Downhill All The Way: Chur to Rapperswil (to Zürich)

September 9, 2023

Attentive readers of this journal will have noticed that the previous entry should have been the last one: wasn't the ride supposed to end at Chur? And indeed that was the plan when I set out, not least because (as I mentioned in the last entry) Chur had been my (unattained) objective for so long: I thought I would spend a day exploring the city, and celebrating having finally reached it, and then take an (efficient Swiss) train down to Zürich.

When it came to it, though, I felt like I'd probably seen most of 'outside' Chur in my amblings yesterday, and the weather today was still so glorious that it seemed a terrible waste to spend it in the city's museums, excellent though they were said to be (especially since I was about to head back to Incessant British Drizzle). So: another day's riding it was!

I had to be in Zürich by the evening to catch a train back north, but cycling all the way there seemed a bit too much: partly because of the distance, and partly because cycling into big cities can sometimes be a pain. So I thought I'd head to Rapperswil, at the other end of the Zürichsee: not too far and (importantly) a low-stress, downhill ride. Or so I thought until I checked the Swiss Cycle Network write-up of the route:

Whoever writes the English-language descriptions on Veloland Schweiz has an excellent sense of the dramatic (and perhaps also isn't very closely supervised by their boss).

This seemed to call for a back-up plan -- but a quick check showed that that could easily be provided by any number of Efficient Swiss Trains. So, reassured, I filled up on the last Swiss breakfast of the trip (not, if I'm honest, the greatest of the holiday, though still very respectable), extracted my bike from the drinks cellar where it had spent the night, and wove my way back out of the city.

The first few kilometres, down to Landquart, were pleasant but unexciting: generally alongside the motorway, and passing through various industrial estates (albeit refined Swiss ones) and shopping centres. There were still plenty of scenic interludes though.

After Landquart, the route went back to the riverbank, first on a gravel path on the right hand side of the Rhine, and then a beautifully smooth tarmac one on the left hand side.

I slogged up this path into a headwind a couple of years back, so the tailwind-assisted, gently downhill ride today felt like payback.

Just before the Rhine took a right turn to head towards Liechtenstein, I turned off to the left and wiggled through Sargans, before crossing the flatlands to Walenstadt, at the edge of the Walensee. This was where the Tunnels Of Horror And Certain Death, promised by the cycle route guide, began, so I thought I should stop for a fortifying coffee and pastry.

Maybe it was because I was protected by those, or maybe the cycle route guide was just making stuff up, but this bit of the route turned out to be extremely lovely. A pleasant surprise!

Alongside the Walensee. No killer rocks (yet...)

This was the steep hill. To be fair, it was steep! But also only about 50 metres long.

Tunnel Of Horror. (Perhaps swiss theme parks are less scary than UK ones?)

I got to the other end of the Walensee in one piece, and set out on another cross-country stretch: pretty hot across the open fields, but otherwise not too demanding. At Ziegelbrücke I called into the station kiosk to buy a drink, and was puzzled to see crowds of young people coming off the train carrying inflatable dinghies (but no oars) and six-packs of tinnies. A bit further on, all became clear: it seems like a favourite activity on a sunny Saturday in this bit of Switzerland is to take the train to the end of the Linth canal (which connects the Walensee with the top end of Lake Zürich), jump in to the canal, climb into a dinghy, crack open some beers, and allow the current to swish you gently downstream. (Sadly, my route took me away from the towpath before I could see how they managed to stop themselves and get out at the end. Maybe if you've drunk enough beers the problem just fades away?)

Being without a dinghy (or even any beers), I stayed on the bike and sweated my way over the sun-baked fields.

This is such a terrible photo that I'm embarrassed to post it, especially among such Avian Experts, but also: it was very exciting to see a field full of Actual Real-Life Storks! (It is a stork, trust me...)

At Schmerikon I came back to the lakeside, and to a slightly tiring stretch of riding: rather rough gravel, and lots of small ups and downs. Some route diversions on the edge of Rapperswil added to the complexity, to the point where there was a slight risk of this ride losing its Low-Stress Accreditation. So it was a relief to eventually find myself back at the lake, and -- even better -- right by a very cheery stall selling (unspecified! but tasty) 'fish from the lake', served with chips and patriotism. Just the thing for a late lunch.

Patriotic fish and chips by the Zürichsee.

From here, it was only a few hundred metres to the (actual!) end of my ride: the terminal of the Lake Zürich ferryboat, which sedately conveyed me and my bike up to the big city.

Steaming (or, in this case, dieseling) up Lake Zürich.

It took a couple of hours, criss-crossing the lake, to get from Rapperswil to the ferry terminal in Zürich, but from there it was only short ride up to the main station (though I think I saw more Porsches in this 1.5km stretch than I have done in my life so far). I found a place to park the bike, had a (very much needed) shower in the station loos (feeling slightly out of place among the other clientele, largely the Young Ladies of Zürich, busy putting their faces on before hitting the Saturday night town...), and stashed my bags in the left luggage. After that, there was time for a celebratory/bank-account-emptying end-of-tour cocktail at the very chilled bar outside the Landesmuseum, just over the road from the station, and an excellent dinner of bratwurst and rösti in the grand old station restaurant. (It felt a little bit feeble not to go and explore any more of the city, but on a hot Saturday night I decided it would be better just to keep things unambitious. And indeed it was a very nice, relaxed evening.)

I did, at least, take a slightly circuitous route from the cocktail bar back to the station restaurant, to enjoy this nice view of the main station.

By the time I'd done all this, it was almost time for my train, so I retrieved my bags and my bike and went to find the platform. Because of the slight complexities of this particular service, my bike was travelling in a different part of the train from me (bikes go in the seated carriages, I was in a sleeper), so I was a bit worried about having to race from one end of the train to the other -- but as it turned out my bike's carriage was right next door to mine: no stress!

My bike is travelling first class. (I am not.)

On the other hand, I get a pair of Austrian Railways Slippers. (My bike does not.)

Equipped with slippers and a small (free!) bottle of ÖBB Fizzy Wine, I settled down to enjoy the long ride north (or, more immediately, a nice long sleep).

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Today's ride: 96 km (60 miles)
Total: 703 km (437 miles)

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