Ok well I managed to arrive safe and sound in Bern having only really crossed one tricky (very tricky) mountain pass. There must be more to come - I thought Switzerland once supposed to be much harder than this. Unfortunately the map lacks countour lines so I'm pretty much cycling blind - I suspect though that I will bump into the Alpes at somepoint between here and Milan and the sweat will flow but in the meanwhile I'm just tootling round, over and through some big hills.
The one mountain pass I have taken made even the locals laugh and warn me off - having pushed and dragged myself and the bike for the best part of 3km I began to understand the importance of local knowledge...
The remainder of France was tremandous. I drifted through the fertile arable north, huge flat fields (loads of flash kit especially big six and seven series John Deers for you tractor boys - explained by a new green power plant) to the gentle hills and beef region through the Swiss Dairy cows complete with bells.
I finally tracked down Rob who as far as I can work out was cycling around in circles looking for me - something about not finding the road.... Good to have some company. Have had to make do chatting to the locals in my finest French (I can't beleive someone issued me with a GCSE in it - it is bad). At least the German-Swisse tend to speak English otherwise it would be down to my own dialect of sign language.
Plan is to head south, bump into Les Alpes, cross those and head east. Simples.
1250km down a fair few more to go...
The one mountain pass I have taken made even the locals laugh and warn me off - having pushed and dragged myself and the bike for the best part of 3km I began to understand the importance of local knowledge...
The remainder of France was tremandous. I drifted through the fertile arable north, huge flat fields (loads of flash kit especially big six and seven series John Deers for you tractor boys - explained by a new green power plant) to the gentle hills and beef region through the Swiss Dairy cows complete with bells.
I finally tracked down Rob who as far as I can work out was cycling around in circles looking for me - something about not finding the road.... Good to have some company. Have had to make do chatting to the locals in my finest French (I can't beleive someone issued me with a GCSE in it - it is bad). At least the German-Swisse tend to speak English otherwise it would be down to my own dialect of sign language.
Plan is to head south, bump into Les Alpes, cross those and head east. Simples.
1250km down a fair few more to go...