Reports by José Rössner

Am Vorabend bringt uns Gaby (Tochter meiner Schwester) bei strömendem Regen zum Bahnhof nach Zürich. Wir nehmen (meine Schwester und ich) den City-Night-Line-Zug nach Prag. Leider ist nächstes Jahr Schluss mit dem Nachtzug, sehr schade. Es ist angenehm solch eine lange Fahrt, ca. 12 Stunden, schlafend zu verbringen. Wir kommen etwas nach 09:00h ausgeschlafen am Bahnhof von Prag an.

Die Wetteraussichten für die nächsten 4 Tage versprechen kein Regen aber viel Sonne. Eine ideale Ausgangslage für eine Frühlingsfahrt. Dieses Jahr steht eine Umrundung vom Napf auf meinen Wunschzettel, ausgehend vom Camping Mauensee.
PS. A new delivery of the travel description from Napf. The URL was wrong because the link did not work.

Cycling along the Rhine. September 2015. From Bremgarten CH. to the North Sea in Katwijk aan Zee, Holland.

The German Alpine Road, from Lindau on Lake Constance to Berchtesgaden on Königsee

We want to ride the National Route no.5 of Velo-Land-Switzerland (There are 9 different routes throughout Switzerland.)
Romanshorn on Lake Constance to Lausanne on Lake Geneva. Because of the usual south-west wind, we opted for the opposite direction.

A beautiful autumn bike ride through the Alsace and the Black Forest. In Alsace, I cycled on the Route des Crétes and back via the Black Forest High Street. The weather was fine and I had only a few hours of rain.

To start our bike season, we want to cycle the "Route 99" from Lausanne to Zug in Switzerland, called the "Herzroute".

We had to wait a long time due to the miserable spring weather.

Eventually, on 21 June 2013, the longest day of the year, we take the train to Lausanne in the afternoon, so we can begin the journey early next morning.

I started my tour through Austria July 23rd till August 16th 2012 in Bremgarten CH. Via Liechtenstein and South-Tyrol I cycled eastward, around lake Neusiedlersee to Bratislava. The way back; up the Danube, Salzburg, Zell am See, Gerlos and Arlbergpass to Feldkirch and via the valley Toggenburg in Switzerland back home.

A bike ride along rivers in southern Germany. Neckar, Rhine, Main, Tauber and Danube. Starting from Donaueschingen or rather Schwenningen.

This year we do a tour through the Netherlands. We use a new system that has great popularity in the Netherlands called; the Knooppuntensystem. (Connection system for cyclists)
Target: Cycling as much as possible through the countryside, on asphalt and dirt roads, far away from motorized traffic.

The weather forecasts are good for the next few days, although the sky is now still overcasted. My tour to the western part of Switzerland begins in Bremgarten AG. The farther I cycle to the west, the more the sun shines through the clouds.....

With my one-year old Cannondale bicycle and electric components of BioX, I wanted to cycle a greater range to try my own and my e-bicycle's limits. I've never been to the Dolomites, that's why I cycled through the Alps, Dolomites and the Julian Alps in Slovenia. The weather was great to ride but not good enough to shoot pictures of blue skies.

I want to find out if I can surmount higher passes with my e-bike as the passes I made in Corsica last May. Therefore, I cycle a few passes in the Swiss Alps on some beautiful days in September/October.

I spend this year my spring break in Corsica. An ideal country to test my new Cannondale bike with electric components from Bionx. (Motor, battery and display). A mountainous island, big enough to cycle around a fortnight. By train, I'll go from Zurich to Livorno. A ferry of ``corsica ferries'' will take me to Bastia. Here I begin to circle counter clockwise around Corsica. First I'm going up to Cap Corse, then via Saint Florent, Calvi, Porto, Ajaccio and Sarténe to Bonifatio, the very south of the island. Northbound I'll spend a few days in the inland mountains.

From 05th. to 20th. July 2010 we cycled through the Netherlands.

We had exceptionally good weather. (25 ºC to 39 ºC) On day 8 a violent thunderstorm, which doesn't occur every year, forced us to search for a shelter half an hour. Even fire brigade, Police and ambulance were mobilized. Trees were uprooted and in the neighbouring village, caravans were literally whirled through the air and landed in a pond.

The weather forecast for the next week looks promising, so I decide to take the train to Geneva, and start a cycle tour crossing Switzerland diagonally till St. Margrethen (at the Austrian border).

Rika (my sister) bought an e-bike, so we want to test it. I hope that after 4000 kilometres ride, I will get to know the pros and cons of electrically assisted bicycles. In the morning we cycle to Waldshut, our starting point for our trip around Germany.

I take a photo of the bridge over the Rhine in Waldshut and hope to be back here in 6-7 beautiful and exciting weeks. From Waldshut to Schluchsee we have to climb approximately 600 meters. As long as the ground is flat, I can keep up with the e-bike but if it gets steep, I cannot keep the pace. We decide that both of us cycle our own speed. If Rika arrives at the top of a hill, she will have to wait until I reach the top of the mountain. Until now it was vice versa.

From 28 August to 08 September 2008 I surrounded Switzerland.

A varied tour of flat country side to hills and Alpine passes.

From June 16 to August 1 2008, I cycled from Alta to the North-Cape, there I started a 7-week trip through Finland Sweden Denmark Germany Netherlands Belgium and France back to Switzerland.

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.

We took the train ``City-Night-Line'' from Zurich (21.00h) to Berlin (10.00h. With some delay, ca.2 hours, due to railway personnel strikes, we arrived, alert in Berlin. In the sunshine we found the way out of the city at once. When we got to the border of Poland at Schwedt, it began to rain for two days with interruption. Fortunately we had tail wind until Masuren. We cycled via Stettin, the Baltic Sea coast along to Danzig, via Elblag and Olstyn to the Masuri sea-plateau until Gizycko. From there through central Poland via Bydgoszcz and Frankfurt/Oder back to Berlin. On the way back we fought against strong head wind. Because we cycled through so many forests, the heat (35ºC) in Masuren and wind on the way back, were not too big an obstacle.

This cycle route from 25.04.07 to 25.05.07 was one of the most beautiful but most strenuous I ever made. Greece and Croatia with their many islands are very hilly. The advantage of such a landscape, it offers a different panorama at every bend. The total altitude my odometer shows is over 18.000 meters. That is two times the Mount Everest, not from the foot of the mountain but sea level. The weather is also responsible whether or not a journey remains a in great memory. During the whole journey I have had 4 hours rain on the morning from Pula to Porec (Istrien). That was the only rain I have had. In Greece the sky was sometimes cloudy, but I was not at all sad about this natural sun protection.

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.

Why upstream the Elbe? Mostly, 80% to 90% there is west wind in Holland and North-Germany. Unfortunately the first few days it was the opposite. But of the 14 days only 2 were spoiled by rain, otherwise beautiful and in the beginning cloudless weather. At the same time there was a dreadful storm with flooding which caused enormous damage in the alpine area.

From Zürich (Switzerland) to Sicily (Italy). Through Lugano-Como-Bergamo-Verona-Vicenza-Padova-Ravenna-Rimini-Ancona to Pescara. After Pescara the river ``Sangro'' comes down out of the Abruzze mountains. I followed this river to get on the other side of Italy. Further through Napoli-Amalfi,down the coast of Calabry to Messina (Sicily) -Siracuse-Agrigento-Marsala-Trapani-to Palermo. (the capital of Sicily) Total kilometre 2731

I enjoyed a marvellous bike trip from Alicante (South Spain) back to Switzerland. Three high points I wanted to visit. First; the country of ``Don Quijote'' in Castilla y Mancha. Second; ``El Escorial'' west of Madrid. Third; ``the bridge over the river Tarn'' in South France, build of the English star architect Norman Forster. I avoided busy roads as much as possible and enjoyed the quiet side streets, especial along the Pyrenees.

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.

Vom 20 Juli bis 08 August 2006 fuhren wir den Rhein entlang von der Quelle (Tomasee) bis zur Mündung in Katwijk aan zee. Dort trägt sie noch den Nahme ``Rijn'', im Gegensatz zu Hoek van Holland.