The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Western Swiss Lakes, Bernese Oberland Lac d'Annecy

May 27th to June 11th

Ride Director: Lucy Glover
Ride Co-Director: Randy Glover
Ride Driver: Jeff Messerschmidt
Report by: Brian Aldrich

This trip started on the French side of the Geneva airport. Our hotel offered a free airport shuttle, great food, good bike assembly spaces, plus a convenient store just around the corner.

The first day of riding, with mild route-finding challenges, was stunning even in light rain; the farmlands, vineyards and the Alpe views across Lac Leman were beautiful. We settled in for two nights at an elegant lakeside hotel in Morges. Our group dinner on their terrace was delightful!

Our out & back to the vineyards at Grand Vaux was sunny and scenic. The next day we moved on to Neuchâtel, taking a lovely one-hour ferry to reduce our mileage. After castles and amber waves of grain and a bazillion red poppies, we funiculared up to our cliff edge hotel. Lake view rooms awaited us all, and we ate out on the patio overlooking the lake.

Next, we were on to Gruyeres. The very scenic villages of Murten, Payerne, and Romont were along our route. This was one of the longer days; we did get a bit of a downpour just before climbing up to the hilltop village of Gruyeres. Gruyeres has many lunch and dinner opportunities, and a great castle to tour. We were there for the arrival of the Feldschlosschen, an authentic beer wagon pulled by six handsome Belgian Drays. The passing cart handed me a beer!

The next day, we rolled down out of Gruyeres and across beautiful farmland, across rivers and old stone bridges and up and over many hilltop towns. The Alpes were very visible to the south much of the time. After much climbing, with some steep short bits, the route leveled out as we got into Bern, with a long straight shot before we got into a cacophony of street festivals. The cleanliness and functionality of Bern were most impressive! We were given free all-public-transport tickets and spread out to explore the city. Two of us headed for the giant municipal swimming complex and enjoyed some thrilling fast floats in the Aare River!

The next day we headed for two nights in Lauterbrunnen, which was kind of like Yosemite with the highest Sierras pasted right on top. We had sweeping views of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. Then on to Gstaad. The roads were hilly, the scenery fantastic, and our happy hour and dinner were outstanding!

After Gstaad we headed up and over the Col du Pillon, then a dramatic downhill to the Rhone River Valley. The one-hour Mont Blanc Express train ride was sensational, taking us from the Rhone in Switzerland to the French border, with just one more Col before Chamonix.

Our 5-star hotel in Chamonix was fantastic, with the most elegant dinner of the trip! After Chamonix, we headed up and over many scenic small climbs, through St Gervais, then down another long descent to flatlands and then along Lake Annecy to the beautiful town of Annecy for two nights.

Climbing the optional Col de la Forclaz out of Annecy was awesome, the last bit quite steep. Many cyclists from all over showed up to tackle this climb. The views of Lac Annecy were spectacular!

Annecy to Geneva was very nice long gentle climb and a long descent to Lac Leman, along the waterfront, and a crafty way along and thru the airport on bike paths, back to Ferney Voltaire to end our trip.

The cue sheet and GPS distances were accurate, some of the early altitude gains were short. Accommodations and dinners were absolutely wonderful!