We had agreed on breakfast at 8 a.m. with me frying he bacon and eggs. I didn't set the alarm because we've been waking up around 6, but this morning we slept soundly until 7:45! It is so comfortable and homey at Elsa's! The very fragrant red flower bud on our table opened overnight -- lovely!
When we started to eat, Elsa said she was expecting us to stay a week or so. She was really disappointed that we had paid for one more day of bike riding at the train station in Disentis. We decided to try to stop for another day or two on the way back from Spain. Elsa would like to take us up into the Alps on the cog railroad, and we will hope for better weather, so we can go out into the vineyard and learn more about that culture (and maybe help a little).
We enjoyed a hearty breakfast. Betti(Elsa's step-sister) stopped to meet us. That was special. Elsa played the accordion for us (so enjoyable!)
and showed us an old picture of her grandmother and neighbors taken after they had finished a day's work in the vineyard. Elsa said that she and her husband had built their lovely home on land from Elsa's mother in 1961 -- the same time Verle's folks built their home. It was hard to say goodby.
We left on our bikes around 11. The weather was cool and the clouds covered the tops of the mountains all through the day's ride. We had an enjoyable ride without getting lost or rained on or walking our bikes up very many hills. We chatted with a couple from Basel, Switzerland in one of the villages. We asked them what town we were in and they said, "Fleish." We were glad, because that meant that we hadn't made a wrong turn and started up the mountain like we did in 2001!
We rode on through vineyards and some forest. Before long, we came to the Rhine River and rode for the rest of the day along the concrete bike path on the top of a dike along the river. It was easy riding and a fun way to finish our biking on this trail.
At about 3:30, we decided that we should find a town with a train station where we could turn our bikes back in. We rode into Buhl, and tried to set up our train schedule for going to Denia, Spain. Unfortunately, the ticket man wasn't able to get us a complete schedule. He gave us a number to phone, but our phone card ran out of time, and the woman we had reached did not call us back on the pay phone as she had promised. The reservations that we need from Geneva to Marsailles and from Marsailles to Barcellona were already sold out. Also, he couldn't take our bikes back in Buhls, so we had to take our bikes on the train back to Sargans, a town that we had already ridden past, in order to have them sent back to Disentis. The ticket lady there was also unable to get train reservations for us. She suggested that we go as far as Geneva and then go to the French part of that train station to try to get the rest of our schedule and to try again to get reservations. If we can't get them, we may have to travel on slower trains. A night train may be available.
We rode our bikes around Sargans trying to find a Zimmer in a private home, but we weren't able to find any, so we got a room, at the Post Hotel. We left our bags in our room, rode our bikes back to the train station to check in our bikes and helmets, and walked back to our hotel, stopping at the Coop to get some soup, ice cream, and Fanta for supper and a bunch of snacks for the next two days on the train.
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