Bourges through a window of the Palais Jacques Cœur.Lyon is the bottom heart, then Bourges, then Orléans. All by train as our bicycles have entered winter hibernation.
Looking forward to a month’s stay in Paris we left Lyon, and the sunshine, although we didn’t realize it at the time. And we headed to Bourges. Bourges isn’t a big tourist destination, although Rick Steves tours do stop there to enjoy the half timbered houses and the huge gothic cathedral with its 13th century stained glass windows.
Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges. Seriously huge. We called it a triple decker cathedral.The soaring interior and lovely chandeliers.
Bourges has nearly 500 half timbered buildings, more than any other French town, and the ruins of a Gallo-Roman wall. A tea and cake shop, Cake Thé, uses one tower as a dining room, if you follow the path to the shop you will find the remains of the wall and a lovely walking path.
Twilight on a street of half timbered buildings.The upkeep of the buildings must be very challenging. We saw a few supported with external bracing like this.It was a great town to explore.With sweet little cobbled streets.Lined with small houses.And more half timbered buildings on a quiet street near the center of old town.Of course a Camino route goes through town. And, this is the last you will see of our sandals for a while.
One of Bourges’ other sites to see is the Palais Jacques Cœur, a large Hôtel particulier – a grand urban mansion, freestanding and not connected to its neighbors. Cœur was a government official and successful merchant in the 1400s. Too successful, as his ability to lend large sums of money led to his eventual arrest and downfall. It seems never to pay off to have a King in your debt.
He did not get to enjoy his mansion, traveling during construction, arrested before he could live in it.So many craftsmen were employed to make this building an absolute masterpiece. Gargoyles abound.Stone carvings on every surface.You’d need a fireplace this size to heat the massive rooms.Another view through the old windows.A bat detail on the mantle piece.More fantastic stone work.
Although the palais is not furnished, it changed hands several times and was the town hall for a while, the audio guide helps you picture life in the building, and understand the amount of money and work that went into its construction.
And more gargoyle downspouts. Unfortunately for me the rain had stopped. I love seeing these in action.
Our two night stay gave us enough time to visit one of Bourges other fascinating sites, Le Marais, or the marsh, or swamp, in English.
A sign pointed the way as you walked down a neighborhood street.On the map the Marais looks like a city of water. We caught a glimpse from the train and had to see it on foot.
The Yèvre River is the source of water, and the swamp had provided a defendable space for the town. The 300 acres now hold 1,500 garden plots on which locals grow food, build small summer huts, and enjoy strolling on the levees. Some plots are only accessible by boat.
I imagine the locals know their way around the small paths and bridges, we had to check the map frequently.Whimsical folk art.A building being taken back by the vegetation.Very nice for an afternoon stroll.A boat ready to carry gardeners to their plot.We imagined quite a lovely summer scene in the Marais.Hey bourgeoisie, keep out!
It’s a fun way to travel, a few nights here, a few nights there, get the sense of a place and understand its place in the region and the country, and then off we go! But first, a nice dinner out at a restaurant we spotted our first night, and made a reservation for our second night. La gargouille.
Such a cozy looking spot.With plenty of namesake decor.More gargoyles, and Rich, not a gargoyle. Anticipating dinner.Gargoyle tartar! (No gargoyles were harmed.)The second best tartare I have had in France.And off to the train! Even when traveling bike free we can’t help but check out the bike spots on the trains.
Our last stop before Paris was Orléans. We went through Orléans on our bicycles when we rode along the Loire River in 2021. We enjoyed it then, in a sunny October, and knew there was enough to see still for a short stay. This is where the grey November weather caught up with us. What the morning news show called la grisaille. The greyness.
The Loire in la grisaille.The fog made for a very atmospheric walk along the river.This narrow building caught our attention in the old streets by the river.The old town streets giving framed views of Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d’Orléans.The front of the cathedral.Always crossing Camino routes.An autumnal display brightens a grey day.Inside the cathedral on All Saint’s Day. St. Joan in stained glass.
Joan of Arc, Jeanne d’Arc in French, is honored as a patron Saint of France for her role in defending Orléans in April 1429. You can find her in cathedrals, as statues, and paintings in the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans. Her story is powerful and poignant, as she was only 19 when she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake.
Many lit candles that day.St. Joan at night, dramatically lit.The Happy Travelers looking ahead to Paris.
We missed summer in Europe in 2024. Like really missed it. It was great to be in the US for the summer, but it’s been a relativley cold spring and fall in Europe. So we were thrilled to get a last gasp of pleasant fall weather in one of favorite French cities, Lyon. Some places we seek out, such as our return to Taiwan and further exploration of Malaysia earlier this year. Other places in Europe we seem to end up in more often due to their location, and Lyon is one of these places since it’s usually our train gateway to and from the Vallée Verte.
Soft autumn light on the Rhône.
This was actually our fourth visit to Lyon, and the second time this year, as we passed through for two nights in March on our spring bike tour along the Via Rhôna. In March, we caught up with some freinds staying in Lyon, and explored a few new places, but didn’t have time to dive in deeper. So we decided to return and spend a week this time, and it was really a joy, from the lovely autumn warth and sunshine (finally!) to the amazing food and friendly people.
Shorts and sandals! On the pedestrianized Montée de la Grande-Côte, which takes you up to the Croix-Rousse neighborhood.A snipet of the vast Mur Du Canuts. A huge building mural depicting the rebellion of the local silk workers from 1831-1848, some of the first labor revolts of the industrialized world.
Lyon is France’s third largest city, but for many French, it’s the best. As we found out, many Lyonnais wouldn’t consider living in Paris or Marseille. It reminds me of the rivalry between New York City and Boston growing up; one clearly the biggest and dominant in cultural icononography, but the other more livable and approachable, espcially as a tourist.
Along the Saône River, which has a more industrial and gritty feel than the Rhône promendaes.
What I really enjoy about Lyon is the geography, as it has some dramatic hills at it’s edges, and the confluence of two major rivers at it’s core. You even get views of the Alps when it’s clear. It’s also very walkable and easy to get around by bike and public transit, although pales to Paris in its extent of metro and trams. I imagine the access to the Alps, Massif Central, and Mediterranean is a huge benefit with those with the means to get away regulary. Oh, and the weather is a bit nicer than Paris.
Ready to explore the Lyon Bienalle’s largest installations at the former SNCF workshops known now as “Les Grands Locos”.
We also were lucky to time our visit with the large Biennale Art Show, which showcases about 75 artists in venues around the city. The 2024 theme of “Crossing the Water” invitied a wide array of interpretations and seemed especially pertinant to the migrations of people across the globe due to wars and economic opportunity, as well as animal life impacted by climate change.
The installations at the SNCF Railyards site were often extrememly large scale and experiential like Hans Schabus – Monument for People on the MoveMona Cara – The CactusSlightly Creepy carnival installation by Clément Courgeon – The Cart of the CleverLorraine de Sagazan & Anouk Maugein – Monte di Pietà at the MAC. Labeled and recorded, the objects that compose it are linked to traumatic memories. I have also crossed the water many times, but luckily by choice.Grace Ndiritu – The Blue Room features around a hundred prehistoric, Roman, Egyptian, medieval, modern and contemporary pieces from various Lyon museums. It was part the Biennale at the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon (MAC).
I really enjoyed the Biennale and it was well attended but did not have a crush of visitors, due to its long run and dispersed venues. The artists also seemed to represent a modern and diverse cross-section of Fench and foriegn artists, something often missing from all the classical art museums of Europe. The other musuem we really enjoyed was the recently renovated Musée Lumière. Dedicated to the cinematogorphy and the history of the Lumière family, the Musée Lumière looks back at the various technical creations of Louis and Auguste Lumière and their family. It’s well curated and has a great collection of early film equipment, as well as engaging and interactive elements, all set on the grounds of the historic building and workshops.
We reluctantly skipped the striking new Confluence Museum as the week we were in Lyon was one of the Autumn school holiday weeks and anything child and family friendly was very busy….saved for our next visit to Lyon.
The Place Des Jacobins dates back to the mid 16th Century is an important historic junction of 12 streets. The fountain was added later in 1885 after the start of the Third Republic and some disputes about content. Public art and monuments are taken seriously in France.Off the bikes and back on transit!
Paul Bocuse looks over the street nearby Les Halles. He is Lyon’s most famous chef and has a legacy 3 star Michelin restaurant and the new Les Halles is named in his honor.
The way the locals eat and drink in Les Halles.
The food presentation at Les Halles is often like a museum installation.
We opted for a classic Moules marinière feast at Chez Lyon in Les Halles. Mussels are generally in season from August to January.
We probably could have shared a bucket, as they were huge! But sooo good.
I can do this…and I did, as well as about 1/3 of Cheryl’s bucket -;)
The typical chimneys of Lyon with Grafitti/Art?….how did the the street artists get up there?The famous Frédéric Bartholdi fountain featuring Amphitrite looking over the four tributaries of the Garonne River….in Bordeaux?! It was his intention to sell this to the City of Bordeaux in 1892, but Lyon scooped it up instead.We stayed in an apartment and a hotel for parts of our visit, but both were just a block from the Left Bank of the Rhone; a perfect location to access all the city and the river’s many cafes and 5km of paths, but out of the tourist zones.Lots of space for people, dogs, and bikes along the extensive Berges du Rhône.Selfie on one of my frequent runs along the Rhône, with the Mussée de la Confluence in the distance.Access in pedestrianized zones is generally controlled by retractable bollards activated by residents and delviery vehicles only. Why is this hard to transfer to US cities?
Besides the great variety of food in Lyon, we really were impressed by the lack of impactful car traffic in most nighborhoods. There are some busy main arterials, but in general, you can walk freely and cross small streets with ease. There are 7 tram and 4 underground metro lines that cover the ciy pretty well, and an extensive bike network. And as in much of France, they are investing more in public spaces for people with a huge project to expand car free space in the commercial core, not to mention a massive renovation of the always busy Lyon Part-Dieu train station. As always, the surface tram lines are a nice way to get around and sightsee as well.
Roman ruins are tucked into Lyon in surprising locations, such as the 19AD Amphitheater of the Three Gauls in the 1st Arrondisement.Random Roman ruin fragmants yet to be pieced togther by a grad strudent, and cats…always!This cat seemed to be in some sort of guardina role. We kept our distance.Taking advantage of water collected in the ruins.
Cities with layers of history are always intriguing, and Lyon city along the Saône used to be the core of Lugdunum, a thriving Roman city dating back to 43 BC. It may have had up to 200,000 inhabitants at its peak, which is in incredible as Lyon today only has 500,000 inhabitants in the age of modern infrastructure. There is a large Gallo-Roman museum, two amphitheaters, and lots of other remnants to be seen if you want to dive deeper into this history.
Beyond the usual recycling and residential composting, we were surprised to see public compopsting bins in such a large city.Delicious dumplings at Enginomo. The culinary scene in Lyon includes a good variety of food choices, not just French Gastronomie.The “Pot Lyonnais” The usual French wine ‘pichet’ comes with a twist in Lyon as it has a thick glass bottom and only accomodates 46cl instead of the usual 50. Apparently the factory bosses used these bottles to take a little from each worker of their weekly wine rations.Notice the thick glass bottom, which also makes a “Pot Lyonnais”very stable!
Beautiful architecture, trams, and sunshine.
Former 19th century hospital is now the Grand Hôtel-Dieu, as well as shops and gathering spaces.Low morning autumn light on Les Célestins Theater.We used the last few minutes of our 24-hour transit pass to take the funicular up to the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière. It’s impressive and one of Lyon’s top sights, with views of the city from the nearby terrace.Remains of the Gier Aqueduct which brought water to Lugdunum from over 50 miles away. Parts are still fully intact while other sections are now one with later development. Amazing.This streetscape reconstruction in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon was still in the archeolgical phase, as Lyon sits atop layers of history.Enjoying the nice weather on our exploration of the hills.Colorful liquor bottles caught Cheryl’s eye at a casual neighborhood bistro where we had lunch in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon.Sunshine on the Saône looking toward Croix-Rousse.Street Art and murals are a mainstay of Lyonnais life and there are websites dedicated to the various artists.We feel the same way.Nothing but smiles after a stimulating week in Lyon. But will this great weather last?
Lyon is not always a must see to most visitors to France, and I think it’s still a bit overlooked. Paris is amazing, but Lyon is a place you can really feel comfortable in quickly and will be rewarded by friendly people and a vibrant cultural scene. We were glad we came back for a longer look. Happy travels!
When we end a bike trip nothing feels better than taking a nice break at our wonderful generous friends’ house in the Vallée Verte, France. We shop for food and cook in every day instead of searching for open grocery stores and restaurants. We have leisurely mornings and afternoon naps.
We watch the alpine glow and the cows waiting to go back to their barn.
But this break was even better since we had our dear friends Christine and Cecily joining us for a week. Usually we spend our time in the alps hiking from the house, catching up on stuff, travel planning, cleaning and storing the bikes and trying to help around the house. Their visit gave us the kick in our pants to rent a car and actually get out and see some of the alps. We joke that for folks who have spent so much time in the area we hadn’t seen many of the local sights.
A rock star hairdo horse.
The best way we know to get over jet lag is physical activity in the sunshine. Thankfully the weather cooperated for our first hike, Plaine Joux up to Pointe de Miribel.
Blast the jet lag hike!Up we go.Remember to turn around to see the high alps playing peek a boo through the clouds.The last super steep bit. The summit! Photo credit to the nice Australian lady hiking with her dog.I can never get enough of the views – those huge clouds.And the wonderful friends.
The nice hiker with the dog warned us there was a herd of goats with their guard dog on our chosen route down. The dog barked at her and her dog, just so we knew. My sister in Colorado has had these big white guard dogs for her livestock for years so I assured everyone that they aren’t dangerous, just protective. Well, the big white dog did indeed bark at us, but calmed down after we greeted them with good doggie voices.
I’m just protecting my flock.And I will escort you out of my territory.If we had done our hike in reverse we would have seen this information sign before meeting the big dog.The fall colors were changing every day. For jet lag busting hike number two Rich and Cecily both had their fall appropriate colors on.Lac Léman under the fog.
After a day just hiking from the house, we headed by car to Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval. The weather was rainy but we all just suited up in our rain gear and headed out on a fantastic waterfall loop.
Cheryl and Christine. Friends for 42 years.It was hard to know if it was rain or mist from the waterfall. Whatever- it was wet.A wet day meant we had the trails almost to ourselves.Cecily and Christine enjoying the break in the rain and the fall colors.The mix of trees makes for dramatic vistas. As did all the uphill hiking.Framed waterfall. It was all downhill after this point.
The next day our destination was Chambéry, which is south of Lac du Bourget. A nice walk around the old town, a visit to the Musée Savoisien and lunch.
Musée Savoisien had a great exhibit on houses of the Savoie region, and how and why they were constructed as they were.Really detailed architectural models of the different house types.The museum also celebrated one of the region’s most famous dishes. Tartiflette– potatoes, lardon, onions and reblochon cheese.
At a traditional Savoie restaurant for lunch, Christine had the tartiflette, which was delicious but rich. We all agreed it is not an everyday meal. But so luscious.
Rich captured what we called “our album cover shot”.
We learned a good lesson about renting cars, always add the second driver even though it costs more. Since Rich did all the driving he didn’t get to enjoy the scenery as much as the rest of us. We’re spoiled from California where the rule is that the spouse is always covered when it comes to rental cars. We should have added me as a driver so Rich could relax and enjoy the scenery too. So, with that in mind we took the train the next day. Rich still had to drive us to the train station but then we all got to admire the scenery from La Roche-sur-Foron to Annecy.
Train station usie.First stop in Annecy, where it was market day, a coffee cart.Fueled up to walk around town.One of Annecy’s beautiful rivers, Le Thiou. With fun and impressively sited fish graffiti.Cecily and Christine in the old town.Such a picturesque place. The water is crystal clear.Can’t stop taking photos!We weren’t the only tourists in town, but it wasn’t super busy. Just pleasantly hopping.The perfect case for retirement, lounging in chairs by the lake.
After a day at home, shopping and doing an airport run to pick up Hannah, we headed off the next day to Chamonix, a new place for the four Americans. The very impressive roadway leading to Chamonix and the Mont Blanc tunnel was mostly empty since the tunnel is closed for works until December 16, 2024. That made for a lovely traffic free drive along the impressive viaduct roads.
The top of Mont Blanc was shrouded in clouds, but we now had Hannah with us! Even with the peak covered the view is impressive.Another potential album cover.A glacial river and a glacier. Oh, and Cecily and Christine! Hannah and Cheryl, friends for 40 years. I do love being able to say that. Long term friends are so wonderful.Rich in front of a mural of famous mountain climbers.
Sadly we had to say to goodbye to Cecily and Christine as they were off by train to Italy for another friend’s 70th birthday party. We dropped them at Annemasse train station, they took the local Léman Express to Geneva, and then trains to Turin. Such a fantastic way to travel.
See you soon!
When we made our nomadic decision it was our hope that we would have friends meet up with us in various places. This visit by Cecily and Christine was so energizing and wonderful. To get to share one of our favorite places, the Vallée Verte, with two of our favorite people was fantastic. The biggest downside to our life as nomads is missing friends and family.
We also had bonus time with Hannah our wonderful host, and some lovely weather to enjoy.We got in some more good hiking.And got high enough to catch a glimpse of the reclusive top of Mont Blanc.Framed by fall color.That might look like a dry field, it was actually wet and swampy.The sign for the cooperative cheese monger in Boëge.Which has a fantastic cheese vending machine with curated selections, open 24/7. For those cheese emergencies.Calf in the mist.
Too soon it was time for Rich and I to shoulder our backpacks and head off ourselves. Hannah’s family had arrived so we left them in good spirts and got a lift to the train station in Annemasse.
After our challenging trains with bikes time the previous few weeks we were giddy to have only backpacks. This is so easy! We kept saying to each other.The travel planner enjoying his stress free train ride.
We were working our way to Paris for a month stay and more visits from friends, but first we had a few stays along the way. More on that in the next post.
The happy travelers in Chamonix. Life is even better when shared with friends.
Enjoying a view over Udine, Italy, on our one night in town.
Sometimes we get a very quick sense of how cycling in a region will be. We’ve cycled in Italy before, years and years ago, and were impressed with the smooth pavement and respectful drivers in Tuscany, but this part of northern Italy has not caught up with Germany, Austria, or France in welcoming cyclists. But that’s the roads, the cities are super walkable and beautiful. Udine was a lovely surprise with a pretty and walkable center.
A gorgeous example of Italian marble.Rich has his loaner umbrella ready, but the rain held off.The warm glow of buildings in the twilight.Pizza with mortadella, pistachios, lemon zest, and fiore de latte. Amazing. In Italy the limoncello will find you.
With our deadline of a train from Milan we decided to make a train hop from Udine to Conegliano so we could make it to Treviso that day and spend less time riding in the rain.
Trains in Italy come with some predictable challenges: track changes. With loaded touring bikes a track change can be beyond hectic. Thankfully there were elevators at the Udine station so the track change at least didn’t involve stairs.The look of a man whose patience with loaded touring bikes and trains is starting to wear thin. And is looking at 32k/20miles of rainy riding.One of our less glamorous but very welcome lunch stops. Between the rain and the roads this pavilion looked like heaven to us.Weather fit for ducks as we get to Treviso.Outside our hotel in Treviso, trying to drip dry a bit before going inside.
We both had Treviso marked on our Google maps as an interesting place to visit – sort of a little Venice. An alternative to the magical city, with its own canals and own culture.
An old waterwheel in one of the canals.Canal side buildings absolutely bring to mind Venice.A mural which echoes the past.Yes, a lovely view even in the near constant rain.My Cleverhood Rain Cape had its time as I got really tired of wearing rain trousers and switched to tights and the rain cape.The fish market (Isola della Pescheria) on an island in the Cagnan River.Who wouldn’t be charmed by views like this? You can see from this photo what Treviso has which Venice doesn’t: cars.Sunset on the Sile River.
Our two nights in Treviso were fantastic. Even with a lot of rain. But the feeling we get in Venice, with no cars, not a whisper of car noise, is very different from Treviso. Definitely visit Treviso, but don’t be expecting the same scope of magic as one finds in Venice. It is much less crowded though, and a fairly short train ride from Venice for making a day trip one way or the other.
The arcades of Treviso made the rain less impactful.They were a place to walk, to stop and chat.And for restaurants to set up a charming scene.
What else did we find delightful in Treviso, the birthplace of tiramisu? Cicchetti, which are small bar snacks like tapas or pinxos, served alongside a beer or wine. A quick aside about bike storage in old towns. It’s not easy to find a hotel with easy and convenient storage for our bikes. The hotel Rich found in Treviso, Palazzina 300, were super accommodating and we were able to store our bikes in one of the owners’ fire wood room about a five minute ride from the hotel. Behind a locked gate and in a room stacked with wood for the winter. The owner pointed out the video camera watching the courtyard and assured us they would be safe.
The outside of a little osteria, cicchette on display in the window.What? I can wander from place to place drinking and snacking? Sign me up please.The charming and handsome waitstaff who help you choose your cicchetti from a glass case. Our second stop of the night.So many options.Rich did a good job picking our first round. From the left, cod, zucca, and Gorgonzola and nuts.My favorite was the zucca (pumpkin) and prosciutto.
Well fueled from our snack dinner (not really, Rich was super hungry the next morning.), we headed to the train station for a hop from Treviso to Vicenza, and then a 44k/27m ride to Soave.
Another train another track change. But this train had nice bike space.We had a nice little ride through Vicenza.Rich way finding through the narrow streets.Piazza dei Signore. Italian cities and towns excel at big piazzas, plazas, and car lite or car free spaces.Is that a bench? Then it must be time for a pastry break. That is a Pasticciotto, filled with ricotta based lemony filling. It got powdered sugar all over our clothing, which the mist then turned to sugar paste.We were quickly out into the vineyards of the Veneto region.Vineyards are always scenic.
Americans will likely remember the Soave Bolla commercials from the 70s and 80s, which probably gave most people a somewhat bad opinion of Soave wine. The ads were super cheesy and apparently, the wine not very good. But happily wine now made from the garganega grape is delicious, and in 2002 Soave received DCOG status and joined the ranks of well respected wine in Italy.
Say it with me: “Soave. Soave Bolla.”Soave Classico paired perfectly with the delicious pumpkin lasagna at Locanda ai Capitelli where we had a lovely stay and dinner.The view from the breakfast room.A view of Soave over the vineyards as we headed out in the morning to ride to Verona to catch a train to Brescia to shorten our day to 58k/36 miles.The harvest was in full swing. This nice workman smiled and waved when I stopped to take photos.Garganega grapes waiting to be harvested. Such a lovely color. What would this paint color be named? Wine blush? Whisper?We also rode by olive trees.Pomegranates.And climbed a hill with a classic Italian view.
The riding was lovely at times, but again, not an area of Italy with very welcoming bike infrastructure. We saw plenty of Italian road cyclists, but not many other bike tourists, and precious few bike lanes or decent shoulders to ride on the busy roads. And no transportation cyclists. No one headed to the shops or to and from school. And the terrain can’t be totally to blame as much of our ride was gently rolling, staying on the edge of the foothills.
Traveling by bikes gives us such a range of experiences. We go from sweet little lanes, To a coffee and chocolate break at a gas station cafe. Verona! The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra in Verona, Italy, built in 30 AD. And popular to visit on a Saturday in October. But we can’t spend too long sightseeing, we have a train to catch. Yay! Elevators at the Verona train station. Laughing because… platform change! Second to last train of the trip. Riding out of Brescia after our train hop, some nice new bike and pedestrian lanes.Signage and sunshine.My favorite sign in any language: Except bikes.Me me me! I’m on a bike! Except me!
We had quite a bit of rain on this section of the trip. I don’t have a lot of photos of rain riding since it’s so hard to take pictures in the wet. And, since we were not quite into the colder part of the year we had a run of hotel rooms where the electric towel racks hadn’t yet been turned on for the season. No heated towel rack and wet weather makes it very difficult to dry our bike gear and other laundry. We had two days of riding still so when we got a working towel rail we sprang into action and did laundry.
A working towel rail – finally! At Hotel Touring in Cocaglio.How many pizza dinners is too many pizza dinners in Italy?
We set out the next morning to ride to a town outside of Milan, Gorgonzola, 61k/44miles. As we approached Milan there were better bike paths and more folks out on bikes. We stayed outside Milan because the hotels in the city were quite full and expensive due to a pharmaceutical conference. Our hotel for our last night was close to the canal path that led right into Milan for our ride to town the next day.
Crossing the Oglio River and a photo bomb by a friendly local cyclist. Espresso and gelato break in Caravaggio. With our days in Italy drawing down we knew we needed to eat gelato whenever possible. Rich chatting with a local in Treviglio. This gentleman was a bike activist in town, pushing for the local routes to be improved and was happy to see bike tourists.A restored water wheel that used to lift water from the canal to irrigate local noblefolks’ orchards. You can see the buckets and channel that moved the water to street level.Ciclovia della Martesana, a relaxing and popular canal path.On the outskirts of Gorgonzola. Yes, where the cheese was first produced. We had it on (what else?) pizza that evening.Yup. Still eating pizza. Our last evening in Italy. Tomorrow the ride to Milan and a train to Geneva.Back on the canal path.Rich chatting with Massimo who saw our American flags and greeted us. The flags on our bikes are the best conversation starters.We were in no hurry as we had several hours before our train left Milan Central. So we bumbled along the canal. Into Milan, admiring the new bike lanes.Riding by a Campari ad. How Italian.Hey! We have some of these Milan street cars in San Francisco. Arco della Pace. Somewhere else in Milan.Doobie doobie doo, somewhere else in Milan. Cathedral de Milano. We had been expecting it to be rainy while we whiled away our hours in Milan so we were happy to ride around sightseeing and eating our lunch sandwiches in the Parco Sempione. But finally we headed to the train station.That’s the train station at the end of the street. Final train of the trip!
We had a few things going for us with this final long train hop. First positive is that Milan Central is an end station, you reach all the platforms from the same level, so no elevators or stairs in case of track change. Our train started at this station so we should have a decent chunk of time to get our bikes into their reserved spots on one car, and ourselves into our reserved seats in the next car.
Up we go to the platform level on an inclinator. Still looking good and feeling positive.Now we’ll just wait around until our platform is announced and we will proceed calmly to our train.
Ha! What really happened is that our train was late arriving and came in about 20 minutes late which put it cross platform from a Turin train arrival. The electronic tickets for just about everyone on our train did not work at the gates so the station agents had to check and let folks through one at a time – but with bikes we need the wide gates and for those we had to wait and wait and wait until we were just about the last folks to get through. With loaded bikes. Two trains unloading, and two trains worth of folks trying to load, equals one big mess.
At this point we just gave up. We figured the train wouldn’t be able to leave any time soon, so we just patiently shambled along the platform with everyone else.
Folks who were not convinced the train would wait for them started boarding many cars before their seats which meant the aisles of every car were impassable as people tried to walk along four, five, or even six cars to get to their seats. Our “reserved” bike spaces? Completely filled with giant wheeled suitcases by the time we got to our car. The palaver it took to get our bikes and panniers and us sorted was monumental. We were moving suitcases, bargaining with other riders, helped by a lovely young and patient passenger, and at first greeted with shrugs from the train attendants. They finally had us move to another car where the bike space had a few fewer suitcases in it, and we eventually got to our seats, hot, exhausted, and giddy with joy that we were on our final train ride of the trip.
Along with dinner Rich wisely bought us train wine during our station wait. We needed it.
Our final destination was a hotel in Annemasse where we would spend the night before tackling the climb up the Vallée. (We ended up getting a ride up the Vallée due to heavy rain and cold and exhaustion.) We told ourselves that if it was raining when we arrived in Geneva, or if we were too exhausted we’d just take the train to Annemasse. Another ha! The train tracks were being worked on and no trains running after 8 pm. We arrived at 9:30 and headed out to ride to Annemasse. Thankfully there is a first rate bikeway all the way so even in the rain it wasn’t awful. Just very wet.
Ah, Geneva Cornavin station. Now just a 9 km/ 5.5 miles to our hotel in Annemasse. In the rain. We made it.Our loop in nights spent. Each green heart is a place we stayed. The far left heart is our good friends’ place in the Haute Savoie.
A few observations about our different experiences along the way. The Swiss are very no nonsense and straightforward. The bike infrastructure is good. Germany has really good infrastructure but it’s starting to be dated, and, with so many folks on e-bikes, crowded. Germans are gruff. They do not waste time being gentle. As I was pushing my loaded touring bike up a steep climb a man on an e-bike came down the hill. He took the time to stop and say to me “There are many steep hills ahead.”, with a rueful shake of his head at my blithe disregard of tough climbs. We could hear his internal question of why these silly Americans did not have e-bikes. A second German man cycling with his family, all on e-bikes, rode by and motioned to me with a wave of his hand and said “Come on, hurry. Keep up.” I snapped that my bike had no motor and when we encountered he and his family again they tried very hard to be nice. Was I holding a grudge? Why yes, I was.
The happy travelers in Treviso.
By contrast the Austrians we encountered were more friendly, and the Italians! We were cheered up climbs with calls of Brava- Bravo! Almost every cyclist called out ciao ciao and smiled and waved. When I was caught in the bike race on a climb the spectators clapped and called out as if I was part of the race when I finally got on my bike to finish the climb.
Although the infrastructure for our northern Italy route was not yet in place it is underway. Alta Alia D’Attraversare is the website for the formal route we partially followed and which is mostly in place and being improved all the time. Worth checking out if you plan to cycle this part of Italy.
We’re in France until December 4th, the 12th arrondissement of Paris and then off to the UK for Christmas and New Year.
Apologies for the long gap in posts, but we’re now back in France and finally catching up on our past month of adventures. So how’d we get back to France from Salzburg? Cycling through the Alps and some trains of course!
Descending on the Alpe-Adria Route into Italy.
We really enjoyed our few days off the bikes in Salzburg, but as always, were eager to get back exploring. We find that more than two days off the bikes can put us off our game (like the Tour de France, eh?), so it felt good to roll out and head up the beautiful Salzach River towards the towering spires and massifs of the Alpes. Ok, maybe a little intimidating too.
Starting up the Alpe-Adria on the Salzach River.Cows and sunshine!
The Alpe-Adria is a long distance cycling route that starts in Salzburg and covers 415 km over the Alps, all the way down to the Adriatic Sea at Grado, Italy. This spectacular route was (mostly) completed between 2006 and 2009.
I’m ready, let’s do this!The beautiful Salzach river valley.Leaving the river and approaching Route 159 and the gorge; all looks innocent.It was too hectic to take photos, so a bit of the narrow section from Google street view. Somehow looks calmer and no 18-wheelers in their views! And there is the train if you’d like.This look after the gorge sums up my feelings. « That kinda sucked! »
The first day was about 65km to the pleasant and somewhat upscale town of Sankt Johann im Pomgau. It was a tougher day than expected for a number of reasons. It was all upstream and uphill, although there were not many big climbs. Second, we had a good headwind, which made even the flat river sections tiring. Finally, there is a gap in the route that requires you to ride on a narrow two lane road through a gorge.
The route continues on route 159 to Bischofshofen, but there was now a shoulder.
The worst section is from Salzachlamm to Werfen, which has about 5km without any shoulder, lots of trucks, and a barrier hemming you in on both sides. Yes, it was a bit sketchy and we had to grit our teeth a few times as large trucks approached at good speed from both directions. But it was daytime and we were fairly confident that the regional truck and car drivers would be looking for cyclists on this stretch.
Burg Honenwerfen loomed over us as we crested a small pass along the river. These valleys have been strategic trading routes for centuries.
So although we made it just fine, we asked ourselves, “would we ride it again?” No! So we have to recommend skipping it with a quick train train hop on the S3 (S-Bahn) from Golling to Werfen. It was the only traffic impacted gap in the otherwise enjoyable Alpe-Adria route, so we hope they figure out a solution in the gorge to make it a bit less stressful. It seemed that many cyclists rode to the restaurant near Pass Lueg and either turned around or perhaps got a shuttle as we saw no cyclists on the narrow and truck filled stretch. We now know why. It would be better if you’re on fast road or bike packing setup, as you’d be narrower and faster. For now, we can add it to the many stretches of road around the world we will only ride once!
But all good in Sankt Johann with a nice meal and white wine.Day 2 of the route brought peaceful and rolling climbs away from the main roads. Our favorite kind of touring.Turning up the valley towards Bad Gastein, there a few long tunnels with protected bikeways. Noise cancelling earbuds are awesome for loud tunnel stretches!Ah, this is more like it, a new and separate bike/ped tunnel! Overall, we were impressed with Austrian cycle infrastructure as it seemed to have more recent investment than Germany.Bad Gastein.
Our next day to Bad Gastein was dramatic and all along quiet roads and paths. The profile was again mostly uphill as we continued towards the main spine of the Alps. But the long profile hid some of the up and down rolling terrain along the edge of the valley. It was fun (roller coaster!) but the last stretch up to Bad Gastein was very steep so required some pushing and patience.
The mighty falls in Bad Gastein are a constant sight and sound in the lower part of the city.The heated rooftop infinity pool at Bade Schloss felt so good. There’s a sauna too.And great pizza refuel at Pizza Napoli, which seems to be run by one passionate chef/owner.The rewards of swing season cycle touring.The terrace at Bade Schloss looking across at their sister hotel, the Straubinger Grand. It was chilly but atmospheric.
The reward was the « discovery » of Bad Gastein, as we hadn’t ever heard of it prior to this journey. We highly recommend a stop here and staying at the Bade Schloss hotel if possible. (It was a bargain in late September) It just reopened in 2023 with a dramatic remodel to three historic buildings, as well as a new 14 story concrete tower. Ok, the tower is a bit of a sight from afar, but the rooms and rooftop pool are wonderful. And the setting next to the roaring falls incredible. It’s a faded spa town with belle epoque buildings and a bit of a Wes Anderson vibe.
And an impressive breakfast.Fueled up for the short ride to the pass in our well used rain gear.Constant cascades to please the senses, a slight reward for all the rain.Getting close, but don’t panic, that’s not OUR train!Buying tickets for the Tauerbahn in Böckstein. Only 4 bikes on this rainy late September Day. It’s about €10 each, a bargain to avoid a 1000m climb (and snow.).No question where the bikes go.
The nice thing about stopping in Bad Gastein for the night was that it was just a relatively easy 7km climb to the train portal. Yup, the official Alpe Adria does not go up and over the highest passes, but utilizes the hourly Tauernbahn shuttle between the Austrian States of Salzburg and Carinthia. The 10 minute train ride takes cars and bikes through the mountain and is a fun way to feel both the accomplishment of a pass without the reality of a high pass, including weather challenges in late September. (Note that the tunnel will be closed until July 2025 for engineering works.)
A chance to chat with some friendly Germans from Düsseldorf. Apparently in summer, there can be over 100 bikes jammed in this train car We emerged on the Carinthian side of the tunnel to even heavier rain, so decided to try to wait it out a bit before heading down the next valley. But fun to watch the cars load on the next train.
Contrary to our hope for sunshine on the southern side of the train pass; the rain just got heavier as we headed down the fairly steep and relentless switchbacks on the other side. My disc brake pads even started to crystallize a bit trying to control my loaded tanks’ speed. But eventually the rain ended and the terrain flattened out and we made our way to Spittal am der Drau for the night. Another relatively short but memorable day.
The amazing works of vertical infrastructure in the Austrian Alps.And nice rest stops.Yup, this works…if it was only sunny!And unlike most of Germany, plenty of public TrinkwasserRare spot to duck out of the rain on another mizzle-y day to Villach.A welcome coffee stand for this coffee achiever.The locals provided their own rest stops for cyclists on the Alpe-Adria. This sprawling one had lots of food, bike repair supplies and a guest book. All free with donation box -:).The friendly but somewhat incongruous Hacienda Mexicana hotel and restaurant in Spittal am der Brau. The room was good, and I’d love to say we found good Mexican Food in the middle of Austria, but …
The next day was another relentlessly rainy day with few places to stop and escape the weather. This is definitely a challenge on many long distance cycle routes; there may be lots of nice benches and even tables, but there are rarely covered rest areas, so bridge underpasses or farmers barn overhangs become your best bets.
Lots of cool bridge and tunnel engineeing in Austria.Overnight in Villach, an enjoyable stop at the recommended Palais 26 Hotel.Typical picnic lunch near the Italian border. Focaccia with various toppings are the new go to quick snack at small stores and groceries Note my mini bottle of Serrano Hot Sauce -:).Near the Italian border at the pass.
As we rode over the second pass into Italy, we could notice the terrain and vegetation changing somewhat from the north side of the Alps. The most popular and scenic part of the route is the downhill decent from Tarvisio to Venzone along the former Pontebba rail route. It’s a spectacular route of viaducts, tunnels, and waterfalls.
The Italian Border…we think.I was excited to be in Italy again.Cruisin’ over the crest.Also so close to Slovenia here…it was tempting!Heading out for an all downhill day from the lovely AlBuondi B&B in Camparosso.The stretch of former railway starts here and is perfect cycling bliss.The Pontebba Railway was converted into this segment of the route in the 2000s. There is a newer (and straighter) rail line that now traverses the pass and valley.And too many tunnels to count… (ok there are 22)17th c. Church = shady lunch spotMy intrepid tour client.Did we mention the perfect pavement?Always great to see a Critical Mass sticker elsewhere in the world. Not to mention an arty Woodstock -:)This 40km descent was a treat!Most of the original rail bridges were retrofitted for trail use.And constant views of the Dolomites.
After a relaxing night at an apartment in the old town of Venzone, we took the recommendation of our cyclist host and rode an alternate route to Udine via the west side of the river valley and eventually back through San Gabriele del Fruili to Udine. The route was very nice and had some steep hills, a surprise pro bike race, and a chance to sample its famous prosciutto.
Vemzone is a tiny walled town that you can explore in a few hours.Venzone suffered two devastating earthquakes in 1976, but showed amazing resiliency by rebuilding most historic buildings block by (numbered) block.This rubble in the center of Venzone is a reminder that not everything got rebuilt from the quakes.Renato, our friendly and helpful apartment host in Venzone.The sign for bicycle friendly lodging in Italy.A chance to do proper laundry!Bike storage for the night protected by cats.The area around Venzone is now a seismic and building engineering research center, with various reinforcement and repair designs being tested in real time on historic structures.Chilly for October 1st but not raining!The beautiful and broad Tagliamento River.Off the Alpe Adria, but still nice regional routes.On the Tagliamento regional routes.The story of Ottavio Bottechia, the first Italian winner of the Tour De France was more intriguing than we imagined.This giant roadside bicycle memorial in Girona del Fruili celebrated 100 years since his historic 1924 Tour win. His body was found injured and unconscious here in 1927 and he died shortly thereafter after. Was he murdered? Too liberal for Mussolini? The mystery remains. It’s a nice reminder but we did notice that the Italian drivers were more agressive and less considerate than their Austrian counterparts.Watching for the Eurasian Gryphons at the Riserva Naturale Regionale del Lago di CorninoThe gryphons have been successfully reintroduced and protected across southern Europe. We spotted a bunch with impressive wingspans up to 8 feet.San Gabriele del Friuli is famous for its buttery and luscious prosciutto.There was a bike race starting in the center of San Gabriele, so we got our prosciutto supplies and headed out of town a quiet way down into a steep river valley. Quiet, so we thought!Suddenly not so quiet as the motorbikes cleared the way for the race.Cheryl caught on a steep climb by the field. She was not amused but the spectators were.Cheryl literally got overtaken by the peloton on her touring bike and we were still laughing about it.Finally done with our Alpe-Adria adventure; the happy cyclists in Udine, Italy
So we almost did the entire Alpe-Adria route except the last flat stretch to Prado. We diverted west at Udine towards Milan as we had a hard deadline with our long distance train back to Geneva and hoped to find some more rolling hills. But more on that soon in our next post. Ciao!
We’ve been traveling long enough now, entering our fourth year of nomadic life, that we have a good sense of when we need firm plans and when we can wing it. We planned on Salzburg. Always a good idea in popular cities to book ahead. Rich found a new hotel outside of old town that is one of the increasing number of hotels with no reception or staff. The Numa Salzburg Vogelweider. All automated check in and check out. Worked well. We could walk to old town in 20 minutes, it had a bike storage room, kitchenette, and grocery store across the street. As we looked at restaurants recommended by a friend’s Aunt (thanks Gisela and Tante Hannah) we saw that slightly ominous Google maps message that every traveler fears: Hours may vary due to St. Rupert’s Day.
Hey Saint Rupert. How you doing?
Thank you for the warning Google. Now who is this Saint Rupert? And what might his day mean to our stay in Salzburg?
A festival? With stalls selling all kinds of things like cookies?And beer and wine? (That wine stein was not as huge as this photo makes it look.)And table seating for drinks and food.With loads of happy people in Tracht, or traditional dress.And lots of families having fun.
Saint Rupert is, among other things for which he is venerated, the patron Saint of Salzburg. Born around 660, he is usually portrayed with a vessel of salt, as he helped establish the salt mining industry around the city which he named for salt: Salzburg. And, the city throws him one heck of a five day festival every year around Sept. 24, which is the day his relics (bones) were transferred to the Salzburg Cathedral in 774.
Folks are encouraged to wear Tracht, traditional dress, and they do. Nothing cuter than a little one in Lederhosen.The lederhosen are everywhere!The city makes a lovely backdrop for the festival.
Traditional dress, or Tracht, is more popular now in Austria and Bavaria than it was ten or so years ago. I love this. But, I do admit that I have a little squeamishness about the clear gender lines of the outfits. What if you as a woman don’t particularly like dresses (Dirndls)? Why, I asked Rich, don’t ladies wear lederhosen? Well the ladies are way ahead of me and they are wearing lederhosen.
Dirdnl or lederhosen. Whatever you prefer.More ladies in lederhosen.Short short lederhosen.
We visited the festival, which is centered around the cathedral, all three nights we were in town. we spent our two rest days walking around the city, hanging out in our hotel catching up on laundry and travel planning, and resting up for our climb over the alps to Italy.
We put in our earbuds and did the Rick Steves walking tour early in the morning. Before the crowds got going.St. Peter’s Cemetery.Visiting the cathedral while it’s quiet.The water mill, built in the 17th century and in use up to 1958. Restored in 1975. Hohensalzburg Fortress in the background.A restorative caffeinated beverage later and we were ready to climb up above the old town.The edge of old town butts into Mönchsberg hill. Literally.Up we go. Up to Mönchsberg, one of the five mountains of Salzburg.Getting a bird’s eye view. And leaving the increasingly crowded old town behind.Charming little winding streets on Mönchsberg.And warnings of ferocious dogs!Who’s a good boy?And stunning views of the fortress (which we skipped visiting.).But enjoyed photographing.The cathedral from on high.Between walking to old town and climbing up Mönchsberg, and back to old town that evening for festival fun, our first “rest day” totaled over 10 miles/16 kilometers of walking.Mirabell Gardens and Palace.Mirabell Palace and a happy second rest day. It’s not often I talk Rich into two rest days in a row. But it was my 60th birthday.
Spending all of our days on bikes doesn’t mean we’re tired of thinking about bikes on rest days. We enjoy seeing what cities have done for bikes. Bikes are one of the best ways to get around a city. Our second rest day we spent avoiding the morning rain and doing laundry, and then walking around admiring bike infrastructure. Before going back to the festival. Gotta love a five day festival. And what did we eat while in Salzburg? Raman twice, once for dinner and once for lunch, Indian food for dinner once, and burgers at the festival. We usually go for Asian food when we’re in cities since it can be tough to find while biking in rural areas. Gotta get our eat around the world fix.
Our first hint that Salzburg would be a good bike city was this bike path hung under a bridge over the Salzach River on our way into the city.The bike station at Schallmoos train station.So many bikes parked in a relatively small space.My favorite sign. Except bikes. No entry, except bikes. One way street, except bikes. No right turn, except bikes. Love it.I’m sure every city has bike theft problems, but the seemingly carefree locking of bikes sends a nice message.
Wandering around old town admiring the shops full of things we don’t buy is another fun pastime.
Fancy umbrellas. Yes please, but how to carry on a bike tour?Wheels of cheese! Impractical.Little chocolate hedgehogs! Ok, these I would have bought if the shop was open.Old town got busy in the evenings.And the famous sites of Salzburg played second fiddle to Saint Rupert.Rich’s favorite. A half liter of draft dunkel.Sunset from Mirabell Gardens.Our trip so far. Far left heart is Geneva area, train to Zurich, and the blue dot is us in Salzburg. Hmmm…there seems to be a big mountain range between us and our next country, Italy. Did we rest enough?The happy travelers and their rest days strategy.
Not the angel hugging a pretzel route. Or the horse cantering over mountains route. Not the Mooserunde. Or the Spitzenblick. We were mostly on this one. The Bodensee-Königssee Radweg.
Storm Boris was still lingering over Bavaria, so wet roads.But the snow on the alps made for dramatic scenery.The ride into Oberstaufen where we spent the night.Bavarian towns certainly know how to plant flower beds.And we know how to class up a nice hotel: hang wet bike shorts in the window to dry. Oberstaufen was a bit pricy, so a good time to use some Hyatt points at the Linder Hotel.Heading out of Oberstaufen. Still cloudy.Owly! Amusing roadside art? Advertising?Pastry break at 20k. Yes that is sunshine.Another farm field cat. So many farm cats.The Großer Alpsee and a happy cyclist. The alps are peeking through the clouds. After five days of peddling starting to feel strong. The quiet town square on a Sunday in Immenstadt.With a sweet cat happy to accept petting.Now for some jaw dropping views of the alps with a coating of fresh snow and clear air post storm.But first a nice long break on a trail side BarcaLounger. The Bo-Ko has good amenities along the way. We were early for check in at our hostel so we took a nap.It was a good thing we weren’t pressed for time, each view was more stunning than the next.See what I mean? Will you go stand in that field please?
The forecast for the next day, Monday September 16, was pretty miserable. Wet and cold. Loads of discussions about train versus no train. We decided to start out and see how the day went. We were riding close to the train route so if it got really miserable we could bail and take a train hop. Unfortunately I had a cold coming on. I’m pretty sure no one ever prescribed a long cold wet day riding a bike as a cold remedy. It’s not easy to skip some beautiful riding though, so we started out in light rain.
We set out. Bravely. And then the rain came. Sheltering in a tunnel under crossing.Sheltering in a rural bus stop where a kitty came out to cheer me up.And finally sheltering at a small train station. We took a train hop to save ourselves a few hours riding in the rain on the way to Füssen.
Füssen is where both Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle are located. The heavy cloud cover and rain hid both from view for our one night in town. Bike touring is like that. We see so much that only other bike tourists see, but when we get to town, we tend to see less, especially when cold and tired from a long wet day. The weather was forecast to clear up, and we planned a rest day in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, our next stop. We veered off the Bo-Ko route into Austria for a stop here, and we’ll join it again after Garmisch-Partenkirchen before leaving it to go to Salzburg.
Füssen has a lovely main pedestrian street.Riding out the next morning along the Lech River into Austria.A curious cow greeted us at the top of a climb. Those cattle guards we went over were there for a reason. Heading towards Heiterwanger See.Heiterwanger See is ridiculously beautiful.Plansee, the connected lake, is also stunning. A long gravel decent is waiting for us at the end of the lake.Rest day in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. And such beautiful clear skies post rain.What to do on a rest day? Let a gondola carry you up the mountain.To be specific, the Wankbahn carried us up to Wank. 1,780 meters/5,839 feet is the peak of the Wank.Yes, we made all the jokes all the way up and down.And yes, we got to be the silly tourists wearing sandals in the snow.One of these things is not like the others.The view across to Zugspitze peak in the snowy alps was spectacular.The Zugspitze is over Rich’s shoulder to the left of the photo. 2,962m/9,717f.Another dinner, another healthy German pour of white wine. A Rivaner, or Müller-Thurgau.Heading off down the Loisach River valley. This beautiful day certainly makes up for riding in the rain. When the sun is shining everything is more fun!Like this chicken made from big hay bales advertising the egg hut where you can buy fresh eggs. And the stork signs announcing a new baby for this family! (I blanked out the last name.) We saw a lot of these, what a fun way to celebrate and let your neighbors know the baby has arrived. By stork, right?And the houses painted with religious imagery.
We have Salzburg in our sights, just three more nights before we cross into Austria and have three nights to enjoy the city. We won’t go all the way to Königsee, the end of this route, since it’s a bit of a dead end for us. At this point my cold is waning (or was it getting worse still? Who can remember.) and my rear end was getting used to the hours on the bike. Feeling good. Got my blue tooth speaker on my bike, pod casts, music, pastry. I can pedal all day. Rich can always pedal all day. He’s a monster.
The monster cyclist in Bad Tölz.Does every German town have a lovely pedestrian street?The Isar River was running quite high.And off again. Our route took us through a golf course.Through farmland where farms advertised their products.Tegernsee was a perfect pastry break spot, complete with shaded BarcaLounger.Tiny churches dot the countryside in this Catholic region.All smiles. It’s slightly downhill.Hey Rich. I think there’s a cow behind you.The alps. And horses.Farm cat who owns the road. They came out for a cuddle.Always appreciated after a long day which included a flat tire on Rich’s bike – ice cream vending machine!And a lovely cafe set up to sit and enjoy the ice cream.Garden goals. Love the giant teacup pot.Energized for the last 7k.One of our many room hacks. This helps block the light through the too sheer shades. I’m particularly pleased with clothes hanger ladder. Just be careful to not overload.We rode into Salzburg on a Sunday. So many other cyclists out.Cheeky cows. That’s a photobomb.Traditional house and garden under modern solar panels.Salzburg here we come!And boom! Salzburg.
From leaving our dear friends’ place in France, we’ve pedaled 600 k/372 miles so far. One flat tire on Rich’s bike, which did already have a slow leak, but was only our second flat on these new bikes (shhh…don’t jinx it!).
The far left heart is where we started, biked into Geneva and took the train to Zurich. The blue dot is us in Salzburg.
Although the map makes it look as if we were not in the Alps, we did have some substantial climbs and decents. Although the mileage isn’t massive, there was 5,000 meters/16,400 feet of climbing, on loaded touring bikes. Sometimes on dirt or gravel roads and paths. Phew. No wonder I needed this rest in Salzburg.
To Californians who are accustomed to having to drive hours to leave the state there’s a funny thrill to crossing country borders. Even the non-controlled sometimes unapparent borders of the EU.
Heading out of the Vallée Verte, France. And into a cool and wet weather pattern.First stop: Boulangerie. On to Switzerland.Even more fun when you ride a fantastic bikeway from France into Switzerland.
A map of our travels by bikes in Europe would look like the wanderings of a neighborhood cat, on a large scale. Between vacations when we worked and our post retirement bike tours we’ve crossed, criss crossed, meandered, train hopped, ferry hopped, head down and pedaled, woken up with no plan, gone with the tail wind, and any other description you can think of about our pedaling in Europe.
In Geneva enjoying our pastry break.Le Jet d’Eau in Lake Geneva.Where to now?The train station!
Our last bike tour, spring of 2024, started the same way, pedaling to Geneva, but we pedaled right through and out the Via Rhona. This time we hopped a train to Zurich, Switzerland, to get us to a new starting point.
Dueling train lunch decisions. Gazpacho for me, not Rich’s favorite.Smoked trout for Rich, not my favorite.We stopped outside the train station in Zürich to put on all of our rain gear and started the 10k ride to our hotel.Any dry spot in a storm is welcome.
After a good nights sleep, which was very welcome as the jet lag got us bad this time, we headed out towards Wil, Switzerland. Riding out of Zurich was like riding out of any city, getting through big box store areas, crossing highways and motorways, through large roundabouts, and finally seeing the wide open countryside. Well, almost any city. In the Netherlands of course, you can easily ride anywhere – including into and out of big cities. We still reminisce about our ride through Utrecht a few years back and how absolutely easy it was.
Ah. A bikeway into the countryside.Now we ride! Welcome to my world. And don’t feed me, said the sign on his fence.
One of our pastimes while traveling is building the perfect country, taking our favorite things from each place we visit and adding them to our fictional nation. We didn’t get very far on this ride before I was reminded of my favorite thing from Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. So many farm cats wandering the fields.
Usually the farm cats are too far away or too skittish for photos, but this one came over for a visit.And then started following Rich up the road.Covered bridge! This covered bridge had windows and ladders so you could admire the view.Some cow barns have automatic scratchers which start turning when the cow leans into the brush.I’m sure the locals and farmers laugh to see us snapping photos of their farmyard animals, but who can resist chickens wearing feathered footies?Smooth smooth asphalt on the bike paths.Apple season! There are so many apple trees. Well tended orchards and random trail side trees. We only pick apples from those which are not obviously part of someone’s orchard.Gardens are still blooming. Our lovely historic room in Wil. This is before we dumped the contents of our panniers everywhere.The view over Wil from our hotel. The clouds are so dramatic.
We’d been lucking out with the weather, grey skies and threatening clouds and we got to Wil before the rain and hail front moved through. The hail did catch us out without an umbrella and forced a dinner decision on us – the close burger place versus the Thai place which would have meant arriving drenched. And did we walk out of our hotel right past a big bucket of umbrellas to borrow? Yes. Lesson learned.
Heading out after our second and last night in Switzerland. It was a cold morning.What’s the first stop? A bakery. Always.No, this giant cookie did not come with us.Another covered bridge.Apple trees so loaded that their limbs are propped up.More apple trees. And threatening skies.The villages, all centered around a farm, are so charming.And welcoming. With benches and a fountain. A perfect place for a pastry break. And then the rain came down.And a very nice woman across the street invited us to shelter under her barn overhang. Climbing up, we’re almost out of Switzerland now, about to cross into Austria. My handle bar covers are still working well. Keeping my hands warm and dry.Beautiful Swiss cows wondering why we are leaving Switzerland. The signage makes you feel so welcome as a cyclist or hiker.Schloss Hagenwil. We went inside and had a look around. Mostly restaurant space but quite stunning.The chapel. Hagenwil is the only intact water castle remaining in Eastern Switzerland. Imagine what it took to build and maintain this castle.Lake Constance to the Swiss and Austrians or Bodensee to the Germans. Attention Cats! Or Danger Cats!?A train crossing. That’s an Austrian train. We’re so close!Wait! How did we get on this side of the border already? We’re in Austria after crossing a little bike pedestrian bridge.To refresh your Austrian geography, here is a map. The little left side tail which touches the lake is where we entered. That’s Lake Constance.Our one night in Austria would be in Hard, and we were both quite impressed with the space for bikes and pedestrians on this bridge into town. The engineer said “Now that’s how you build a bike lane on a bridge.” Yes, we’re looking at you West Span SF Oakland Bay Bridge.Another pristine hotel room. Before bag explosion. As a bonus, it started to hail just after we checked in. This early and cold storm, named Boris, will dump snow on the Alps and cause flooding in Czechia and Austria. We are fine though.Another cold and wet day. I’m clutching my tea thermos which is extra swaddled to keep it warm. And a bag of pastries.My favorite: quark tasha. Like a cheese danish. And a photo bombing Rich.
Riding through the countryside gives us a bucolic look at a place. It’s unique and refreshing to us, coming from the western USA, to be able to ride from town to town on safe connected pathways. We are used to some cities, including our own San Francisco, being quite bicycle friendly, but if you were to ride town to town, or city to town in the US, you would find almost no bicycle infrastructure. You would simply be sharing the road with large fast moving motor vehicles. That’s why crossing county borders by bike like we are still thrills us. It’s why we travel, to see what it’s like away from home. To get to do something we don’t do in the Western US.
And speaking of borders, hello Germany! Country four, day four.Bavaria. The southernmost state of Germany’s five states, and the largest by land mass.The happy travelers- some cold wet days have tested us, but we’re still standing.
We continued our Northwest summer ramble out of Seattle and headed up I-5 about an hour and a half to Bellingham, WA.
Emerald or « Toad Lake » near Belingham, Washington.
Closer to Vancouver than Seattle, Bellingham frequently appears on “Best places to retire is the USA” lists or click bait, and for good reason. It’s a small city (90k) on Puget Sound in a beautiful natural setting, kept vibrant by the constant youthful churn of 14,000 students at Western Washington University. This was our third visit to Bellingham, but the first time we had spent a week.
My summer bike at Clayton Beach, part of Larrabee State Park and the Chuckanut Mountains
Our house sit was across from a small lake at the edge of town, but amazingly secluded up in a steep vale in the local foothills of the Cascades. Our responsibilities included a very sweet outdoor dog and seven chickens. The dog was reportedly standoffish but we soon bonded with him and enjoyed some fun walks around the lake and woods.
Lake loop with an enthusiastic leader Our dog letting me know he was ready for a walk!Our house sit included all the fresh eggs we could eat!
House sitting is great for really trying out new locales to see if it a place we may want to spend more time or even settle for a time. We really liked Bellingham in the summer and had considered settling here at one point, but think now that we still need a bit more city in our next home.
Downtown Bellingham is in the process of reimagining its industrial waterfront with popular interim uses as a wild bmx track, shipping container bars and restaurants, and summer festivals.
The Pacific Northwest and Seattle in particular are so different than the Bay Area we called home for most of the past 30 years. We are used to the pace and competition of dense SF living and you really notice the difference in the Seattle area. We are the angsty rushed city folk here. The massive amount of wealth and economic prosperity generated in San Francisco and Silicon Valley has put pressure on every aspect of living; cost, housing, services, transportation. We lived a great life in San Francisco by keeping our work and home close and cycling, walking, or transiting most places.
Riding the #40 bus in Seattle. It’s fairly extensive, clean and reliable, but can we live comfortably without a car here?
And our double income, no kids (DINKS) life kept us comfortable financially. But we could feel the strain the past 20 years on services and the vast gulf that was growing between “knowledge workers” and those in service or more traditional blue collar roles. San Francisco and California has tried to fight this trend with social programs (minimum wage, city health plans, affordable housing, etc) but it can’t keep up with the demand for housing. It’s a global problem in wealthier areas of the planet, but especially evident in California.
Cycling the boardwalk to the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham, arguably its most charming area.The Bellingham area is unrivaled for mountain biking, including expert crazy bike only downhill runs
So back to Seattle. Seattle has a lot of the same challenges as the Bay Area, including tech wealth and escalating housing costs. But as we noted in our winter visit Seattle blogs, they ARE building more and have looser zoning laws near transit by right. (meaning NIMBYs can’t stop it) DADUs (Detached Accessory Housing Unit!), townhomes and condos are sprouting all over the city in almost every neighborhood.
Great to meet and chat with fellow nomads at a meetup in Edmunds, WA
All this fairly random looking new housing looks strange to us as we’ve hardly see any housing construction in San Francisco, except the thousands of units concentrated South of Market, Mid and Upper Market Street Areas, and a few other pockets and buildings. But they are often not in the areas where most people want to live.
Great Pho at Miss Pho in Crown Hill. The diversity and quality of the food in Seattle is first rate, but unlike SF, you may need to search for it in strip malls.
Seattle is building more where people want to live, as well as very dense high rise residential in First Hill, and the South Lake Union edge of downtown. Add to this an ever expanding light rail metro system (thanks to a $54B 2018 bond measure) and you have a fairly dynamic feel to the City. It’s almost twice the size of SF, and feels more spread out, especially from north to south. It generally doesn’t have the magical density and intimate feeling walking from neighborhood to neighborhood as San Francisco and many more trips are by car. This is a big difference for us to adjust to if we settle in Seattle.
Golden Gardens Beach Park; beautiful and swimable, if you don’t mind chilly water!The Puget Sound beaches are more for exploration than swimming
SF is dense but could and should be denser, with more new buildings all over the western half of the city, where the weather and transit are great. But NIMBYs, Prop 13, and zoning keep the city at a relative standstill. It’s created a bit of a housing doom loop, since new housing construction is so expensive, that it’s not even affordable for developers selling condos for 1-2 million each. We’ve blogged on this on our past visits, but the issue just gets bigger and bigger and plays a big role in our decision on where we might settle down next in the World (if we do -;).
« Bruun Idon » at Lincoln Park, one of Thomas Dambu’s six troll sculptures in the region and made entirely of recycled/reused materials.The wooden boat center on Lake Union.
But to be honest, the biggest difference we noticed in Seattle this stay was the pace of life and what I like to call the “expectation of goodness.” People here are more patient and expect that you are, and are acting honestly and in the public good. A friend of mine in SF noted to me that Seattle today is what SF was like in the 80s and 90s. A bit slower, more provincial, and where everyone was not quite so full of themselves. It’s a cutthroat world in the Bay Area…not quite New York City levels yet, but noticeably more manic than the Pacific Northwest cities. Seattle’s slightly slower pace is attractive to us in our early retirement.
The Iconic Aurora Bridge built in 1932 connects Fremont to Queen Anne
So after a pleasant week exploring the trails and cycling paths of the beautiful Bellingham area, we headed back to Seattle for our final house sit of the trip in the Ballard/Sunset Hill neighborhood. We loved the area as it’s very quiet traffic wise and has a nice grid of roads cut off on the western side edge by a bluff and Puget Sound. There are some views toward the Olympic Mountain Range that allows you to get out of the trees.
Cheryl tending our house sit Pea Patch, a community garden system throughout Seattle’s neighborhoods. Garden fresh tomatoes and beans from the Pea PatchWatch Kitten in BallardSampling some beers at Lucky Envelope, one of over a dozen craft breweries in Ballard alone!Another magnificent troll outside the National Nordic Museum in Ballard Cheryl contemplates how to get some of the endless driftwood to our future garden.Our house sit kitten testing breakfast table boundaries.
The grid layout of most of Seattle makes walking and biking very tenable, but the hills are a challenge, even coming from San Francisco!? Why? Because the large masses of each neighborhood often rise up and fall over long distances, meaning a trip back up to your house can mean climbing up gradual hills for 10, 20, or even 50 blocks! And much of the east-west geography is steep, so cross town journeys can be steep in places.
The Neighborhood Greenways are a nice way to get around by bike in Seattle. The hills and rough pavement mean that wider tires and electric assist would be a great addition for getting around realistically by bikeEnjoying Ballard’s Scandinavian roots with good friends Cecily and Christine at Skål Beer Hall.
Oh but the trees, mountains, and water interplay are so nice! And there is a good bike network with some famous long distance rail trails, such as the 20 mile Burke Gilman, which links up much of the interior shoreline of North Seattle. I was able to do a 35 mile north Lake Washington loop from North Seattle almost entirely on separated paths…very nice.
Saying goodbye to Seattle summer for now with one final swim in Lake Washington….so nice and different from the always cold S.F. Bay.
So we loaded up the rental car and headed early out of Seattle for the 2 day drive back to San Francisco, again with an overnight in Ashland. The drive is possible in one long 13+ hour day, but we never like to drive more than half of that in a day. Heck, we don’t like to drive to the grocery store, but sometimes a car is the most convenient way and it is a chance to listen to some good podcasts and music!
Enjoying a road bike ride back in the Bay AreaAnd saying hello to some UK friends Frank and Liv in Alamo Square on a lovely fog-free evening.
Our four days back in the Bay Area were busy with sorting gear at the storage unit, haircuts, finances, Covid/flu shots, etc. but also some nice time with friends. But we now just arrived back to our euro-base in France after a successful and fairly pleasant one-way journey on Condor Airways. (SFO-FRA-GVA)
So happy to be back in the Vallée Verte
Now we’ll relax a bit, get over our jet lag, sort our gear, and get ready to head out on the bikes for another fall bike tour adventure in a few days. More on that soon. A Bientôt!
Riding across the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (the 520) in Seattle.
Our month long stay in SF was filled with visiting friends, enjoying our house sit kitty buddies, a trip to Chicago for Rich, a visit from my sister Kathy, and a trip to Colorado for me, and loads of cycling and hiking with friends for Rich.
A walk in SF with local and visiting friends. Rich on an urban hike with his friends Mike and Fred. Just three retired guys wearing hats and having fun.Dinner with good friends. How amazing to be able to host a dinner party. Rich, my sister Kathy, and me after a bakery stop. Enjoying the pastries and the views from Alta Plaza Park in SF.Dinner with the upstairs neighbors, Gisela and Randall.Rich having a moment with our mailing address.
Oh yes, a word about our mailing address and our residency. We are California residents. It’s where we pay taxes and vote. We are lucky to call home a place where our city and state want us to vote. We’ve heard of other full time travelers from other states who are getting removed from the voting rolls due to using a mailbox service, and having to re-register and make their case for voting. Thank you San Francisco for making voting accessible.
Sunset light for a family photo. My mom with all four of her children in Colorado. July on the Grand Mesa means wildflowers. A dramatic sunset in Grand Junction making a lovely backdrop for Lorilie the ranch Dalmatian.And a dramatic sunrise to bookend the night. Yes, there was smoke in the air from western fires.With Mom and Chuck at the Fruita Farmers Market.Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, Rich is single handedly wrangling two cats! A chill contemplative cat moment.Dinner at our friends’ house in Oakland. We miss these kind of get togethers when we’re on the road.
Keeping in touch with our friends in the US is so important to us. During past visits we’ve run ourselves ragged trying to see as many of our friends and family as possible. It leads to exhaustion. Our solution this trip was to stay longer, thanks to our good friends Nancy and Mike who let us stay at their house and take care of their kitties for the entire month of July.
With friends, Robin, Jeff, and Rob, sitting in a beer garden in SF. July in SF means down jackets.Crocheted birdies on a street tree on Page Street in SF.As if having two cats to look after and cuddle wasn’t enough, Gisela and Randall got kittens!Which of course meant kitten cocktail parties.Following one of Nancy’s walks in GG Park for a book she is working on.
A month of San Francisco socializing done we got into a rental car and headed towards Seattle. We stayed two nights in Ashland, Oregon, just long enough to marvel at the huge trees and go for a walk in Lithia Park. We spent the hottest part of the day hiding from the heat in our hotel room.
Now that’s a tree. And another huge tree in someone’s front garden.Worrying but helpful signage.Will we get a handle on fires by letting nature handle it? And letting fires burn?Our walk in Lithia Park was thankfully mostly shaded.
From Ashland Oregon we went all the way to Seattle in one day so we would have time to spend with our dear friends Christine and Cecily before they left for a trip.
A walk in Saint Edward State Park. Rich rode there and met us. Picnic with new friends Chris and Katherine who we met in Borneo.Warm summer evenings. Something we rarely had in San Francisco. Dinner outside – without jackets!Rich was thrilled to go for a ride with Annie, who showed him a great Lake Washington loop. Off they go!Erika shared some of their garden bounty with me. Even though the weather turned to grey the shorts stayed. On the ferry to Whidbey Island to meet up with more friends.Linda and Steve, fellow nomads. You can follow their nomad journey here.
We were fortunate enough to book two house sits during our time in the Pacific Northwest through Trusted House Sitters, and our first sit in Bellingham was about to start. If you are interested in house sitting we do recommend THS.
The Happy Travelers, enjoying a PNW summer.
Still to come, the sit in Bellingham, back to Seattle for another ten days, then down to SF to get ready to fly to France to be reunited with our touring bikes again.
Less Car, More Life 