We had been longing for the chance to return to Switzerland ever since our first tour there in 2002, and this year, finally, all the ducks lined up and we were off. Our originally planned contingent of four was reduced to three when Gavin had to cancel at the last minute, but we were still very much looking forward to a great adventure.

We were going to travel to Switzerland by land in one day this year, which meant starting very early at Newton abbot – 6.08am to be precise. In order to get ultra-cheap tickets we had bought a special LeisureDay ticket from Rail Europe, but that ticket was only valid if we took the slow train from Exeter to Waterloo. It’s hardly surprising that, once we had changed at Exeter to the 06:28 Waterloo train, we spent a good deal of time trying to catch up lost sleep.

Arriving at Waterloo at 10:19 we didn’t have far to walk to get to the Eurostar trains, which leave from Waterloo, so we had to admit this was an advantage in going on that route. We had to disassemble our bikes outside the Eurostar terminal and pack them into the bike bags we had brought with us, since Eurostar trains don’t carry whole bikes for some reason. There wasn’t a huge amount of space to carry out this operation, but an official told us it would be OK to do it by the wall in front of one of the three entry gates, which was closed at that time. Before we had finished, however, they opened the gate, and both Tao and Joe got told off by another station official for being in the way! Tao helpfully suggested it might be easier for them to scan a whole bike rather than a bag of bits.

Half an hour later we lugged our bikes through passport control, where full passport checks were carried out, and we were then able to board the 12:09 service to Paris, which sped through the tunnel once it had negotiated the slow tracks to Folkstone. Once again we were very sleepy after such an early start, and both Tao and Joe were caught snoozing on video.

We arrived at a very busy Gare du Nord station in Paris at 15:59 local time just as a thunderstorm was depositing its huge load on the city. Tao immediately found some luggage trolleys which made the task of carrying our bagged bikes and luggage off the platform a good deal easier, but this was only delaying the difficult task we faced of carrying everything through the Paris Metro to Gare de Lyon station. We would have far preferred to reassemble the bikes first, but since the TGV train also required bikes to be in bags, we just didn’t have the time to assemble and disassemble again. So we had no choice but to make the best of the situation. It was very hard work dragging bikes and panniers such a long way, and we saw virtually nothing of Paris while we were there except the Metro stations.

We caught the 1804 TGV train from Gare de Lyon for our four-hour journey to Lausanne in Switzerland. When the guard checked our tickets he found something wrong with them and surcharged us several Euros each, but it wasn’t really clear to us what was wrong with them. We welcomed the chance of a nice long rest after all the difficulties in Paris however. Michael was caught on camera enjoying the Millie's Cookies he had bought in London.

We arrived in Lausanne just after 10pm, a few minutes later than the scheduled arrival of 21:58. We had stayed at Lausanne hostel on our last visit but we had never ridden there from the station, since last time we started the tour at Basel. We knew roughly where it was though, so with a little guesswork we managed to find it. The hostel was still the prison-like concrete structure it had been in 2002, but we all had a good night’s sleep in our modern 4-bed room on the ground floor.

We had a bit of a lie-in this morning after such a busy day yesterday, finally getting up for our provided breakfast after 9am. Lausanne hostel is large, so breakfast was canteen-style but perfectly acceptable. Joe had a problem with his rear gear cable that needed sorting, as he couldn’t change gear at all. Before we left Michael demonstrated the satisfying sound made by the room lock when the card was inserted.

We had the rest of the morning to enjoy Lausanne, so we made our way past the Olympic building to the Vidy Promenade, on the edge of Lake Geneva, and followed the shoreline back into Lausanne. The sun was shining and the whole scene was every bit as good as we remembered from four years earlier. We could even see the Alps rising out of the mist on the far side of the lake.

There was also something new to see – a massive outdoor cinema screen and seating, erected for the summer at Quai du Vent-Blanc and sponsored by Orange. It was folded down during the daytime, but we were fascinated to know what it would be like to watch a movie in the open air after dusk.

We needed to get lunch, and whilst looking for a supermarket we found a souvenir shop filled with hundreds of cuckoo clocks. Next, we found a Pastry shop, which suited Michael perfectly, and finally the Migros supermarket that we had been looking for. We took our food down to the lakeside, at Place du Vieux-Port, where Joe entertained us by feeding a flock of acrobatic birds that could catch crumbs in mid-air. There was also a large group of schoolchildren having lunch in the same area, and we were not at all surprised when they turned out to be extremely well behaved.

Our plan today included taking a train halfway across Switzerland to Olten and continuing the ride from there. It took us half an hour to find the railway station, and then we just managed to buy our tickets in time to catch the 13:20 train. It was an impressive double-decker train, and when we were on board, we began to discover other features that made it better than any other train we had been on – there was ample space for bikes and luggage, close to our seats, and there was even a creche upstairs for toddlers. Tao called it a Super Dooper train, which seemed like a pretty good description.

We had to change trains at Bern, then found ourselves sitting near a Swiss teacher who turned out to be very interesting. We commented how well-behaved the schoolchildren had been at Lausanne.

At Olten we disembarked and resumed cycling, following National Cycle Route 5 towards Brugg. The weather was still fine and sunny when we started. Riding through Schönenwerd we came across two factory outlet warehouses adjacent to each other selling bikes and sports equipment. Tao found his dream bike, Joe bought a cassette and a fancy speedo, and Michael bought a cone spanner and a flashy orange cycling shirt. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that we were there for nearly an hour.

Continuing along Route 5, which followed the River Aare for the most part, we detoured at Aarau to get some refreshments from the Migros supermarket there, and while we were inside a thunderstorm came along and kept is inside a little longer than we had planned. Now rather late we set off at high speed through the rain along the woodland cycle path, but there was some kind of clay in the paths that dissolved in the rainwater, and Joe, who didn’t have mudguards, quickly got filthy.

Typically, the rain stopped just as we approached Brugg. There was a traditional Swiss water trough outside, so Joe washed off the worst of the mud out there. Somehow, Michael had lost his water bottle along the final section of cycle path, but there was no way he was going back to look for it now.

Brugg Youth Hostel was a very old building, and one of the consequences of that was that it had no internet. We had apparently arrived too late to get food, so after showering and settling into our room we were directed down the path to Brugg Leisure Centre where there was a Pizza Shop. We selected one from the menu, which the proprietor assured us was “a very fine pizza”, and indeed it was pretty good. There were a number of flies buzzing around however, which detracted somewhat from the experience. One of the bottles of condiments on the tables was called Maggi, something Michael had never heard of, so Tao, who knew all about it of course, brought Michael up to speed.

Back at the hostel we slept well in our ancient room, which definitely had plenty of Swiss character.