Basel to Interlaken

Tinguely's water sculpture outside the museum

Monday May 25, posted late.  We had intended to visit the Tinguely Museum this morning but found it was closed (Judy misread the site info).  It also turned out to be a holiday. Based upon past experience we expect to run into many of those in France. But Switzerland? So instead we walked along the Rhine for an hour and then departed Basel for a very non-linear ride to Interlaken. (I'll let Rob try to describe the route if he wants).

At 1:30 we stopped for a break in Beinwil, watched the lake ferry and sailboats, and decided to splurge on a fine lunch with view.  Fine, that is, until evening when the lunch turned against me.  

We have to stay off the freeways in Switzerland since we do not have a motorway vignette (tax card).  Back roads would be our choice anyway but it meant we had to go through either Lucerne or Berne.  Rob chose the former, and when he found us riding right through the center of town, he decided that it would be fun to revisit one of our favorite memory-spots (previous-&-only visit 1974). And so we spent an unplanned hour walking the waterfront, surrounded and jostled by huge numbers of tourists (mostly Japanese and some Indian) ALL taking photos, mostly of themselves.

Lucerne pedestrian bridge

Rain started as we departed so we suited up, and the 90 minute ride to Interlaken was a wet one and colder than expected. We're here for two nights luckily, since Tuesday's weather isn't promising for riding the Simplon pass into Italy.