Switzerland and getting ready for the Alps

Four days after our departure and we are already in Switzerland! Going through Basel we fill that the atmosphere is different. People are relaxed, having a drink, enjoying their company, and eating some finger food. It's Saturday evening and we feel it while biking along the Rhine river.

In Switzerland, we begun to realise what we were doing. We realised that we are maybe not enough prepared, that we have limits, that we need each other and sometimes outside help as well. We started to talk to people, who were coming to us or whom we were looking for:

Sunday, for sure the hardest day until now, is also the one where we had the greatest encounters. The day was rainy, cold and we had to bike a lot. Switzerland wakes us up with a warm 7,5CHF coffee!!! Deal with it! We forgot it quite fast while cycling on the hilly roads. Every moment can be ours and we enjoy each part of the trip. We improvise breaks for having lunch or just some fun.

 

The hilly road becomes more steep and rain also comes to provoke us. Through the Jura hills we push our bikes and put all our forces into it. Some nice lady gives us some band-aids and some hazelnut cake. Simple things can be seen as treasures when they arrive in the most needed moment. 

Later in the evening a wonderful mother warms us up with a tea and protects us for the rain for a while:

We continue that endless day until arriving to Judith and Thomas, our first Warmshowers experience. It's already night for long but we made it. We thought we didn't have any energy left until having seen the delicious home-made cheese fondue that they prepared for us. Miummyyyy!!!

They are a generous couple of cyclists in their fifties, biking during their holidays in Europe and Middle-East. Good luck to them and hope you others will have the chance to meet them :)

Switzerland is also full of lakes, of which we enjoyed the shores. We needed some rest after this rainy day and before climbing the Alps. The sun is back on our side and we love it. Sempach lake or Vierwaldstättersee we will miss you and maybe you will miss us!

Altdorf, Erstfeld, Wassen, Göschenen (a.k.a. Gotham), Andermatt are our next checkpoints now! Each one higher than the other, they will lead us to the Gotthard Pass and to warm and tasty Italy!

We bike along the Reuss river that refresh us in the morning and sings us before falling asleep. Surrounded by mountains, Ayana already found her favourite, the Bälmeten! Temperatures are getting down in the night but our skins burn during the day! We still find some time to make a tortilla or hang our hammock somewhere. After 3 days camping through the Alps we reached classy Andermatt. We arrived in the evening and hesitating to reward ourself with a hotel room or a nice restaurant and a powerful breakfast. For sure we choose the food!!! But incredible lucky us, while asking here and there for a camping spot in a garden we got invited by Iggi/URI and his family in their comfy studio by their beautiful house. This family born and raised in Andermatt really charged our batteries with their generosity and Swiss chocolate.

Röstis and beer were delicious! We are now ready for the final climb!

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