I left Interlaken this morning and decided that I wasn’t going to be a hero and cycle over the challenging mountain pass with all my luggage in the 33 degree heat. I’d have been pushing the proverbial uphill to cycle 148km in one day, through the Swiss Alps. My longest day so far has been 140km and I recall just too well how shattered I was after doing that, and there were no mountain passes to tackle then either. So I opted to alter my schedule a bit and headed for the Swiss capital of Bern, which is a little further to the north than I wanted to go, but it was a lovely and flat ride, and means I can get to Montreux tomorrow and avoid the mountains in the middle. Anyway, I’m glad I did, because Bern has turned out to be pretty awesome!
Basically, because I was able to fit both Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the same day yesterday, I could leave Interlaken a day earlier than planned, which mean I could go via Bern, and not have to slug a huge distance through the mountains. I’m positive I’ve made a great decision. The first half of the cycling today took me right along the lakeside of the Thunersee, through Speiz, Thun and then through some amazing farmland, countryside and then through a bit of bushland that genuinely reminded me of the Royal National Park trails back home.
The ride was dead easy and thoroughly enjoyable. On the way out of Interlaken, I cycled along another amazing stretch of the lake, the dedicated, car-free cycleway literally constructed on the shores of the Thunsee. When I reached the end of the lake, I then pretty much followed the Aare river most of the way, which was dazzlingly beautiful, the sky-blue water (the run-off from the Interlaken lakes and the glacial waters) flowing fast. The whole way I just wanted to stop and jump in. When I went through Thun, that’s exactly what the locals were doing. They would head towards the river, dump their sandals and shorts by a ladder, then run up to the far end of town and jump off a bridge. The fast flowing river Aare, was basically the drain of the glacial lakes near Interlaken, would carry them downstream right through the heart of town and within minutes they were back at the starting point where their towels and clothes awaited them. It looked like seriously awesome fun, and I decided that swimming in the river was something I was going to try before I left Switzerland. I was very tempted to join them but opted to crack on. Can I just say though, that had I known how beautiful Thun was as a city, I would have probably opted to spend a night there also. That place is on the ‘to do again another time’ list.
The cycle route to Bern was clearly signposted at every turn. It was impossible to get lost, though I did, twice. . Had I not had my bike, I could just as easily have arrived at Bern by jumping in the Aare river at Thun, and floating all the way. Locals confirmed my suspicions that you literally CAN jump in the river, and get out at Bern, some 45km down the road. And the water is just fabulously clear and clean, the stones on the river bed colouring the water a bright blue that reminded you of a swimming pool at any decent tropical resort. I was two kilometres out of town when the cycle path merged with a footpath that wound along the riverbank. Literally thousands of people were walking up the path, and I found it difficult to even ride past them there were so many. A little further along I realised what was happening, when I came across one of the largest public pools and parks that I’ve ever seen. There were thousands more sunbaking on the lawns or in chairs and on towels, hundreds of lockers for hire, changing facilities, kiosks and a couple of swimming pools. Best of all, you could just walk in and it was all free, unless you wanted to hire a locker. The people walking up the river from the park were doing the local version of the river swimming, and this time the temptation was too much; I found a dunny, threw on the Cronulla speedos and joined the throng heading upstream.
Along the way, I got talking with a local chap named Peter. I didn’t know what he wanted at first when he came up to me, but soon discovered he spoke pretty good English. (I found out the other day that Switzerland actually has four (yes FOUR) official languages; German, French, Italian, and Romansh.) Turned out that Peter loved jumping in the river as much as the next guy, but his wife wouldn’t let him swim alone just in-case something happened to him – they no longer have lifeguards watching the river. Peter’s wife couldn’t swim due to some medical conditions, so basically he needed somebody to keep an eye out on him. “No worries Pete mate, you’ve picked the right person. I’m actually a lifesaver on the beach back home!” I didn’t let on that I thought he might be a bit under the thumb (I know you’re reading this too Pete 😉 but anyway we kept chatting as we walked up, and I was telling him about my bicycle adventure and so forth, when I noticed another bloke who stood out to me. He was wearing Bondi Icebergs swimmers! I asked if he was Aussie, but no, turned out he was a local from Switzerland, but he had lived in Sydney for a while and he worked as a cook in the Icebergs restaurant. This was some 6-7 years ago, so he didn’t recognise me from working at the SLSA head office, but none-the-less, it does go to show you what a small world we live in, that you can bump into someone like that on the other side of the world.
About 1km up, there was a mini weather station where you can check the outside temperature and also the water temperature. I already knew that the water was barely 2 degrees when it came running off the glaciers just 80km to the south, but by the time it had reached Bern, the water temp had risen to a warm 22.5 degrees, probably the warmest it ever gets normally. I saw people jumping off a bridge into the river, but Peter said “well, we could go in here, but I would like to go further up, and there is a campsite near the river where you can climb in there and get a longer ride in the water.” And so that’s what we did, and it was just as much fun as it looked. Being about 35 outside, the water was startlingly cold at first, but you quickly got used to it. We jumped in, and the water took us all the way back to the public pool area. The stream was flowing so fast, we travelled the whole distance in a matter of minutes, and I enjoyed every second of it! There were hundreds of people in the river at any one time, and hundreds more walking up the path to jump in. Some people carried inflatable boats, lilos, and a few clever people had walked up with their clothes, put them in garbage bags, and held onto them whilst they floated downstream together, with dry clothes at the end. People were swimming, floating, socialising and even having a beer as they floated downstream, it was an unreal spectacle.
Anyway, we are towelling off in the park, Peter’s called up his wife, and the next thing you know, they have invited the crazy Australian cyclist back to their house to stay the night. I took up the offer, even though I was planning on kicking on a bit further to Fribourg, a bit closer to Montreux, but on the bright side, I was still going to get to Montreux by mid-afternoon anyway, and I could now stay in Bern and check out the sights.
There was a slight hitch however… returning to my bike, I found the bloody thing had been chained up for a second time. Grrr! Indeed I had seen the sign saying don’t bring bikes into the park, but loaded with all my luggage, I was absolutely not leaving it on the street outside. I’d only left it for literally about 25 minutes, and with Peter’s help in translating, we found the lifeguard who had immobilised it whilst we were enjoying the river. “They may want money from you to release it” but all worked out OK, when Pete explained that I was a traveller going to Cairo, and the lifeguard let me off with just a smile and no fee or fine. Phew!
So with a free afternoon, I headed into the centre of Bern, and it was absolutely delightful. Again, one of those cities that manages to impress outright, and not just feel like another bloody city that looks the same as the others. It was a charming capital city, the river surrounding it on two sides, and the old town perched up high on a plateau. Two enormously high bridges give access. The buildings were grand, the traffic light (mainly pedestrians and trams) and the atmosphere was jovial as I cycled around. I seemed to cross paths with a group of Spanish students who were in a travelling band, like buskers, and they kept popping up outside restaurants to put on an impromptu concert and raise a few Swiss Francs to help pay the way. They were on the way around Europe doing this in many cities, each one had a cloak with dozens of patches sewn on it, and they’d been on the road so far for 40 days at least apparently.
In the main square there was a large chess board with giant chess pieces, and a full on game going on, in what might have been a friendly competition. . There were a few nice clock towers, and one water fountain in particular which was a bit interesting. It was adorned with a statue of an ogre what was eating little children. Quite literally it was biting their heads off. I’m not sure who created it or why, but it was certainly a bit different to all the statues of religious or mythological beings that you saw everywhere else. Last but not least, I couldn’t help but notice all the young people with dreadlocks and stud piercings through their lower lips, as if it was some kind of local custom (or trend they were going through, like a yo-yo fad).
I rocked up to Peter’s house and met his wife Edith. They were a lovely older couple, and I only found them by asking a few locals which house was theirs. They confused me with somebody “looking for the festival” and then I realised that I’d seen plenty of posters and signs about some music festival on this weekend in Bern. Cycling into Bern I even recalled seeing a car park with a shuttle bus running to the festival, whatever it was, I hadn’t paid much attention to it until now.
Then I recalled that as I was walking my bike up the steep hill, I noticed a campsite and a bunch of shuttle buses and loads of other people heading in the same direction as me. Further up the hill, they were holding a 4-day music festival with a variety of rock and pop acts. I made a note to check it out a bit later.
I’m sitting in my bedroom and I can hear the music, it’s so loud. So I asked Peter what the festival was called, wondering if it was worth checking out (thought I then found out you needed tickets which were sold out). Peter told me it was the Gurtenfestival, and I looked it up on the Internet. The annual music festival runs for 3 days and sure enough, is named after the very hill that Peter’s house is located on. The festival is literally just up the road on the mountain plateau at about 300 metres. I’m sitting here now typing this up, and Faith No More are playing on stage. It’s awesome, I didn’t even know they were back together, but I Googled it and sure enough, they reformed a year ago after an 11 year hiatus. Why didn’t I know this?!! They’ve just played Epic, and a whole bunch of sick songs from their Ashes to Ashes album. I’m loving it, next best thing to having a ticket, is bunking down in a house on the same hill, with Peter and his lovely wife Edith.
They cooked up a lovely dinner – Austrian Bratwurst (sausage) with some potatoes and a lovely mish-mash of a salad. Not sure what it’s called (leftovers I was told!) but it consisted of cauliflower, tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, onions and some salt/pepper. It was a buit like a salsa that mum makes back home and was delightful. Just needed some avocado I reckon! For dessert, Peter brought out a plate of cherries, and never really having properly eaten cherries before, I felt obliged to try one. Well, now I can add cherries to the list of foods that I’m now happy to eat. Brilliant!
Tomorrow, I will finally get to Montreux, where I have another host lined up for the night, just a bit out of town. I’m going to push hard to get there early enough, because by pure coincidence, I found out that the famous Montreux Jazz Festival has been on for the past 3 weeks, and tomorrow is the final day! There’s free entertainment in the streets from 1pm, so the sooner I get there, the sooner I can grab a few cold ones and chill out to some awesome music and get into the vibe of the place. Looking forward to it! The only thing missing will be my sister Karlie, who actually played a gig here a few years back. Oh well, I bet she’s jealous that I’m heading there now!
So as I sit here now by the window listening to Faith No More (who are now in their encore I think), I can’t help but think what a random day it has worked out to be, and how good everything has turned out. I’ve found that one way or another, everything always tends to work out somehow. You can rock up into a town, having absolutely no idea where you’ll be staying that night, but you always land something. That’s one of the coolest parts about travelling. And being on the bicycle, the hospitality and kindness shown by people has been amazing.
