Today I went for a walk and it felt warm enough for me to skip on wearing a layer. It was warm, around six degrees, and sunny. It felt like Spring, and it feels as though cycling could almost be considered. The cycling season is nice. I speak about cycling because I think that this year, like the last two, will be spent in self-isolation until we have zero new cases for two weeks in a row.
I am surprised by thirty two cities. Did I drive through them or walk through them? A quarter of my travel was green.
View of the Alps
Despite people doing what they can to keep the pandemic going, by not vaccinating, by not wearing masks, by not minimising social interactions, by avoiding busy shops we are in a 3000 new people infected per day routine in Switzerland. For some reason, fatalists and others have taken the decision that the pandemic can’t be ended, and that we might as well live with it.
I saw a deer
What do I mean by such an odd combination of words? That today it was warm. 25°c at the time when I set off for my bike ride. It was warm enough to feel comfortable in summer cycling equipment. What was more unusual, for this time of year, is how dry the landscape is. The fields are dry. The sides of the road are dry. Grass lawns look dry, where they have been cut too short. It was a good day to cycle.
There is a hill that is steep. You often see people struggle up it, trying to beat their own records and in so doing get knackered by the top. Yesterday I went up such a hill and I felt low on energy so I didn’t bother to sprint. I just focued on getting up to the top. As I went I saw a group of runners running down towards me and I wanted to take a picture but I was too slow so I took a picture of my shadow as I cycled instead.
Today during my walk I noticed a sticker on a sign for EuroVélo.com. I don’t know how new the project is but I had not paid attention to the URL before. I like the idea of a European Network of Cycling Routes. I don’t need to capitalise these words. I just did, for some reason.
During my walk I was listening to two podcast episodes of a single podcast about hiking the AT and other hikes in the US. It’s interesting and it makes us want to travel to the US to try these walks. The drawback is that A) It requires travelling to the US and getting a visa for long enough to complete the challenge and B) We have plenty of walking and cycling trips in Europe to enjoy, and best of all they should be quieter because fewer people think about using these routes, for now.
The unthreatening clouds did not bother me during my bike ride but it was cooler than sometimes at this time of year. I occasionally felt that an extra layer or two would be welcome. That’s unusual in July at this time of year.
I chose routes that kept me as far from cars as possible. I also chose wider roads. They may be safer. The challenge is to find roads where cars are banned.
A road between green trees.
When the weather is good and there is no wind it makes sense to go for a bike ride. The roads were quiet for the most part but a few cars still passed too close and too fast. The challenge is to find the quietest, least dangerous route.
I am still looking for a route where I never feel in danger. For now I find routes where I am comfortable, for the most part.
Two weeks ago, it looked as though next summer we could be out of the pandemic. This weekend, it looks as though the pandemic will never end. Every single time Europe looks as if it has a chance of ending the pandemic, it breaks for either Christmas or the Summer holiday. Every single time Switzerland stands an excellent chance of stopping community transmission, it reopens things.
To add insult to injury tonight 65,000 people are going to watch a football match in a stadium, and retail unions are requesting that masks are dropped as a requirement in shops. My entire reason for going exclusively to food shops is that we’re in a pandemic and I don’t trust people to behave appropriately during a pandemic.
Leslie - Jul 3, 2021
When living in the US, my husband would avidly watch the Tour de France because it was a way for him to see France and French landscapes from so far away. He loves cycling as well, so that helped, but I’ve noticed that he watches the Tour much less avidly now that we’re back in Europe and he gets a decent (well, pre-COVID, anyway) dose of France paysages on a regular basis. He still tunes in to see how things are going, but it’s much less a glued-to-the-screen gazing onto France rolling past the cameras than it was back in the day. :)