August 23, 2019
Visit to my mother's birthplace
A round trip from Solothurn to Pieterlen
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A few years back my husband gifted me an Ancestry DNA test. The results were what I expected. It had some unexpected consequences. I connected with a distant relative. It gave me a push to build my family tree and search for my roots.
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Newly retired three years ago, I set out to cycle Hungary and explore my father's roots. This year and tour was my opportunity to explore my mother's roots. I knew more of her background. She had visited Swiss relatives several times in the late 70s and early 80s. A distant cousin came to visit the USA and stayed with my family during that period.
Alas, all of those Swiss connections disappeared as the years went by. Correspondence and addresses disappeared. I was determined to find those cousins and their descendants. Ancestry DNA helped me know more of my mother's past. I hit a dead end on finding living connections.
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Through some Googling and Facebook groups, I found out that the cousins and their spouses my mother visited are deceased. The cousin who came to visit my family is alive and living in the Lucerne area. A person from Pieterlen, the village my mother was born and lived her first four years, is trying to contact her and put her in contact with me.
That brings me to this tour. I decided to cycle the Mittelland route from Zurich to Solothurn to connect myself to her past. Today was the day I cycled to Pieterlen to see the village and the people. It was a wonderful experience I plan to share with my relatives.
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The Mittelland route on this stage is very flat and passes through beautiful farmland. I loved the wide open river plain with vast farm fields and the mountains rising in the distance. There were very few villages along the way. They were clustered on the edge of the mountains. There were many farms. The Swiss farmhouse with the barn connected is very common in this area.
I caught sight of Buren across the river with the proverbial wooden covered bridge. I could not resist and pedaled across the river for a short visit to the village. It is well worth doing if you are touring the Mittelland.
Today was the most beautiful day of my tour, sunny, warm, with super views from behind the handlebar. I cycled west on the Mittelland route along the Aare. I left the route past Buren and headed south into Meinesberg. This is the village where my grandparents lived prior to immigrating to the USA. I know that they had relatives in this village in the 1980s. It was only a few miles until I cycled through the village. Meinesberg is a small village on the edge of flat farmland.
I did a small amount of climbing from Meinesberg to Pieterlen. It's less than a mile as the crow flies and a little more than a mile by road and path. Most of the tour today was on cycle paths. The only climb was minimal into Pieterlen.
Pieterlen is a larger village with a train station. It was hugging the feet of the mountains. I explored the main street and some side streets on my bike. I sampled a Swiss pastry at the local bakery. I wish I could of had more of a connection with the village. I left with a lot of photos to share with family as I cycled back to Solothurn.
Today's tour was about family and family roots. It was my last day of cycling in Switzerland. I am returning tomorrow to Zurich for a day and returning home to the USA the day after. My experiences today was how I envisioned completing my Swiss tour. My hope s to make some Swiss family connections in the future and return some day for a more personal visit.
I plan to write a post-tour post on my experiences with touring self guided and the touring companies I used. Thanks for following me on this journey.
Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 370 miles (595 km)
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What a wonderful day ending your journey in your mother's home town. I wish you great success in connecting with your Swiss family.
5 years ago
5 years ago