One Sunday in March I had one of my craziest adventures ever. For a few days, I had been talking with a friend about hitch-hiking around Europe, and it turned out he had done quite a bit himself as well. We had started to talk about doing a trip, and then we got the idea of having a hitch-hiking race. We would pick a destination and see who got there first. Then, one Saturday night, we actually decided that the next morning we would race to Basel (in Switzerland, about 200 km away) and then hitch-hike back the same day. So on Sunday morning we took the street car to Baden Baden (maybe 20 km away), to a stop near a gas station on the Autobahn. We agreed that it would be stupid to turn down a ride, so if anyone had room for two we would go together. Well in Baden Baden two guys from Bremen on their way to Spain picked us both up and gave us a lift to Freiburg. It only took us about 5 min to find that ride. Then in Freiburg, after not more than just 5 min again, I found a guy who wasn't just going to Basel but to Lausanne (in the south of Switzerland on Lake Geneva)! He also had room for both of us. At first we thought we would just go part of the way, since Lausanne is quite far (about 400 km from KA). We had to keep in mind that we still had to get back too! (I had work the next day). Well once in the car we changed our minds and decided to go all the way to Lausanne. By 2:45 PM we were there (we had been travelling for about four hours at this point). The weather was absolutely incredible, no clouds, just pure sunshine and relatively warm for March as well. Lausanne has a beautiful large cathedral; here is one of its towers. Near the cathedral is the university's library. Because it was so clear we could see the Alps on the other side of the lake, which I couldn't see the last time I was in Lausanne in 1996. We stayed in Lausanne for about two hours, spending most of our time in Ouchy, the part of Lausanne which lies right on the shore of Lake Geneva. Ouchy is always very busy in the summer with lots of tourists. Lausanne is on a rather steep slope; there is a train which pulls passengers up from Ouchy into the centre of Lausanne. After the two hours we decided we had better start to head back. Since it is illegal to hitch-hike on the Autobahn (l'Autoroute in Lausanne, which is French speaking), we started by taking the bus to the edge of town, they went to the first gas station on a smaller highway heading north. There I found an English guy who was willing to take us to the next town, even though he wasn't going that far. He was nuts, and drove about 180 km/h (illegal by far anywhere in Switzerland) on a small highway. He ended up taking us through a few towns, until we found another gas station where we would have a good chance of finding a ride. There I found a young Swiss girl who took us a bit further. I had to speak French with her, which was fun. I think my French isn't really that bad, although it is very possible that she was speaking slowly and clearly for me, a dumb anglophone from Canada. Well anyway after these two rides we still weren't 1/4 of the way back home and it was getting dark. Sebastian (the guy I was travelling with) found a German-speaking Swiss couple who could take us to Bern (the capital of Switzerland), and get us to a gas station on the Autobahn. The dialect of German-speaking Swiss people is so strong that I can't even understand them. Once in Bern, we quickly found two German guys on their way to a town near Stuttgart, which is about an hour away from KA. This was fantastic. We went with them and I found out that the driver is also a Canadian/German (like me), and that his company has an office in Waterloo, ON. Small world, eh? He gave me his card and told me that if I ever wanted a job I should call him! Not so bad I thought! He was nuts too, and wouldn't accept anything under 220 km/h as a reasonable Autobahn speed once we were over the border in Germany (there are limits in Switzerland). We did the 155 km from the border to Stuttgart in about 45 min! Until this point, Sebastian and I had always been travelling together, and we never really had a race! But in Stuttgart I found a couple coming back from a ski vacation that only had room for one, so I left with them. It turns out that about 5 min later Sebastian found a ride with another crazy BMW driver and he actually got home before I did! Well that was my crazy Sunday adventure. Later in the month, I was in Switzerland again on a ski vacation. After skiing I hitch-hiked across the whole country from East to West and found myself near Lausanne again, this time visiting some friends. In good weather, the view from their backyard includes Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest peak (4807 m). Before leaving I got a shot of me with Lake Geneva and the Swiss/French Alps as a background. Back to the Main Page - Zurück zur Hauptseite