Another superb and excellent day in Switzerland. I awoke in Bulle with the intention of making my why to Interlaken unsure if I would continue to follow Swiss National Cycle Route 9 or attempt to go over Juan Pass. It ended as my biggest overall elevation gain but was pretty gradual overall.
I paid the 16 CHF for breakfast at the hotel as everything aside from gas stations were closed and I was running low on food. I ate a stupendous amount and pocketed some honey packets for later in the day when I would need them. I packed my things and headed out, getting an incredibly late start of about 10:15 AM.
The first dozen or so miles were very similar to the previous day. I didn’t make a stop in the village of Gruyères was perhaps a misstep but alas.
Entering Montbovon the trail became heavily wooded and followed a beautiful river with that icy blue glacial sediment appearance. I took a slightly wrong turn and followed a hiking path that required me to lift my bike over a barrier to get back on the main road along with some incredulous looks from hikers. There was a large reinforced structure that looked military in appearance with several rooms in a road structure. I wasn’t able to determine what it was.
The landscape and weather stayed incredible.
I rode through the town of Roguemont which had a gorgeous church that was originally built in the 11th century. I ate tuna, peanut butter, and almonds from a bench while staring at it for a quick rest.
Just before reaching Gstaad, when suddenly German became the lingua francs, I saw a fridge that had meat and cheese with a honor system payment box. I didn’t have any Swiss Francs but I later learned this is extremely common. Gstaad was beautiful including this immaculately crafted horse drawn carriage. I failed to get any pictures.
The day then became a bit of a blur with climbing agricultural roads and following gravel tracks along river close to the train tracks.
At around 4 PM I was feeling a bit tired and had some indigestion (probably shouldn’t have drank all the oil from the tuna can) so I sat on a bench for a bit. I booked a hotel in Spiez which was closer to have a backup plan and rode out the looming bad weather.
A man named Bernd, who I will withhold the other details I learned as I did not ask permission to disclose them, introduced himself and he explained he was photographing certain houses in the area. He pointed several out and read through the signs. The most recent was built in something like 1750 with many over 800 years old with people still living in them.
We rode to a nearby chapel.
At this point we were going in a similar direction and cruised around talking about Swiss culture and my inane questions.
When we got to a fork in the road he invited me to stay with his family for the evening. After some wrangling with the hotel I was able to cancel without a fee (well, we will see).
I rode along with him to Thun and we stopped to pick up dinner. I got a coffee yogurt drink that he swore by as his favorite cycling food
We discussed the various possible routes landing on an attempt of Sustenpass, a 7000ft+ climb after visiting Lauterbrunnen Valley when the weather allowed. I tried some food
Three of his children happened to be out of town so I slept in one of their beds.
The road provides.