Lake Geneva, Avanches and Bern

This weekend we decided we’d let the snow melt a little more in the mountains and take a break from hiking – but not a break from recreation.

Bryan wanted to go for a bike ride. We read that if we had a security deposit and a passport, we could get free bikes for the day in Lausanne. Well, we could manage both of those – there, we had our regional destination. I also saw some great pictures of a chateau on the lake – there, we had our specific goal. When we inquired about some hostels in the Lake Geneva area, we were surprised to find there was no room in the inns (hostels, at least). But we were stubbornly intent on going out West. Plan B was to go to Lausanne early on Saturday, go for our little bike tour, and return part of the way Saturday night. Finally, we found a hostel in Avenches, but we had to be there by 10pm.

Because of our arrival deadline, we woke up before the early-morning Swiss sun could rise and we set off for Lausanne. We arrived and after a little difficulty, found the bike “rental” location. My heart sunk a little bit when I found out the bikes were cruiser touring bikes, not road bikes or mountain bikes. Later we found that the touring bikes made our necks hurt since everyone passed us so quickly on their road or mountain bikes.

Not long before we got our bikes we found out that the Chateau de Chillion was about 30 km (18 miles) from Lausanne – not the 15-20 km we were thinking. But since we arrived early, and despite our bikes, we thought we could go round-trip and still make the last train that would get us to Avenches. The ride was beautiful. We took a road with a steep hill on the left and the shoreline on the right. The steep hills were covered with grape vines from a number of vineyards. Stunning.

We arrived at the Chateau and took a tour. Then chateau was made famous by a Lord Byron poem set there about how Bonivard was chained to a column in the prison for five years. It was similar to other castles I’ve seen, but it was still interesting.

By the time we returned to Lausanne we were tired – at least I was – Bryan seemed a bit fresher. I was wondering if I hit my 36-mile-wall and Bryan’s was coming at 38 miles or something. I got off my bike and tried to spin the tires to see how they’d work – I thought maybe the brakes were rubbing or something. When I lifted each wheel off the ground and spun it, I could barely get them to spin two rotations with a little push. Bryan’s was working better. At that point, I was very glad I hadn’t tried that before. I’m not sure I would have been willing to ride so far with a bike about as efficient as my old Huffy. We found that we stopped just a little way from the Olympic Museum. We viewed some art in the courtyard of the Olympic Museum and saw the Olympic flame. We then returned the bikes and made it Avenges in time for the 10pm check-in.

Aventicum was once the capital of the Roman province of Helvitica. What was left for us to see in Avenches was a Coliseum-style amphitheater (except without the outer wall) and a few Roman ruins. Early Sunday morning we walked in the footsteps of past Centurions and visited the remains of a theater and a column from an ancient temple. We then both enjoyed our short time in the Roman museum and continued on to Bern.

Bern was crazy when we arrived. There was the Schweizer Fraulaufen, which is an event where every Swiss woman who ever lived ran some course. Coincidentally, every kid was spinning a ratchety, annoying noise-makers provided by Coop. (Bryan and I have since organized a boycott.) We tried our best to avoid the race course and continued through the Swiss capital. The highlights of Bern were the eleven old fountains, the flag-lined streets (I love flags), the clock tower and the bear pits (even though in the five minutes we spent there we took disproportionaly more pictures than in the rest of the city).

As usual, the highlight of the blog is probably the pictures – there are two albums this week, one for the Geneva countryside and one of Avenches (not many) and Bern. We hope you’re enjoying the backseat trip so far – no we’re not there yet. Please let us know if it’s too hot back there, you think we’re taking the corners too fast or you want to listen to a different radio station.