Kekoa and I, with Piaw, Lisa, and Phil toured mostly the Swiss Alps in summer 2010.
This is the second part of the trip report, you can find the other parts
here.
June 21 - Train from Bludenz to Meiringen then bike to Zwirgi (~4miles/1200ft)
Reichenbach Falls
View of Meiringen from Hotel Zwirgi
(Day 5: finally riding! climbing! without rain!)
We finally got to ride today!
It was also the beginning of good weather, Kekoa and I never got rained on our bikes starting from today!
We started the day with a bazillion train transfers - that finally got us to Meiringen.
Train transfers that are only 3-7 minutes are a bit stressful.
Funny story for today - as a train conductor was looking our train tickets, he wanted to mention something to us about the rules of train and bikes.
He looks at me, Kekoa, and Phil and goes "you speak English yeah?"
Then I realized we were all Asian looking, and us not understanding English wasn't totally inconceivable.
As he was telling us that we were supposed to buy another train ticket for the tandem (2 instead of 1) - we just sort of nodded and pretend to vaguely understand.
After arriving at Meiringen, after failing to find lodging at multiple places, and buying SIM cards (which took 2 hours to start working - which caused a lot of confusion).
We ended up climbing part way up Grosse Scheidegg and staying at the slightly expensive Hotel Zwirgi.
The hotel itself was situtated at a very beautiful spot, the views at night looking down into Meiringen and across the valley was quite pretty.
Hotel Zwirgi is also right next to Reichenbach Falls.
Apparently these falls are the setting for Sherlock Holmes' defeat of Professor Moriarty.
While fighting, the two fell off a ledge to their deaths.
June 22 - Zwirgi to Goldswil (~36miles/4400ft)
(Day 6: Yay more climbing, and plus a freezing descent)
The Wellhorn, pretty views from the Grosse Scheidegg climb
Today we climbed the rest of the way up Grosse Scheidegg, enjoying some very beautiful views along the way.
On the way up I commented that this climb was by far the prettiest climb I've done.
The road itself is kind of interesting, it's closed to public traffic, the only cars allowed are public transportation buses (which demand to take up the whole road, with it's very cute sounding horn) and for residents.
After a freezing descent which included me stopping to warm my hands up, we arrived in Grindelwald.
I promptly stopped at the Montbell store to buy some fleece gloves to wear under my also illfitting long fingered gloves (acquired in Innsbruck).
The fleece gloves ended up being key.
I also bought a very light wind breaker, which everyone was amazed at how tiny it folded up into.
I LOVE MONTBELL.
We then headed to Lauterbrunnen to attempt to find lodging so we could hike the next few days, but failed to find anything there.
So we rolled downhill to Interlaken, and ended up at Gasthof Schoenegg (cute lodging, yum restaurant, nice big breakfast) in Goldswil, right next to Interlaken.
June 23 - Goldswil to top of Grimsel pass (~42miles/5900ft)
Grimselpass Panorama
(Day 7: yay, climb climb climb climb climb)
Top of Grimselpass, it was freezing!
I have this love hate relationship with climbing, when I'm climbing I wonder why the hell people do this, then afterwards my memory of said climb is usually "I love to climb".
Today was one of those days where it involved a lot of climbing.
First we started the day heading back to Meiringen, and climbing up this short pass by Lammi restaurant (which has yummy homemade sausages, which I will come to later).
After descending into Innertkirchen, we began the long climb up Grimsel Pass (~16 miles, ~5000 ft).
There was a lot of snow on the way up, most likely from all the rain the week before.
At one point, we were even rained on by the melting snow.
Kekoa also tried to throw a snowball at me (made from snow grabbed while he was cycling) while we were climbing.
He's mean.
At the top, it was really really really cold.
Kekoa and I checked out all the hotels and decided to go with Hotel-Restaurant Alpenrösli (first hotel at the top, coming from Innertkirchen).
All the other ones were a bit... scary.
After a bit the tandem rolls up the hill, Piaw looking utterly exhausted.
At dinner, the waiter was absolutely amazed at how much our group ate (5 huge entrees, extra order of 3 eggs, extra order of huge plate of fries, salads, desserts).
The waiters also got a kick out of Kekoa's vibram five fingers.
June 24 - Grimsel pass to Airolo (via Furka and St. Gottard pass) (~39miles/4400ft)
(Day 8: Awesome climbs, a day of mechanical issues)
Today started with us descending the freezing Grimsel Pass by wearing everything article of clothing we owned.
At the bottom of the descent the tandem suffered a blowout.
Thank goodness it was right when they were about to stop for the stop sign at the bottom, and everything was fine.
There went tube #1.
Furka pass panorama
We then started climbing Furka, which was a bit brutal after still being tired from yesterday.
At the top we saw lots of bloody snotty british men, their trophy ladies, with their Ferrari's going on a joy ride.
They even lined up the Ferraris so they could take a picture of it....
Ferraris at the top of Furka pass
After that we descended into Realp where the tandem suffered blowout #2.
At this point, Piaw was starting to suspect the tire was bad, and he replaced the tire too.
There went tube #2.
Lunch at Realp was very yummy (Restaurant des Alpes), I would definitely eat there again.
There was another group of five cyclists stopped at the same restaurant, and of course I had to check out their bikes.
I enjoyed pointing out the fact that the majority of the group had triples for gears, it was 3 triples, 1 compact double, and one standard double.
After lunch we found that the tandem's tire was flat again, and this time it was the tube with a bad patch.
Fortunately this was the last mechanical issue of the trip!
We all felt pretty bad for Piaw, as he seemed a bit demoralized after fixing 3 flats in the span of a few hours.
The ride from Realp into Hospental was extremely windy, as Piaw forecasted.
I could not even hold on to Kekoa's wheel at 12mph.
At Hospental we began up our next pass - St. Gottard. This was one of my favorite climbs (probably because we had a tail wind).
Kekoa and I decided to do the new part of the road and not the old cobblestones (since we had the choice).
The extra butt massage from the cobblestones did not sound enticing.
After regrouping at the top, the descend into Airolo was quite eventful.
Apparently the tandem stopped at an intersection that was supposed to be the turn off into Airolo, but I blew past said turnoff without ever seeing the tandem.
So I ended up on the expressway (where bikes supposedly aren't allowed), and got into Airolo.
I kept on going thinking I would eventually see the tandem, but never did.
I finally passed a sign that said I was leaving Airolo, and pulled over extremely confused....
After a bit of phone tag and emotional turmoil for being lost, we found a nice hotel in Airolo (Hotel Forni).
Dinner was a set menu which was also really good (pesto pasta, beef / sausage skewers / apple pie).
At this hotel, we also met a bunch of other cyclists who worked for Nedstat who were on a supported tour they organized themselves.
They even had a van that had a computer and loudspeakers in it, connected to iTunes, to play them music while on climbs!
One of the guys descried a supported tour as "it's nice having a van, you go back to your back to your van, have a banana, and feel like Lance Armstrong!"
The downer besides the navigational craziness was that Phil/Piaw and Kekoa were all getting a bit sick.
Phil and Piaw in particular seemed to be getting a cold, and Phil was coming down with a fever.
Kekoa managed to pick up a nasty cough which he was still getting over four weeks later.
All the drama from the day aside - St. Gottard is still one of my favorite descents.
The descent was fast, pretty, and the turns were wide.
This one is definitely on my todo list again!
June 25 - Airolo to Bellinzona (~25miles/500ft)
Castle at Bellinzona
(Day 9: Cynthia and Kekoa stuff themselves with Italian food)
Phil and Piaw were both sick and feeling miserable, so we had a short day where we rolled down hill from Airolo to Bellinzona.
We lost a lot of elevation today (about 3400ft), it was really, really hot.
We went from freezing snowy weather to weather so hot I had to pour water on my jersey to keep cool in two days. Today we followed the scenic but not-direct national bike route.
I really enjoyed having those national bike route signs, it made navigation almost a non-issue.
Switzerland is so easy to navigate.
After finding a hotel in Bellinzona, Kekoa and I wandered around looking for maps, and also watching all the World Cup craze!
The World Cup craze in Europe is pretty nuts.
Bellinzona had these huge screens setup in this open area where people can watch the game, complete with food/beer stands.
After the games, we heard a lot of honking and celebrating well into the night.
This also happend where we were pass through Interlaken, and Meiringen, and throughout the rest of our trip.
Since Piaw and Phil was sick and just wanted to sleep.
Kekoa and I went off alone to stuff our faces for dinner.
We found this Italian restaurant where we ordered too much food and ate it all (pasta to share, pizza for me, steak for Kekoa).
I love how you can order 500mL bottles of wine, it's just the perfect size for 2 people to share.
Dinner was once again very yummy.
I loved the ability to eat as much as I want.
Thus ends part two. There's still about a week and a half to go!
