Switzerland (local)

Like last year the month August was cloudy and rainy, and the prospect for cycling in the Alps was not very promising. September did not seem to get better, until the weather broadcasts predicted some sunny days ahead.

7. Sept. 07 I fastened the panniers onto my bicycle and was ready to start the annual alpine cycle tour.

After 9 days I was back again, without seeing a drop of rain.

This journey I made in Sept.2005. From Bremgarten (AG) cycling in direction Graubünden,the eastern part of Switserland. I enjoyed one week cycling, climbing 7 passes.

The month August 2006 was one of the worst fore many years. Cold weather and much rain left little hope for a third bicycle tour this year. The weather forecasts of the first weekend in September promised however improvement. Sunday evening I packed my bags and Monday morning 10.15 a.m. I started cycling From Andermatt to Chur with a dertour.

Nancy and Ron take a leisurely 28 day tour through parts of Switzerland, starting and ending in Zurich. Ron took more than 3,000 high quality photos and over 200 are included in this journal.

The Axenstrasse is noted for its rugged cliffs that drop steeply to the dark green lake. The Gotthard railway lies below the road near the water, mostly in tunnels, while the road wound its way through short tunnels on the way to Flüelen in the Reuss valley. The Axenstrasse can best be appreciated from a bicycle with its view of towering snow capped peaks above the lake.

Nachdem ich schon mit Heidrun eine kleine Alpentour gemacht hatte, waren nun auch meine Söhne Bernhard und Ulrich damit an der Reihe. Weil Bernhard mit seinem eigenen Fahrrad fahren würde, suchten wir uns eine Route aus, die schöne Aussichten auf die Alpen bietet, aber doch nicht die großen Pässe enthält. Merkwürdigerweise gibt es zwischen Zürich und dem Rheintal bei Sargans ein Tal, das über gar keine Paßhöhe zu verlaufen scheint, sondern zwischen den Bergen hindurch auf fast konstanter Höhe bleibt. Vom Zug aus sah dieses Tal nun auch noch immer recht schön aus und da bot es sich an, von Chur aus in dieser Richtung zu fahren. Der Ursprung dieses Tals war wohl einmal ein Gletscherverlauf im Rheintal, der sich während der Eiszeit bei Sargans teilte. Natürlich waren auch Überlegungen im Raum, vielleicht auch den einen oder anderen Paß zu überqueren, aber letztlich entschieden wir uns doch für eine einfache Strecke.

So eine diffuse Idee war also schon geboren, irgendwie von Chur über den Oberalppaß und den Gotthardpaß nach Airolo oder so zu fahren. Der spannende Teil war nun, wie man das Tandem hinbekommt. Natürlich nehmen in der Schweiz fast alle Züge Fahrräder mit, aber es gibt oft dafür solche Haken im Eingangsbereich der Wagen, die sich für Tandems weniger eignen als für normale Fahrräder. Aber man kann es ja versuchen, notfalls hätten wir kurzfristig umdisponiert.

Cycling Switzerland's National Bike Routes, from the high Alps to mountain lakes, rivers and medieval towns with painted houses.

It was months since my knee surgery but when I mentioned bike touring in Switzerland to my orthopedist, he immediately said, ``No pedaling up long hills.''
Switzerland Without Hills? It scarcely seemed possible to bike through this mountainous land without long uphill climbs. Yet Switzerland offers several unique strategies that help to make it possible.
To begin with, I simply cycled around Switzerland on four connecting long-distance bike paths that were largely flat and level. Mostly car-free and 80 percent paved, these were four of Switzerlands nine National Bike Routes.
For example, I rode half way around the country on Route 9, the Lakes Route, which runs beside a series of lakes and rivers on a mostly level route through spectacular mountain ranges. Then I switched to Route 5, the Mittelland Bike Path, that bordered more lakes and the beautiful Aare River. In between, short stints on Routes 2 and 8 were also flat and easy.
True, there was an occasional long climb. But I never had to pedal far uphill. Nearly every long upgrade can be by-passed by putting your bike on a train or Post bus and letting it take you up hill.

With the experiences of 5 tours to the High-Tatras and two cycletours in Austria and Slovenia, in the year 2001 with joining to the holiday of my parents I tried to cross the swiss Alps. The startpoint was a small village Champoussin, situated 1575m high not too far from the Lake Leman. [...] On my first cycletour I biked to France through the not too high, but steep Col de la Forclaz. This pass are usually compared to the famous climb, Alpe d.Huez, because of their comparable steepness and long. Before that time I hadn.t seen the Mont Blanc, so I found amazing the huge mass of snow. [...] (1st training-tour: 171 km + 3741 m height-diff.) On my second cycletour . thanks for the warmer weather . I took sight at the 2469m high Col du Grand Saint Bernard, at the border between Switzerland and Italy. [...] On the last 7-8 km I met with a guy from Netherlands who cycled up with a bike with about 30 kg pack. [...] The tour ended with an almost 2 hour long climb that I got used to two days before. My parents were waiting for me with a warm soup and a delicious supper. (2nd training tour: 173 km + 3371m height-diff.)

A long and wide bend on the left takes you into the last 10 kms. quite demanding both beacuse you already are on the climb from 17 km. and because during last 10 Km the average slope is > 7% and there are two flat stretches... After an harpin on the right you meet a tunnel (slope > 11%) that bicycles avoid on the right with a nice route (100 mt. are on pave') coasting some gorge that free climbers use for their training. You see the dam of first lake and you know you'll have to go up there: a set of bends help you on gaining altitude and finally you coast the lake at your right with its peculiar colour. Use the stretch along the lake to rest and don't be deceived by the the fact that you clearly see the [Grimsel]pass not so far.

In August 1998 I've made a cycling tour through the Swiss Alps. To start, my friend Rübe (Turnip) also known as Percus and I rode from Freiburg in Germany to Lugano, which is nearly Italy. From there I continued to Geneva (nearly France), where I caught up with my sister who lives there. Finally I went North to ride in the Jura mountains.

Im August 1998 habe ich eine Radtour durch die Schweizer Alpen gemacht. Mein Freund Rübe auch Percus genannt und ich sind von Freiburg im Breisgau bis nach Lugano (fast schon Italien) gefahren. Von da an bin ich dann alleine nach Genf weitergefahren, wo ich meine dort lebende Schwester besucht habe. Zum Abschluß bin ich dann nordwärts in den Jura gefahren.

It is a general rule of cycling that all hills basically just go up. Once you have gone to all the trouble of climbing a b-I-g hill on your bicycle, however, you should enjoy the luxury of the wind blasting past and a downhill run unimpeded by the need for brakes. But in Switzerland's Bernese Oberland, on some downhill rides it is hard to determine whether the source of all that screaming is the brakes or you. [...] the Bernese Oberland boasts beautiful lakes, picturesque villages and, of course, the magnificent Swiss Alps. Here are the Big Three, all stunning jagged granite peaks--the Eiger, the Jungfrau and the Mönch.

One of the great undiscovered pleasures of European travel is bicycle touring in Switzerland. The scenery is glorious, the roads perfectly-kept and superbly marked. The country is small enough to cover a lot of ground in a short time and there are excellent maps available. The trip can be a strenuous climb through bare mountains or a relaxing roll through alpine meadows.

Lessoc had beautiful houses, with painted facades picturing Alpine life. In the center of the village was a fountain with an onion dome, dating to 1796. We followed the signs from Lessoc to Grandvillard and then Estavannes. These were just typical villages of the Gruyères region, with nothing out of the ordinary but their charm.

A short ride on the main road past Les Moulins led us to a sign showing a bicycle and pointing left. These red signs are common in Switzerland and will direct you to scenic roads less-travelled by cars. We spun down a well-kept rural road, heading rapidly downhill, past manicured farms, where the barns and farmhouses are built as a single unit, and the only sound was the wind and the gentle clanking of cowbells in the air.

This short set of pictures can not exhaust all the passes in Switzerland because I've never been to some of them (Grosse Scheidegg, maybe in 1997 ?) or the camera went out of order at the moment of taking the picture (Susten Pass - July 1995) and also because of their number. Most of the passes are not so far each other and looking at a map is not so difficult to project a ``one day'' tour including the crossing of at least two passes. I think my personnel record is this tour including three crossings and a back and forward stretch to reach a fourth pass: that day.

Sion is start and finish for this mountain bike tour through the cantons Valais og Graubünden. Most of the riding is on tarmac, but occasionally I leave the pack behind and go off-road. This turn into a tour across some of the highest passes in Switzerland with detours to Stelvio in Italy and the Silvretta ski arena in Austria. Primarily I camp, but because it is raining a lot I sometimes stay in hotels to dry my clothes.

The adventure has been born in circumstances having a little in common with generally conceived tourism or ``communing with nature'' pattern; namely, in front of the computer screen in which I tried to find through the Internet links something which could have become a seed of future voyages. And I did - hundreds of pages of stories written by people for whom the Alps and bike were something more than just a holiday idea. [...] Such stories are extremely infectious, therefore it wasn't long before I have sketched on the map of Switzerland my route of dreams. The idea was even more encouraging for me, as the tour was supposed to run very close to numerous summits which I read about so many times - symbols of pioneer and contemporary alpinism.

Goschenen - Andermatt - Furkapass - Gletsch - Grimselpass - Innertkirchen - Sustenpass - Wassen - Goschenen, Km 120.

Thusis - Tiefencastel - Albulapass - La Punt - Zernez - Fluelapass - Davos - Klosters - Landquart - Chur - Thusis, Km 190.

When Richard Freytag and I started planning this year's recumbent tour, the somewhat obnoxious idea of touring Switzerland on the outside came up. We liked it, although it was soon clear that we would not manage the complete round in the time we had on our hands so we decided to go for a semi-circle and save the rest for later. After contacting Andreas Fuchs (from the HPV mailing list) in Bern for help with some practical details, it was decided that we would start in Bern and thus get a couple of days of riding in Switzerland before entering France.

We are two friends bringing our mountain bikes on the plane to Genève. From here we go for a ride through the cantons Bernese Oberland og Valais. We carry full pack, i.e. tent, sleeping bag cooker etc. Occasionally we leave the pack behind and ride on the small hiking tracks in the mountains. The highlight of the tour is Pas de Lona (2787 m) on the last part of the Grand Raid Cristalp mountain bike route. We also find time for a few trips with some of the fascinating Swiss narrow-gauge railways.

First I took the train back to Andermatt, then west to Oberwald where I got off and started climbing up the mountains. I rode parallel to the old abandoned railway (the new stretch runs in a long tunnel under the mountain) up to Gletsch. It felt very unreal to think that I'd ridden a train on that very track in 1981, shortly before the tunnel was opened. Now the rails were all rusty and rocks had fallen onto the railbed in several places. I saw that there's work going on to re-open the Furkapass-bahn. I hope they succeed!

The winter of 1963 brought the longest cold spell to central Europe in a many years, freezing the landscape deeper than it had in 100 years. Realizing that such weather probably would not occur again in my lifetime, if ever, I decided to do more than read about frozen lakes and deep frost [...] The ice was glassy smooth here [in Zürich], the sun and warmth from the city having melted the surface during the warmest part of the day. I walked down onto the lake and mounted my bicycle carefully. From having ridden on snow packed streets, I was aware that the best gear was the highest (50-13) to prevent undesired wheelspin that could dump me onto the ice. Traction would have been even poorer had it not been -20 Celsius.

An absolutely super site, with 100 trail descriptions in the Oberwallis region. Descriptions include a map, an altimetry profile and all relevant data.

Von Arona nach Airolo auf Schleichwegen. This is a tour over the spectacular Passo San Giacomo, between Italy and Switzerland.

A.k.a. Swisstopo, makes the official maps of Switzerland. French and German versions hide behind the top right F and D buttons.

Has timetables in German, French, Italian, and English.

Union cycliste fribourgeoise. News, Tour du Canton, Mountainbike, Piste, Camps, Manifestations, Structures, CLM - Cugy.