Stage 9: Heading for France, Camping on the Rhine
After reaching Lucerne yesterday, today is a different kind of stage. The goal is no longer “arriving” it’s now mostly about covering ground, heading north, toward France. And with that shift comes something else: the first vague unease about the journey home. No concrete plan yet, no fixed route just the realisation that this question will need an answer somewhere in the coming days.
Town gates and clock towers along the way
Today’s route threads through a string of small Swiss towns, each with its own medieval gate tower or church clock rising above the rooftops. At the first stop, around 8 in the morning, a handsome town gate appears, painted with a knight figure and coats of arms on the façade the kind of architecture that makes a cyclist stop almost without thinking.
A bit further on, around 10 o’clock, the route passes a village church with a plain, tall tower and a small threewheeled delivery van parked in front a nice contrast between old and modern.
Shortly after eleven comes an impressive, almost fortress-like clock tower right in the middle of a compact town centre, complete with a sundial and frescoes on the façade. Exactly the kind of spot where the route hands you a small, unplanned history lesson between all the kilometres.
Flat land, on toward the Rhine
After midday, the landscape opens up. The hills of the previous days give way to a wider, flatter valley — fields, high-voltage pylons, and the outline of a larger city in the distance. This is the kind of stretch where you find your rhythm: no more spectacular views, just a steady, functional push north.
The campsite on the Rhine
Then, at the end of the day, the reward for all those kilometres: a campsite Kaiseraugst right on the water of the Rhine, somewhere near the French border. The tent is up within a few minutes, and the water stretches out wide and calm in front of you exactly the kind of spot that lets you fully unwind after a day full of tarmac.
In the evening, as the light softens, the view over the water is even better: a railway bridge in the distance, the outline of a village on the far bank, and the sound of the river slowly drifting past.
Covering kilometres, with a question in the background
This stage may lack yesterday’s big highlight, but it carries a different layer instead: along the way, the question of what the journey home will look like keeps surfacing. Ride back? Take the train? No answer yet just the awareness that the answer has to come somewhere along the road. For now there’s only the next day, and the next campsite.
