Swiss.crossing- Day 0/12

I realize that I am leaving. Without impatience, but with a slight anxiety like before an exam.

I realize that I am leaving, and above all that I am leaving my lover… we have never been separated for so long. And for the moment I feel like this feeling is taking over. I don’t realize at all the adventure that awaits me.

At the station my eyes are wet. I am leaving. I have imagined it so much, prepared it so much, that this day seems unreal, and even if I am still “at home” it is as if this train station is already foreign to me…

I’m not leaving, I’m gone. 

On the way for 5 hours on train…

The train rides the Valais valley up to Visp, then I change train. I’ll stay in the ICE 8 all the way to Romanshorn, 3h20 farther, at the Lake of Constance lakeshore. 

After the Lötschberg tunnel, in which I have a picnic, I am in the Kander valley, heading to Spiez, in these hilly landscapes surrounded by mountains, a bit similar to the ones I’m going to run through. 

When I look at these country roads, these paths, these fields, these forests, through the window of the train, I begin to realize the “task” that awaits me… I imagine myself running there, and I will not go at the speed of a train… There is “work” to do… But I am feeling well, serene… Come what may…

Spiez, the Lake of Thoune, Thoune, Bern, the fields of the Plateau, the castles clinging to the hills, then Zurich, Frauenfeld where I see the barracks where I felt so alien 30 years ago…then the countryside again, under the sun. 

In fact, the further I go, the more serene I feel. It even seems that I won the weather lottery, so everything is going well.

Change of train in Romanshorn, direction Rorschach. I see for the first time the lake of Constance on the left, and I decide to get off the train in Horn/TG, one station before my destination, and to finish the trip by running. 

On the one hand it will allow me to stretch my legs for 5 km, after this long train ride, but the real reason (chhht) is that the village of Horn is in Thurgau, which will allow me to run in 1 more canton, and make me advance in my other challenge, running in 21 Swiss cantons in this year 2021.

So here we go for the first kilometers of my adventure. I feel great, it’s easy, it’s flat, I’m going easy, I feel like on vacation. I am in fact. The banks of the lake are very well arranged, long walks, and here and there bars at the water’s edge, which are very tempting… 

I quickly reach Rorschach where I settle in the youth hostel. Bunk beds, but alone in the room, with a view on the big swimming pool, the lake, and in the background Germany. I obviously settle in a bottom bed, it would be too stupid : “he gives up his trip before having started it by falling from the ladder of his bed”…

I settle down quickly, I don’t have much stuff to put away, I have a shower, and I go out to sit down on a terrace on the lakeshore to benefit from the sun which is very very pleasant. And considering the circumstances, the charm of the place, the temperature, there is absolutely no chance that I resist to drink one or two beers for the aperitif.

And indeed, I do not resist…

I still take advantage of the sun while having dinner on a terrace: the ideal preparation for long runs: hamburger, fries and beer.

Back to the hostel and rest…

Can’t wait to start for real…

(NB : *for more about the projet, the story/gallery for each stage, click here / *for more about what’s in the backpack I’ll be carrying, click here)