Jul 7, 2019 - Gstaad to Lausanne to Geneva

Gstaad to Lausanne My various medications seem to have worked last night. I feel that I actually slept for most of the night. It was actually one of the coldest nights given that the campsite was at 1200m. The first part of the ride was a fairly gentle climb to the Col du Pillon (1546m) followed by a swift descent before a second, more difficult climb to the Col de la Croix (1776m). For those interested there is indeed a Croix at the summit of the col. Both climbs were completed in the first 20 km after which there followed a long 20km...

Jul 5, 2019 - Interlaken to Bern and on to Gstaad

Interlaken to Bern We woke to a lovely morning, clear skies and moderate temperature. The only dark spot was my discovery that I did not have the GPS track for today’s ride. I will have to follow Bruce very carefully! The first 20 km of the route was alongside the Thunersee in the direction of Thun. As this was mostly along the shoreline there were few hills and lots of views across the lake and alongside the nearby shore. Lots of little houses jutting into the lake, small restaurants with ‘see’ views and larger hotels with great...

Jul 3, 2019 - Meiringen to Interlaken and rest day

Stage 20 Meiringen to Interlaken We had some real Swiss ‘dunder und blitzen’ last night soon after we went into our tents at about 9pm. At each lilghtning fblash my tent would light up like a globe and then would shake with each roll of thunder. The rain drummed on the fabric outside and the wind pushed the tent sides around but I was as snug as a bug in a rug. I must hav e fallen asleep at some stage because when I next woke all was peaceful outside. The day’s ride started with a gentle uphill for a kilometre or two before we turned left...

Jul 1, 2019 - Andermatt to Meiringen

Stage 19 - Andermatt to Meiringen Cool morning start today from Andermat - much quieter now that all the Mountain Bikers have gone. The first 10km dropped us 600m to the town of Gröschenen where we had gone by train yesterday. At this point our route turned upward towards the Sustenpass an 18 km climb which averaged about 8% for most of the way. Most of the way the road climbed steadily with few bends or turns so it seemed like a long drag upwards. As we rode we could see dark clouds appearing over the mountains to which we were heading....

Jun 30, 2019 - Splügen to Andermatt via Blenio

Stage 16 - Splügen to Blenio Last night my cold moved from my throat to my chest and I started coughing. I hope I didn’t keep Bruce awake too much as I didn’t get much sleep. Once again the hotel room was much too hot and didn’t really cool down till about 4 in the morning. Rumour tells me that I am not the only one suffering from chest issues. Others have digestive problems and/or back problems. Almost everyone rides at least part of the course, most complete the route but suffer for their efforts. Breakfast, provided by the hotel, was...

Jun 27, 2019 - St Moritz to Splügen

Stage 15 - St Moritz to Splügen Today’s ride was full of alliterations. We had, in no special order, a classic climb, divine descents, gorgeous gorges, marvellous marmots, rushing rivers, terrifying tunnels and stunning scenery. At breakfast we were given two options for the day. The original route which traversed the Splügen pass was not able to be supported because of roadwork which prevented vehicles, but not cyclists, from traversing the whole route. As it turned out later the problem lay just a few km from the finish but it would have...

Jun 26, 2019 - Jerzens to St Moritz via Scuol

Stage 12 Jerzens to Scuol Our campsite last night was in such a deep valley that I doubt if it got more than 5 or 6 hours of sunlight even in summer. As a result all of the camp spots were soaking wet and even got wetter through the night. I know because I was up and down 3 times. In the morning everything was sopping wet including the almost dry socks that I had left out accidentally. However the morning dawned clear and bright promising a good day’s riding. Today we had two options: the scheduled ridevof 68 km and an optional 26km out and...

Jun 22, 2019 - Last day

Saturday, June 22 - Basel Had a good buffet breakfast at the hotel. Eventually we got checked in and got printed boarding passes for our flights tomorrow. (The standard Windows German keyboard has the 'Y' and 'Z' keys interchanged!! Don't know why, but when I type my name it comes out 'Shirlez'! And that's no good when I'm entering a password.) About 11 am we set out to walk to the Museum Tinguely. We started out down the Greifeng Clara, where we went yesterday. We stopped at the Canon shop to ask about a glitch in one of our cameras--they...

Jun 21, 2019 - Basel

Trip Journal Day 10 - Friday, June 21 Up early today. We put our bags outside our room before 8, went to breakfast and the bags were gone when we came back. We collected the things we were carrying with us for the day, and caught a bus to our hotel before 9. There were about 20 going to the hotel with us. At the hotel, we were met by the Viking representative (an American ex-pat from North Carolina!). After checking in, we went with her on a walking tour of Basel. We were given a Basel card at check-in, which lets us ride public...

May 29, 2019 - Interlaken and the top of Europe

Hello from Switzerland, They rescheduled our departure time on the Glacier Express so we had to leave our hotel in St. Moritz at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Due to our early departure, the hotel made us breakfast to go. So off all 32 of us went walking to the train station with our breakfast satchels in hand. We boarded the Glacier Express with ample time before departure and everyone started rummaging in their bags for breakfast...because you know, it had been hours since we had last been fed!! It was a long travel day. I know I’m starting to...

May 27, 2019 - Lunch in Italy and a Snow Storm

Hello from Switzerland, On Sunday we boarded the Bernina Express at the station in St. Moritz for an amazing 2.5 hour journey through the Alps to Tirano, Italy. The Bernina line is the highest railway line through the Alps and it’s said to be the most beautiful in Switzerland. From the alpine lakes, glaciers and tunnels to the snow capped mountains and green meadows, we can tell you that the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Our group was seated in panoramic cars, so everyone had a great view! Near the end of the journey we travelled...

May 25, 2019 - Innsbruck and St. Moritz

Gruetzi from St. Moritz, Switzerland, For my Co-operators family...you will never guess who I ran into at breakfast in our hotel on Friday morning...Peter Zess and his wife. Their tour group was staying at the same hotel. What are the odds of us being in the same Innsbruck hotel and ending up having breakfast at the same time! We had a nice chat and a bit of a laugh about it all. It was great to see them. After breakfast on Friday, we went for a long walk along the Inn River. There are walking and biking trails on both sides. Lots of...