What a difference a day makes – 24 little hours …..
A cheesy song, but it sums up the contrast between the start of the last two days. They have both been glorious weather wise, but yesterday we started off with a big nasty climb where as today, we left the hotel and cruised down hill for more or less 20 km’s without pedaling. Who says cycle touring is hard? We decided to take the highway / main road to start off. The official Swiss Route 1 cycle trail was across the river and higher up the (steep) bank with unpaved sections and in the shade (cold). Traffic was light on the road, the pavement was excellent and it was in full sun. A no brainer. When we got into Brig we decided to reinstate our morning cake and coffee routine that we established on last summer's tour. It’s an excellent tradition that we will keep up. We also stopped in at a grocery store and picked up some trail snacks. We don’t want a repeat of day 1. Once past Brig the Rhone valley opened up a bit and the trail alternated between some road sections with a shoulder and dedicated bike paths. All but 6 km of the bike paths were paved. Vineyard pretty much lined the steep terraced slopes on the north side of the valley, particularly once we got past Sierre. This looked like a very lovely town and it would have been worth spending a bit more time there. We didn’t however, we just pressed on having a great time cruising along the Rhone in perfect mid 20 c sunny cycling weather to Sion. Grabbed a reasonably priced hotel, The Rhone, right near a tree lined square in the town centre where we had our post-ride bevy. This set us up for a nice ‘stumble upon’ dinner at the Grotto de la Fontaine. An excellent end to a wonderful day along the Rhone.
Several times today we heard herds of Swiss cattle walking through fields close to the road. Every Swiss cow wears an individual bell, and the sound of 20 or more ringing out together sounded just like the start of this lovely little number by the (now defunct) Winnipeg band Imaginary Cities. We like it and we hope you do too.
Another brisk morning start. Tights and softshell jackets to start but once into the sun things warmed up quickly
How's this for an early morning ride! Nice moderate downhill all the way from Fiesch to Brig. We passed through the nice little town of Bitsch just after this pic, hence today's name
back on the road and through vineyards everywhere. Innovative trellis for the vines, you can walk under and pick the grapes (and that had already been done)
It's hunting season - superb venison with braised cabbage, chanterelles, celeriac and a fantastic local wine - regional Cornalin grape varietal - excellent with the game
