26 September 2010
First light, next day. Here’s a thought from yesterday: if you want to get your head out of your current situation for any reason, try standing in the freezing rain in a tiny village without a soul about that you have discovered has nowhere at all to stay and with the evening closing in. The zen focus on the here and now is absolute. Then wake up in a cutesy little room decorated with edelweiss cutouts, with the heat on all night (amazing – a first ever) and a little blow heater, and your socks, now clean and dry, dancing merrily on the elastic clothesline. Attitude level 100% (About that village, I seriously considered breaking into the closed-down hotel).
I master the correct Bonjour thing just as we are about to leave France: the blokes say it low and flat, but the ladies say it like a little bird, with an upward flick at the end, very fetching.
We went to bed wondering what to do today – the weather looked very daunting, mainly because the route was going to be a steep track through the forest. When we woke up we were even more concerned about the prospect of a difficult climb because the mountain had vanished in think fog and the sky was very dark. So we wander around checking on trains and buses, but it was Sunday and everything is closed (everything except the bakery, Sunday sure is a day of rest here) and we can’t find anything out. But as we trudge back to the hotel for breakfast the cloud lifts enough for us to decide to chance it.
A great day follows. Up through glorious mountain scenery on a very remote feeling track, part of the famous French GR walking and cycling routes. Very beautiful forest, many rocks, steep mountain views, banks of pine trees. The road we are on keeps climbing up and up and up. We keep waiting for it to level out a bit to take a breath but the summit never comes, so we have to stop and rest. We had some stinky cheese to have with bread and made the acqaintance of every dog within 10 km I think, dashing over to investigate.
We have noticed that there are very few fat people here. Australia obviously should say no more often – to fattening foods. But it’s so interesting, the French cook in lashings of butter and cream, drink wine every day, breakfast on croissants, eat lots of bread and have sugar in their coffee. And they stay slender and healthy. What’s their secret?
There was a trail run through the forest that day, lots of runners doing between 10 and 30 km. Over the crest of the hill we come on the Chateaux de Joux, amazing enormous castle perched on the top of a massive rocky outcrop. How did they do it ? Who was the intrepid tiler who put that roof on hundreds of metres above the ground?
On the lookout for the castle there is a trestle table set up with a couple of ladies giving food to the runners. We have a chat (so nice to have just enough French to do a very basic communication) and they offer us some of the food, so nice.
On closer to Switzerland and the landscape and the architecture changes. You could easily think that it is an over the top theme park for the Sound of Music except that it is, well, real. Houses with geraniums (red or pink the only two approved colours), pine forests, super-green fields with brown and white cows, the sound of cowbells.
We end the day in Sante Croix in the Jura. We have now found our new Dogville (after the one in Spain). We have trouble finding a place to stay and decide not to stay in the shabby stucco Hotel de France, where we walk in, ring the cowbell and then notice a note that says We don’t work on Sunday, take a key, find your room and make yourself at home, we’ll work it out in the morning. Instead we end up in a funny little hotel, in a little room up several flights of stairs, with shared facilities. Now sitting in the dining room bar eyeing off the locals – we had heard that there was very little sun in the Jura valley in winter because of the high mountains enclosing the deep valley and so they drink all winter and are just a bit weird, so far that seems to be holding.
Looking back on the day, it has been very challenging, on our first full stage with some long climbs. Two passes, the highest was 1144 meters just before Sante Croix. It took a lot of determination just to keep going and we are pretty tired, we could hardly make it up the stairs at the end of the night. We kept thinking of it as a training day, and we will be a lot more able to manage stages like this one with relative ease when we are further into the Via and in fighting form.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
From Pontarlier to St Croix
In Pontarlier 25 September 2010
Sitting in a pizza restaurant in the medieval part of Pontarlier after a day of contrasts. Firstly the astounding scenery all day. If you wanted to write a story that included Hansel and Gretel you really ought to come and walk through these exquisite, dark and creepy woods as you walk out of Etalans.
The woods come just after the woodland lane with wild hedges and berry bushes loaded with red berries winding up the hill out of town, away from the roads and into silence. Nothing to hear but the crunch of boots. Out of the forest, and into farmland which could easily suit a cart load of Brueghel peasants. I don’t think it has changed much since the middle ages, fabulous velvety green fields rolling away into banks of massive trees starting to turn to autumn colours. Gorgeous is the only accurate word. And if a young lord came riding out of the woods with a falcon on his wrist it just would not be surprising somehow.
But we got a bit lost (actually we think the bok had a little mistake, a L instead of a R, and it made quite a difference). We had to backtrack along a muddy path and got tired and it was sleety rain and we didn’t know how to find the right path and…you get the picture. We were determinedly calm but fairly dismal. Funny how your feet hurt at those times.
We finally sat down in the rain on one of our sleeping mats and had lunch beside the road (there are simply no cafes anywhere, roll on Italy). It consisted of sharing a bit of baguette and a couple of business class chocolates. Those ever so elegant air hostesses could not have imagined us eating them in that setting in their wildest dreams.
Then on to Etalans, we struggle in cold and wet and, oh dear, the hotel is closed down and the only other lead we have , a few km out of town, is just a restaurant. Pure luck there is a tourist place next door (there are limestone caves there) with someone who speaks English. She gets on the phone for us and discovers that there is no place to stay in Nods or Ouhan, both of which have accommodation listings and are the next possible places, but she manages to get a taxi (luckily as it is Saturday and these people take the work life balance very seriously) . We are at serious risk of being stranded out there and we are wet through and getting very cold. Anyway the taxi driver takes pity on us and come to get us and takes us to Pontarlier and a nice little hotel in the old quarter. If not, we might right now be huddled under a tree. Oh this pizza tastes good!
Sitting in a pizza restaurant in the medieval part of Pontarlier after a day of contrasts. Firstly the astounding scenery all day. If you wanted to write a story that included Hansel and Gretel you really ought to come and walk through these exquisite, dark and creepy woods as you walk out of Etalans.
The woods come just after the woodland lane with wild hedges and berry bushes loaded with red berries winding up the hill out of town, away from the roads and into silence. Nothing to hear but the crunch of boots. Out of the forest, and into farmland which could easily suit a cart load of Brueghel peasants. I don’t think it has changed much since the middle ages, fabulous velvety green fields rolling away into banks of massive trees starting to turn to autumn colours. Gorgeous is the only accurate word. And if a young lord came riding out of the woods with a falcon on his wrist it just would not be surprising somehow.
But we got a bit lost (actually we think the bok had a little mistake, a L instead of a R, and it made quite a difference). We had to backtrack along a muddy path and got tired and it was sleety rain and we didn’t know how to find the right path and…you get the picture. We were determinedly calm but fairly dismal. Funny how your feet hurt at those times.
We finally sat down in the rain on one of our sleeping mats and had lunch beside the road (there are simply no cafes anywhere, roll on Italy). It consisted of sharing a bit of baguette and a couple of business class chocolates. Those ever so elegant air hostesses could not have imagined us eating them in that setting in their wildest dreams.
Then on to Etalans, we struggle in cold and wet and, oh dear, the hotel is closed down and the only other lead we have , a few km out of town, is just a restaurant. Pure luck there is a tourist place next door (there are limestone caves there) with someone who speaks English. She gets on the phone for us and discovers that there is no place to stay in Nods or Ouhan, both of which have accommodation listings and are the next possible places, but she manages to get a taxi (luckily as it is Saturday and these people take the work life balance very seriously) . We are at serious risk of being stranded out there and we are wet through and getting very cold. Anyway the taxi driver takes pity on us and come to get us and takes us to Pontarlier and a nice little hotel in the old quarter. If not, we might right now be huddled under a tree. Oh this pizza tastes good!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Belle Paree!
So the long trip with delays due to a "small typhoon" in Hong Kong which threw all the timetables of all the planes out and ended up, for example, with 25 planes ahead of us all in a queue waiting to take off. But a beautiful trip nonetheless, with business class, extreme comforts, flat bed, space. And because it was our anniversary a special bottle of champagne a bag of chocolate truffles and a card signed by all of the staff including the captain. But it was so very private in the pods we missed eating and chatting and watching the movies together, but it seems like spoilt brats even to bring that up.
Paris, ah Belle Paree! I had forgotten how beautiful, the limestone Belle Epoque buildings so elegant and pretty and grand all at once. We took a hop on hop off boat ride nd saw all of the top sights with the atmosphere of the Seine, with the little barges and boats with people living on them, pots of flowers and all. Of course the muwem attendants were on strike – it is a well known truth of travel that wherever you go it is closed at that time, on that day or something. We couldnt get into LOrangerie at all to see the massive Monets there and I nearly got scammed by a gypsy girl there, who dropped a gold ring beside me, it was probably a pickpocketing attempt. But the strike did mean that the Musee DOrsay was open but not charging for entrance that day, so it felt like a win actually.
We were stunned mullets by the time we had seen all the Imprssionists and Post-Impressionists there. Fancz a bonnard, a Toulouse-Lautrec, a Guagin, a Van gogh…..enough our heads were swimming. We kept going to leave then seeing another room crammed with fabulous paintings. But the best of all, Monets, with the lumniouslight. Magnifique !!. We’ll never forget that.
We were happy with our funny little hotel. Name the Little Hotel for good reason. One moment in business class, How may I serve you Mr Ramsay ?. Next minute wearing thongs in the shower and wondering if soap was supplied.
When we read the reviews for the hotel one said "the rooms were small, they smelled of smoke and the man on the front desk was grumpy" I thought – what do you expect, it’s Paris after all. But the little bag of goodies they give you in business class (pomegranate surge lip balm! antioxidant humidimist spray!) came in very handy there when I used the little disposable toothbrush to jam the shower head to stop it swinging round to spray into the back corner of the shower. Voila !
So the long trip with delays due to a "small typhoon" in Hong Kong which threw all the timetables of all the planes out and ended up, for example, with 25 planes ahead of us all in a queue waiting to take off. But a beautiful trip nonetheless, with business class, extreme comforts, flat bed, space. And because it was our anniversary a special bottle of champagne a bag of chocolate truffles and a card signed by all of the staff including the captain. But it was so very private in the pods we missed eating and chatting and watching the movies together, but it seems like spoilt brats even to bring that up.
Paris, ah Belle Paree! I had forgotten how beautiful, the limestone Belle Epoque buildings so elegant and pretty and grand all at once. We took a hop on hop off boat ride nd saw all of the top sights with the atmosphere of the Seine, with the little barges and boats with people living on them, pots of flowers and all. Of course the muwem attendants were on strike – it is a well known truth of travel that wherever you go it is closed at that time, on that day or something. We couldnt get into LOrangerie at all to see the massive Monets there and I nearly got scammed by a gypsy girl there, who dropped a gold ring beside me, it was probably a pickpocketing attempt. But the strike did mean that the Musee DOrsay was open but not charging for entrance that day, so it felt like a win actually.
We were stunned mullets by the time we had seen all the Imprssionists and Post-Impressionists there. Fancz a bonnard, a Toulouse-Lautrec, a Guagin, a Van gogh…..enough our heads were swimming. We kept going to leave then seeing another room crammed with fabulous paintings. But the best of all, Monets, with the lumniouslight. Magnifique !!. We’ll never forget that.
We were happy with our funny little hotel. Name the Little Hotel for good reason. One moment in business class, How may I serve you Mr Ramsay ?. Next minute wearing thongs in the shower and wondering if soap was supplied.
When we read the reviews for the hotel one said "the rooms were small, they smelled of smoke and the man on the front desk was grumpy" I thought – what do you expect, it’s Paris after all. But the little bag of goodies they give you in business class (pomegranate surge lip balm! antioxidant humidimist spray!) came in very handy there when I used the little disposable toothbrush to jam the shower head to stop it swinging round to spray into the back corner of the shower. Voila !
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Swiss Alps!
Hi Friends and Family!
This is Sibylla posting on behalf of Mum and Dad...
We spoke to Mum and Dad yesterday and they are off to a great start. They have had extremes of lovely walking and some challenging times as you would expect. When we spoke they were sitting on the side of a Swiss mountain enjoying a sandwich and an apple, looking down over a vineyard, their destination in sight down in the valley about 2 hours walk away.
The start of the walk was anticipated to be very challenging as there was a lot of steep mountain climbing which you would hope to not have to tackle straight away. Some days they faced endless climbs up and up with no end in sight and were hampered by rain making the climbing even more difficult however Mum said they were really pleased with themselves as they managed better than expected!
The scenery has been amazing of course, the Swiss housewives would put us to shame, apparently my geraniums are not up to scratch! On a couple of nights they walked into tiny villages and found there was nowhere to stay and so had to make their way to the next village.
The iPhone has proved problematic as the backlight has failed making texting difficult and worse still they can't watch their library of movies! They do however have a local sim card now so can be contacted on 0041767974924
(or it could be +41767974924, if anyone knows then please post!)
Internet access is not readily available so if you would have time to send a text I'm sure it would be fantastic to hear news from home!
Please post your comments for Mum and Dad and I'll pass everything on via phone calls and texts!
This is Sibylla posting on behalf of Mum and Dad...
We spoke to Mum and Dad yesterday and they are off to a great start. They have had extremes of lovely walking and some challenging times as you would expect. When we spoke they were sitting on the side of a Swiss mountain enjoying a sandwich and an apple, looking down over a vineyard, their destination in sight down in the valley about 2 hours walk away.
The start of the walk was anticipated to be very challenging as there was a lot of steep mountain climbing which you would hope to not have to tackle straight away. Some days they faced endless climbs up and up with no end in sight and were hampered by rain making the climbing even more difficult however Mum said they were really pleased with themselves as they managed better than expected!
The scenery has been amazing of course, the Swiss housewives would put us to shame, apparently my geraniums are not up to scratch! On a couple of nights they walked into tiny villages and found there was nowhere to stay and so had to make their way to the next village.
The iPhone has proved problematic as the backlight has failed making texting difficult and worse still they can't watch their library of movies! They do however have a local sim card now so can be contacted on 0041767974924
(or it could be +41767974924, if anyone knows then please post!)
Internet access is not readily available so if you would have time to send a text I'm sure it would be fantastic to hear news from home!
Please post your comments for Mum and Dad and I'll pass everything on via phone calls and texts!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Our 42nd Wedding Anniversary
Hi Folks
We are in Hong Kong! We flew in an A330 and the cabin crew really turned on the five star service when they somehow discovered it was our 42nd wedding anniversary actually today! Anyway, it was a great flight and the flatbeds I can authoritatively say are not repeat not overrated. Maggie’s lap got a well-earned rest this time (no need for lap sleeps!). In fact the only way we could share the gossip was to perch in each other’s pods. And Maggie’s gossip was about all the female cabin crew who wanted to know her secrets of a long and happy marriage!
Anyway, it was a sweaty crowd that finally disgorged after we were locked in the plane after we arrived due to an absence of ground staff to open the doors! So I headed straight for the lounge and wonderful showers. What a way to travel. Next visit is for a bowl of ramen at the noodle bar.
And we’ll see you in Paris. Which by the way is where we found ourselves by chance for our first wedding anniversary in 1969!
We are in Hong Kong! We flew in an A330 and the cabin crew really turned on the five star service when they somehow discovered it was our 42nd wedding anniversary actually today! Anyway, it was a great flight and the flatbeds I can authoritatively say are not repeat not overrated. Maggie’s lap got a well-earned rest this time (no need for lap sleeps!). In fact the only way we could share the gossip was to perch in each other’s pods. And Maggie’s gossip was about all the female cabin crew who wanted to know her secrets of a long and happy marriage!
Anyway, it was a sweaty crowd that finally disgorged after we were locked in the plane after we arrived due to an absence of ground staff to open the doors! So I headed straight for the lounge and wonderful showers. What a way to travel. Next visit is for a bowl of ramen at the noodle bar.
And we’ll see you in Paris. Which by the way is where we found ourselves by chance for our first wedding anniversary in 1969!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Look at Grandma and Amelia!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
First stage of the walk - Besancon (France) to Lausanne (Switzerland)
Hi Folks
Sibylla suggested a map so you can get a sense of where we are at certain times. If we can get to a computer, I'll continue with this from time to time. Meanwhile Yay! I have learnt how to post a Google image on the Blog. So I can remember how to do it next time, this is what I did: on Google Earth, I put place markers on the three major locations for our first two weeks of walking - Besancon, Pontarlier and Lausanne (the place marker in the middle of Lake Neuchatel is an error!). In File, I then saved this view as an image to the desktop. In a new post for the Blog, I clicked Insert image, and here it is!
See you at the next Post
Renato
Sibylla suggested a map so you can get a sense of where we are at certain times. If we can get to a computer, I'll continue with this from time to time. Meanwhile Yay! I have learnt how to post a Google image on the Blog. So I can remember how to do it next time, this is what I did: on Google Earth, I put place markers on the three major locations for our first two weeks of walking - Besancon, Pontarlier and Lausanne (the place marker in the middle of Lake Neuchatel is an error!). In File, I then saved this view as an image to the desktop. In a new post for the Blog, I clicked Insert image, and here it is!
See you at the next Post
Renato
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)