Mixing it up

We’ve been taking advantage of the nice weather to get out on our bikes, but have also been mixing it up with some beautiful local hikes and swimming.

 

We went on a few more overnight bike rides, riding in the early morning from our apartment to hop on the train with our bikes and backpacks.  One trip was with friends to Sursee, west of Lucerne, riding both around the hills and the Zugersee lake. 

Another trip from our apartment was around Lake Geneva - it looked like it's an easy, flat day ride, but after 112 miles in the heat, we were pretty tired chugging back up the hill to  Mont-Repos!

View of Lausanne from across the lake in Evian

 

Lac Léman in Geneva

We took another trip to Petite Cortaillod in the Neuchatel area, this time just the two of us. There we had two rides - one straight up out of town in 90+ degree heat (involving some bike carrying on an overgrown path obviously meant for mountain bikes or wild animals), and another to Bienne around the Lake Bielersee. 

Bielersee Lake

Riding through the vineyards along the Bielersee

Bielersee Lake

Petite Cortaillod pier

August 1 - National Swiss Day

You have to make a bike reservation on some of the regional trains, and we were so proud of ourselves for making the reservation on our phone and finding the bike spot on the way out.  On the way back we ended up on the wrong car, and had to make a dash for it back to the correct car, me flying along the station in my flip-flops, barely making it back on the train. 

 

Giving our necks and biking muscles a break, we’ve gone on some gorgeous hikes as well.  One of our favorites is to take the #9 bus from our apartment to the end of the line at Lutry/Corniche, get off, and start the nearby trail through the Lavaux vineyards.  When you hike you have more time to stop and take photos and appreciate the stunning views.  Our first hike happened to coincide with a vineyard spraying day, so we put on our Covid masks and zig-zagged along avoiding the low flying helicopters and the masked men on the ground with spraying canisters.  The rest of the hike was spectacular and we walked to the train station in Riez and waited on the beach by the lake for our train to take us back home.

Views from Lavaux

 

Lac Léman

Meeting Marie-Anne along the trail at Alan Chollet's wine stand

  

 Grandvaux

Another fun hike in Lausanne is to follow “les pas des renards” on the Le Chemin de la Vauchère trail, which starts high above Lausanne and follows a stream all the way down to Lac Léman.  You can download the trail, and also follow the signs and fox footprints on the sidewalks that mark the trail along the way

I made a list of 20 things to do in 2020, and I was humming along the beginning of the year, ahead of schedule with my list until COVID-19 came along and half of the things on my list became impossible due to the shutdowns in the SF Bay area.  But anticipating our stay in Switzerland, one thing on my list was to swim in Lac Léman (Lake Geneva).  So on one of our 90 degrees days I decided I had to give it a try – we walked down to the lake, and success… just a little cold at first but wonderful!  After that, I added swimming in Lake Neuchatel and Lake Bielersee to my list!

20 things to do in 2020 - one more check