Interesting how, in SW Switzerland, there are French speaking towns and German speaking towns very close together. For the most part, they don't seem to be bilingual.
In general the Swiss have been pleasant and of good humour, especially noticeable after the, more often than not, serious and grumpy Germans.
We now left Yverdon-les-Bains and headed south to Lausanne (pronounced, for some reason, by Jackie as Lucerne). This is on the centre of the north coast of Lake Geneva.
We had a choice of two routes for today ,
A longer flatter route
A shorter hilly route
We chose the latter. It involved about 5 or 6 serious climbs. But the views from on high were worth it. One climb looked to be about 25% and must be the steepest climb either of us had encountered. Well steeper than St Michael's hill. Selecting our lowest gears we set about climbing 'the wall' (we have a 'no walking up hills' policy). It was a huge struggle, with fully laden bikes, but we both made it to the top and sure experienced the endorphin rush as we came over the top. In one remote village we came across and spoke to an old Spanish or Mexican guy who seemed to have forgotten where he'd parked his lorry. He seemed happy enough wandering around trying to remember where he'd parked it.
We arrived on the Lake Geneva shoreline at about 1pm. The decent into Lausanne went on for miles and miles. The city is very vibrant and very chic. The lake itself, being surrounded by hills and mountains is spectacular. We ate our packed lunch, looking out over the water towards Montreux. As usual lunch had been purloined from the hotel breakfast table. Next we bought ferry tickets to cross the lake to the French side. The crossing takes about 30mins and gives you a great perspective of the lake. It was fine and sunny.
Lake Geneva, particularly the Swiss side, is extremely expensive and I wonder how many celebs are resident here. Lots I suspect.
The ferry dropped us at Evian-les-Bains, from where we peddled along to Thonon-les-Bains. The first hotel we'd selected was full, so we had to find another place. But Swiss time was running out...
Thonon is another spectacular place I'd never heard of. A pretty harbour with views looking back to Lausanne. And a nice old town centre too. Very nice in the evening sunshine.
Talking of sunshine, this our first tour that we haven't, at times, been almost washed away with torrential rain. It's been sun all the way from Rotterdam. Sun tan yes. But I'm not overly pleased by the reverse panda eyes that have been caused by my cycling glasses. I'll have to ameliorate this with some of Jen's foundation cream when I get back.
Tomorrow, Saturday, should be just a short ride along the coast into Geneva. Champagne roll-out? Maybe 50km. That was our target day all along. And, at times, it did seem somewhat of a demanding target.
We'll need a complete day in Geneva to find enough cardboard (on a Sunday) to box up the bikes ready for them to be accepted by EasyJet on Monday. And to have a good look around the place. The Champions was filmed here. I remember the huge water jet but forget the theme tune.
Today would have been our dear dad's birthday and we've thought about him often. He always followed our tours with great interest and, as mum would say, "Had us up on the computer".