Western Switzerland

Two days in Geneva:

The hardest to miss landmark is the fountain of water in the middle of the lake:

I went to the UN and did the guided tour. I find it oddly fitting that they have a giant chair with one broken leg outside:

The older wing of the building, and one of the conference rooms

I made it to CERN which was a lot farther outside the main city than I thought, but I guess you have to book a tour ahead of time as they only do a few each day.

In one of the parks in Geneva they have a clock mostly made out of flowers, as well as a statue for the genevan people

In another park they have the wall of reformation, with lots of sculptures of famous reformers

On the way back I spent a good half hour watching a game of chess in the park

Random panorama of Lake Geneva, taken when for reason they had the fountain turned off

Geneva to Lausanne:

I sat here and ate lunch which consisted of bread, camembert, ham, and mustard I still have from Dijon

I made it to Lausanne to meet a host who showed me a bit around the city, including another church:

That church and many of the other famous buildings in the city are made of some type of sandstone, so they're pretty much constantly repairing them.

Lausanne, being built on a hill and spanning valleys also has many bridges like this:

The next day I was off to Montreux to see the Chateau de Chillon. On the way, there are tons of terrace farms. Everywhere else in the world, terraces are for rice. Here they're for grapes.

On the way back, before climbing up a rediculous hill I found Charlie Chaplin

And it's not often you come across the literal fork in the, um, lake?

I made it all the way to Bulle before continuing into the mountains and finding a place to camp, where the next morning brought the end of the nice weather, and everything has been fog or snow since.

Even with the fog it was still a good day. I hit my new highest altitude of about 4100 feet, and still managed 50 miles, to camp just near Spiez. Somewhere around Gstaad, the road I was riding on stopped being a Rue and started being a Strasse, and "La Poste" became "Die Post"

The following day, I was going to meet a host at the end of the day, but decided to head into the mountains south of Interlaken before that, in case the weather decided to improve. It didn't, and it was snowing all day. This was also the day I made my first major navigational blunder. I thought there was only one way to go into the mountains, but it turns out there were two. I made a wrong turn, but pressed on, up into the mountains thinking I was heading in the right direction and not wanting to give up before reaching the end of the valley. After arriving, it turns out I shouldn't have taken the left turn at Zweilütschinen towards Grindlewald, and instead I should've veered right towards Gimmelwald and Stechelberg. It seems so simple in hindsight. Not that it mattered since there was nothing to see anyway.

On the way down, since I was so close to Lauterbrunnen where I wanted to be, I decided to head back up there anyway. This sign marked what I came to see (fog on the lens)

Oh yeah, check out the awesome view. If you look closely, you can make out the cliff wall:

Today I stuck around Interlaken since the weather is supposed to improve tomorrow. Went to the tourist office and they told me, "Yeah there isn't a whole lot to do in Interlaken. It's mostly a starting point for other adventures in the mountains."

I did go to the caves they have on the north side of one of the lakes, which has a pretty cool entrance, even though they don't want you taking pictures inside:

Before heading to the cave I took this picture:

After returning ~3 hours later I took this picture:

Yup, the weather is definitely improving.

Tomorrow I will try to head into the mountains if the weather improves, otherwise I'll continue eastward.

Dijon to Geneva

So after arriving in Dijon I decided to stay a day and explore the city.

More churches. This is Dijon Cathedral:

Notre Dame cathedral

On the side of the cathedral is probably the most famous thing in Dijon, a small carved owl statue that's supposed to grant you a wish somehow. It took me forever to find this since I was expecting something slightly different.

All over town they have these historic and tourist markers that if you follow will take you to the major landmarks, kind of like the freedom trail.

The place de la liberation:

Next to the town hall is the Musée des Beaux-Arts, which was the one museum I wanted to see, but of course it was closed.

Next morning I left Dijon, and headed south straight into wine country. 

 This is probably more impressive in summer.

Also, grapes vines are funny looking

At the suggestion of my hosts in Arras I stopped by the Hospice de Beaune which was an old hospital built in the 1440's turned into a museum.

One of the renovations done was to separate these hospital beds from the chapel with a divider so the sick patients didn't have to watch the last rites and funeral services being performed.

Leaving Beune, I headed further south and when it got dark I knew I was going to be on a canal for the rest of the way into a major city, so I decided to try my first actual campsite in France which turned out to be nothing but the largest RVs I'd ever seen, so I setup my tent just out of the way, if not out of sight.

Waking up I had the usual rain and 30+ mph headwind I've come to expect when leaving a country. Barely able to keep the bike straight I would've stopped to camp sooner, except I knew I had a warm place to stay in Bourg-en-Bresse, so I made it there around 9pm and met some of the nicest hosts so far.

I stayed to explore the city in the morning. They have a famous monastery  but of course the chapel area was closed for renovations. That's what I get for touring in the off-season I guess.

They still had their museum open which had some interesting sculptures and artwork. This is St Nicholas on the right:

Who gave this kid a holy hand grenade of Antioch?

Also in Bourg, they have a lot of old building with wooden paneling

Leaving town, it was up, up, up into the Jura mountains, with some actual decent weather for a change. Most of it was struggling along at 4mph, or pushing up some of the steeper grades, but it was all worth it when at the end of the day I got to overlook my target of Nantua:

And then, I saw this sign:

One quick brake tightening later, and this happened:

weeeeeeeee

I set up my tent at a campground in Nantua that was closed for winter, but they were happy to take my 9 euros and let me camp anyway. It rained during the night, but for once it stopped before I had to leave my tent in the morning, and the ride into Geneva through more mountains was quite pleasant. I took smaller roads that mostly followed the A40.

I can see why they nicknamed it the avenue of the titans

Looking back at a train line across a river:

I'm even down to two layers in this picture!

I made it into Geneva no problem, where I am currently. I was riding around town for a bit exploring and getting slightly lost before I met my host here. I still had the full gear on my bike, and get plenty of interesting looks. I even noticed one guy taking my picture from a bridge I passed under. Time to get used to being a tourist attraction.

Tomorrow I leave for Lausanne, and then I will spend 8-9 days in Switzerland following the national cycle route through the country. More on Geneva later.