Cycling2ourwedding

Cycling2ourwedding The page was originally set up to share photos of our first major cycle tour from England to our wedding in Greece.

Since falling in love with this way of travelling, it is now used to document other tours and share bike touring stories.

Venice to Geneva, DAY 39 (21.8.24): Archamps - Geneva - Milan (Bus 1) - Nice (Bus 2) - Home, 19 km🕓 After going to bed a...
23/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 39 (21.8.24): Archamps - Geneva - Milan (Bus 1) - Nice (Bus 2) - Home, 19 km

🕓 After going to bed at midnight, we set off to cycle to the bus station in Geneva just after 4 am. 😴 The full moon was covered by clouds but luckily our bike lights were bright.

🚐 We were relieved to get to the bus station and sort our bags out before the bus arrived. The bikes went in vertical racks on the back of the bus which looked more secure than the horizontal ones on the bus from Nice to Milan.

🗻 I couldn't sleep on the bus but enjoyed watching the mountains grow lighter through the window. The nearer we got to Mont Blanc, the more snow appeared on them. They looked magnificent in the morning light with the full moon still out (I wasn't able to take any good photos unfortunately).

🇮🇹 At Milan bus station we ate croissants and bananas on a scrappy bit of grass covered in rubbish. Things were just as disorganised as when we changed buses in Milan at the beginning of the trip with no information about which stops buses arrive at. Eventually I spotted a bus with "Marseille" on the front and shouted at Matt to come because of course he'd decided to go buy coffee just at that moment. 😅

🇮🇹 - 🇫🇷 After another five hours of twisty roads and tunnels, we were whizzing along the Italian Riviera with the Alps behind us and a familiar coastline in front. At the Italian-French border, two police officers got on the bus and checked all our IDs. A Russian lady in the seat adjacent put her seatbelt on in a panic as if she thought she was going to be punished for not wearing it. Perhaps she would be in Russia but I had a feeling the southern French gendarmarie wouldn't be too fussed about that.

🚲 We arrived in Nice just after 5 pm and pedalled home. We were exhausted - emotionally and physically - but grateful: we'd cycled from Venice to Geneva, carrying all our own camping gear and food, and had returned home safely. 🙏🏻 Everything was still to process - the loss of Matt's gran and all we'd seen and experienced over 5 1/2 weeks - but in that moment, all we wanted was a cup of tea and our bed. 💤

Venice to Geneva, DAY 38 (20.8.24): Exploring Geneva, 22 km🚲 Pedalled from Archamps into Geneva to check where our Flix ...
22/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 38 (20.8.24): Exploring Geneva, 22 km

🚲 Pedalled from Archamps into Geneva to check where our Flix bus leaves tomorrow and to see what we could of the city in four hours.

🥾🥾 Roads were busy with traffic lights every few metres so we locked up the bikes in the old quarter and wandered around on foot. The historic centre of Geneva didn't look that old - perhaps because some of the buildings' original doors and signs are in the "Maison Tavel" museum. This restored house of the Maison family (built in the 12th century) is one of the city's free museums and it was pretty good. On the top floor a large 3D model of Geneva in 1850 showed the moats and walls that once defended the city (the fortifications were demolished that year). Paintings and a video also showed how the city has changed over the centuries to become the sprawling international city that it is today.

⛪ Cathedral Saint-Pierre - my favourite thing was the wood carvings on the 15th century choir seats (each seat had a different carving on it).

💦 Bought our last picnic lunch from Denner and ate it on the grass near to the Jet d'Eau (a spurt of water that shoots 140 m into the air), then pedalled back through the busy streets and up the long hill to Archamps.

❤️ Had a lovely last evening with our friends Matt & Clémence. Over a BBQ on their terrace, Canadian Matt told us about his first day of induction at his new school (he said people talked about CERN and hydrons quite a bit - not the usual primary school banter 🤣). At around 11 pm, we decided we should really go to bed - we had to be up at 3:30 am to pedal back into Geneva to catch our 5:30 am bus to Milan and Canadian Matt had to be up early for his second day of induction.

🌕 Nice to see a bright full moon as we closed the curtains for bed - perhaps cycling into Geneva at 4 am wasn't going to be so dark.


Venice to Geneva, DAY 37 (19.8.24): Final day of cycling towards Geneva (& a little beyond) Marin - Yvoire - Geneva - Ar...
20/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 37 (19.8.24): Final day of cycling towards Geneva (& a little beyond) Marin - Yvoire - Geneva - Archamps, 65 km

🏡 Our Warm Showers hosts, Sylvie and Serge, were well into their game of backgammon when we joined them in the kitchen this morning. Apparently they play each other every morning. 😊

❤️ Sylvie served us huge bowls of coffee and told us to help ourselves to toast, homemade plum jam, and honey. After breakfast Serge got out a map and gave us his tips on getting to Geneva - basically avoid the main road by sticking to cycle paths along the coast where possible.

👀 En route we checked out the medieval town of Yvoire. It was pretty but full of tourists and tourists shops. We've been too spoilt with quiet medieval villages to appreciate it.

🚲 The rest of the journey was a little bland to be honest. We had glimpses of Lake Geneva (which looked more like a choppy sea than a lake today), little ports, fields and vineyards but mainly had to keep our eyes on the busy paths and roads.

⛲ Cycled into Geneva along a sprawling lakeside, then made our way through traffic-filled streets to the village of Archamps to stay with friends who've just moved here. Lovely evening learning about their new life and celebrating us having made it to Geneva. 😊 One final day to go, then, all being well, it's a couple of FlixBuses back to Nice for us!

Venice to Geneva, DAY 36: Villeneuve to Marin, 33 km🌧️ Rain splattered down on our attic room windows this morning. We f...
20/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 36: Villeneuve to Marin, 33 km

🌧️ Rain splattered down on our attic room windows this morning. We felt so fortunate to be in David and Gwen's lovely apartment instead of in a tent.

🚲 An easy ride around Lac Léman/Lake Geneva (National Cycle Route 1). Only difficulty was trying to pedal through a huge puddle that was deeper than I'd thought. We ended up having to abort the attempt and walked the bikes through a muddy wood instead.

🇨🇭 🇫🇷 The border between Switzerland and France runs through the middle of Lake Geneva/Lac Léman. We started the day in Switzerland on the east coast of the lake and rode along its southern edge into France. Despite seeing a sign for Customs, we somehow missed the official border (perhaps 'cos it's in the lake 🤣) and took a picture of French and Swiss flags on a random building instead.

🏡 ❤️ Finished with an uphill pedal to our last Warm Showers of the trip through drizzly rain. But wow, what a welcome we had by Sylvie and Serge.The evening went like this:
- ginger lemon tea & biscuits on arrival
- (after hot showers) beer, snacks and a game of Las Vegas (another new game for us 😊)
- vegetable ragu (most vegetables grown in their garden) and a chicken dish, accompanied by several glasses of red wine
- a variety of cheeses ("the best in France," Serge said - they're from his region 🤣)
- pear compote (pears from their garden too)
- coffee and chocolates

On top of this Sylvie & Serge were great to talk to. They love the outdoors and shared tips on cycling/hiking all over France and stories about trips to Japan (where their son had worked for several years). How fortunate we are to have had this experience 🙏.
Extra bonus: getting to practise French all evening 🇫🇷😊

Venice to Geneva, DAY 35: Châtel-Saint-Denis to Villeneuve, 23 km🏕️ Tried to have a sleep-in today but the cows weren't ...
19/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 35: Châtel-Saint-Denis to Villeneuve, 23 km

🏕️ Tried to have a sleep-in today but the cows weren't having it.😅

Other morning surprises:
- the spider and caterpillar inside our tent
- the wetness of our floor & mattresses - somehow water had gotten in between the ground sheet and tent 🤔
- a ripped milk carton 🙄
After "breakfast in bed", we slowly sorted things out and got ourselves ready, by which time we felt hungry again so decided to have lunch and wait for the rain to stop before leaving. 🤣

🚲 An easy day of cycling - nearly all downhill to Lake Geneva. We passed through Montreux - which felt rich, busy, and full of international people taking selfies by Lac Léman - then on to Villeneuve where our friends live. Villeneuve was buzzing because of an acrobatic paragliding festival which was amazing - paragliders doing all kinds of stunts and landing on boats on the water. 🪂

❤️ Beautiful evening with David and Gwen who spoilt us with an aperitvo on their terrace and pizza in an Italian restaurant down the road. As we ate, paragliders were still falling through the sky - but now they were illuminated so they stood out against the night sky. It was incredible. A downpour had us running back to David & Gwen's apartment where we finished the evening with coffee and a game of Skyjo. 😊

🇨🇭

Venice to Geneva, DAY 34: Matran to Châtel-Saint-Denis, 55 km🏕️ We freaked out last night when a light shone onto the ca...
19/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 34: Matran to Châtel-Saint-Denis, 55 km

🏕️ We freaked out last night when a light shone onto the canvas of our tent. The light came and went making shadows on the thin material and we sat holding our breaths. The strange thing was we couldn't hear anything - no twigs snapping, no footsteps - it came several times. In the end we put our eye masks on and lay back down but we both had a restless night wondering if anyone else was in the woods.

🔧First job of the day was to find a bike shop. A guy in Velomania agreed Konie's brake pads might need changing. He sold us some but he didn't have time to fit them. We searched and called other shops and eventually found someone about 30 km away who said he could do it. Yay!

🚲 After some busy main roads, we rejoined Route 4 (Alpine Panorama Route) and things got pretty and quiet again. We even managed to find a bench in the shade for lunch and had a view of Lac de la Gruyère - yes, Gruyère as in the cheese. This region is where they make it. Cows are black and white like in England and the farmland rolls over green hills. 😊🧀

🔧 Got to the bike shop in Vaudens at 3 pm. The mechanic said the disc brakes were still fine - the brakes just needed realigning which he did for us and didn't charge anything. ❤️🙏🏻 We felt so relieved - especially Matt who pedalled at top speed all afternoon after that.

🚲 🏕️ Route 9 (Lakes Route) took us through more quiet farmland with views of the Alps' foothills. After sweeping through Châtel-Saint-Denis, a steep hill finally brought us to a sweet campsite with pitches separated by trees and bushes. Just about managed to put up our tent before a storm broke out, then we swam in the pool in the rain. 🏊🏼‍♀️💦🌧️

🍜 For dinner we shared an outside table under a small canopy with a couple from Bordeaux, all trying our best not to get wet as the rain swept in from the sides. We chatted about our respective holidays, Brexit and the recent French elections.

💶 Campsite: Camping Le Bivouac: 30 CHF

Venice to Geneva, DAY 33 (15.8.24): Bern to Matran, 49 km🏕️ Woke to find loads of ants had helped themselves to our dat...
17/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 33 (15.8.24): Bern to Matran, 49 km

🏕️ Woke to find loads of ants had helped themselves to our dates this morning. The packet wasn't open in our food bag but there was a tiny hole in the plastic so they'd cheekily found a way in. Spent the morning de-anting our stuff and drying out our tent so didn't leave Bern till about midday.

🚲 Mostly rolling farmland today. A few gravel paths through forests. All was going well till we got to the outskirts of Fribourg and Matt started to hear a grating sound on Konie. We Googled it and feared it may be the brake pads. After my accident two years ago, we didn't want to risk anything so headed into Fribourg with the ambutious hope of finding a bike shop open on a bank holiday 🤔. We didn't find one but did manage to see the start of a Latino festival before heading out of town to wild camp near a Decathlon southwest of Fribourg. Being in quite an urban place, we felt nervous. Would the woods we'd marked on the map have any clear space for a tent? Would we be hidden enough from evening dog walkers?

After pushing the bikes over tree routes and through bushes, we found some space away from a path and fought to put up our tent as dozens of mosquitos attacked. Sweating and flustered, we dived in and zipped up our doors as quickly as possible - not wanting to bother with even eating any dinner.

Some things we noticed today:
- separate traffic lights for bikes (very nice to have a green light when the one for cars is on red)
- the language around us has changed from Swiss German to French
- people like to decorate their gardens with baubles in this area (we've seen this before in Germany and Luxembourg)

Cycle routes: 74, 299, & 4

Venice to Geneva, DAY 32 (14.8.24): Sightseeing in Bern👍🏼 So impressed with the Swiss capital! (apart from the bear pit🤔...
17/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 32 (14.8.24): Sightseeing in Bern

👍🏼 So impressed with the Swiss capital! (apart from the bear pit🤔).

🏊🏼‍♀️ The Marzili swimming area was incredible - huge lawns, a diving pool, three other pools, showers, deck chairs, snack bars, access points for getting into and out of the Aare for river drifting, showers etc. ... And all free!

👀 Other sights:
- the beautiful streets in the Old Town (UNESCO). Many streets were lined with arcades and several buildings had huge cellar doors to steep staircases.
- the cathedral (although they didn't let us up the bell tower when we arrived at 16:31 - last entry was at 16:30.)
- views of the Aare from various bridges
- the clock tower (Zytglogge)
- Bundeshaus (federal government office)
- Rathaus (city hall)

🏊🏼‍♀️ In the evening we tried river drifting again and this time managed a 2 km drift down the Aare. It was crazy how fast we went, reaching the first bridge (1 km) after only a minute or two. Matt seemed more relaxed tonight but I got nervous in a few places - the currents were pretty strong and sometimes it felt like little whirlpools surrounded me. I was also thinking a lot about how difficult getting out could be & wondered if I had the strength to hang onto the banister. Still, what an experience!

🔝 Top marks, Bern! 🌟

(🏕️ In campsite news, woke to huge muddy puddles around our tent and my shoes - left under the side flaps - full of water. Then we had breakfast standing up as dozens of wasps swarmed the breakfast tables. Ahh, camp life!)

Venice to Geneva, DAY 31 (13.8.24): Thun to Bern😔 After yesterday's news, we felt a little lost on this morning. We need...
12/12/2024

Venice to Geneva, DAY 31 (13.8.24): Thun to Bern

😔 After yesterday's news, we felt a little lost on this morning. We needed to finish the trip and get back to Nice so we could arrange going home for Matt's gran's funeral. It felt suddenly wrong to be on holiday at such a time.

🕊️ We found a quiet spot near the church above Thun for Matt to call home. Then we meandered towards Bern on Cycle Route 8 which passed by industry and through farmland before bringing us out beside the peaceful river Aare. One good thing about continuing for Matt was that cycling gaves him time he might not otherwise have had to think and grieve. And it also gave us time to talk and share memories of his gran as we cycled along together.

As for the sights... Thun was yet another GORGEOUS Swiss town and one we'd never heard of. But an even bigger surprise was seeing hundreds of people drifting down the Aare when we reached our campsite in Bern. The water was flowing fast and we couldn't believe people were allowed to swim in it. Even though it looked a bit scary, we didn't want to miss out on THE thing to do on a hot summer's day in the Swiss capital, so after checking out where the exit steps were, we also jumped in and drifted for 2 km (!) downstream. It was a beautiful and exhilarating end to the day. Let go, the riverside trees seemed to whisper. Try to just go with the flow.

💶 Camping Eichholz: 41 CHF, river drifting: free!

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