Two Five Kilometre Hikes and a Run in Gruyère

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Yesterday I woke up feeling tired so I questioned whether I should cancel the Gruyère hike but chose not to. I felt more tired than usual and I couldn’t understand why until I checked my activities. I ran five kilometres on Friday, then again on Saturday, and then Sunday I went for a relatively short walk.

Originally my plan had been to rest oon Saturday but for some reason I didn’t listen to that desire. The result is that my calfs felt taut, and when I walked to the train station I felt slow and heavy. Now it’s clear why I felt this way.

The hike around Gruyère is around 10km with 330m of climbing and 240m of descending. It’s relatively easy with one or two passages in a forest and the occasional steep bits but with nothing too technical.

On this hike you have views of snow covered mountains, cattle eating grass, some Toblerones made of cement, that served as a defensive line in case of attack during the second World War.

One of the highlights is “Le Pont Qui Branle, but it doesn’t actually shake when you cross it. It’s nice and solid. If we were not mistaken on graffito is from 1983 and yet is still clearly readable.

What I like about this route is that it’s a gravel path, which, I think could be part of a nice cycling route that I should take the time to explore this year, if the weather holds, or next year, if it doesn’t.

With this hike you have three opportunities when you finish. You can visit the castle and see rooms that were decorated in various styles for different ages, you can stop and have a fondue and meringue with raspberries, or you can go to the Fondue shop (not the official name) and get a fondue set, cheese and more.

And Finally

While coming home from the hike I saw that someone had organised a bike ride for today, which I would now be on. I decided to miss it because the logistics were complicated, and as I felt tired yesterday I felt that it would be rational to rest and recharge today, ahead of the run on Friday, and possible other activities on other days.

My desire is to explore the cycling routes around there in the near future.