There are literally hundreds of walks of various lengths in Europe. Some are regional trails, some span the width of an entire country, and a few span the width of the continent.

Probably two of the most famous trans-continental trails are: The Camino de Santiago (plus it’s feeder trails), and the Via Francigena.

The Camino de Santiago proper runs from St. Jean Pied de Port (France), to Santiago de Compostela (western Spain). There are multiple alternative routes and feeders all throughout Western Europe, totaling several thousands of miles … if you had a notion to walk them all.

The Via Francigena is a walk from Canterbury, England to Rome, Italy, about 1,200 miles.  Sigeric the Serious was the first (of note) to walk this route in 990 AD.  Seems he had something he wanted to pick up from the Pope.

Collectively, these two routes make an east-west and north-south cross of Europe, intersecting in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Our intent is to walk the whole of the Western and Southern portions of this crossing, roughly 1,800 miles.

It might be a tough read (double-click on map to enlarge it), but this year’s journey will be the section right after the RIGHT HAND TURN, from Lausanne, Switzerland to Pavia, Italy. (It’s in gray). We have walked the lower stretch of this Via Francigena route in 2019 (Lucca to Rome, Italy). Next year, God willing and the bodies working, we’ll finish this endeavor by hiking from Pavia to Lucca, Italy. We’ll see!

Thanks for being a part of our journey this year!

Today is Day 0, no official miles or climbing. We simply took the train to get in position.🚄

We arrived 2 days ago into Geneva

and quickly became tourists. Geneva is a truly beautiful city in so many respects. It’s only downside is that it’s expensive!

From Geneva, we took the train to Lausanne, the start of our journey and the intersection of the two great walks in Europe. At the town cathedral, we found the sign (small blue and yellow clam-shaped sign) marking the path of the Camino de Santiago (Chemin de St Jacques, in French), which leads to western Spain.

And down by the lakeshore, we found the markers indicating the path of the Via Francigena (route 70, in Switzerland), which leads to Rome.

Also by the lakeshore, we caught a glimpse of where our path was taking us. Wow! Disney “E” ticket!

Once we identified our path for tomorrow, we resumed our tourist-y behavior. First up was the Olympics Museum

And we saw the source for next year’s Olympic torch (Paris, ’24)

From there, we entertained the idea of playing chess with the locals,

but didn’t want to embarrass anyone (us?).

Tomorrow, we hike. We will want to start early as the temperatures for the next several days are expected to be high!

We’ll start early!  We look forward to walking this journey and hope you enjoy the read!

A demain!

Day 1: 13 miles walked and 1,100′ climbed.

The general plan for the day was to follow the lakeshore East by Southeast for about 15 miles.  Following a lakeshore should mean a flat profile,  which would be a good way to get into the groove of hiking again. That was the plan, and it started well.

Now, this area is a favored wine region in Switzerland, with the grapes grown on steep hills.

In order to appreciate these beautiful vineyards, the trail makers took us up steep paths to the vineyards, then back down, then back up …

Okay, it really was beautiful, so why complain?  We suppose because if we just filled these pages with superlatives, it’d be boring after a while.

We arrived in Vevey and noted two things:  Vevay is the world headquarters of Nestle. Now, their office buildings are right on the lake with a beach! Not a bad way to spend your lunch …

The second thing of note is that Vevey was the retirement home of Charlie Chaplin.

Charlie started his career making movies in the Niles district of Fremont (before there was Hollywood! ). That’s Bill’s hometown in Northern California.

Enough for now.  A demain!

Today was 17 miles, with 1,000′ of climbing. Totals are 30 miles hiked and 2,100′ climbed.

Lake Leman (Geneva to Americans) is just beautiful!  It’s about 30% larger than Lake Tahoe and every bit as stunning!

Our day began with a very quiet stroll along the lake,

Which was not at all like the night before, where thousands of Swiss headed outdoors on a Saturday eve to enjoy the warmth and beauty of a lakeside stroll.

We made it way through Montreux

home of the world famous Montreux jazz festival!

Eventually, we made it to the southeastern-most part of the lake and had to say adieu to Lake Leman! Not before watching an amazing parachute acrobatics competition taking place. It was cool!

It was also distracting, as, by the time we noticed that our trail signs were taking us in the wrong direction, we had walked 1.5 miles out of our way! Now, to fix it, we could backtrack an additional 1.5 miles, or … “freelance”. Bill chose “freelance” and Diane patiently went along 🤔!

All we has to do is:  1) walk along a busy road for a while, 2) cross a muddy creek, 3) skirt a highway, 4) cross some train tracks inappropriately,  and 5) … pray!

Well, we made it!

We intersected with the formal path

And continued like nothing happened!

We also met another pilgrim (long distance hiker) named “Lupo”. An Italian,  he started his walk in Canterbury, England and was headed to Milan (home). A really nice guy,  he gave us some good insight on the trails from England and through France, should we get that notion.

It was also hot! For as green as Switzerland is, they don’t seem to care for tree-covered trails!  We started at 7 am to get some miles in before it got too hot. Maybe 6 am would have been a better idea.

Enough for now. It continues to be stunning here!

Day 3; 12 miles walked and 1,500′ climbed. Our totals are now 42 miles walked and 3,600′ climbed.

One of the amazing features of walks like these is to watch the countryside, the culture and the dining change little by little each day. So far,  geography is the most rapidly changing thing.  We started with lakefront walking,

then to glacial valley.

We’re now entering a long canyon which will take us to the base of our major climb this year:  the Col du Grand St. Bernard, a mountain pass about 8,200′ in elevation.  I  copied Strava’s 3D image of our hike to show a sense of the change.

Tomorrow and much of the next day will be canyon hiking, with the full-on climbing starting Thursday.

Claims to fame:  Geneva was famous as the headquarters of the United Nations and World Health Organization. Lausanne, the headquarters of the Olympics Federation. Vevey had Charlie Chaplin, Montreux  had the Jazz festival. Even last night’s stay,  Aigle, was the headquarters of the UCI ( world cycling regulatory body).

So, what about St. Maurice? Well, their claim to fame is Smurfs! You know, those little blue guys!

Seems St. Maurice holds a four month festival honoring them every year!  Though here, the call the little buggers, ‘Schtroumpfs’! Say that five times, fast!.

Enjoy your day. We are enjoying ours, with Schtroumpfs and all!

Day 4: Today was 11 miles and 1,000′ of climbing. Totals are 53 miles walked and 4,600′ climbed.

Okay, this is our fourth day on the trail in Switzerland. It’s just another day on the road … except the road looks like:

And like,

And …

And …

And …

It’s just crazy beautiful and we haven’t hit the mountains, yet. That starts tomorrow!

So, today we walked past a beautiful waterfall right along the trail.

Our guidebook noted that it is called,  “Pissevache”. The guidebook also provides an English translation of that name. I’ll help the reader!  “Vache” means “cow” in French. Now,  “Pisse”, well, it means pretty much the same in French as it does in English.  The reader can do the translation from here!

Water: These days have been rather hot. Drinking enough water while hiking is vital. Normally, we’ll carry 2 or 3 quarts each. That’s not needed here!  Every small village, park, church, city hall, etc has one of these:

These are continuously flowing water displays. Sometimes, they look like lions or fish or statues, but they are everywhere. In Spain, and also in France and Italy,  we never felt comfortable drinking this water. In Switzerland? This country has a reputation for precision … and the locals drink from these sources. That’s good enough for us! We haven’t lacked water at all on this journey!

Tomorrow is a climbing day so we’ll rest up tonight!

Until then,

Today was 15 miles hiked and 3,000′ of climbing. Totals are 68 miles walked and 7,600′ climbed.

Another beautiful day, with this day being a transition from valley walking to climbing, with lots of ups and downs.

As we started the morning, it was clear that there was no where to go but up:

The guidebook had some interesting counsel about today … “many consider today’s stage the most difficult along the whole of the Via Francigena … “. Hmm.

So, what are the challenges? We’ll call them the 3 dangers of the fire swamp! While there are no rodents of unusual size,  these are the hazards:

1. Narrow ledge, steep drop-off:  The guidebook describes it as hiking on a narrow ledge with a 20 meter drop-off to the river, below. At one point the trail builders provide a handrail drilled into the hillside for support. Bill tried to snap several photos of this section, but they all came out blurry. Go figure. Nonetheless, here’s Diane entering the area and Bill crossing the suspension bridge, having made it through to the other side.

2. The slippery scramble section: For about a half of a mile, we traversed a moss-covered boulder field in the forest. There was literally no discernable trail, just YELLOW diamonds every 10′ or so directing you along. Absent those diamonds, it would have been daunting to attempt to end up at the correct point that the trail-proper resumed.

If you look carefully at the photo, above, you’ll see some of the directive diamonds. Again, it was difficult to capture the really tough sections because the “photographer” needed his hands to hold on.

3. The Rock Quarry Escape: After passing the first two hazards, you can be lulled into a sense that “you can handle anything!” Well, then you come to the major rockslide! The trail signs direct you into this “quarry”,

with no clear way out!  (Note that this slide are is much larger than appears in the photo). We scouted around and finally figured that if we got on the narrow ridge on the left, perhaps that might get us through. Clambering through boulders and scree, we made in onto the ridge and, sure enough, found trail signs just beyond the slide! Woohoo!

Now,  a 30 yr old would look at these challenges and say,  “what challenge?”. A 50 yr old might acknowledge the challenge but quickly say, “no big deal, I can do this!”. However, those of us on the far side of Social Security see the risks and also acknowledge our limits. Today, however, we were not at our limit (phew!).

By the way, the guidebook suggested taking a local train to skirt around these challenges. We considered it  … but not this time!

We’re less than 25 miles from the Grand St Bernard pass (8,200′), so we’ll have much more climbing ahead!

A bientot!

Today was 6 miles and 1,800′ of climbing. Totals are:  74 miles walked and 9,400′ climbed.

So, what’s an evening look like in the Alps? After dinner, we spent some time on our hotel balcony watching the moon set over the Alps

And the local train depart the village Station.

It was almost like a postcard hamlet!

This morning, as we were preparing to depart, our hotelier gifted Diane with her own St Bernard to keep her safe!

Then the hike began!  So many things to note! First, the beautiful trail signs

Next, the orderliness of the Swiss. Who stacks wood this neatly?

Then there’s the watch out for wolves sign.

The climbing

The river,

And our first view of the Grand St Bernard pass!

Wow! Not bad for 6 miles of hiking!

Today was a near-0.  Normally after about a week of trail hiking, we plan a day off, a “0”. This year, we noted that the towns around where we’d be resting were very, very small. Spending two nights in those towns would be a bit like watching paint dry! So, we opted for two Near-0’s! 6 miles today, and 4 miles tomorrow, instead of a 10 mile hike and then two nights of paint drying 🤔.

Now for the chores (laundry,etc).

Au Revoir

Day 7: Today was only 4 miles, but 1,200′ of climbing. Totals are now 78 miles hiked and 10,600′ climbed.

Today, the weather changed!  Where mid-day highs had been in the upper 90’s for over a week,

today started cool and will just be getting cooler!

The good news is that after Saturday, we’ll be dropping 4 – 6,000′ down into Italy, where it should be about 20 F warmer!

For the last couple days, we’ve had glimpses of the pass, so we’ve got to include yet another for yesterday’s stay in Liddes.

Signs: There’s no way of staying on trail without both good trail markings and a competent guidebook. Switzerland loves hiking, so there are a million trail options, each competing with each other for visibility.

What is most valuable about this is the GREEN “70”, the designation for the Via Francigena trail (ours), and the direction that the arrow points! Typically, there are multiple direction options at the signposts, so following that pointer is very valuable.

The next sign of interest is

This one has the advantage of telling you how long it will take to get to your destination. We’ve  learned to add 50% to their numbers!

Most often, the signs are less informative, but still valuable. They won’t tell you that you’re on the right trail, but at least they let you know  you are on a trail … which can be exceedingly valuable!

And so we get to our day’s destination. The photo, below, is a classic Swiss mountain hotel. Now, we’re not staying there … we’re in the nondescript hotel down the street!

Until tomorrow …