for the bathroom.... Eventually I tired out, and went back to the hostel to siesta before evening festivities. I woke up at bedtime with massive hangover, and went back to sleep.
Sunday morning I was doing better than my hostel mates at our delicious buffet-breakfast. We hit the tents again, starting around 9 am, though I postponed the drinking a bit this time around. The tents were quieter Sunday and Shelby and I made many random friends with the others who came and went from the tables around us. We also met some swiss-french semi-pro soccer players, Bruno, Johann, Andrea, and Cedric who were rather sexually agressive, flirting with the closest girls they could find. Bruno even kindly asked if I would care to "faire l'amour" with him... which I politely declined. So if any incriminating pictures turn up on facebook, that was the situation. Took another evening siesta, and actually made it back out at night, when Shelby and I opted to experience a little more of the fair aspects of the festival, and less of the booze-soaked drunk-men-filled antics of the beer tents. We rode a MASSIVE ferris wheel, I ate a bratwurst, bought a present for my lil' bro, and then we went to bed.
And that was it. The next morning we were back on a painful (though unbelievably gorgeous) 8 hour train ride from Munich to Lausanne, where I was finally reunited with Erin and McKayla! Phew.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
We are all in Lausanne at McKayla's grandparents!
Hello blog readers,
Sorry we have not posted for a few days. We have not had internet connections. All three of us are safe and sound in Lutry, Switzerland! We are staying at my (McKayla) grandparent's new home in Lutry, which is right outside of Lausanne. It is amazingly beautiful, and we are all so happy to be here! Here are our posts from the last few days. Stay tuned for pictures...enjoy.
Saturday October 2nd
Besancon to Pontalier (70km)
Quote du jour: "To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks."
-Scott Martin
(this quote is very fitting for me (McK) and Erin because we both like pushing ourselves through pain, but more importantly we LOVE to compare everything to food)
Today was our first real mountain climbing day. We started at 1000ft. in Besancon and ended at 2700ft in Pontalier. Shortly after leaving the city, we had to immediately ascend up steep, winding, narrow backroads. Some sections were so steep it was hard to keep balance. At the top, we were very cautious to make sure we had the correct route because we didn't want to backtrack up the mountain if not necessary. Despite having three different maps of the area, none of them showed how to get from the road we were on to the road we wanted to go toward. One kind woman stopped to help us and pointed us in one direction, but a few minutes later three men pulled up on a tractor and gave us a more convincing argument to go the other way. We followed their advice and quickly found ourselves on roads we could once again identify on our map. We rode along D67 towards Ornans at a comfortable conversational pace until we reached the Ravine du Puits Noir. We then cruised down an amazing 3k descent which ended with spectacular views of Ornans and the surrounding valley of the Loue River. We were both in awe. It's impossible to capture the natural beauty in words.
We stopped for lunch at a picnic table aside the river, and then proceeded to ride along the Loue for several kilometers. Cliffs surrounded us on both sides, and many elite-looking cyclists passed us (which we found comforting knowing others were riding on the same road as us). I was pleasantly surprised that they smiled and said, "bonjour," as they practically flew by. One of Erin's favorite parts of the day was looking up at the cliffs, and then rising up into them and looking back down at the river. Our quads burned, but we kept a nice steady pace up the gradual switchbacks. At one panoramic view point along the way, we stopped and met a French couple traveling by RV. They were so friendly to us, despite our choppy French, and they even gave us coconut merangues for "bon courage!" We continued for a few more descents and ascents, through many cow fields where the ringing of the cow bells remined us of ski racing back home, and which gave us energy and spirit to continue riding all the way to Pontalier.
We were SO happy when we easily found the tourism office, and learned that the hostel and supermaket were right down the road. Pontalier is located in the foothills of medium-sized mountains. It's in close proximity to mountain biking routes, nordic/alpine skiing operations, and endless hiking trails. It's a very sporty town to say the least. I (McKayla) loved seeing people ride around town on their bikes with baguettes bungeed to their back racks. Pontalier is only 10k from the Swiss border, and it certainly has a bit of a Swiss feel with it's chalet style architecture. This evening we met a French guy, named Francis, who was staying at the hostel while searching for an appartment. He told us all about his travels in Canada and the US, and gave us advice for our route to Switzerland. He was very friendly, and we both enjoyed his company for the evening.
While we were climbing, Erin composed a short poem...enjoy!
The day started out with a doozy,
a big uphill climb that left me feeling a bit woozy.
My heart rate soared oh so high,
as we climbed and climbed into the sky.
At the top of the hill there appeared a gap,
as the roads we were on were not on our map.
So we asked three men upon a tractor,
for directions toward the route we sought after.
Soon enough we were back on track,
our legs refreshed from a granola bar snack.
Now this climbing is using the blood from my brain,
I'll have to end this rhyming game.
Sunday, October 3rd
Switzerland! We made it!
Pontalier, France to Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland 45km
The weather today was absolutely perfect; a crisp fall breeze, clear blue skies, and warm sunshine. I (Erin) hurt my wrist yesterday and I was concerned to ride today, but the beautiful weather made riding irresistible. We were smart enough to hit up the grocery store before we left Pontalier (because it's Sunday, and as we learned last weekend, Sundays suck for travelers like us because everything is closed). We began with a constant, uphill, winding climb out of Pontalier on Route D6 towards the nordic ski town of Les Fourgs. McKayla was getting quite excited about all the "Ski du Fond" signs and wished she could go cross country skiing. We cruised into Switzerland, climbed one final hill, and peaked for the day at 3600 ft of altitude, a total of 900 ft of altitude gain. As we were crossing into Switzerland, McKayla noticed that we were following one of the roads from the Tour de France in 2009!
Once we reached St. Criox we caught a beautiful view of the Alps in the distance and began the greatest descent of our lives. The descent was 10km long, full of switchbacks, and lots of motorcycles and cars. The first five minutes were glorious, the last 15 minutes were painful as my arms were fatiguing from braking the entire time. I remember watching the men on the Tour de France go down descents as frightening as this one, flying around 180 degree switchback turns going 100 km/hr. It's crazy that we were actually doing the same thing. We, however, did not scream down the mountain that fast (don't worry mom). The experience was surreal, it's hard to capture the awesomeness of our ride today. It's one of the coolest things I've ever done. There could be no better way to enter Switzerland than by crossing over the mountains using our own two legs and our bicycles.
After the steep descent we travelled another 10km downhill to Yverdon-les-Bains (alititude 1290 ft), which is on the southern tip of a big lake, 98 km around (Lac de Neuchalet). The area is beautiful, surrounded by moutains; McKayla exclaimed, "so far I love Switzerland!" To which I responded, "what's not to love?!" We cruised around town, went to a bizare antique/flee market/fair and sat on the lake watching all the sailboats.
Tonight we staying at a rather expensive, yet low quality hotel, next to a McDonald's (yet, we can't get on the free wifi here because we need a cell phone to get texted the password, we are not big fans of Swiss McDonalds now). Tomorrow we will cruise to Lausanne to meet up with Amie!! Looks like there is a bike path from here to Lausanne which we will test out. I'm looking forward to reuniting with Amie tomorrow and then heading to McKayla's Grandma and Granddad's house on Tuesday!
Sunday, October 4
Mountains in the Clouds
Yverdon-les-Bains to Lausanne (57k)
The mountains we could see from our hotel window were almost completely hidden by fog this morning. We could tell the sun was trying to come out, so we were optimistic that the fog would quickly burn off and give way to clear blue skies (which it did!). We had a leisurly, but quite small breakfast in bed (apple and "la vache qui rit"cheese) as we conjured up enough motivation to do a 10-minute abs workout before we started biking for the day.
We checked out of our hotel around 9:30am and made our way into the center of Yverdon to find the bike route signs. The first sign we saw was located right next to the Information Office so we stopped in and asked if they had a map of the bike route to Lausanne. They provided us with a highligted bike route map for getting out of Yverdon and told us to follow the number 5 signs all the way to Lausanne.
The route took us on narrow paved roads, alongside corn and cabbage fields, through small Swiss towns, and over rolling hills. The paths occasionally turned into dirt roads, so we eventually decided to take a more direct, less bumpy route on real roads. We stayed in the bike lanes of larger roads for the last 5k into Lausanne. We easily found our hostel, located a few kilometers from the city center, showered, napped, and waited for Amie to meet back up with us!
(this quote is very fitting for me (McK) and Erin because we both like pushing ourselves through pain, but more importantly we LOVE to compare everything to food)
Sorry we have not posted for a few days. We have not had internet connections. All three of us are safe and sound in Lutry, Switzerland! We are staying at my (McKayla) grandparent's new home in Lutry, which is right outside of Lausanne. It is amazingly beautiful, and we are all so happy to be here! Here are our posts from the last few days. Stay tuned for pictures...enjoy.
Saturday October 2nd
Besancon to Pontalier (70km)
Quote du jour: "To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks."
-Scott Martin
(this quote is very fitting for me (McK) and Erin because we both like pushing ourselves through pain, but more importantly we LOVE to compare everything to food)
Today was our first real mountain climbing day. We started at 1000ft. in Besancon and ended at 2700ft in Pontalier. Shortly after leaving the city, we had to immediately ascend up steep, winding, narrow backroads. Some sections were so steep it was hard to keep balance. At the top, we were very cautious to make sure we had the correct route because we didn't want to backtrack up the mountain if not necessary. Despite having three different maps of the area, none of them showed how to get from the road we were on to the road we wanted to go toward. One kind woman stopped to help us and pointed us in one direction, but a few minutes later three men pulled up on a tractor and gave us a more convincing argument to go the other way. We followed their advice and quickly found ourselves on roads we could once again identify on our map. We rode along D67 towards Ornans at a comfortable conversational pace until we reached the Ravine du Puits Noir. We then cruised down an amazing 3k descent which ended with spectacular views of Ornans and the surrounding valley of the Loue River. We were both in awe. It's impossible to capture the natural beauty in words.
We stopped for lunch at a picnic table aside the river, and then proceeded to ride along the Loue for several kilometers. Cliffs surrounded us on both sides, and many elite-looking cyclists passed us (which we found comforting knowing others were riding on the same road as us). I was pleasantly surprised that they smiled and said, "bonjour," as they practically flew by. One of Erin's favorite parts of the day was looking up at the cliffs, and then rising up into them and looking back down at the river. Our quads burned, but we kept a nice steady pace up the gradual switchbacks. At one panoramic view point along the way, we stopped and met a French couple traveling by RV. They were so friendly to us, despite our choppy French, and they even gave us coconut merangues for "bon courage!" We continued for a few more descents and ascents, through many cow fields where the ringing of the cow bells remined us of ski racing back home, and which gave us energy and spirit to continue riding all the way to Pontalier.
We were SO happy when we easily found the tourism office, and learned that the hostel and supermaket were right down the road. Pontalier is located in the foothills of medium-sized mountains. It's in close proximity to mountain biking routes, nordic/alpine skiing operations, and endless hiking trails. It's a very sporty town to say the least. I (McKayla) loved seeing people ride around town on their bikes with baguettes bungeed to their back racks. Pontalier is only 10k from the Swiss border, and it certainly has a bit of a Swiss feel with it's chalet style architecture. This evening we met a French guy, named Francis, who was staying at the hostel while searching for an appartment. He told us all about his travels in Canada and the US, and gave us advice for our route to Switzerland. He was very friendly, and we both enjoyed his company for the evening.
While we were climbing, Erin composed a short poem...enjoy!
The day started out with a doozy,
a big uphill climb that left me feeling a bit woozy.
My heart rate soared oh so high,
as we climbed and climbed into the sky.
At the top of the hill there appeared a gap,
as the roads we were on were not on our map.
So we asked three men upon a tractor,
for directions toward the route we sought after.
Soon enough we were back on track,
our legs refreshed from a granola bar snack.
Now this climbing is using the blood from my brain,
I'll have to end this rhyming game.
Sunday, October 3rd
Switzerland! We made it!
Pontalier, France to Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland 45km
The weather today was absolutely perfect; a crisp fall breeze, clear blue skies, and warm sunshine. I (Erin) hurt my wrist yesterday and I was concerned to ride today, but the beautiful weather made riding irresistible. We were smart enough to hit up the grocery store before we left Pontalier (because it's Sunday, and as we learned last weekend, Sundays suck for travelers like us because everything is closed). We began with a constant, uphill, winding climb out of Pontalier on Route D6 towards the nordic ski town of Les Fourgs. McKayla was getting quite excited about all the "Ski du Fond" signs and wished she could go cross country skiing. We cruised into Switzerland, climbed one final hill, and peaked for the day at 3600 ft of altitude, a total of 900 ft of altitude gain. As we were crossing into Switzerland, McKayla noticed that we were following one of the roads from the Tour de France in 2009!
Once we reached St. Criox we caught a beautiful view of the Alps in the distance and began the greatest descent of our lives. The descent was 10km long, full of switchbacks, and lots of motorcycles and cars. The first five minutes were glorious, the last 15 minutes were painful as my arms were fatiguing from braking the entire time. I remember watching the men on the Tour de France go down descents as frightening as this one, flying around 180 degree switchback turns going 100 km/hr. It's crazy that we were actually doing the same thing. We, however, did not scream down the mountain that fast (don't worry mom). The experience was surreal, it's hard to capture the awesomeness of our ride today. It's one of the coolest things I've ever done. There could be no better way to enter Switzerland than by crossing over the mountains using our own two legs and our bicycles.
After the steep descent we travelled another 10km downhill to Yverdon-les-Bains (alititude 1290 ft), which is on the southern tip of a big lake, 98 km around (Lac de Neuchalet). The area is beautiful, surrounded by moutains; McKayla exclaimed, "so far I love Switzerland!" To which I responded, "what's not to love?!" We cruised around town, went to a bizare antique/flee market/fair and sat on the lake watching all the sailboats.
Tonight we staying at a rather expensive, yet low quality hotel, next to a McDonald's (yet, we can't get on the free wifi here because we need a cell phone to get texted the password, we are not big fans of Swiss McDonalds now). Tomorrow we will cruise to Lausanne to meet up with Amie!! Looks like there is a bike path from here to Lausanne which we will test out. I'm looking forward to reuniting with Amie tomorrow and then heading to McKayla's Grandma and Granddad's house on Tuesday!
Sunday, October 4
Mountains in the Clouds
Yverdon-les-Bains to Lausanne (57k)
The mountains we could see from our hotel window were almost completely hidden by fog this morning. We could tell the sun was trying to come out, so we were optimistic that the fog would quickly burn off and give way to clear blue skies (which it did!). We had a leisurly, but quite small breakfast in bed (apple and "la vache qui rit"cheese) as we conjured up enough motivation to do a 10-minute abs workout before we started biking for the day.
We checked out of our hotel around 9:30am and made our way into the center of Yverdon to find the bike route signs. The first sign we saw was located right next to the Information Office so we stopped in and asked if they had a map of the bike route to Lausanne. They provided us with a highligted bike route map for getting out of Yverdon and told us to follow the number 5 signs all the way to Lausanne.
The route took us on narrow paved roads, alongside corn and cabbage fields, through small Swiss towns, and over rolling hills. The paths occasionally turned into dirt roads, so we eventually decided to take a more direct, less bumpy route on real roads. We stayed in the bike lanes of larger roads for the last 5k into Lausanne. We easily found our hostel, located a few kilometers from the city center, showered, napped, and waited for Amie to meet back up with us!
(this quote is very fitting for me (McK) and Erin because we both like pushing ourselves through pain, but more importantly we LOVE to compare everything to food)
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