St Croix to Yverdon le Bains

St Croix to Yverdon le Bains

Sainte Croix is a dismal sort of town, perched on the side of a hill, grim grey blocks of buildings (even in the Swiss style they are depressing) and lots of shops closed down. Our strange little hotel was more like a gueshouse I think, the sort of place lonely single men might live and spend most of their time in the bar below. But it was ok for the night, but we opted for dinner in the bar= dining room. Big mistake. Firstly we were surrounded by drunken inbred trolls. Secondly the elderley man at the next table took ill and was carted off in an ambulance. Thirdly gangs of flies roamed the dining room and seemed to particularly like our table.

We ate a vile meal. R had a nasty pizza, I craved a salad but when it came it was a strange plate of grey grated carrot and beetroot, a bit of limp cucumber and lettuce, drenched and sodden with an unpleasant mustard mayonnaise. I felt ill all lnight and still the next evening. So instead of going out to dinner I am tucked up in bed for a quiet evening in the room.

Actually most evenings are quiet in Switzerland. Everything is perfect, neat, orderly, organised and oh so quiet. I dont think anything really happens at all in the little villages, just a cluster of houses, no cafe, shop, bar, anything. In one, Vuiteboef, tucked in under a massive hillside, a large amateur sign advertised the highlight off the year , the October Festival of the Onion. Need I say more.

But the walk today is spectacularly lovely again. It is hard to find a variety of things to say about the Swiss scenery. Today we are pretty happy setting out, because the profile map shows it downhill all the way. (Although, strangely, downhill is often quite hard work). But 20 km downhill sounds good (of course what goes down must come up but lets not dwell on that).

The track leads us at a hair raising angle down the mountain from 1153 m to Lake Leman at 436m above sea level. We dropped off the side of the road on a tiny path with a massive drop beside us, in parts sheer down hundreds of metres, then emerged to cross the busy road winding down through hairpin bends, then plunged into the woods again and again. It is tremendous fun, beautiful light leafy forest, not yet turning to autumn, so the foliage is apple green, backlit and luminous. The path was a 15th century communication and trade route, we loved that.

Down to the valley floor through tiny villges peched on streams where we had an early lunch of a plain bread rolls sitting on a farm cart in a field.

We ignored a sign showing the track going up and lost the route. We ended up having to walk for a couple of hours alongside a busy road. That was very taxing and a bit scary, not enough verge for our liking, and we were very tired when we reached the outskirts of the town.

We then walked through a huge area of vegetable cultivation, then light industrial and into Yverdon-les-Bains. Les Bains (the baths) are natural hot springs known from at least Roman times. So we found a place to stay, and went and lounged around in the baths.

Little annoying problem with the hotel room. The hotel was full but they have a couple of rooms in the next building so although it is too expensive for our budget we cant face walking another step and take it. Unfortunately it is still being refurbished, looks very nice but lacks a couple of things, a phone, not such an issue, but no heating. Thats a problem for the daily sock washing ritual. We feel a bit irritated that the man didnt tell us.