The 24-speed bikes we rented at the train station are quite a bit better bikes than they had available in 2001. We ate a good breakfast at the hotel (free), tried to buy a map for the Rhine bike route (unsuccessfully -- didn't want to pay $28 for a book written in German to get the 7 pages of maps we wanted.) I bought some fruit and candy at a market and made a couple of sandwiches from breakfast. We put yesterday's journal and pictures on our blog. It took us a long time to get left; we were finally on our way at 10 a.m.
riding down a very steep and winding road, which was hard on bikes that we weren't yet accustomed to riding. We got to what was supposed to be the bike trail, and it was rocky and terrible. It looked much more like a mountain bike trail. I was sure we hadn't started our ride from Disentis on anything like this, so we pushed our bikes all the way back up to the highway. (very difficult)
We couldn't find any other way out of town, so we rode the highway. That was actually fun, but not where we were supposed to be. The traffic wasn't too heavy. At the next town, we stopped at a market and asked directions to the trail. A young girl gave us directions, but we didn't do something right and ended up on another steep downhill in someone's back yard. The man there was in his back yard and gave us the correct directions to the trail. We had to walk our bikes up again. I was ready to give up and turn our bikes back in to the train station!
When we did find the bike path, it was very enjoyable riding.
The weather was perfect and the scenery is breathtaking. The path was mostly downhill. The surface was rocky and somewhat muddy in spots, but we enjoyed the ride. We watched out like hawks for bike route markers so we wouldn't get off trail again.
We stopped at different points and ate some of our fruit, sandwiches, and peanuts that we had bought. It was really fun to be in the Alps riding our bikes through such beautiful scenery along the Rhine River. The river is whitish aqua -- probably glacial melt.
We came to a covered bridge across the Rhine. We remembered it from 2001, and we took some more photos there.
About 3:30 we came to an uphill climb on the highway -- we remembered it well from 2001. It isn't steep, but it doesn't stop going up -- we got REALLY weary. We thought the climb lasted until Versam, but we came to an interesting water fountain that we remember from 2001. We think this is the top of the climbing road. The town is Valendas, not Versam. There was a Zimmer beside the water fountain and they had room, so we stayed there. We showered and took a nap, then went out walking. It's a lovely little town with a lot of very solid log type barns and typical Swiss homes. There are flowers everywhere. The mountain villages all have springs that flow into cute tanks.
We came back and played Nurtz in the Zimmer dining area. Mariana gave us a chalk board to keep score, a pad to put the cards on, and a deck of Swiss playing cards. We were going to use them instead of ours, but they didn't contain 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, and there were 2 ace of diamonds, so they wouldn't work for Nurtz. A group of men were also playing cards in the other corner. They deal the cards counter-clockwise instead of clockwise like we do. The lady that runs the Zimmer and restaurant is very nice but can't speak any English. I'd really like to be able to talk with her.
We have two big questions for tomorrow:
1. Will it rain as predicted?
2. Is Valendas the top of the climb, or do we still have three more miles to climb to Versam???
We expect to get to Elsa Rutz's in Jenins tomorrow.
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