Day 46: Wurenlos to Aarburg

September 2, 2013

Our closed hunting lodge, or what ever it was, turned out to be a good choice. A lot of people passed by out on the road, but we were hidden in the trees, and the Bears did not come home. The bikes were good under the building overhang, and the picnic table was another luxury.

The Wurenlos area is basic, semi-industrial, and features what we now recognize as featureless "modern" concrete box houses. Maybe this is ultra design Swiss Modern? We think it sucks!

Our early scenery was pretty uninspiring

In fact, I'm afraid to say our whole ride today ranged from kind of normal to downright poor. Our view is coloured by the lack of food - whether grocery stores or bakeries or restaurants - and water, and the distances to camping. These are all very important. But to this we add a mostly gravel path, the disappearance of any Swiss cows, and little to look at save miscellaneous industry, uninspired houses, trees, and a an admittedly fetching river.

Let's have a look at the overview of this Swiss section of our ride. First there is (was) the bit around Bodensee and then up and away from the lake. Here we saw a bit of mountain meadow and village. After that, the Zurich area, where the route took us by the airport and bypassed the town. Now from Baden (which you will read about below) it's a river run, down the Aar, first into the Bieler See by Biel, and then into Lac Neuchatel. After that it's a hop down to Lake Geneva, and a spin around the lake to Geneva.

So, there is some variability to the sections we are riding, or will be riding. It means, hopefully, that any beefs we have can change. On the other hand, it has been today the run down the Aar, on gravel mostly, away from towns, mostly, that has us crabbiest. There is one more day of that on the agenda.After that, there is the bigger cities and the lakeshores. No telling what we will find.

One problem will persist, and that is the tendency of the Swiss Route 5 to direct us away from everything. Though Switzerland is not overly bike unfriendly, like in England, you can not grab a general map and strike off on your own.Toomany roads would be too dangerous. The route planners have worked to sneak you through, down secret lanes and hidey holes, and you need them. We just wish the chosen secret lanes could have something of interest on them.

Actually, today did have some good stuff in it. Baden, for one. Here you cross a bridge by steep banks, and ascend into an altstadt. It looks different from german ones, plainerbut with buildings that are still satisfyingly crooked, and with dates in the 1400s and 1500s on them. We also found a bakery, our only one of the day. It too was plain, but the quality was not bad. The prices, though were double to triple German ones.

Through the oold covered bridge and into the altstadt

Next, the river Aar. It is greenish, no doubt because of its closeness to the Alps. However, this is not the bright turquoise of a river in the Rockies. Most of the day we cycled by the river. The gravel path is wooded, but you can see a lot of the river.

Finally, right at the end, we came to Aarburg. There is a huge schloss. We just glanced at it as we pushed forward to find the camping. The town even appears to have a bakery! Tomorrow we will backtrack and check it all briefly out. We might even go crazy and look for the grocery. Don't forget to check back and see how we make out.

p.s. about internet. In Germany we used a local SIM that yielded 500 mb per month for 15 euros. In Denmark and Netherlands we used a SIM brought from home, called ONESIM. This provided 200 mb for one month for $50. In Switzerland, the ONESIM works but costs $1.00 per mb! Yes, $1.00, or 33 times the German cost. Sheesh. And I need to save my Swiss Francs, to buy the overpriced pastries.

Many times this day our way was blocked by construction, wirth no marked detour route. If we detour and lose the chain of signs, we will never find it agaib. so those construction barriers just have to go!

Our forest path yielded some forest sights

The path and the river. Lovely, but maybe we could find a path and river at home, saving the airfare.

What a Swiss village looks like down here

Much housing developement looks like this

When we passed this construction site, Dodie (shell shocked by ugly development aand plain white box houses) saw this and without thinking said "Hey, at least they made that ouwse an interesting blue".

Here you see a "selfie" of the Grampies, taken in a reflective building in an industrial park. This is exactly what the "natives" see when the weird entourage sails past and takes their picture.

Hopefully you can make out the places mentioned in our recent posts. This tourist map helped us to understand better where we are and what we are doing. This is always an advantage!

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 3,036 km (1,885 miles)

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