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Motorcycle road trip

Posted by CJ -

With summer coming to an end it dawned on me that if I was going to ride a motorcycle across parts of Europe I need to get after it or I would lose my opportunity to weather, and then have to wait till next spring. Geneva had a bank holiday recently on a Thursday, which made for a perfect opportunity to take a Friday off and go on 3 day ride and still have a weekend day to be at home.

 

The story starts on Wednesday night where Anton (my co-worker that is joining me on this trip) and I attended a going away party for our Graduate Interns who are wrapping up their program and moving on. We knew the party was going to be late so we planned for a 10am start. Well, after a 3am bar closing, we were underway just before 11am heading out of Switzerland into France. We rode through some ski villages and all back roads until we got to Chamonix (home of Mt. Blanc tallest mountain in Europe) where we decided to stop to have a beer and a rest. I can tell you the beer helped us both and tasted great!

We then rolled through the rest of the French Alps and back into Switzerland, into the town of Matingey, this was the first flat land we saw and it was a welcome change for about an hour or so as we headed through the valley onwards towards a high mountain pass that would take us up and over and into Italy. On this part of the ride we got above 10,000 feet and above all the trees, and it got cold! However, as we dropped back down on the other side, it warmed up a little. As I mentioned we left later then we planned, therefore we were running out of sunlight and had to “find” a campsite which we did off a country dirt road.

Oh yeah, the plan was to save money and spend nights camping. We had tents, sleeping bags, etc. We setup camp, made a fire, cooked dinner, and had just cracked open a bottle of Jameson when the owner of the land came by and gave us hell in Italian! I didn’t understand much, however I did understand the Italian word for Police, so we decided to pack up and move. The good news is we had seen another place just 10 minutes away on the ride up that looked good, and indeed, in the morning when we woke up, we realized how beautiful our campsite was. The next morning we packed up and got on the road for day two.

We rode through some small Italian towns and took a ferry across a large lake. Then we had breakfast and then cruised along the lake road, which was about 1.5 lanes wide and made it fun when oncoming traffic approached... The ride was nice and relaxing as we headed towards Lugano, the largest Italian speaking Swiss city. Upon entering Swtizerland we made a few laps through downtown Lugano before heading towards 3 Passes. We rode up the highway for about an hour or so when we stopped for lunch and prepared to go up and over the highest passes in Europe. The cool part is these passes are very old, like Roman old, and are rarely used today due to the modern tunnels under the mountains. This means the only people on the pass are there for fun. We saw tons of motorcycles and hardcore cyclists. The ride was a lot of fun as we were above the trees right next to glaciers, alpine lakes and crazy switchback roads.

I can say for certain that the foot pegs on my rental bike are worn down and all scraped up along with the soles of my boots. After the third pass we headed down to Interlaken where we had a dinner in the center of town and picked up some cold beer before heading out to “find” a campsite. We ended up in the mountains above the lake. This time no one bothered us and we had plenty of time to setup camp and make a fire before darkness came, which then gave us time to enjoy our beer and finish the Jameson.

Morning came early on day three, as we needed to get our ride in and I needed to turn in my rental bike before the shop closed for the weekend. We rode from the Swiss German side of the country through some nice country roads and into the Swiss French side. On one of the curvy passes we came around the corner and came to a quick and unexpected stop, and we just missed hitting a herd of cows heading down from the high meadows to the farm after their summer grazing. We had to come to a complete stop and let the cows all come past us before we could continue. Thankful we didn’t hit any of them as I would never hear the end of it from UJ!

After a nice ride along the lake we arrived in Geneva and my odometer told me our three day trip came in just over 1,000 kilometers and about 90 percent of that was done on country roads or high mountain passes.

A very cool ride through France, Italy, and Switzerland and something that I will always remember. It’s not often on a motorcycle you can go from sitting outside in the hot sun drinking a beer, riding along a crystal clear lake and then hours later being right next to a glacier and then enjoying a fire in the forest.

Chateau de Chillon

One Sunday back in June we took a quick train trip up the lake to the Montreux area (read about another trip we took to Montreux here) and visited a medieval castle/former fortress Chateau de Chillon. It is one of the most spectacular castles in Europe and it is featured in one of Rick Steves' European tour guides (see here). I am shamelessly copying a paragraph from Steves' guide to give you a brief description.

Château de Chillon (pron. shee-yon) was the Savoys' fortress and residence, with four big halls (a major status symbol) and impractically large lakeview windows (their powerful navy could defend against possible attack from the water). When the Bernese invaded in 1536, the castle was conquered in just two days, and the new governor made Château de Chillon his residence (and a Counter-Reformation prison). Inspired by the Revolution in Paris, the French-speaking people on Lake Geneva finally kicked out their German-speaking Bernese oppressors in 1798. The castle became — and remains — the property of the Canton of Vaud. It has been used as an armory, a warehouse, a prison, a hospital, and a tourist attraction. Rousseau's writings first drew attention to the castle, inspiring visits by Romantics such as Lord Byron and Victor Hugo, plus other notables including Dickens, Goethe, and Hemingway

Some more information...

Excavations carried out from the end of the 19th century, in particular by the archeologist Albert Naef (1862-1936), affirm that this site has been occupied since the Bronze Age.
In its current state, the Castle of Chillon is the result of several centuries of constant building, adaptations, renovations and restorations.
The rocky island on which the castle is built, was both a natural protection and a strategic location to control the passage between northern and southern Europe.

The history of the castle was influenced by three major periods:

The Savoy period (12th century to 1536)The oldest written document mentioning the castle dates from 1150; it says that the House of Savoy already controlled the route along the shores of Lake Geneva.

Explicit reference to the castle is first made in 1150, when it is said that the Counts of Savoy controlled it, having acquired the rights to it, or sharing them with the sires of Blonay. As a result, they also controlled the route along the shores of the lake. In this document, Chillon is referred to as a castrum: given the mediaeval meaning of the word, this proves that there was a settlement associated with it. During the 13th century, the Counts of Savoy conquered most of the territory of Vaud, divided as it was into a number of small seigneuries. This marked the beginning of Savoy domination over approximately two-thirds of the territory which makes up today’s French-speaking Switzerland.

The Bernese period (1536-1798)
The Swiss, more precisely the Bernese, conquered the Pays de Vaud and occupied Chillon in 1536. The castle retained it's role as a fortress, arsenal and prison for over 260 years.

The Vaudois period (1798 to present)
The Bernese left Chillon in 1798 at the time of the Vaudois Revolution. The castle became the property of the Canton of Vaud when it was founded in 1803. The restoration of the historical monument began at the end of the 19th Century and continues to this day.

It was a cloudy at times rainy day as you will see from the pictures but we had a lot of fun. We explored the castle for a few hours and afterwards we had a lovely lunch of fondue at a nearby restaurant. It was the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday.

This map with show you Chillon in relation to Geneva (which is in the left most tippy tip of the crescent shaped lake).

 View of the courtyard from the castle walls.

 I don't think this place was meant for tall people.

 Emergency exit medieval edition...

 Guess they used to roast oxen in these... Plus CHEVRON stripes from back in the day!

 Pretty furniture. I was tempted to take some home.

 Again - not a bed for tall people...

 Castle toilet...

Pretty views.

 Armory

It was a fun fun day!

Hiking in the Jura

Posted by CJ -

 

So a few days ago it was a nice Sunday in Geneva and what to do? Let’s go hiking!

 

Since the first time we flew into Geneva and every day from my office I look at the Jura Mountains. These are the mountains just across the border in France and are very pretty. They are covered in pine trees till they get too high, and then they are barren grass and cliffs.

 

It’s amazing we have been here 1.5 years and we have never been over to hike or ski on them. But that is because the Swiss Alps are on the other side and they are a wow factor as you have seen from other blog posts.

 

To put this in perspective the Jura highest point is 5,600 feet which would put it among the top 20 in terms of height in the NC mountains, still not as pretty as the Blue Ridge though.

 

After a quick 40 minute ride from our flat we arrived at the parking lot for the ski area and took the tram car to the top.

 

From there we set off on a hike across from one peak to the next, the fun part is that the ridgeline drops and then rise again, fun if you want a lot of down hill and then up hill, it’s like a roller coaster.

The view of Geneva and the Lake was just ok as there were some clouds in the way. However if you look closely you can see the famous water jet coming out of the lake. (it's that while spike where the lake juts into the land...)

The pictures don’t do this mountain justice it is much steeper than it looks, and the rock cliffs are very impressive.

 

After lunch at the highest peak we made our way back and decided to hike all the way back including down the ski slope.

It was a great afternoon and nice to have a mountain so close to go for a fun Sunday hike on.

Walking around Geneva - Stunts at Baby Beach

So in addition to Geneva Plage (beach) where I am a member, there is also an open public beach called the Baby Plage (baby beach) where a lot of families with babies and children come out on the weekend. I have not done it myself but we've walked by there often and recently this is what was going on there....
Yes crazy stunt bike jumps INTO the lake!! NUTZ!!!

Walking around Geneva - Big screen TV

This is how Europeans transport their massive tv's when there are no delivery trucks... haha... Just to be fair - when we bought our wardrobes at IKEA (6 foot tall) and had to transport them home in our temporary company car, we had to stick the boxes out the side window too as the back seat did not recline and we couldn't put them in the trunk. Too funny!