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Published: August 28th 2020
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First our apologies for the long silence. We are still on track going through the various things we want to do, but are getting a bit lazy writing.
So our story continues ....
After the wonderful and challenging mountain project in Zermatt, getting our feet out from the heavy hiking boots was indeed a nice feeling. It was time, after all our Alpine adventures, which happened in the German and Romansh language speaking areas of Switzerland, to introduce Nui to the French Swiss part, called La Romandie.We decided to do this with our bicycles; actually a combination of riding the bicycle and taking the train. Swiss trains are equipped to accommodate passengers who want to take their bicycles with them, a very cool combination, allowing to cover larger distances and skip not so interesting parts. The inconvenience travelling by bike is that one can take rather little spare things along. So Nui had agreed to pack only a small backpack, a challenge for any lady, let alone a Bangkok girl.
We arrived by train in Bienne the starting point of
our pedaling tour. The bilingual Biel (French/German) is the second largest city of the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Due to the fact that some world famous watch manufacturers like Rolex, Omega, Mido and Swatch are based here, Biel is counted among the most important watch towns. That was not always the case. Swiss watchmaking was brought to Switzerland by the Huguenots in the 16th Century. The Huguenots were French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism and at the time the undisputed masters in watch making. They had to flee religious prosecution in Catholic France and settled in Geneva and the Jura area, the West of the country.
Our ride followed a gentle hilly terrain along the lakes of Bienne and Murten to Murten a cute old medieval city with historic significance. Murten was first mentioned as a city in 1238. During most of the 13th century the city was mostly under Savoy control, a kingdom situated South of the Lake of Geneva. However the Savoy Royals held little interest for the town and Murten began to develop military and trade alliances with the free cities belonging to the young Swiss Federation, especially the
town of Fribourg and Berne. On 22 June 1476, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy- a rival kingdom to Savoy - laid siege to the Murten. In the battle of Morat, which followed, the town was saved by the Bernese army. The enemy's army was destroyed completely with some 10,000 Burgundians killed. Since then, Murten celebrates the victory every year on June 22. We continued to pedal our planned kilometres after Murten to reach the daily target the city of Yverdon-les-Bains on the lake of Neufchâtel. We reached it in the evening after almost 90km riding, at time climbing steep hills through lovely forest and vineyards, to the "delight" of Nui....... Nui was not too impressed by this effort we had to do and it required all Nenad’s motivational skills to get her on the bike for day two.
Yverdon's origins date back to Celtic and Roman times more than 2000 years ago. During the Roman age Thermal Springs were discovered and over the centuries developed into a significant economic factor for the city as spa and health destination for the rich blue blooded and merchants. Unfortunately after the 1960's this could not be maintained and the town slid
slowly into economic oblivion. Today Yverdon with its 30'000 inhabitants is one of the poorer cities in Switzerland. More than 30% of its inhabitants are migrants and it has a relatively high unemployment rate of over 8% (for Swiss standards high). However some of the old buildings still show the past splendor. Yverdon became also famous through teachings of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. He revolutionized education concepts in the 18th century, of which some concepts are sill of relevance today, especially in the "Children Villages of Pestalozzi".
We were approaching the heartland of Swiss white wine making in the canton of Vaud. However beautiful the scenery and gorgeous the weather, Nui’s smile was beginning to disappear as we again approached the 70 and 80 km mark for day two. Especially the last 5 km uphill to the romantic Chateaux Bossey, convinced her she has had it from these Nenad Benko bicycling ambitions. Nui’s smile was gone and Nenad had to seriously renegotiate the rest of the trip. After 7 years challenging Nui with diving, skiing, hiking, long distance running, golfing, yoga and other outdoors activities, this was the first time that Nui quit Nenad’s challenges. Not bad though!!! After successful
program re-planning, the splendid view from Chateau Bossey and the vineyards surrounding it appeased all souls.
Day three saw us visiting Geneva, Lausanne, Vevey and Montreux. Unfortunately the Jazz Festival in Montreux got cancelled, due to you know what. We still enjoyed taking the train and riding the bicycle (much much less though than Nenad ... well.....) in perfect weather along this most pleasant part of Switzerland, the shores of Lake of Geneva. A few points need special attention. Along the lake one can find the head offices of the UEFA (European Football Association) in Nyon, IOC (International Olympic Committee) in Lausanne and the second largest (after New York) UN (United Nations) establishment in Geneva. With the Lavaux, one can find one of the most prestigious wine growing regions in Switzerland. Its white wines are spectacular, especially tasty with the local fish (Egli or Felchen). This region was declared UNESCO heritage as a wine growing region in 2008. Wines like Dezaley, Saint-Saphorin, or Calamin have the highest reputation; a must for every wine lover. Vevey, known as the the town with the world head office of the food giant Nestle. Founded in 1866 by German immigrants it employs today
over 300'000 staff and records a turnover of over 100 billion USD. With brands like Nescafe, Nespresso, Perrier, Purina, Findus, San Pellegrino, Maggi, Moevenpick ice cream and... and... and, it dominates the shelves of our supermarkets. And last not least the city of Montreux, the epicenter of Swiss music festivals, The Jazz Festival of Montreux. Founded by Claude Nobs in 1967, it saw over the years music greats from Jazz, Rock and Pop culture performing, Miles Davis being probably the most shining figure of them all. Claude made it to personal Rock stardom when he helped Deep Purple move their equipment out of a burning building. An incident that was captured in the legendary song "Smoke on the Water". If you listen carefully Ian Gillan sings "... and funky Claude was running in and out...". Near Montreux lies the magnificent water castle Chateau Chillon. Chillon began as a Roman outpost, guarding the strategic road through the Alpine passes. Around the 15th century the House of Savoy has fortified it as part of its defenses North of the Lac Leman (Lake of Geneva). In 1536 the rich and aggressively expanding city state of Berne (at the time part of the Swiss
Federation, which was in the Middle Ages more a loose cooperation of city states than a country) besieged and captured Chateau Chillon, marking the end of Savoy presence North of the lake.
After four spectacular days where sport, wine, and many other interesting topics were revisited, Nui and Nenad packed their bicycles into the train put their masks on and rode back to Wil, their base camp. It needs to be mentioned that the trains were so terribly packed on certain routes with travelers, that it comes as no surprise that the Covid cases have been steadily increasing in Switzerland. All Swiss seem to make holidays in Switzerland and half of them with bicycles. A situation also the usually well organised Swiss Railways could not cope with.
Next will be be the trip through Austria to Croatia or Hrvatska, as it is called in Nenad's native language. Stay tuned !
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