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green scene In this world of bigger, better, faster, more, taking a slower, Greener approach to travel can be an eye-opening experience.
t’s time for a break. Looking for a caveau where we can sample wines from the vineyards through which we’ve been biking, we pedal up a steep road to the village of St. Saphorin. Small, stone-walled terraces built by Cistercian monks in the 12th century cascade down the precipitous slopes to the shoreline of Lake Geneva far below. Sailboats dot the lake, and the still snow-laden peaks of the Alps pierce the horizon across the lake’s tranquil waters. I’ve traveled this route by train and by car several times before, but now I feel as if I’m seeing it for the first time. On this Swiss spring day, with apple and cherry trees bursting forth in bloom, it seems the more human pace of a bicycle engraves the rich beauty, like a slow exposure, more deeply in my mind. We’ve already slalomed through crowds of families strolling on lakeside paths and browsing in the Saturday morning market on a colorful square in Vevey, where Charlie Chaplin lived. Later, in Lausanne, we plan to stop on the city’s pristine lakefront road to visit the Olympic Museum, and in Morges, at the end of the day, we’ll sit amid endless beds of colorful tulips, relax over tall amber beers and share a Belgian waffle covered in fresh strawberries for dessert. People have long experienced the pleasures of Europe at a slower speed on guided biking or walking tours, but recently launched SwitzerlandMobility has pushed the concept to new, unprecedented heights, thanks to the organizational and infrastructural ingenuity of the Swiss. The alliance of national private and public entities offers self-guided, nonmotorized, nonpolluting travel on a 20,000-kilometer (12,427-mile) network of well-signed paths, trails and rivers that lead into every corner of this geographically blessed country. The numbers are stunning: • 57 hiking routes, broken into 378 one-day stages, meander
60 Sky march 2009
By Roger Toll over 6,300 km (3,915 miles); • 64 road-biking routes, broken into 225 one-day stages, traverse 8,500 km (5,282 miles); • 17 mountain-biking routes, broken into 89 one-day stages, climb and descend over 3,300 km (2,051 miles); • 16 in-line skating routes, broken into 42 one-day stages, extend over 1,000 km (621 miles); and • 15 paddling river routes, broken into 23 one-day stages, descend 330 km (205 miles). The network boasts 100,000 signposts; 1,200 partner hotels, hostels and restaurants; and 57 printed route guides with easyto-follow maps and explanations, each printed in English, French and German. The Swiss take to the countryside on weekends with surprising zeal, and in such passion lies the genesis of SwitzerlandMobility. In 1993, Cycling in Switzerland Foundation launched a network of nine national bike-touring routes. In 1999, the Swiss Hiking Federation joined forces with the cyclists to further develop and promote its hiking trails along with the bike routes, leading to a more complete integration of “Green traffic” routes that eventually also included mountain biking, in-line skating and canoeing/kayaking. The new entity, SwitzerlandMobility Foundation, began working in 2004, leading to a collective surge of activity among all 26 Swiss can-
The Swiss take to the countryside on weekends with surprising zeal, and in such passion lies the genesis of SwitzerlandMobility.
photo by Alex Buschor
i
Goin’ Mobile— Swiss Style
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13 million Swiss francs), the network was launched last spring. Equipped with a well-illustrated guidebook of the Rhône Route, bicycle touring’s route No. 1, its large maps marked with tourist offices, train stations, bus stops, bicycle mechanics, actons, or provinces, and an impressive commodations and other useful points number of federal government departof interest, we follow the bike path at ments, national organizations and the the edge of the two-lane highway to Swiss Federal2/6/09 Railways.11:57 After an 5316x7625.02.04.09 AMinvestPage 1 Geneva—grateful to the drivers of Switment of more than $12 million (roughly zerland, who, accustomed to a lot of
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weekend cyclists, are especially considerate of their slower neighbors. Every chance it has, the route leaves the highway to meander along lakefront roads or scenic byways through the vineyards, each turn clearly indicated by the wellpositioned red route signs. The guidebook’s attention to detail helps us locate charming villages and historical centers, such as the old Roman town of Noviodunum, today’s Nyon, where we visit the remains of a large forum, temples to gods and goddesses, an amphitheater, and a circus where gladiators fought animals and each other in the first century A.D. Part of the genius of the SwitzerlandMobility system is to link this vast nonmotorized network with the intricate grid of Swiss Railways’ trains, buses, mountain tramways and cog railroads that never fail to run on time. The Web site—www.switzerlandmobility.ch— offers complete planning assistance, with printable route elevations and topo maps, as well as links to Swiss Railways’ timetables. This remarkably complete information platform comes in four languages, including English. After my two-day taste of its potential while cycling the north shore of Lake Geneva, I look into a 10-day road biking trip along the Rhine Route No. 2, which makes a great reverse-C through eastern Switzerland while following the River Rhine from Andermatt, high in the Alps, to beautiful Lake Constance and on to Basel. The Web site provides a summary of the route, descriptions of each day’s itinerary, an elevation profile to gauge levels of difficulty, bike rental locations and accommodations along the route, and printable cycling maps. At a partner company’s Web site— www.swisstrails.ch—I discover the solution to the most vexing challenge of a road trip by foot, bike, in-line skates or
Green Web Site
Curious about your ecological footprint? Want to learn ways to reduce it? Visit www.myfoot print.org, www.footprintnetwork.org and www .conservation.org, or type “ecological footprint calculator” into your favorite search engine.
: green scene canoe: transporting luggage from one lodging to the next. Swiss Trails’ army of vans—not so Green, but perhaps someday they’ll go electric—picks up bags
from one hotel and takes them to the next, seamlessly and (given Swiss precision) unerringly. Swiss Trails also books accommodations along the route you select, in the category you select—from hostels and farms (yes, you can actually sleep in the hay in barns along your selected route) to four-star hotels—as well as providing bike rentals, route guides and a helpline that offers quick response to medical or mechanical problems, or
Earth Mother
“Every time I’ve been in a rainforest, every single time, I’m awed at the diversity and the abundance of life,” says Florence Reed, founder of Sustainable Harvest International. “That makes me very motivated to do whatever little piece I can to make sure that, when the sun comes up, it will still be there.” Reed witnessed the destruction of Central American rainforests firsthand while working with the Peace Corps and other nonprofits. She also saw the devastating effect of slash-andburn agriculture (clearing the land, subsisting on what little will grow until the land is depleted, and then moving on to repeat the cycle elsewhere) on the farmers and their families. This experience affected her deeply, and in May 1997 she founded the nonprofit Sustainable Harvest International (SHI). The goal of SHI is to help farmers break free of the devastating slash-and-burn cycle by teaching them how to nurture and replenish the soil and surrounding landscape, allowing them to settle and prosper. In the past 11 years, the program has grown tenfold, from 100 families to more than 1,000. The annual budget has expanded, too, from $50,000 to $2 million. Sixty-four percent of SHI’s budget comes from individual donations; 36 percent is from corporations, civic groups, and other organizations such as churches or schools. And 82 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to support programs (the rest is earmarked for management and fundraising). “That’s one of the reasons Charity Navigator, an organization that rates thousands of nonprofits, has given us their top rating for three years in a row now,” says Reed. Headquartered in Maine, SHI currently sponsors programs in Honduras, Panama, Belize and Nicaragua. In addition to its primary mission of teaching sustainable agricultural practices, SHI plants trees (more than 2 million in all) and has extension workers in more than 100 villages. Moreover, the group has built hundreds of wood-conserving stoves and chicken coops, has replaced harmful chemicals with
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natural pesticides and fertilizers, has planted more than 4,700 organic vegetable gardens, and has established educational programs in more than 50 schools. By funding local extension offices and micro-finance programs based on the Grameen Bank model (which turns conventional banking practices inside out, removing collateral barriers and creating a system based on mutual trust, accountability and participation), SHI is setting the stage for the independence of each program, allowing farmers to invest in a variety of cash crops and to market their surplus. The idea, says SHI board chairman Tony Barrington, is to give the people a vested interest. “When you’re a tenant or a squatter, with uncertain title to your land, there’s no incentive to really invest in it,” he says. Tenants and squatters tend to exhaust the land. “Whereas if you own it, you have all sorts of incentives to improve it, manage it and generate income from it.” “Planting hope, restoring forests, nourishing communities” is the guiding principle for SHI. For every acre that’s farmed sustainably, it estimates, five acres of rainforest are preserved; in the past decade, SHI has saved more than 35,000 acres of tropical forest. And because seeing is believing, SHI’s Smaller World Tours gives volunteers a chance to witness the work firsthand. The excursions bring travelers face to face with farmers in all four SHI countries, allowing them to participate in sustainable farming practices and treeplanting efforts. And 20 percent of the trip fare is donated directly to the local programs. For information, visit sustainableharvest .org.—Brion O’Connor
even when you’re lost. An eight-day, seven-night trip, including accommodations and breakfast, luggage transfer, a guidebook of the route, and the helpline, can be booked in advance for as little as $820. Bike rentals and other meals are not included. Swiss Trails’ main office is conveniently located in the Zürich airport, where most visitors enter the country. With four official languages in an area the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut together, Switzerland’s cultural and gastronomic landscape is kaleidoscopic, often changing dramatically over short distances. The transitions are slower, however, when hiking, pedaling or paddling, allowing adventurers to sink more deeply into the culture and landscape through which they are traveling. In Switzerland, such a human pace allows visitors to absorb the dramatic Alpine geography, the impossibly green valleys carpeted in wildflowers, the manicured gardens and the azure lakes that can astonish and stay with you forever. And traveling on your own Green power helps make a European vacation a bit more affordable. Though bicycling the north shore of Lake Geneva is little more than an amuse-bouche on a vast a la carte menu, it reminds me of the delights that Europe offers when travelers take their time to enjoy it. We stop often to take in incredible views, to buy a chocolate croissant in a village cafe or partake in a glass of local white wine, to saunter through an open market, to visit a castle or admire distant Mont Blanc shimmering in the distance. We’re not after speed, but leisurely discovery, so 40 miles a day is a good pace, I find, and when it starts to rain hard on our last day, help is no farther away than the nearest train station. Within 15 minutes, a local train arrives and carries us—bikes and soakedthrough passengers—the five miles to our final stop and a hot shower in a comfortable hotel. Sky contributing editor Roger Toll spends more time biking in the mountains around Park City, Utah, where he lives, than around the manicured shores of Lake Geneva.