National MTB Route 3

Today I had no new ideas for new routes and so opted to try the National mountain bike route number 3, or the Jura bike route, which starts in Basel and eventually finishes in Nyon, on the banks of Lac Leman/Lake Geneva, not so far from Geneva itself. Its 357km in total so today I could only manage the first 60km as far as Delemont.
As expected, most of the route was firetrack and significant tarmac sections so technical skills were not needed today. In fact, a cyclocross bike would have been preferable today to cover the distance at a faster pace.
The start is definitely a great route out of Basel that I've not seen before. Between the parallel inhabited conurbations stretching south to Dornach in the east and Therwil in the west is a hilly area which gives great views towards Gempen, it really looks like a significant hill from here, I've always seen it close up from the road in the past so this route gave a new perspective on the land south of Basel.
On the road/track out of Laufen, I noticed a very obvious 2m diameter ball on a post, with the word "Sonne" below it and a lot of text which I didn't stop to read. Was this a sunlight recording device? Not so far up the track a smaller sphere with "Merkur", could this be a thermometer? I passed a few more objects which I didn't read, it was obviously some art in the countryside project. Not until I was a LONG way up the hill did I see a larger sphere named Jupiter. Only now did I realise this was a model of the solar system, set along this track in proportion to the distances between the planets! After that I didn't notice the other planets, thought Saturn would have been obvious but no.
There was one section beyond Grindel which was unrideable, but only about 1km, then its a nice plateau before a drop to Montsevelier. From Montsevelier to Delemont, the path could almost be called singletrack in places, here it is beyond the capabilities of a road bike so the final section made it feel like it was worth taking the mtb out today.