After the cruise, Stu and I went to Switzerland for a few days, and I found it charming, beautiful and what everyone always says it is- steep, and hard to describe!
We spent one day while we were in Interloken riding electric assist bikes. We rode up the valley on a tour with a lady guide(who was in much better shape than I). My favorite part of that bike ride was stopping for a dark chocolate hot chocolate at a local little dive..interesting people there. (young, free spirit dreadlock, etc..)
After that bike ride we had 2 days off from riding, then started our adventure riding electric assisted bikes over the countryside of Switzerland.
Many nice farms, where they are so steep they have to use special hay mowers to cut the hay. I swear the sheep and cows all have bells, and all must have one side shorter legs than the other, to be able to stand on those hills to eat!
I enjoyed the sights, but after a few days, you get used to seeing the farms, and I wasn't thrilled with the uphills we had to climb. But, you say, you had electric bikes! well, they are "assist" bikes. You still have to pedal, and on the steep hills that went on for a couple of miles or so, I had to get off and walk the bike. Luckily, they also have assist on walking your bike. Otherwise I would have expired from pushing such a heavy bike uphill!
The downhill riding was Stu's favorite. He loves speed. I do not. I think 23 mph was my fastest down the steep hills. I also did not like riding in town- I didn't know the streets and the lights, etc.
I did like riding through the forests on the logging roads, and I did enjoy seeing all the animals and people who live there. The restaurants we stopped at for lunches were wonderful. Yum, especially the local weinerschnitzel and the pommes- fries. They served really good bread with local tomatoes and cucumbers. The bakeries were the best ever, especially the one in Interloken.
So, when we were on the river cruise down the Rhine river, we rode bikes in a couple of cities we stopped in. I enjoyed riding the bike trails( not mountain bike trails!) and didn't have electric assist on the two later ones. We even went across the river on a foot ferry that also took bikes. The river was very high, and there were problems with some of the cruise boats, but we did fine.
The last bike ride was in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Interesting guides at the bike shop. I liked ours-Stuart from England. Outdoorsman, mountain climber type guy who wore wooden shoes (he says they are great)(that's him with the orange shirt on) while he rode his bike on the tour. Stu took up the rear, and I was in back behind a young couple from Singapore who didn't ride well. I spent most of the time watching him, and Stu spent a lot of time helping the less able bike riders untangle themselves when they fell, or putting chains back on!
I do like to ride bikes. I am not the spandex/long distance type, but I like being outside, and the bikes become like pets to me! Personalities and everything!
Give bike riding a try sometime, it's pretty great!
