Another dry and warm day. By close of business, when we arrived at our hotel in Basel/Weil am Rhein, it would have touched 34 degrees.
The first part of the journey was fabulaous once again. The Swiss mountain scenery has jumped to first place on the tour for Grizzly. It is really nice, when the sun is out. Rainy or snowy, I'm not so sure. Within half an hour of leaving the hotel, we had passed into and out again, of Liechtenstein. We were in it for just 4.5 miles! As I said, blink and you'll miss it.
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| The Liechtenstein Border post, as was |
We made a coffee stop but surprisingly our coffahaolic didn't have one. I topped up on water and we set of once more. Satnavs were playing up. For some reason they didn't know we were in the petrol station, so as soon as we turned out, we were told to do a U-turn. OK but I got out into the traffice a bit before Grizzly, turned left to u-turn, at which point he sailed passed. We both removed the next waypoint. I was then back on the original track, Grizzly on a new one, following Garmin. Next stop Lucerne.
I arrived, to see Grizzly already there, again! He'd only just arrived, so not a lot in the two routes. It sounds like his slight detour took a bit off my route but for the main we followed the same roads.
Lucerne was baking hot, 31 degrees, so our first mission was to find McDs for coffee/cold drink and aircon. Suitably refreshed and cooled down, we ventured out to do a bit of sightseeing, which basically meant the two 14th century wooden bridges, across the River Reuss, flowing out of Lake Lucerne. Across one, down the bank to the other, across that and back up the other bank. Then back to the bikes. Sounds really quick when you read it but with searing heat, walking about in bike gear, it was energy sapping and took a fair while.
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| The Chapel Bridge |
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| Chapel Bridge |
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| Interesting artwork on a building |
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| Jesuitenkirche |
Back on the road, we were enjoying ourselves until the inevitable happened and we got separated again. This time though, Garmin didn't take Grizzly another way AND I stopped before my next turn to see if he would appear. Luckily he did, so we were together again.
Our third stop was for fuel in Basel, then our fourth, just a mile or so away at the three country point. This is where, somewhere in the middle of the River Rhine, the borders of France, Germany and Switzerland meet. They have a big silver monument to mark the fact, not in the river, obviously!
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| Dreiländereck |
At this point, we were in Switzerland. When we left to go to our hotel a couple of miles away, we crossed into Germany. That's where we are spending the night. Almost immediately tomorrow, we will cross into France.
Today we have crossed entirely, though two countries, the last 2 countries of the tour, 14 in all, for me in any case.
There's not much around the hotel, apart from Aldi and Lidl, so there was no option but to eat in the hotel. They do a very nice XXL schnitzel though and at a good price, so that wasn't a hardship. One thing to mention, the hotel has a lot of art work on the walls, including in the rooms. We have an African football player portrait and the young lady below! 😮
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| Schneewittchen 2 |
Since we got to the hotel, there have been two storms and heavy rain. Grizzly assures me though, that tomorrow will be dry again. He's even gone so far as to say I shan't need waterproofs before I get home. We shall see. He has form for his predictions. 😉
Tomorrow's destination is Strasbourg, France, where we will spend 2 nights.
We'll catch up then.
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