Wow. I'm biking in Switzerland. Childhood imagination after reading The Apple and the Arrow aside--wow. Lac Leman is beautiful. The manmade geyser was quite impressive at dusk the night before, but somehow as I returned in the morning for better pictures it was even more beautiful. And the weather was superb, nary a cloud in the sky. It was brisk, no joke, but for biking that's generally preferred since you warm up quickly while riding. Unfortunately, due to a late night stitching the patch and organizing panniers it was difficult to rise very early and the breakfast options were disappointing as you may have noticed the overpriced McCafe meal I settle for. I then walked to the train station searching for the characteristic shot glass to collect for cities I've been to (hey, it's nearly a universal souvenir and small to boot). So all packed up and checked out I showed up back at the boardwalk watching the geyser round about 10am. Skirting around the north side of the lake was gorgeous. Switzerland has an extensive national and regional bike route system, and once I fouund the route number that went through the cities II needed I could relax and follow the signs until I needed to switch routes. The wind was against me some, but never too strong. I stopped for lunch in Rolle, making a huge sandwich and only taking a few bites before rolling on (but keeping the sandwich handy in a bag in my bike jersey pocket). I had stopped just in time as the huge baguette I'd purchased the night beforere (for who knows how many Franks!) was about to drop 1/3 of its length out the back of it's bag that was strapped to the top of my baggage. My lunch stop afforded me a view of the lake, with a medieval barracks behind me and a farmers market in the square adjacent--not too shabby.
As if on cue, just when I was looking forward to turning away from the lake and seeing what climb I had to do, I reached the most beautiful scenery of the day. As I grunted and complained inside because the bike path left the lake and climbed a wicked steep path, it did so right in the heart of several miles worth of vineyards overlooking the lake. The view from above was more than worth the climb, and I got to descend some of it anyways. Also, as the air cleared up during the day I really got to see the outline of the Alps across the lake in France.
Underestimated. That seems to be the trend when I plan bike rides--underestimating the difficulty. Or perhaps I'm simply always overestimating my own fitness. When I rode the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to San Diego in 2008 it seems like 6:30pm was the earliest arrival, with 7-7:30pm much more common (and me rolling in last). So I cannot blame www.toporoute.com as it gave me a pretty good prediction. I wasn't sure if it would work outside the US but figured it probably just pulled the data from Google so why not. I very coarsely mapped out the first days route (with 75, 35, 35, 35mi days, if the 80mi day is OK then the others you don't worry about). I figured with most of the route along the lake it would be relatively flat, but ended up estimating 2,800 feet of elevation gain. Turns out it was 2900. Not too bad for 75miles, but 2900 ft with an extra 50lbs of luggage was what I underestimated. I kept hoping I"d reach the top and get the reward coasting down at 30mph but it was always not so steep of a descent and a slight headwind keeping me from capitalizing on my gains.
To keep a long story from going too long, I didn't ge to my hotel until 8:30pm. I checked in and unloaded and made sure to order dinner from the restaurant before the shut down the kitchen and then went up to shower before returning to enjoy dinner.
Dinner was good--I was beat tired afterwards. 7,150 calories was the number on my Polar heart rate monitor so there was no guilt eating dinner, drinking beer, and having a scoop of ice cream for dessert (other than the continuing sticker shock of course). The Minotel in Morlon had a very courteous staff and they even provided me with a bag of ice for my knee since I knew I'd be paying for the days exertion in more ways than one. Sleep came very easily...
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