Kloten to Schönenwerd

September 6, 2024

It’s Going to be a Hot Night in Schönenwerd

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It was a beautiful day today and a good time to start the biking part of this tour. Over our delicious breakfast I told Keith I felt like I was leaving a cocoon, the Hotel Allegra treated us so well. We were ready to roll though and on the road at 9:15 AM, which might be a record early start for us.

The fabulous front desk staff at the Allegra. We are missing them tonight. More on that later.

We were aiming for Schönenwerd, a familiar route as we rode this way in 2019, except we really didn’t recognize much. A few things early in the ride, but spent much of the rest of the day marveling because we recognized so little.

It felt good to be on the road. This is the point where we had a detour in 2019 due to a giant music festival. They were setting up for something massive today but we got through.

This part of the ride I remembered well.

What a gorgeous horse and rider. Dressage is her passion.

For our fellow energy nerds Anne and Dave. This is quite a solar panel array. Think how many kWh this would generate!

Not the job for anyone with a fear of heights.

The route was incredibly well signed and there were few navigational issues. The interesting part was that after the beginning nothing looked familiar until we arrived in Baden. Maybe because last time we did the ride there was rain, hail and drizzle? Baden was lovely in the rain and gorgeous in the sun shine. We sat on a bench in the old town and ate our picnic lunch and people watched.

Shortly after Baden we missed a sign. I think we were both distracted by a group of schoolchildren on their way to the local pool, and very happy about it. They were having a blast. The CN noted we were off route but could pick up our route down the road a few kilometres.

Next thing we knew we were still on a signed bike route, but it was unfortunately on a minor but busy highway. Switzerland has so many different ways to get to the same destination. It wasn’t unsafe, just unpleasant. We couldn’t turn around so had to play with the big boys for several kilometres. When we left the highway and were back on the river side path it was bliss.

So the only disappointment today has been our hotel. It is attractive and clean, but! We stayed here five years ago and loved it. It has changed hotel chains and now has the automatic check in process. This isn’t hard to do as long as it works but it didn’t work. It refused both our name and our reservation number. We couldn’t make a call to the number on the computer because our eSIMs are data only and the hotel isn’t on WhatsApp. This isn’t a problem we have ever encountered before…everyone uses WhatsApp, except obviously they don’t! Fortunately a Swiss couple arrived and saved the day and we were in, to discover another error and the room had been made up for one. We had one towel, one robe, one duvet for half the bed, and worst of all one cookie!!! Jeez! And wait until you see how you turn on the air conditioner.

Seriously. And then it died. To give the hotel some points for effort they have provided a fan and we have the window wide open at the moment. Should be an interesting night.

We are back in the room and it has cooled slightly but we are leaving the window open. So maybe not as hot a night in Shönenwerd as we were anticipating. Fingers crossed.

Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 77 km (48 miles)

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