Swiss lanes

9th Day
Wed
Date 06- Sept
Start Rolle
Destination Martigny
Kilometres 94
Cumulative Kms 681
Ave speed (kph) 20.5
Max speed (kph) 46.6
Time taken 05:35
Max Height (m) 530
Today climb (m) 440
Cum.climb (m) 5510

This morning I slept through until the alarm went off at 07:40. Then we had our best breakfast so far, as much food as we could eat, despite competition from a large business group at the next table. Leaving a message of appreciation for the owner, we got going a little after 09:00 on a fine warm day. And it remained warm and sunny all day.

A few kilometres down the road I came across the first cycle lanes. These were well designed and maintained, contrary to what we have in Ireland. Here they went from the outskirts of a town, through the town, complete with their own traffic lights, and left one safely on the open road on the other side of the town.

Ireland could learn from the Swiss example and in fairness, a major report - the Dublin Transport Initiative - issued in May 1994 is having a major impact on the development of the transport infrastructure for the City. As part of the study nearly 2,500 cyclists were interviewed and revealed typical Dublin cyclists to be young with over two thirds being aged between 17 to 34 and dominated by males - only one in four of those interviewed were female. Somewhat surprisingly nearly six in ten cyclists were involved in accidents - three quarters of which were with a vehicle, nevertheless less than a quarter owned a helmet and only two thirds of those always wore it. The Report includes a commitment to promoting cycling as a safer more comfortable and more convenient means of transport particularly through the establishment of an efficient and convenient network of cycle lanes, as distinct from the present disjointed patchwork of routes. Oh dear, Oh dear: was that really 1995 wehn I wrote that paragrahp: now 12 years on and still not a route like the Swiss.

In Switzerland the routes were well used and I met a lot of cyclists out and about that day. These included one couple, each of which had heavy front and rear panniers. Nothing unusual in that but the man was towing a dog in a trailer. The dog looked very pleased with himself as he surveyed the world from the comfort of his mobile kennel.

Nothing is ever perfect though and I found I had to constantly adjust to the fact that the green signs here indicate motorways and blue for ordinary roads. This is the reverse of the position at home or indeed in France.

We stopped for a snack at the edge of Lake Geneva to enjoy the scenery and decided to call Cecilia on the mobile phone and leave a message on her answer phone just to let her know we were having a great time and to hope she was not working too hard. But within minutes Frances got the upper hand by phoning from her holiday in Dingle using her mobile. Sure where would you be without them.

It really was a magnificent day. What more could you ask for. Good company. Great scenery. The wind at my back. The sun beaming down from a blue sky. The water lapping at the lake edge. Snow capped mountains rising majestically on all sides. We stopped for lunch at Villeneuve by the side of the lake and Séamus outdid himself again. While I was seated comfortably he wandered along the other restaurants that were all set up under canvas along the promenade and decided he liked the menu at the next one better. So we decamped; had a fine meal and then set off again.

Séamus drove ahead and sorted out a hotel and we met outside Martigny where he gave me directions. I though I had followed them correctly but the long straight road was heading out of town again so I was about to turn back when wolf whistles from a group of girls standing at the side of the road ensured I went on a bit further. And there was the hotel. On the television we watched the sad decline of our national soccer team as Austria beat Ireland.


Tomorrow would be a day to tackle the mountains head on!