De laatste 20 jaar kom ik in een klein Zwitsers dorp Lenzerheide
in de eerste jaren alleen in de winter om er drie weken te skiën , later kwam ik ook in zomer om eens een weekje te wandelen
en twee maal reed ik er heen op de fiets vanuit Nederland .

Van de eerste keer heb ik niets bij gehouden ,maar ik volgde heel gemakkelijk de rivier de Rijn zo het voor iemand die nooit in de bergen fietste
niet te gek zwaar zou zijn .
Het was een prachtige rit met wat heuvels tussen waar ik de Rijn verliet tot Zurich alwaar ik de Rijn weer op pikte tot Chur
ja en dan is het 16 KM alleen maar berg op , ik deed het niet slecht hoor , soms een eindje lopen
maar eigenlijk en dat heb ik steeds gezegd omdat het hoosde van de regen en ik een goed kan zwemmen ben ik dus al zwemmend boven gekomen .

For the last 20 years I have been going to an small Swiss village called Lenzerheide at first only in the winter for an beautiful skiing holyday always three weeks in order to enjoy it to the fullest. Than I went there in the summer as well, to do some walking and I went there twice on my bicycle from the Netherlands, the first time I followed the river Rhein so it would not be to hard, for someone coming from an country flat as an pancake.

 From this trip I have no diary, but I can tell you it was beautiful and there was only one real mountain to climb, from Chur up to Lenzerheide and since that was my first it took me some time, I even had to walk some and it was raining like mad so I most likely made it because I'm a good swimmer.

So the second time I went there I wanted to do some more climbing, and I did get all the climbing I wanted, the start was easy but the moment you cross the border in to Belgium, the roads are starting to run up and down, I went through the Ardennes the Vosges and the Jura in order to get some rhythm, before the real mountains showed up and from this tour I will try to give an impression.

  I started out with rain, with I had for the first two days, after that the wetter was fine sometimes a bit to warm, but that is what I can handle very well, in Belgium I followed the river Meusse as much as possible, but still there where an lot of hills to climb, some off them pretty steep, but than I had an beautiful sight upon the river that far below me meanders through the valley.

The only travelers who did not have to climb where the ships, they had locks to bring them up or down and the train, with stayed on the banks off the river I as an cyclist had to follow the road.

 As the landscape changes in to more hilly country, the language changes along with it, at first the people I meet still understand and speak Dutch, except for the ones that do not want to and after awhile all you hear and read is France. I don't care much about the changes in language, I can some German and English so I usually manage to get by, some folks ask me if I don't have any problems with the language, I always say no, take the French language I don't speak it I can't read it, so I try with German or English, and if that doesn't turn out I speak my own language, that is with hands and feet, together with the help off an little book how and what in French, and I never went hungry or thirsty, I always found an place to stay over night.

I came through old towns and villages some off them, I past last year when I followed an old pilgrim route, that ends in Santiago de Compostela, I did not go all the way, but went as far as Oloron at the foot off the Pyrenees, and from Dax with the bus back home. But this time I went in an different direction heading for the Vosges, where I would come above the 1000m for the first time on this trip. Driving through northern France, is like driving through history
         here has been a lot off fighting going on, and all around you see monuments reminding off that horrible era. Around the small city off Verdun where the scenery is so beautiful, and diversified with forest and fields, have died a lot off young man in one forest alone says the monument here have died 800.000 man between 1914-1918.  

So enough off that awful time, back on the road mostly nice and lovely country roads, above all quiet, sometimes a little bit more traffic
 leaving the river with goes south
I'm heading more east in de direction off the place called Toul
 where they have an beautiful cathedral, with is being renovated in its old glory.

On the city square I drink a few well earned pints off beer, while there is an small band playing good music
       and so ends another nice cycling day. For the last few day's I follow Canal-de l Est, with is made so there, where the river is not longer navigable, ships can still go further, I have seen sailboats coming from Sweden, being brought to the south off France so the next years holyday, they can sail back over the sea.

I am again following an river the Moselle this time but that will last only until Epinal and from there on de hills are getting higher since I will be in the Vosges.