Day 20: phase 2

June 28, 2012

Today was bittersweet. I left my new friends near the end of the day, which made me sad, but I was amazed when I got to the more mountainous region of Switzerland. But I'll get to that in a minute...

We started out like usual, and rode toward Sion. It was there that we saw something that falls into the Swiss stereotype. There were two guys working on the side of the road. One with a weed whacker and one, if you can believe it, was blowing the excess weeds off of the road. Really? They even tidy up the roads? GEECH!

The route today, mostly, followed the Rhone River. It was flat, which was good, but hot too. We stopped fairly often, for coffee, for lunch, then a drink and ice cream after lunch

We also passed into the German speaking area. It was weird, to be honost. For the whole trip all of the signs have been in French. Then, in the blink of an eye, they were all in German. I first noticed it in the school signs that went from "ecole" to "schule".

"I have a feeling I won't be understanding anything more until I get home from my trip," Steph commented.

"Welcome to my world," I said.

It's funny, when I was a kid I could do a bit of German, thanks to my grandmother. Now I feel completely lost with it, having spent 2 years learning 10 French phrases. Sure, they are important phrases, like "where is the toillet", but now, terrible French fells much more natural to me than terrible German.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, our riding...

All good things must come to and end, and this trip is no different. I really enjoyed my time with Leo and Steph. When we decided to ride together we weren't sure if we would. You know how it is with people. You can't always tell until the time comes.

But we all seemed to mesh together. We rode about the same pace, got ready to go in the morning about the same, wanted coffee stops about the same time and frequency, but mostly, shared a similar sense of humor--warped (maybe just unique?). ;-)

But even with that, it was time for me to go, and I boarded a bus that would take me to a train that would take me through a tunnel to the other side of the mountain range.

Thanks for the fun, Leo and Steph! It was COOL! Not only that, whenever I think of "lumps" of cake, or "rubbish" (and not "trash"), or fig rolls or "ooof" (inside joke) I'll think of you you. Bon Voyage!

So, I felt sad. But when I got to the other side of the mountain, in Kendesteg and the beautiful mountains, I felt better.

The scenery is amazing here!

A really old castel near Sion. The hill this is on is higher than it looks. Let me put it this way, we did not want to ride up there!

Sion, and the little cafe (on the right) were we had coffee

Train station at the top of the mountain; right before the tunnel to the other side

A car train. You drive on, sit in your car, and drive off when you get through the tunnel

Whoa, nice veiw from the campsite! That's my neighbor.

The veiw from behind my tent; Im a bit blue, but things could be worse!

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 1,384 km (859 miles)

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