Europe 11, Swiss Alps

Thursday 6 August

I have an early breakfast and get away in the cool of the morning. Quite a bit gradually downhill and I make good progress for the first 30 km or so. Very busy road again they drive fast and it is hot. A few close shaves as I get squeezed between the crash barrier and fast passing cars and trucks. Not the most enjoyable ride, I must admit. The Swiss are quite aggressive on the road, they take the right of way, even pedestrians step out onto zebra crossings into the traffic and cars will screech to a halt. Quite unnerving.

The traffic eases somewhat after passing through Brig, where the traffic to Italy turns right, either over the Simplon Pass or the tunnel to the Italian lakes.

The way the roads are built against mountain sides is interesting here, in NZ they are generally cut into the hill a or mountain side, which makes the hill above the road unstable and suffer slips and mud slides after heavy rain.

Here they build the road against the mountain side, in some instances the hairpin bend is entirely detached from the mountain and supported by poles or pylons. It does seem to leave the mountainside in its original state without damaging its structure.

The valley is getting narrower and is so narrow in places the river, road and rail are squeezed very close together. I ride through Fiesh and Niederwald, the valley is much wider again, but I cannot find any shade to stop and make coffee. The scenery becomes more rural, with less buildings and infrastructure and more cattle farming, enjoying the cowbells again over the noise of the trucks, cars
and motorbikes which pass me in clusters at regular intervals.

I finally find a shady ledge against an old shed on the side of the road, enjoying my break. I am
gradually climbing today, going through Munster, Ulrichen and arriving at Oberwald after 62 km, having climbed 892 m with a temperature of 31 C. 

Oberwald is the start of the "Furka" which is a train service that runs through a tunnel between Oberwald and Realp, where cars can drive onto the flat wagons and are taken by train through the tunnel with the people sitting in the cars. This avoids driving over the narrow steaply climbing road to Gletch, the Furka Pass and the climb into Realp. There is also a mountain steam train that has the central cog system between the rails which climbs beside the road over the pass as well. Which got
me quite excited.

Friday 7 August,

Oberwald was a bit of a disappointment, it is primarily a ski and winter resort, so almost everything is
closed. A very poorly stocked supermarket, the restaurant in the hotel is closed, the only one open is in the village and is of average quality but top quality prices. I check out the train schedules in the lobby of the closed tourist information office and discover that the steam train doesn't take bikes. Not that I ever have used public transport on my journeys but this would be special.

After breakfast I ride to the station, and a very helpful man directs me to a separate office to see if I might take the bike on the train. I have some difficulty getting my point across that I am traveling East, as he kept suggesting to go on the tunnel train to Realp and come back with the steam train, no bike needed than! There is also a diesel train which takes bikes! Hurrah, but then it turns out this train only goes to the foot of the pass. In the end There is no chance of getting on because today's and tomorrow's train are booked out, the only train with a couple of places free is tomorrow's  train from Realp to Oberwald, but no guarantee I can take my bike on it! The whole longwinded excersize is an utter waste of time. By now it is mid morning and steaming hot, so I decide I don't want to climb these 2 passes of over 2000m in quick succession and will go on the Furka train as well. The last carriage is half cargo and half passenger, where I can sit for the 20 minute journey.

So that is the fasted I have ever gone over mountains but after about 10 km at Andermatt, a very pretty town

I am confronted with the Oberalp Pass, what would have been the third pass of over 2000m in a row! So I am very pleased I took this option as the temperature has now risen to 38C. An interesting fact is that from this Pass the river Rhone starts and flows down to the west and the river Rhine starts and flows down to the East. 

But the best surprise was still to come, after going over the top, The descent was great and rewarding. I decided to stop and find a bed as soon as the road would rise again. Well it went down for 70 km ! By that time I was only 25 km from Chur, which I had planned to reach tomorrow, so I might as well carry on. 

But the road did start to rise quite sharply, and had there been the opportunity, I would sure have stopped and booked a bed. This area skirts the mountain range with some of the highest mountains and the largest gletchers of the Alps. 

Climbing up to Laax, I stopped for a cool down and a drink, and a friendly young lady asked me where I was from, and she got really excited as she was born in NZ, when her parents lived in NZ for 2 years! She directed me back down and across the Rhine where the road is much gentler with much less traffic and certainly better views of the deep gorges the river has carved. So the last km were a breeze and I arrived safely at the Chur Ibis hotel after 128 km, climbing 1,916m, but descending a massive 2,640m. With a maximum temperature of 43C ! What a day, fantastic. Rest day tomorrow !

Chur is the oldest city in Switserland, has a very nice old historic inner city, a cathedral which is built on a site where once stood a castle, and I thought it is sinking, but no it is built on a sloping foundation, very odd indeed.