Schweiz!

I don`t know why, but switzerland`s abbreviation (for websites and even their currency CHF) is ch. i asked a local and she said it`s because 3 letters, sch, would be too much. Hmm.

We stayed in a youth hostel our last night in germany as it was still raining and i there was no way i was camping another night in the wet. Being a sunday we still didn`t have any food so ate our for our last night in germany - at a chinese fast food joint of course. but washed down with genuine german beer.

The next day we spent a blissful morning on trains - blissful because it was cold and wet outside and so it felt luxurious to be sitting on a dry soft seat watching the wet world pass by. We had to change trains in Schaffhausen and luckily we checked the guidebook to discover it was a place we wanted to visit anyway. we turned our 30 min transit into a 3 hour stopover to check out europe`s largest waterfall. the rhine falls were like huka falls x10 - the volume of water gushing past was incredible. The height of the falls wasn`t impressive - in fact i wouldn`t have described them as `falls` at all - more like huge rapids. There were tour boats taking tourists to a rock right in the middle of the river so they could be surrounded by the pummelling water.

I got 600 swiss francs from the ATM machine - and out popped 3 colourful 200-franc notes. Each note was the equivalent of $NZ260. Imagine trying to buy an icecream with that... fortunately a bank teller was happy to exchange them for a colourful collection of lower denomination notes. the money is certainly the most exciting we`ve seen so far - it`s so colourful it looks like play money.

Back on the train again we headed to Zurich. we were booked in at a hostel but the weather had cleared so it would have been nice to go camping - but the dumb expensive hostel (who had knew my credit card number) said they would still charge us if they didn`t manage to sell our beds. so we stayed in the very central backpackers and had the most expensive ($60 each) and worst night sleep ever - we were sharing a stuffy dorm room with a snorer. despite wearing ear plugs i still couldn`t sleep due to the snoring so got up and tapped the plump girl on the bottom bunk, assuming she was the culprit. she looked right at me and the snoring continued. doh! i hadn`t seen the guy in the bunk above her. 4 times in the night I jabbed his arm and each time he stopped snoring for a short time.

The next morning i was feeling not surprisingly seedy and jaded, annoyed that we would have had a much nicer time at the campground for a fraction of price. the sun was shining (which irkked me more, because at least if it was pouring down like previous days the hostel stay may have been justified). We headed along the edge of lake Zurich, and while it was quite beautiful, i still could`t wind down. i didn`t realise what I needed was a big steep hill.

We joined the route we were looking for, National cycle route number 9, that would take us southwest through the middle of switzerland. almost immediately the route headed straight up into the hills. It was steep, it was hot, I was sweating like a horse, and finally I was relaxed. THIS is what it is all about. all the frustrations of the previous few days of unrelenting rain and expensive pointless hostels were getting sweated out of my system. I was on a bit of a high and telling Joy this in a euphoric tone of voice and she just said `well I`m hot and sweaty`.

When people warned me `switzerland has alps you know` I still didn`t expect such steep climbs. I was expecting long gentle climbs up valleys, between the mountains. Not steep get-off-the-bike-and-push grunts up through hillly farmland with the alps way off in the distance. After 50km of Swiss cycle route we were knackered and stopped at the next campground, by a lake. That afternoon felt like a holiday. We lay in the sunshine and read books. we went for a gentle stroll after dinner. The quiet country road had an interesting mix of customers - roller bladers whizzing as fast as cyclists, big tractors and tiny Smart cars.

Route number 9 has been surprisingly hard - today we walked our bikes for ages up an immensely steep gravel road. The weather packed in again so we are staying in a youth hostel again - youth hostels over here are such a mixed bag - in our dorm is a french speaking family, there are all ages of people here with noisy kids playing noisy games. fortunately we found refuge in the kitchen where we`ve spent the past few hours drinking coffee, eating fresh popcorn (bought in greece, months ago) and reading Bill Bryson.