Easter hike in the Jura day 1: Bole -> Le Soliat

Started by leaving the totally packed train in Bôle... Good start that the masses stayed on the train and we were able to start the day alone. Through the outskirts of town and then into the woods and to the beginning of the Gorge d'Areuse. This turns out to be a really great Jura gorge hike: narrow and deep gorge with fantastically clear water at the bottom. After a good bit the gorge opens up and we continue along in the sun. Now we start meeting people coming the other way... Some of them people we recognize from the train. :-)

Eventually after some climbing through the woods we reach the Farm de Robert and really enter the masses of people again. From here the views of the cliffs are quite good (and we have a camera with us this time) The path continues along, slowly upwards at first against an ever increasing density of people coming the other way. By the time it gets steep, there's an almost continuous stream of people coming against us (only a slight exaggeration). Still the views of the Creux de Van are great and the weather is absolutely spectacular. Eventually we get to the top, where the human density is really high, have the second part of our lunch and then take a nice nap in the sun.

The last bit to the farm/hotel is flat and nice along the edge of the cliffs. We reach it around four in the height of the tourist madness (of course there's a parking lot up here), have a cool beverage and enjoy the chaos.

Further highlight of the evening is trying a local specialty after dinner: absinthe. To be honest, neither of us found it incredibly different from pernod or its relatives. Admittedly these weren't ideal tasting conditions, but I think we'd need to do a head-to-head to really notice the difference.