SWITZERLAND WRAPUP

Well, our month in Switzerland has flown by and it is time to move on to Brittany, France. We have enjoyed the Swiss countryside and find the roads to be in excellent condition and everything is very clean. We never see papers or trash on the shoulders or in the town.  (see more of Don's photos)

As we have found in farm communities in other countries, the Swiss farms are cross-crossed by nice cement tractor roads. These roads are about 10-12 feet wide and are not open to automobiles, so they make wonderful bike paths. We can ride for many miles on these tractor roads and run across an 0ccasional cyclist and a rare tractor, and sometimes some locals taking a stroll, but never an auto roaring along. I love cycling on these roads. We do see lots of cyclists, both touring and out for a day ride. Lots more women cyclists than we see in other countries.

When we returned from the Alps Don spent the first day working on his photos and putting up more reports on the blog. He was so happy to have nice, fast internet and a good spot to work again. We also had to devote quite a bit of time to solving our annual problem with our website. Every year, despite our attempts to for stall this, our site goes down when it is time to renew the listing. That happened again while we were in the Alps and we had to contact Hostonce several times, but finally got the site back up again.

Over the past few days we did some more country bike rides, visiting places we have been earlier in the trip, and covering some new turf as well.

Today we went to Pontarlier to get our rental car. I took the opportunity to go to the Geant Supermarche to buy a few things and confirm my belief that food is super-expensive in Switzerland. The Swiss keep telling me it is very expensive in France, but I think the things I buy are much cheaper in France, even with the exchange rate at $1.40 to 1 Euro.

When we got back to the house we packed up, had an early dinner, gassed up the car, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms and tidied up the rest of the house. We washed the car yesterday, and the darn neighborhood cat walked all over the roof with its muddy paws. So now we are all set to go. Our nice neighbor, Veronique, came over and bailed me out on my typical problems of getting my laundry out of the washer, and she promised to wash the linens for us tomorrw because we are leaving at 5am to get to Paris in time to meet the LeBreton Family.

Great cycling in Switzerland. Well worth a visit.

CHAMPERY MEMORIES

 

July 26, 2009

Time to leave our chalet with a beautiful view. Don needs his internet and the folks at home are wondering what happened to us.  (see more of Don's photos)

I went out in the morning to check Jean-Louis’ apricots, which need another week to be ripe, and then I picked my last raspberries before we had our breakfast, cleaned up and headed out on our roundabout route back to Estavayer-le-lac.

We said goodbye to our treacherous driveway, snapping a few photos to confirm our memories of it, and made our way out of Brignon, past Sion and west along the sparsely traveled freeway. I wonder what our Swiss visitors think of our freeways, with 4 or 5 lanes and bumper-to-bumper traffic. Swiss freeways have two lanes, one for each car using it.

We decided to go up to Champery, the nice little ski town at the Portes du Soleil, to see if it is cute and quaint and what changes have occurred over the 25 years since our gang went skiing there.

Champery still retains its character. When we arrived they were having a market day, with lots of fresh produce, bread and cakes, bolts of fabric, wine, handicrafts and such. Musicians were playing in the plaza and there were lots of people in the street.

We checked to be sure that our comfy Pension Souvenir was still in operation, and then strolled the main street, looking at the produce and goods, enjoying the musicians and sunshine. Some changes have been made. The gondola has been moved down the hill, and the train station has been moved down there too. Most of the new building has been kept to traditional style, but Don groused about a few big condo buildings that were too modern. As we strolled around the town we shared all of our good memories of Kirk, DJ and Gary and our $99 trip on People’s Express and our wonderful stay in Champery.

After leaving Champery we went down the mountainside to the Lake and drove around the east side. We stopped at the lakeside Chateau de Chillon and ate our picnic lunch nearby as we watched the interesting boats ply the waters. There was a steam paddlewheel boat full of tourists, and an interesting Chinese junk, and lots of motor boats zipping around the lake.

Montreux Switzterland's Riviera

After lunch we went on to Montreux, where the famous jazz festival is held. Don set Trixie (our gps) to take us to photo-op sites, and we stopped and started our way through the bustling town, Don leaving me parked in many illegal spots while he jumped out and snapped a shot of something, we aren’t sure what.  (see more of Don's Photos)

After driving along the lakeside for several miles we cut across Vevey to the fast road and headed north for home.

It was good to be back in Estavayer and Don turned on the tv to watch (nap) to the last leg of the Tour de France, with the racers on the Champs Elysee. After that he went upstairs and set up his computer and got online right away to catch up on email and download and stitch his photos. Alas, he discovered that our annual nemesis is back to haunt us. Our website is down, the domain name is up for grabs, our renewal in limbo. Every year we go through this with Hostonce. It gives Don such angst. So we wrote them an email and we will see if we get any answer.

Dinner, a few Skype calls home, a little tv and off to bed. There is supposed to be a big storm tomorrow, but Don has lots of work on the reports to keep him busy.

SEARCHING FOR THE MATTERHORN

JULY 24, 2009

Friday

Friday we thought it would be cool to see the Matterhorn. We drove up a long canyon to Zermatt, only to find that the cost for the ticket on up the hill from Zermatt was prohibitive ($80.00 per person). Don hit up the ticket guy for a retired tram operator discount, but no dice. The weather was cloudy and visibility wasn’t that good anyway, so we returned home.   (see more of Don's photos)

The weather forecast for today was partly cloudy in the morning and rainy in the afternoon, so we decided to drive up some of the Alpine canyons to see if there was any chance of a peek at the Matterhorn that way.

The morning was sunny and nice, with a strange, snakey cloud hanging in the valley over Sion. We drove out on the twisting country roads, up and down over the mountainsides until we got to Val d’Herens. We traveled up the long canyon, admiring the dramatic, sharply pointed cliffs on either side—Dent de Perroc and Pigne d’Arolle—3800 and 3900 meters high, snow-capped and rugged. When we arrived at the end of the road in the village of Arolla, we realized that we could not see the Matterhorn, even at it’s majestic height of 4478 meters, because the mountain ridge between was just too high.

So, being the intrepid optimists that we are, we decided to go up the next canyon over, to Ferpecle. That road was even more narrow and rough than the road to Arolla, and often we would meet cars coming down on the one-lane road. Somehow one of us always found a little wide spot to scoot over and let the other go by.

As we drove along the road to Ferpecle we went past a lesser mountain called Sex Pey, through several quaint villages with slate-roofed houses, and then we saw the spectacular peak called Dent Blanche. This mountain is 4500 meters high, and the Matterhorn is hiding behind it. No joy on seeing the Matterhorn today, but the drive was great.

Throughout these remote valleys we saw little villages, sometimes just two or three houses, waaaaaaaay up on the side of the peak. How the heck do they ever get there, and do they ever come down? No roads to be seen up there, so it must be a challenge.

Along the way we picked out a nice bench, overlooking a village, green pastures and craggy mountain ridges, and had our lunch in the sun and Alpine air. Can it get any better? I don’t think so.

11 miles away, 420mm telephoto zoom, FZ50 Lumix

MATTERHORN SUCCESS!!!
July 25, 2009

The following day we decided to try another canyon in search of the Matterhorn. This time we drove up to a little town called Zinal. Again the mountainsides are pocked with improbable Swiss villages, teetering high up the Alpine peaks.

The road to Zinal is an engineering masterpiece, with roadway wedged into rock crevices, tunnels under mountains and bridges spanning 400-foot gorges. Don and I marveled at the intrepid Swiss who made their way up this valley in the 18th century, before roads and tunnels were in place. How the heck did they get so far up the valley when the access is only a steep gorge spewing a roiling gout of snowmelt and steep cliffs dropping several hundred feet down rocky crags? What prompted anyone to explore his way up this treacherous route, and once they got there, did they ever come back out alive?

Zinal is a charming village in a green grassy meadow. The Swiss style buildings keep the atmosphere quaint. There were hundreds of people in the town to go hiking, mountain biking and parasailing, but it still felt like a little town and not Verbier, thank goodness.

In Zinal we found a tram, which services the nice ski area. They run in the summer too, to take hikers and mountain bikers up the mountainside. The price was moderate, compared to Zermatt, and after ascertaining that we could, indeed, see the Matterhorn from the top, we took the tram up the mountainside.

At the end of the tram ride we found a mid-mountain café and we walked around trying to find a spot to see the Matterhorn. It seemed like that search for the end of the rainbow, we just needed to get a little farther out on the cliff and we would see it. Just past that ledge, we could see the elusive edge of the Matterhorn, razoring up toward it’s majestic apex. We eventually walked out on a ledge and then there was a capricious cloud that was nestled in a cliff. It kept drifting in and out over the Matterhorn view. Every time it would move out and Don got set up to take the picture, out snuck that naughty little cloud, covering up parts of the mountain, so we couldn’t see. We finally just waited it out. After awhile it decided we were not paying attention, so it drifted back in between two peaks, and snap! Don got the photo before that rascally cloud could muster its wafts and sniggle back out to block the view again.

As we sat in the meadow, waiting out the cloud, I enjoyed the charming Alpine wildflowers. There was a cute spikey orange one, and a strange fuzzy mauve flower, darling blue bell-shaped flowers and teensy white ones in a mass, lots of yellow buttercups, and a magenta colored blossom, all curled around itself.

After awhile we took the tram back down and sat on a bench watching the parasailers drift over the valley while we ate our lunch.          (see more of Don's photos)

CASTLES AND MUSEUMS, DE RIGUER

July 22, 2009

We decided to do some touring of the local points of interest today, so we set off for the town of Sion. There we visited the two castles, Tourbillon and Valeres. Each castle required a steep hike.    (see more of Don's photos)

We got a good parking spot in the garage and hiked up to the first castle, Valeres. It is a typical medieval castle, with cobbled streets and big stone ramparts. We stopped at the museum there, but it didn’t open until 11am, so we visited the church and then went back down the hill and up the next hill over to visit Tourbillon. The climb was steep, long and hot, but there was quite a lovely view. I can’t imagine the lady of the castle being willing to come down to the village for any reason. The trip back up the hill was too daunting. I am sure she would have to be carried in a chaise, and those poor porters, what a job.

We hiked back into Valeres to go to the museum, which was interesting. The whole presentation was a trip through time, so the displays started with prehistoric times and continued into the Roman occupation and on through the Dark Ages and the Black Death, the middle ages, present time and a prediction about 2150. It was a nice visit

.

By the time we got home it was about 2:30, so we decided to skip lunch and have an early dinner. I made a nice spinach salad, with spinach picked fresh from the garden, and hardboiled eggs, tomatoes, fried potatoes (also fresh from the garden) and salmon. It looked very pretty and it was quite yummy.

(see more of Don's photos)

TOUR DE FRANCE CONCLUSION

Schleck, Contador, Armstrong

Well, it is really the day before the final stage, but this is when the winners are determined. And the winners are:

1^st place: CONTADOR

2^nd place: SCHLECK

3^rd place: ARMSTRONG

Congratulations to these riders for outstanding performances!  (update 10/17/2012 they all used DRUGS, sad day for cycling)

DON’S COMMENTS ON THE TOUR DE FRANCE

Geralynn writes the commentary and I take the pictures, however, I feel I need to make some comment about the Tour de France, organization, media coverage and fan strategies.

After many years of following local races, the Coors Classic, and the Tour of California, I have to say the Tour de France is the most exciting and the hardest race in the world. I know every year that the Tour of California sponsors proclaim that the Tour of California someday will surpass the TdF in stature. I think that will be a long time coming.

It is hard to describe how difficult the Alps stages of the TdF are. The switchbacks and climbs are far more technical than anything we have in California. When we build a road in California it is very wide, with long, sweeping turns. The turns and climbs and descents in Switzerland and Italy are very tight and treacherous and the roads are very narrow. Bike handling skills, as well as endurance, are much more important on a steep, tight descent, coming off of the frigid mountain passes.

Team Astana, Lance Armstrong as a team leader, and Johan Bruyneel really controlled this race and managed it very well. In my view there wasn’t any time in the tour that Astana didn’t have things very well in control. The combined experience between Armstrong and Bruyneel far surpasses anything I saw in the other teams. It is my opinion that if Contador had been riding for any other team he would have had a tough time winning the TdF. (OK maybe! he is one the great riders.) He doesn’t seem to understand the team concept. I have to agree with some of the reporters. Had he been able to control his efforts, with the team, Astana could have had one-two-three on the podium on the Champs Elysee. Not to sell Columbia and Garmin teams short; they both did great jobs from the standpoint of team efforts. Especially Columbia with Hincapie’s leadouts for Cavendish for 6 stage sprint wins, although I have never been a sprinter fan.

In my limited ability to understand French, I think the French news and television reporters have really come around to appreciate Lance Armstrong. Most everything I heard on the commentary was very enthusiastic and positive about him. Plus, it certainly helped that Lance did some great interviews on French tv, expressing his love for France and the TdF. And, I also think the fact that Team Astana allowed the breakaway riders from other teams to win the stages, as long as they didn’t threaten the overall standings in the race, went a long way to create a very favorable public opinion of Astana.

I don’t think I will ever watch the TdF on Versus again. I will try to go to live feed on the internet. EuroSport did an outstanding job covering the race, start to finish, with only two or three commercials in an hour. I never lost track of what was happening in the race. Before I left California I was watching the Tour on Versus and at a stage finish they cut to commercial in the last kilometer! The finish was being challenged and we never got to see the riders cross the finish line. That is an indication that Versus has no clue about cycling and what the TdF is all about. EuroSport knows what it is doing when it comes to their coverage of the TdF.  (DRUGS, I can no longer support pro road racing, 2012)

TOUR DE FRANCE MARTIGNY TO BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE

July 21, 2009

This morning we jumped up early and packed our lunch, lawn chairs, water and supplies and headed down the road for a good place on the switchbacks on the race course from Martigny over the Col de Grand Saint Bernard, through a corner of Italy and on to Bourg Saint Maurice, France. In spite of our early start, we just made it onto the course before the road closure at 10am. We headed up the hill looking for a place. There were some exciting switchbacks right at the top of the mountain, but we were worried it would be too crowded.

We found a great spot near Orsieres where there were several sharp switchbacks and we could see quite a bit of the road. We set up our chairs and table and settled into wait for the race. We had about three hours before the racers were expected and I was sure it would be boring. But, no. Lots of things were going on, plus I had my trusty Monopoly. A truck passed by throwing out boxes of chalk, so Don chalked Lance’s name on the road. We people-watched and ate our lunch and then the sponsor floats began to come along. Don was the swagmeister, garnering plenty of trinkets tossed out of the floats as they passed. I, standing 10 feet up the hill, got nothing. Don really hammed it up and all the pretty float girls gave him candies, and hats, wrist reflectors and key fobs, a coin purse and whistles and a bunch of other little things.  

(see more of Don's photos)

At last the riders passed by, making the hill look like an easy downhill, they were going so fast. I jumped up and yelled, “Hooray Lance” and he was gone. After all that waiting, we got our 10 seconds and now we all packed up to move out.

Most everyone was going downhill, but of course we had to go uphill. That meant driving a block and then waiting 15 minutes until the local gendarmes allowed us to move on to the next blockade. We finally reached the summit and continued along the switchbacks down the other side of the mountain. Many of the small communities were still celebrating, with musicians playing and beer flowing. We followed the road down the hill, and then Don decided it was time to go back home. He was looking for the signs for the tunnel that runs through the mountain instead of driving back up and down the switchback road. I kept telling him where to go, but he wanted to argue with me until I reminded him that we were now in Italy and the Col Saint Bernard was now the Montagne Sant Bernardo. We entered the tunnel and were appalled to have to pay 23.6 euros ($33.50)for the passage.

PARTY TIME IN MARTIGNY

 MONDAY, JULY 20, 2009

After such a busy day yesterday, we just hung out around the house today. It is a rest day for the Tour as well. The sky is blue and clear and the mountains are just beautiful. Don worked on his photos in the morning, while I did some laundry. We kept saying we should go out and do something, but we were just enjoying the peace and beauty of the back yard so much, we couldn’t tear ourselves away. The day passed by, sunny and blue, as we lazed away the afternoon.    (see more of Don's photos)

Eventually we got ourselves together and went into Sion to find internet and get some supplies. We stopped at the pharmacy first and asked the pharmacist where we might find internet. He very graciously offered us the use of his, and gave us the logon. So we sat in the waiting area of the pharmacy and checked our email and bank balances. While I was waiting for Don to have his turn I picked up a book that was among the magazines on the coffee table titled “Monsieur, comment va l’amour?” (Mister, how’s your love life). This is a 30-page booklet with a glossy cover and it turned out to be an advertisement by Pfizer discussing erectile dysfunction. It is illustrated with cartoon-type drawings of bodacious, buxom beauties and a poor, hapless man red-faced in bed, comparing himself to the David sculpture, and finally talking to his doctor. Each page is illustrated with very funny and frank drawings. When I got to the page with a sketch of a heart and an erect cock, with the headline (The heart and the cock, the two motors of life!) I almost lost it imagining this book on a shelf at Longs. Thank goodness it was my turn on the computer. I was having trouble keeping my chuckles from bursting out into guffaws.

In the evening we went into Martigney for the big Tour de France celebration there. Lots of people on the street, bands performing, guys with beer everywhere, kids hanging over the fences. Everyone was having a good time. We saw two folk dancing performances with the groups in traditional costumes. One was a story of the shepherds and their girls, happily dancing in the village. Then the bad ogres or wolves or bears (I really couldn’t tell what they are, except they are bad guys) came down the mountain and attacked the village. The ogres were ominous and threatening and danced all around jumping over towards the little kids hanging over the fences. OOOOOh! They would jump back and look scared, but finally decided they were safe enough. The group of little boys standing next to me, about 5 or 6 years old, were quite impressed with the ogres. After awhile the shepherds came out with their staffs and scared the ogres away and then the shepherds and girls danced happily around the square again.

The crowd was very well behaved and every one was having a good time at the party. After a couple of hours we headed home and off to bed. 

(see more of Don's photos)