After thoughs

What a great tour it was thanks to all the 14 participants. I can truly say, we never had a dull moment. On the first day CJ's accident, which proved to be of some considerable medical advantage for him. Then the many kilometres walking up the mountain passes by Mark, he was never the last one. My personal highlight was the Matterhorn on our rest day, we had to earn that, because it was a very hard ride up to Zermatt.
In Thonon-les-bains we nearly had to sleep outside on the park bench after Richard tried to have a punch up with the hotel manager, and this because David and Mark refused to share a bed.
The "schlaf im Stoh" was Hilary's highlight, and I think Hilary's only.
We all enjoyed the change of scenery and the very different accommodations. I have counted that we crossed the border 8 times in all, this is no surprise with Switzerland being such a small country.
Sue Robinson, who completed the entire tour by public transport, got quite busy at times, like when she had to go back to Nesslau to retrieve CJ's bike. She probably saw more sights than all of us and that without getting tired or having a sore bum.
Jörg, our neighbour in Nesslau, is still trying to come to terms with the weight and the size of the bike Fridays wheels.
Bruce has suggested that I would organise tours for a living. Thanks for the compliment, Bruce! But no, it would never be as good as this tour and there would be no spark and enjoyment from my side.

Finished TdS, ultra-successful

Liz's magnificent Tour de Suisse finished last night, with the final dinner at the Nesslau pizzaria, which opened specially for us.  I rode about 1210 km all told over the three weeks.  People left at different times this morning, led by Hilary who caught the 6:13 am train to get to Zurich to catch her flight towards Belfast, then CJ and Dee heading back to Oz.  Others caught the 9:13 train, Sue and Keith heading for Saint Moritz to begin a tour to Italy, Connie to Zurich, (Noel was seen cycling off to Zurich having a free day), and Sue and I took the train to head to Stein, close to Appenzel, where there is a very good museum of alpine culture etc.  The day before, we had ridden up some serious hills to Stein, but stopped and caught our breath by the church before heading on backroads to Appenzell, after trying to hear a phone call from Liz asking if we were going to arrive before 7pm, while the church bells were ringing for ages.   The GPS route took us along quiet back roads, so we had not see the main town or the museum, or the "cheese museum" as we headed for Appenzel.  We are in Zurich for a few days before returning, and my bike is enjoying being allowed into the hotel room (as the hotel does not have storage for bike).  The lift to our room was small, so the bike had to go in vertically, with no room for any luggage.

We had a welcome rest day today in Orbe.  People went to some spectacular Roman mosaics found at the nearby site of a very large Roman villa which was abandoned by the Romans in the third century and fell gradually into disrepair. Nothing remained above ground level, and the 100 m long extent of the buildings was discovered from air-photos of differences in crop health over buried walls and ditches.  It made me think of the forecasts of future resource shortage and climate-change problems which may well end the current halcyon times in the Western world.

Liz and Richard went to a cave, and Sue and I went to the magnificent castle at the town of Grandson by Lake Neuchatel.

I have, with some difficulty, captured the profiles of some of our rides after I learnt how to drive the GPS better   (these are my Garmin metres, so they are not totally accurate)
Domodossola to Simplon Dorf  1210 metres total ascent to 1,482m

Simplon Dorf to Brig had a 549 m total ascent, to 1,962 m then 1298 m total descent

 Brig to Zermatt  total ascent 1,002 m to 1,583m

Zermatt back to the Rhone valley in Visp was almost the reverse, so not included

Visp to Morgins was a quiet ride along the Rhone valley, mainly along the levee bank, then a seriously steep climb 945m to Morgins at 1,304m, below le pas Morgins at 1,369 m.

Yesterday's ride from Divonne-les-Bains to Orbe was through vineyards, but a bit deceptively undulating with a total ascent of 687 m to end up at much the same elevation as we started.

Tomorrow's ride to Biel is alongside lake Neuchatel, so should be much flatter, probably.

Geneva Convention

Rest day at Zermatt.  Sue and I went up on the cog railway to Gornergrat (3,000m), then walked down between stations.  Lots of flowers and a group of marmots

Some photos from our trip

zermatt