Day 49: Yvonand to Morges

September 5, 2013

The ride today was less spectacular than for some of the past days in Switzerland. True, shortly after settng off we entered the old town of Yverdon. Yverdon looks like many a French town we remember from last year. It has narrow streets, cafes, and old buildings. Unlike a medieval German town, though, it does not have flat out gorgeous frescoed buildiings, half timbers, or flowers. Still, it oozes character, and no doubt an inordinate number of bakeries per capita.

Several times I thought I spotted a St. Bernard. How about this one? Note that he is waiting by a butcher shop!

After Yverdon, we passed within telephoto distance of Orbe, which looked an interesting place, and we went in to La Sarraz, which resembled Yverdon while also having a chateau.

In between these towns we did a lot of slogging on gravel paths in the forest, and a lot of grinding along beside corn and rutabaga fields, in the sun, and temperatures up to 38 degrees.(100 degrees F). The path went up and down, and we found ourselves pushing the bikes, often on roads shared with cars. In these situations I usually babble about how all this is only making me stronger. Dodie, on the other hand, does not seems to appreciate this approach - particularly in hotter and steeper situations, and incredibly sometimes tells me to shut up!

Several times this day, as seemingly every day, we came to path blockages due to construction. Usually each costs us an hour or so, as we stand around puzzling over the ambiguous or non-existent signs, consulting with the army (as on the other day), going in circles, etc. Today the first set of detour signs actually worked, but later it was just pure nonsense.

The correct way to go was neither left nor right, but straight!

Just before Lausanne we encountered a small troup of men and women our age, on unloaded bikes, headed our way. They asked us the usual questions, and we in turn found out that they were from high in the Jura, near the French border, and had driven to Morges, left their vehicles, and now had cycled north and were headed back, for about 40 km total. I took the chance to ask these locals two further questions of my own.

First, I wondered whether for official purposes their were linguistic lines drawn in the country, since signage seemed to be mostly unilingual. How would an official know what language notice to put where? The answer was dunno, maybe go to each village and listen to the language, suggested one lady.

Second, I put forward our observation that the German Swiss were a different culture from German Germans, but that French Swiss seemed entirely French. They agreed with this. In our usual Grampie ignorance, we do not even now how Switzerland came about, and to encompass such diverse linguistic groups.I guess with better internet, and back home, we will learn more than we are doing here, on the ground.

Eventually, with a lot more upping and downing and backing and forthing than we felt justified, the path arrived to a point overlooking Lausanne. What we saw was a sprawling, modern looking place, and we were glad Route 5 took us around it. Later, some brochures described for us the wonders of the city centre, but it really would have been too much for our tired selves to go and and look for it.

Rather, we headed along the Lake (Lake LeMans) toward the town of Morgues, where we believed we would find camping. When our Route 5 hits the Lake, it heads east, into Lausanne. So that is where we hopped on Route 1, which goes west to Geneva. Route 1 follows the lakeshore on a paved path, with lots of beach acivity going on beside it. Then it heads inland. When we saw that, and the smooth path continuing lakeside, we stopped a fellow and asked if we could not just keep going by the lake. Yes, he assured us, and its really pretty.

Hmm, within 1/2 km the smooth paved path was gone and we were into a narrow and rough trail. As soon as we could, we bailed on that, and climbed out, to find Route 1. Route 1 was buzzing along a heavily trafficked road, in a flat out urban situation. We mixed in, battling our way around traffic circles and edging cars out of our bike lane, when there was such a one. Finally we did arrive at a camping, adjacent to a tennis facility. It had everything we needed, including the clothes folding table with plug for ironing, that I am using now to write this. It also had a restaurant, which we indulgently decided to go patronize.

Yikes, our bill was 50 francs. But Dodie (in a bid to bolster our weakening Swiss experience) got fondue. I, the traiter to the Swiss expedition, got schnitzel with pommes (french fries)- except they called the schnitzel some goofy French name. It was a really good one, though.

So tomorrow we wll blast through Geneva, in an effort to avoid seeing our third big Swiss city. If we can complete those three strikes, we will be out, and into France. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow and see it happen!

This cow kept watching me as we zoomed past. I thought that was unfair since we never, ever, leave garbage.

Coop is the major grocery chain here. This is an impressive lineup of new reefer cars near their processingg plant.

This is first day we have encountered grapes on the tour. We know soon they will be everywhere. These were not ripe yet.

Where the river enters the Lake. Those cyclists from the Jura said they were following this river down from the north, but this is the first we have seen of it.

Morges advertises itself as a picturesque village. This is what it looked like to us.

The French Alps, on the other side of Lac Lemans

Dodie looks really excited about her first authentic fondue

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 3,264 km (2,027 miles)

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