We cycle to Yverdon Lesbians

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Writing this from a haze of sleep. Our weekend was terrific...on Saturday we cycled to the airport, then took the train to Lausanne and cycled 70 km in delightful weather to Yverdon Les Bains (not really lesbians, but that's what we call it :-)) It was a lovely ride, starting along Lake Geneva, up and down hills and dales, through fields of barley and sunflowers, past train stations and factories, detouring for a run on a BMX track under a freeway, then racing along some lovely single-trail in the forest, , ending up at the lovely castle town of Yverdon Lesbians.

The entire town was flat except for one hill, and our hotel was at the top of it, which was bad news and nearly killed me. But it was glorious and sunny and we were SOOO happy to get there :-)

Our room was $130 and the worst so far: 70s decor, mouldy shower-head, carpet underlay instead of carpet, terrible bed linen, no TV remote, no little bottle of shampoo or cake of soap, bread-and-jam breakfast...but...the people were wonderful and so so friendly :-) :-) They were very happy to chat to us in broken French and body language, and we understood enough to order wood-fired pizzas and have a very cheery night.

Unfortunately, adding to the title of Worst Hotel was our first mosquito attack, which began around 10PM with an attack on Doug that I slept through. When they woke me at midnight I ripped down to the hotel's restaurant to find some mozzie stuff. Luckily they were still open. I took the French dictionary in case body language wouldn't cut it. The chap was most bewildered by my sudden appearance and didn't get my poorly pronounced "moustique". To make it easier, I showed him the book. He was even more confused when he read, at the top of the page, just before "moustique", that my discomfort was caused by a "mosquee", or mosque. He was much happier when he realised the truth. We got the mozzie killer and slept soundly ever after.

The next day we explored the region, cycling along the lake to visit another castle at Grandson, this one complete with horrid trapdoor dungeons and torture rooms with shackles still in place, as well as a random car museum featuring headless models dressed in old clothes. Freaky because we were the only people in the whole castle and we'd just watched a video about how many people had been massacred in and around its walls. I was very pleased to escape into the sunshine again! We also visited an ancient menhir circle that turned out to be in the middle of a triathlon route; we couldn't stay long because the runners were coming up quick behind us.

Our new bikes performed extremely well...plus new front pannier, new gloves and shorts for Dougie, new bike computer for me...(already with 90km on it!) so we're set for more adventures in a similar vein! This trip was a portion of National Route 5 and was well sign-posted all the way...(visitors must feel free to borrow bikes and explore!) After Sunday lunch we took the train back to L' Aeroport de Geneve, covering the Yverdon to Lausanne section in about an hour instead of five :-)

Dougie then cooked fabulous risotto while I sent my last ever SPO assignment, and we were both in bed with a book by 7.30. :-) What a wild lifestyle we lead!

PS: We forgot the camera, so no fab pictures of sunflower fields or torture apparatus. Maybe next time!

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