Lost in Lausanne: Hiking Across Switzerland

It’s been awhile since I wrote on this blog. I’m not sure why, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write. I’ll blame it on winter and Covid. As for what we’ve been doing since I last posted, in our free time we’ve been basically walking across Switzerland. And when we weren’t walking across Switzerland, we were walking around Switzerland.

We didn’t really plan to do this - it just happened one day that we were hiking along a SwissMobility* route called the Via Jacobi that goes through Lausanne. And when we got to the end of that day’s hike, we thought that it would be fun to see where the next hike went. Soon we were taking buses, then trains to get to the beginning of the next hike. Then we started doing 2-3 day hikes in a row until we finally admitted to ourselves that we wanted to do the entire hike from the French border to the German border of Switzerland (Geneva to Rorschach on Lake Constance). Ok, maybe it was my idea, but Doug didn't take much convincing.

Swiss Via Jacobi route - we took the southern route along Lake Lucerne

The route is called many names depending on where you are in Europe - Via Jacobi, Chemin de Saint Jacques, Jacobsweg, the Way of St. James and sometimes just The Way. It is part of the system of trails all through Europe that eventually connect to the Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Pilgrims have been following these routes since the 11th and 12th centuries. The trails in Switzerland tend to go through the countryside, forests, and pass by some of the oldest churches in the regions, from little chapels to ornate cathedrals. The route we are following has 20 stages ranging from 12-20 miles per day. As of this posting, we have 4 more days of hiking and we’ll have finished walking across Switzerland.

European Via Jacobi routes

But... because we can’t seem to stop walking, we’re already are looking at another hike across Switzerland (the Via Francigena, or the route to Rome)** which in Switzerland goes from the French border at the Jura mountains to the Italian border. No commitment yet, but I recognize the stirrings…

Meanwhile…I hope you enjoy some of the highlights of our hiking these past few months (in no particular order). To be continued!

* https://schweizmobil.cleverapps.io/en/hiking-in-switzerland/routes/route-04.html that

** https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland/routes/regional-routes/route-070.html