Leaving Switzerland

I just took a quick look back on old blog posts and it became immediately apparent that I do not edit anything before I post it online. Oh well! I’m not sure how, but somehow it is already mid-October! I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks exploring Switzerland! As fun as it has been to explore this country, I am ready to head towards Southern France. I made the trip from Luxembourg to Zurich in four straight days. It was relatively flat for the most part, but still required me to cycle 400+ kilometers in that span. Why rush? Well, a couple reasons. Firstly, I was feeling the pressure of the Schengen restrictions. As I have said before, I only have 90 days in which to transit the European Union (+Switzerland) before I am forced to exit. France was, in some ways, smaller than I thought it was. It took me less time than anticipated to cycle through the countryside, but places I wanted to explore were also much more rapid in succession than I anticipated. I spent two days without cycling in Calais, three days in Paris, one day in Verdun, two days in Luxembourg City. I was beginning to slip beneath my target average of 50km/day, so I decided to try and pick up the pace a little. Secondly, I really wanted to have the chance to connect with Reudi Karrer in Zurich, the proprietor of the only brand-independant Jeans Museum in the world! Reudi was taking off for the mountains towards the end of the week, so arriving in Zurich before the 5th was essential. I ended up spending three nights in Zurich in total. On both the Wednesday and the Thursday I spent time exploring the city center. In the evening of the Wendesday I met a couple from Germany/Canada who were just wrapping up a cycle tour from Berlin to Georgia, and back. Sabrina and Jason (@saltliners on Instagram) were in Zurich so Sabrina could interview for a HR position at a nearby hotel. Jason, a New Brunswick ex-pat already has employment for the winter as an engineer (maintenance) up in Davos. It was really cool to talk with people at length about both my own experiences travelling by bicycle, and their own experiences. Both Sabrina and Jay appeared to be suprised a little by my rapid pace through Europe. Jason has EU residency, and is thereby unaffected by the same Schengen rules I am. He spent a fair bit of time for me trying to work out how I may be able to stay longer in the EU - even suggesting that I go to Berlin and work at the Barn! (I gave him a quick crash course on Friday morning before I left on how I make coffee with my Aeropress). That weekend I made a quick trip to Liechtenstein. I tried to do my best to avoid the rain - not entirely succesfully. The climbing through the mountains was a tough adjustment. I was used to cycling around 100km/day with marginal physical exertion. The continuous climb through the hills was beautiful, but exhausting! Liechtenstein itself wasn’t anything terribly exciting or noteworthy (sorry, Liechtenstein). I stayed an extra day in the valley anyways. It rained nearly all day on the 8th, plus it was a Sunday, and anywhere to get food was liable to be closed. The next four days I spent cycling from Vaduz to Thonon-les-Bains. I didn’t have much of a plan, other than to get out of Switzerland before I bled my bank account dry. Switzerland is terribly expensive. Groceries seem to be 15-25% more expensive than they were in France or at home in Canada, then you must add the exchange rate. One Swiss Frank (CHF) costs roughly 1.30CAD. Further still, camping costs were much higher than in France. One night in Zurich costed 20CHF and where I am now just outside of Geneva, each night costs 22.15CHF! My route from Liechtenstein back to France changed nearly hourly. I had played with the thought of cycling back to Zurich, then taking the more flat route through Bern to Lausanne, then on towards Geneva. Instead, I ended up taking a more hilly route towards Zug on the first night, then slept in the forest just outside the city-center. Day two could have gone two ways as well. There was still the option of heading straight west towards Bern, or taking the more mountainous route through Interlaken. I chose the Interlaken route, mostly because of Clint Eastwood and the movie “The Eiger Sanction.” (I may have gone through a phase over the past year of watching cheezy action movies from the 70s and 80s). From Interlaken the option remained to head towards Bern, but, after conquering my fair share of elevation the previous two days, I thought it couldn’t hurt to head through Gstaad on my way to France. By my reckoning, each day consisted of progressively higher elevation climbing. I topped out on Thursday at 1450masl, before descending 1000m down to the valley below which led out towards Lake Lausanne. I spent one quick night in the Thonon area before heading back into Switzerland yesterday so I could spend the day in Geneva today. Five days without any substantive rest may be a little too long. But, I am more-or-less rested now! I’ve had the chance to take a look at the map a little bit and plan out my route to Southern France! I think I have decided to cut out Marseilles and head straight to Nice. Again, my original thought when planning was to avoid the mountains when possible by diverting my route westward. Looking online though, it appears that I can shave off 300km from my estimated route distance by cutting out Marseilles, and in return I will only have to climb an extra 600m. I’d take that trade-off any day! On to warmer weather (I hope). The mountains around Gstaad were quite cold (~3 degrees overnight), even here in Geneva isn’t terribly warm at night (~6 degrees). Campgrounds are also beginning to close for the winter. I was met with one closed campground in Interlaken, and a second just north of Geneva that I was hoping to stay at. Not entirely sure what things will be like in Southern France/Italy I’m hoping that there will be a plethora of year-round campgrounds. I’ve kinda been banking on it. Time will tell, I suppose! Best, Gavyn.