27th May 2017

27 May 2017

Pontalier (France) to L'Auberson (Switzerland) - 18kms

We left this morning after having breakfast at the Youth Hostel in Pontarlier, where we spent the night.  We were excited at the prospect of reaching Switzerland after 42 days on the road. 

A bit of excitement as we passed the local hospital as an emergency helicopter took off from its helipad!

Once again we had a sunny day which was great in the morning but not so good as the temperature rose to nearly 28 degrees.  Luckily about an hour before entering Switzerland it clouded over bringing much needed respite from the sun.  Did I say it was all uphill? We climbed to 1100 metres today, a small taste of things to come.  Soon we were seeing ski lifts on the horizon a reminder that we are going into winter skiing resorts.

At six minutes past one we reached the Swiss frontier.  It was a bit of an anticlimax as it was unmanned!  I had so looked forward to hugging a frontier guard and saying "we made it this far".  Instead we hugged each other and sat down on a nearby bench IN SWITZERLAND to eat our cold lunch of quiche, bought earlier this morning from a boulangerie on the outskirts of Pontalier.  Tonight we are resting in La Grange in L'Auberson.  La Grange is a Christian holiday centre, complete with bouncy castle. Can't wait!  Tomorrow we head for Orbe and then we are going to try to reach Lausanne in one day instead of two. It will be a very long day but will be worth it. Switzerland is beautiful but extremely expensive so we are going to try and minimise our stay here if at all possible!