Our trip so far, with town names!

1) Habére-Poche, France. Where we are so lucky to have wonderful friends.

Sitting on my butt on a ski lift going up the hill.

2) Évian-les-Bains, France. Where we shockingly saw people buying bottled water, and had to eat take out pizza on our balcony since our CA COVID QRs didn’t work and you needed them even to eat outdoors at a restaurant.

Balcony, enjoying the view.

3) Montreaux, Switzerland, 2 nights. Where our fancy hotel (it was our Anniversary) had fire alarms going off our second night. I felt like Bill Murray in a Wes Anderson film standing on the street at 2am in my fluffy hotel bathrobe. (Sadly no photos…)

View along the promenade.
Umbrellas on the terrace at night.

4) Sallion, Switzerland. In the wine area of the Rhône valley. We kept looking around thinking we were in Italy because it’s a dry valley.

A confluence of the glacier chalky Rhône and a clear side stream.
Vineyards for more white wine for me!
Old town of Sallion on a hill.

5) Eischoll, Switzerland. Which we had to take a train and cable car to since we could not find a hotel in Sion – totally booked – but which ended up being a joy up in the mountains with a long long decent the next day.

Well deserved cold white wine after a long day, and what a view!
Our first Bisse sighting. Historic irrigation canals are a draw of the area around Sion.
We were captivated by the historic buildings in Switzerland, they were protected early on and add such a fascinating dimension to the towns. This is an old mill.

6) Brigerbad, Switzerland. Where we visited the Thermalquellen Bridgerbad – outdoor pools still filled with vacationing Swiss and French, and 2 lone Americans who enjoyed themselves very much (again, no photos allowed.)

Dinner at our hotel restaurant, impossible to get a bad glass of wine in Switzerland.

7) Zermatt, Switzerland. 2 nights. Yay, a lovely train ride up to the largely car free town with a view of the Matterhorn always near, clouds willing.

Mid hike lunch on a mountainside terrace.
The ride out of town was interesting, showed how much infrastructure is required to support this “car free” town.
All sorts of domestic animals on our ride down, including this big guy who had just walked slowly through irrigation sprinklers and came over to slobber and shake on me.

8) Feisch, Switzerland. Where we started debating whether or not to ride over the Furkapass. We decided on a train boost after the next town, but had a lovely gondola ride up the mountain.

Up we go! Love the gondola views.
Happy Hour at a restaurant at the top of the gondola.

9) Obergoms, Switzerland. Where, after riding up its valley for days we got to peep at the source of the Rhône river! (Almost, not quite the glacier but it’s pretty tiny here, that mighty river.) And we got our train hop to the top of Oberalppass. And rode down. Feeling a bit sheepish seeing all the cyclists coming UP the pass, but it was great fun that downhill.

Look how small the Rhône river is!
Happy train riders.
Rich descending. So many switchbacks.
Pause for view appreciation.

10) Disentis, Switzerland. Another town, another gondola. You generally get a free or discounted pass to the gondola – we just made it on the last ride up and had to be sure not to miss the last ride down.

Our own personal gondola ride. Room to play.
Another Swiss alpine view from the gondola.
A good dinner on the terrace of the youth hostel.

11) Ilanz, Switzerland. 2 nights. Where we swam in a stainless steel swimming pool, took a day trip to Chur and decided to head to Germany.

Train boost! This was a Sunday so we think the big bike cars were added to the train to handle the weekend numbers.
Briefly in Austria, that little yellow dot is Rich., forgetting to stop for the obligatory border photo.

12) Wangen im Allgäu, Germany. Our first stop in Germany after a crowded ride along and away from Bodensee holiday bike traffic.

Met some lovely German cycle tourists headed the other way. We bonded over our non e-bike status and exchanged emails.
A good way to practice German? Gossip mags and wine.
Age is not important. Unless you are a cheese. Words to live by.

13) Memmingen, Germany. On the ride here we continued to be amazed by the number of solar panels on rooftops and had to seek shade for our picnic lunch.

So much solar! So impressive.
Roadside shrines and monuments generally have trees. A fairly good place to stop if we can’t find a shady bench.

14) Landsberg am Lech, Germany. First proper Biergärten, odd fun fact: Johnny Cash was stationed here during WW2. He was a Staff Sargent and a crack Morse code operator.

Enjoying beer and wine on the Lech River.
Riding out of town down the Lech.

15) Augsburg, Germany. 2 nights. Wandered the old town enjoying the canals, and got Rich’s bike fixed! No easy feat with bike shop repair demand and an older touring bike chainring failure.

Loads of farmland riding in this part of Germany. On the upside the corn can block the wind, on the downside- little corn gnats if you rode too close to the corn.
Will Singer to the rescue. He was super nice and let us leave the bags and bikes until he could find time to fix the bike. He had it done by noon.
Really, lots of farmland.
Good tram system in Augsburg.

And on to our next destination. Happy Pedaling.

Published by

cbink

21 years car free, 11 years serving on transit boards helping SF and Caltrain move forward, and now, traveling the world. Happy doesn’t begin to describe how I feel when traveling with my hubby TravelRich.

6 thoughts on “Our trip so far, with town names!”

  1. Wine, well aged cheese, bear dogs, midnight fire alarms, swims, friendly travelers, lots of sunshine, gossip mags and corn gnats and VIEWS! Who could ask for anything more?

  2. Great to hear about your trip. Christine and I have been lucky so far in Portugal – everyone has accepted our CDC vaccine cards

  3. I love the town’s format, and all of the animal cameos! Looks like the weather has been cool there, judging from your apparel. You two are like goodwill ambassadors, representing the much-maligned American Tourist.

    1. We do feel the responsibility being the lone Americans, and most people are so so friendly and welcoming. We’re always amazed at the reputation the US still has for being the land of opportunity. Amazed and grateful. We’ve been super lucky with warm summer so far, but fall is in the air – leaves are turning and our rain gear will likely get an outing soon.

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