France Switzerland (Germany) and Thailand in one week!

After a very lazy start to Tuesday, always made more pleasurable by talking to Niamh, I wandered off to a ‘boutique’ bike shop to buy a new chain and ogle at their collection of vintage bikes….an amazing place. The owner made me coffee and we chatted all things bikes (as us cyclist are want to do) then bade then adieu and got instantly lost – damn you Maps!! Anyway, nursing my very painful leg I found the right track and headed for Switzerland. A pretty uneventful ride to Basel and an even more uneventful border ‘crossing’ – there really wasn’t one! Just an ordinary bridge with cars, bikes and runners going back and forth. Once on the other side, like a light switch, everything changed. Signs in a different language, people talking and sounding different, everything clean, neat, organised- even the public toilets were so clean you could eat your dinner off the floor….not that I’m willing to try or even recommend but you get the picture! I sat on the banks of the Rhine and had a sandwich and just pondered how an arbitrary line demarcates not only country but culture, language, ‘feel’. I had a Warm Showers host for my stay in Rheinfelden, so I pushed on to get there before dusk. Rheinfelden is an incredible town with eons of history and incredible Swiss architecture. There’s a bridge there where you simply walk over to Germany….no border, but a completely new country. My hosts were incredible – both retired now, with Tomi an ex bike shop owner and Maria a teacher. They had done an incredible job on renovating a centuries old Swiss house over 4 floors. A true delight to be a guest in, and they were excellent hosts.

The following day Tomi rode with me to his old bike shop called Bike Point (ever in this neck of the woods….be sure to pop in). We sorted a few things on my bike and then Tomi rode with me another 20+ k toward Zurich. Whilst I was sad to say goodbye, I was also quietly relieved…..he was a powerful rider and even tho it was a block headwind, he sat on the front and motored on!

After leaving him, I had to add additional layers as it was really quite cold. I stayed on the EV6, which varied from road to gravel to grass tracks then that horrible ‘bang’ when you bust a rear spoke. I had 45k to go and pondered if I changed the spoke there or nursed it to my evenings lodgings. Given the fart arsing around required to do a roadside repair with all the luggage etc I decided to ride on, standing on the pedals as much as I could to not put too much weight on an already stressed wheel. In my head I knew the wheel would be fine, given the high spoke count but it was a bit unnerving trying to ride a fully loaded bike with one eye on the wheel! But we made it to Zurich just as dusk came – it was already getting dark around 3:30, and cold too!

I stayed with a warm showers host called Oliver who was such an easy going guy. He has an apartment just by the airport, which was great for my next phase – a night flight to Bangkok. Oliver was fantastic as a host and helped me access a few needed supplies, showed me around and fed and watered me. I also got a local bike shop to true the wheel – I had managed to get the spoke fitted but without a jig or brakes on the rim it’s hard to centre the wheel!

On Saturday morning it was pouring down and so so cold – I think I have been blessed with the weather in France and Switzerland but no doubt about it – winter was here and it was time to get me some heat! I got the bike boxed up at the airport (at eye watering costs befitting anything Swiss!) and prayed that I’d see Bob in Bangkok!

The flight was uneventful- just how we want them, and bingo….Bob has arrived. I checked in to a local hotel and crashed for the next 24 hours. I then got a taxi to Sattahip on the coast and checked in to a motel for a week of pure rest , recovery and relaxation.

It’s been an emotional time this past week – I’ve been feeling quite discombobulated, sad, even home sick. I miss Niamh like crazy, and have become tired of traveling. But I feel I’m now closer to Aus and therefore thoughts are turning to getting back there early 2023. It’s been an incredible experience so far and I truly have gotten to know myself so much through the experience. There’s so much more to do and see, but I’m learning that it doesn’t all have to be done at one sitting! The option of resuming travels again is of course always an option.

But to the immediate future, I’ve decided to head to Cambodia then across to Vietnam from where I’ll travel to Australia. That’s the plan….let’s see!