Biking Day 9

• Length ridden: 65 km
• Ascent: 330 meters
• Rating: 7.5 out of 10 - Saint-Prex was great, but only 65 kilometers...?
• Highlights: Saint-Prex by far!
• Lowlight: nothing, really...that the day does not have 48 hours
• Map of the day

I was looking ahead of an easy day, with just 65 kilometers or so to go.

Departure that day was at 7:15, after a surprisingly delicious breakfast - in some 4-star hotels I´ve had less things to chose from. Two types of mueslis, 4 types of cheese, fruit juice - wow! A definitely good start of the day.

Now I was riding towards the west on the northern coast of Lake Geneva, also referred to as Lac Leman. The rain had stopped and while there were some clouds in the morning, the weather situation kept improving during the day.

I quickly reached Morges with an impressive castle.

Again, I almost felt guilty for not having stayed longer - there are plenty of museums and other interesting to stuff to visit. But then, I would still be biking somewhere around Paris - you do have to make trade-offs.

Definitely the highlight of the day was the small village of Saint-Prex. Allow me to quote what the local tourism authorities have to say - and I agree with every word: "Saint-Prex is a charming village that stretches along Lake Geneva, just next to Morges. Recognizable by its emblematic Clock Tower, which proudly adorns the entrance to the village, Saint-Prex is a medieval village with indescribable charm. The village, founded in 1234 [easy to remeber, remark by Balazs] under the order of the Diocese of Lausanne, still retains many vestiges of the past, such as magnificent fountains and various wrought iron signs that delight tourists in search of authenticity."

I really felt this magic in this place. Little did I know that I would spend well over two hours there. First, let me show you what I found soooo charming. I also have a video, but as I writing this now, cannot locate it. You can take my word that this place is a village of beauty, better still - go and visit it.

One of the small roads dead-ended into the lake and there was a small platform, where a young girl, barely twenty, was sunbathing. We struck up a conversation and talked for almost two hours - and when it got a little warmer, we went in for a plunge. It was only around half past one in the afternoon that I carried on.

There were many pretty sights that day, similar to the previous ones, the road leading past castles, chateau's and impressive villas. I found this restaurant to be really inviting, but I resisted the temptation to take a table there - anyhow, it looked very much booked out (or so I told myself). This and the villa below were shot in the town of Rolle.

Whoever owns the below villa probably does not get unemployment benefit.

Despite the friendly gentleman having tightened the screws the previous day, I was still quite unhappy with the noise coming from my axis. As I was riding towards Geneve, I spotted a large bike shop to my right and turned back - maybe a mechanic would be able to help.

It was a French gentleman from Annecy and he was friendly, but a bit surprised seeing my Pineon gear - something he had not seen before. Well, I have not seen equipment he had, everything electric, my bike was attached to a machine, it was suddenly up in the air and he had motor-driven screws. I asked him to tighten the screws by taking off the pedal and within minutes, I had a sound-free bike - oh, it was so lovely! The visit cost me only CHF 10. And here is the spot for the advertisement - it is called Bike World Gland, here is the link.

The next stop with my non-cracking bike was Château de Prangins, a Swiss National Museum - however, it was closed (at least I did not have a bad conscience for not visiting it). A small mishap took place here - I saw a fountain, was really thirsty and drank quite a few gulps from the water - when I suddenly saw a sign it was "eau non-potable", i.e. it was not drinking water. I survived to tell this story and did not even get sick - so it must not have been that bad.

The next architectural wonder came not far thereafter, at Nyon, where I was staring at a beautiful castle. Whoever built it perfectly understood that a building must have "perspective", a view of the surroundings.

...and even the Romans had a liking for this place, as you can see below. Why am I not surprised?

Needless to say, you can take a boat ride on the lake.

Another palace popped up, a more modern one - without actively looking for it, I stumbled upon the headquarters of UEFA - a modest, simple structure on the banks of Lake Geneva.

I hope this site won`t crash due to all the photos I have posted. You see, there was so much to see that day, even though 65 kilometers is actually peanuts, I experienced something that I would endure over and over in France - seeing so many wonderful places, that making progress by bike in terms of distance would turn into a challenge.

Just two more photos from my trip, OK, let´s make it three.

You get the picture (pun intended), it was a very pretty ride.

It was only around 7:30 pm that I got to Geneva, but then someone had to keep clicking the shutter on the camera. Karin was supposed to arrive just then, so I rode to the FlixBus station in the center. She called soon thereafter and informed me she would be arriving a lot later later that evening, as her bus was involved in a smaller accident - the driver misjudging the radius of a turn and managing to break a passenger window.

I decide to check into our apartment hotel, called Hotel Central, parked my bike on the street, hauled my 5 bags to the small room and went out for a walk to get some food and found a place with a view of the large fountain stream to wash my clothes at a laundromat. I had some trouble of finding detergent, after a bit of a calvaria, I saw that I would have just needed to press a button to get some this detergent at the laundry itself. Oh well. Karin arrived quite late, close to midnight, we were both very happy to have made it to Geneve.

I rode around 65 km that day and it took me fast the entire day.