The heat relented a little today, with a high of a lowly 88. We moved the tent last night to try and get better airflow, and it might of worked (although I think it was just a little cooler last night). I think everyone slept for a least a few hours, so that was good. The sun woke us up at 7:45 or so, and we made quick work of breakfast and got out of there.

Getting on the bike was actually refreshing as the rush of air cooled us down and we got into a good rhythm. Route 5 was not that will marked at the beginning of the day, so we ended up just riding on roads and following signs to Yverdon, which was the next city we know route 5 went through. That turned out to be a good move, as we cut a good 10km off the trip.

Yverdon was a cool town. The center of town looks like an old square from medieval times. We decided that beheadings definitely used to take place here. They didn't allow any cars in the center of the city, so it was a nice place to relax and refill water at one of the many drinking fountains we've found here in Switzerland.

After our brief stop in Yverdon, we moved to our final destination of Estavayer-le-lac, a nice resort town. Our campsite is once again right on the lake, which worked out for a wonderful afternoon.

We arrived at the campsite at noon, and immediately hit the beach. The beach was fairly empty and we found a nice place in the shade to sit, read, and occasionally go for a dip in Lac de Neuchâtel. Right next to where we were camping was a water skiing and wakeboarding park. There's a cable that forms a large loop out into the lake and back, and tow ropes that hang off metal runners that go around the cable. One just sits on a dock with a wakeboard or water skis on, gets handed a tow rope handle by the operator, and waits for the next metal runner to come along. The operator then presses a button and the rope gets picked up by the runner and your on your way. It's pretty cool how it all works.

Matt and Mark went over and got 30 minutes of wakeboarding in. Nate opted to sit this event out. It was a blast. Matt got up first, after one fall, and Mark was quick to follow after a fall on his first attempt as well. It took us awhile to realize the operator was telling us to get larger boards (he was originally just speaking French and we had no idea he was speaking to us) but the bigger boards helped and we had a great time.

Note: No pictures of us, just others

After wakeboarding we went back into town for food. There was a Doner Kebab shop along the way, and we couldn't resist some Doner so went into the shop and got some Doner. It was delicious.

The trip to the grocery store brought us into town, which was very cool. In this town, this castle that used to be here is still very in tacked. Entering town from the north side, it looks like the road goes through an old castle door, which is pretty cool.

After overheating by going to the grocery store (I'm glad we're finishing biking in the mornings) we went back to the lake and drank some beers and talked to pass the time before dinner.

It's finally cooling off here, at least a little bit (though we were sweating just from eating dinner). I think it's around 84 and its the last bit of dusk as I write this, so we will hopefully sleep well tonight. Tomorrow we bike to Solothurn, and get closer to our final real stop in Switzerland, Zurich. The heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow, with a big storm, so we are looking forward to that.

All in all, a pleasant day, we just can't wIt for the heat to break.

Today was another scorcher with the high reaching 99.

Mark and Matt found a English catholic mass which they attended in the morning. Being told from an early age to dress up for church they felt a little uncomfortable walking in with flip flops and shorts but when the Scottish priest walked in with flip flops on they felt right at home.

The rest of the day was spent at the beach, grabbing food, and doing laundry. But mainly trying to stay cool. The highlight of the day was Matt taking out his sleeping pad onto the high seas to use as a floatie.

The weather seems to be cooling off a little so we might be able to sleep a little tonight. Last night was pretty terrible. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot again and we are back on the bikes. We might take Matt and Mark's Oma's advice and stop a couple to times to jump into the Rhine.

Happy 4th of July from the land of the neutrality!

Today was another scorcher with temperatures reaching the 90s again. Thankfully out bike ride was done by noon leaving us to swelter in the shade for the remainder of the day.

Today we bike to Lusanne, which is on Lake Geneva. Due to the importance of they day Nate flew the American flag off the back of the bike. We got a lot of (friendly) honks and one guy even pulled up next to Nate to chat. We also met an American couple for Oregon bike touring.

Upon arriving at the campsite we jumped in the lake to cool off and then went on a mission to find cold beer. As we've been learning, Europe doesn't believe in cold beer and so instead we had to improvise.

Also, in honor of the day Mark and Matt bought Budweiser... Only to learn that there is a Czech Budweiser.

We went to the beach again, to cool down and ran into a massive party and a handball competition. Mark and Matt had never seen handball before and these guys were going hard.

Our next mission was to find a grill for our burgers. They don't believe in public grills but the park attendant told us about disposable grills and so we bought one for 5 francs at the local gas stations. Nate also bought a liter of light fluid (since they didn't come any smaller). That turned out to be a good idea as it was the only way we could keep the fire going, the charcoal just did not want to burn.

We are currently sweating in the tent waiting for the temperature to hopefully drop. The beach is still bumping but if the temperature would just drop we would be able to fall asleep.

Happy 4th everyone!

When we first landed in Austria, we learned about "Die Föhn" from Nate's friend Rachel and her friend Joe. They told us Die Föhn is a hot wind that blows out of Italy and heats up the alps. Joe went on to explain that everyone in Innsbruck believes Die Föhn is to blame for various ailments, such as a fever or the flu. "Even reasonable people, like doctors" Joe said, "would attribute misgivings to Die Föhn." We are currently experiencing Die Föhn.

Today started in Zermatt, and after a slow morning off eggs and general laziness we started off down the road out of the valley at around 9am. We were all sad to leave the Zermatt and the Matterhorn, but our wallets were happy. The road out of Zermatt was quick and we averaged 30 km/hr down to Visp, and we were all in a good mood as we set off toward Martingy. This is the last time you could describe our mood as "good" for the rest of our day of biking.

The path down the Rhône was flat and fast. A few signs were missing and we got off track a few times, but all in all the biking was easy, except for the heat. The high today was 93F, and we biked around 90 of the 132 km we did today in that heat. (That being said, we also went down nearly a vertical mile today.)

Arriving in camp around 3:30pm we debated even setting up a tent because of the heat, but opted to set one up just in case. We also ran into ran into one of the groups of kids that we had seen camping in Zermatt, but they had taken the train here. Apparently tomorrow is the first day they start hiking, good luck to them and their instructors.

After the tent was setup, our day involved lying in grass complaining about the heat. Around 4, Matt and Nate went to the store to pickup a dinner of pasta with a red sauce and some peppers and onions. After eating around 2 lbs of food, we showered and returned to our regularly scheduled program of lying in the grass. At the time of writing this, it's finally bearable to were a shirt and pants and not move. Some serious thought went into going to the hardware store that's 5 minutes away and buying an extension cord and a fan. It's going to be a long night.

But no worries, we're in for more tomorrow. Luckily, tomorrow we only have 70km to go and the campsite is on a lake, so we're looking forward to that. Sorry, not many pictures today, but we'll try and get more tomorrow.

In summary, Die Föhn is in full swing, and giving us all sorts of issues. Tomorrow hopefully we can post this from a lake.

Today we didn't leave camp till noon. We woke up, had some breakfast, rinsed out some clothes and set them out to dry before heading out to take a tram ride to Glacier Paradise, which is the tallest glacier in the world standing over 13,000 feet.

Since our legs were killing us from the vertical mile and a half descent we hiked yesterday we decided to take the gondola up and down to a beautiful tram which would take us to the top.

The tram ride and the top was beautiful with stunning view of the surrounding peaks and and valley. From the top you can see France, Italy, and (obviously) Switzerland.

While up there we ran into Nick again come down from his summit of a peak whose name I forget. He really made us look lazy as not only did he summit a peak, but he was going to find a place to bivy up there for the night to prepare for his Mt. Blanc ascent.

We came back to camp and made a cheap dinner while meeting to nice women who had moved to Switzerland in the recent years. One from New Zealand and one from Canada. They let us know that this was unseasonably hot and the heat should brake this week which is good since we are on the bikes again tomorrow.