Day 12, 8 6 2014, Geneva to Lausanne
Geneva was a decision point for us. It marked the end of the Jura section of this trip. We have decided to continue riding in Switzerland, towards Austria for the time being. Our intermediate goal is a town called Landeck in Austria, which marks the beginning of the Inn River route through to Innsbruck and on to Passau where the Inn joins the Danube. So, we will ride generally in that direction.
We stayed in a mediocre hotel in Geneva that turned out to be the epicenter of an enormous street gathering that apparently happens in this area of the Paquis nations district every Saturday night. What made it unusual is that it continued to about 8.00am. It appeared to be mostly men wandering about aimlessly and prostitutes, all creating a vast amount of noise that was funnelled directly to our room. The prostitutes are available long hours as they were still on the streets when we walked out of the hotel to find some breakfast.
We spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around this great old city before riding off to the Cern exhibition centre, which was closed as it was Sunday. Perhaps we should have checked. One of the more outstanding revelations about Geneva is the extrordinary amount of money people pay for a watch that does no more than tell the time.
From there, we rode an easy route through to Lausanne, following TomTom instructions. For most of the way we were on either bike lanes or shared pedestrian paths. Eventually the TomTom route intersected the official bicycle route. The route was mostly flat with just a few mild undulations.
The route followed the lake shore pretty closely as the map shows, and provided occasional great views in the gaps between the houses of some very affluent people. There were vast numbers of people out and about today, at the foreshore swimming and picnicking, at concerts, on bikes and on the roads.
While not cheap, we have had uniformly excellent evening meals in restaurants in Switzerland. Perhaps not the quantity served in Germany, but better quality and better in all respects than the equivalent bistros in France.
74 easy kilometers in the afternoon.
Roz says: Learned that Swiss sell cuckoo clocks because tourists think they come from Switzerland!! They come from the Black Forest in Germany. Nice afternoon ride with nothing over 6% and divine chocolate ice cream and a chocolate macaroon made by a Chocolatier.
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