Cycling The Globe

Distance: 70.0 km
Ride time: 3:46:54
Average: 18.5 km/h
Max speed: 35.6 km/h
Total: 56365 km

My friend Roger works at CERN in Switzerland but lives across the border in France – that’s a popular way for people around Geneva to set up their life to get the best of both worlds. As I had breakfast with Roger the rain came down outside… a good excuse for an extra cup of coffee and a chat before setting off. Thanks for such a great stay amigo, looking forward to catch up again soon.

Together with all the other pendlers I crossed the border into Switzerland and headed to downtown Geneva, passing the UN headquarters on the way towards the lake.

Luckily the rain stopped as I reached the shore of Lake Geneva. I was now back in familiar territory; when I lived in Lausanne back in 2005 I had my bike with me as well. A couple of times I had cycled along the lake to Geneva and back, and I still remembered the majority of the route – you don’t easily forget the views of Lac Leman.

As I got closer to Lausanne I felt the excitement rising. Deciding to move from Copenhagen to Lausanne for a year as an exchange student had been a true life defining moment for me. Had I not taken the step I imagine I would have finished my engineering degree back in Denmark, gotten a job in a big company and ended up with a house, car, dog, family in a pretty conventional lifestyle. Instead I went to Lausanne, got new friends from all over the world, started travelling, and haven’t stopped since.

I passed the first suburbs of Lausanne and then my old university was suddenly right there on the other side of the road. Memories kept coming back as I cycled through campus; the new friends I made, the classes I took, the parties and the trips we made together, and how all these experiences had turned me into a more open and confident person.

I continued along the shore of Lake Geneva until I reached the beautiful harbour at Ouchy.

Then it was time to meet up with my Danish friend Morten who I met here in Lausanne 10 years ago. Morten came back and has now set up an interesting life being involved in several start up companies – including his latest idea trouvetavoie.ch – never a boring moment in his company.

Morten is also the kind of person who enjoys the good things in life which resulted in the most expensive dinner in Cycling The Globe history. Oh well, when in Switzerland…