Day 57: Taverne to Fluelen, Switzerland

September 16, 2015

We double checked Booking in the cold light of day, and yes, there is nothing affordable around us (except where we are!). Also, the weather forecast is for all rain. So we are ready to make the jump to Goeschenen, which is just beyond Andermatt. The forecast for there is for heavier rain and lower temperatures, and we have not had the courage to check Booking. Do you think we are losing our senses?

Nothing immediately around us, and closest apparent accommodation triple priced!

Even though we were staying in a bungalow, breakfast was included in the deal. So we reported to the little restaurant of the Camping. The Summer season is well over, and there seemed to be basically no one here. So we were greeted just by the family that runs the place, already seated at the outdoor tables. The family is German speaking, and this perhaps is what translated into our receiving a plate of salami and cheese, along with some decent buns. The cheese made me really happy, since cheese in Switzerland seems to be rather essential.

Dodie took a gamble and asked for "chocolate". This resulted in the a hurried search for some milk, and in the man being sent home, to return with a cup of chocolate powder. The milk was cold, but the drink was still good.

We enjoyed hanging out with the family, because though our grasp of German is very weak it is still strong enough when mixed with English for sort of reasonable communication. When we left there was hand shaking all around, and we were presented the postcard from the camping.

We set off in the rain but feeling rather smug about having been indoors, since it also rained all night. Swiss 3 continued with rough and now wet track, with the result that our brakes began to grind on the rims, and grunge got caught against the fenders. We knew that with dangerous road plus the basic insane Gotthard Pass coming we needed a train, probably sooner than later.

We did cycle past the station at Sigirino, assuming that a larger one would be needed to get a train that would actually stop. We finally did report to the one at Rivera, but this featured nothing but a ticket machine. After studying the machine for a long while, pushing this button and that, and consulting a map and schedule on the wall, we still had little idea of what to do. The machine presented a thicket of different passes and rate systems, and there was little to tell us where or if we would have to change trains, depending on what destination we chose. Dodie did manage to find a half price deal on the tickets for the bikes. Beyond that, we just bought tickets to Bellinzona - the first town large enough to likely have a human in a ticket office.

Bellinzona tuned out to be only a couple of stops away. We piled off, and did find a ticket agent. In no time we were hoisting the bikes back onto another train. It turned out to be a good call, because the first one did not seem to be going much past Bellinzona anyway.

Now we eagerly looked out the window of our train to see what it might have been like to cycle the route. We could not reliably identify the bike way, but the valley is narrow and all rail, big roads, and little roads must squeeze quite close together. So we formed a reasonable idea of what the situation was. And the situation was hell. We saw a welter of dangerous roads - both major and smaller routes. And these roads seemed to pass over many tall bridges and through tunnels. No part of it looked like cycling territory.

Safely on board. The little Fridays continue to make train riding a little easier than it would be with bigger bikes

Into a mountain world with many waterfalls

The bizarre part is that all the tunnels and bridges were not strictly "the Pass". What happens is that the train ducks into a long tunnel - many kms long. It starts at Airolo and goes straight under the mountains, leaving all the switchbacks and contortions of the roads behind. Then it pops out of the mountain at Goschenan. Goschenan is 5 km past Andermatt. To go to Andermatt one would have to climb back up by road.

While the train was in the tunnel, I poured a coffee from my bike and opened a Pickup cookie. It was like being on an airplane. and just like with an airplane, we popped out of the mountain and landed at Goschenan station, in a totally different world.

We stood on the platform and gawked at the surrounding mountains. Now we truly were in "Switzerland". To reinforce the impression, at the station we ran into 'Heidi". Well anyway it was a girl in mountain gear - like gaiters - and with pig tails. I asked to take her picture, but did not make clear which fantasy of mine she might be fulfilling!

A train disappears into the mountain. A much longer tunnel is under construction here.

We headed into Goschenan town and immediately came to a Backerei. Hooray! The lady inside spoke German, and we bought a pile of stuff that we assume was real baking. We don't quite know yet, because we are hoarding it!

Our first real bakery as we return into a German culture arrea

Now began a ride that was quite similar to the descent from the Reschen Pass. It was down, down, down. We were really glad that we had renewed our brake pads yesterday. Dodie burned her finger a bit checking her rims for overheating, and at one point she smelled burning rubber.

There are still dangerous roads in this area

The descent was mostly on road, but there were very few cars, because we were not actually on the main road. All around were scenes of huts on hillsides, Brown Swiss cows, and tall mountains. This was marred a bit (to quite a bit) by the fact that the main valley was filled with road and a fair amount of industry. There were some achingly lovely side valleys with churches and houses scattered up green hillsides, but I never got a real shot of such because of not lovely things in the foreground. Still, when uploaded, you should find quite a few images of the descent, which lasted until Amsteg. Even after the road flattened, the views carried on, and continued until Fluelen, where we ended the day.

The Alm is so lovely. Next two photos too.

These walkers were headed over the Pass into Italy. Unlike the wimpy Grampies, they will sleep out wherever they can a slight shelter.

We did not rouble these tired cyclists to see if they were going up or down. They were the only touring cyclists we have seen in days.

An idyllic shot that we can look back on in future years.

A couple of towns before Fluelen we began to think about a place to spend the night. We fired up Booking.com, but it showed us only some fabulously priced and far off spots before the internet choked (slowed too much for Booking to function). The GPS still had some ideas of its own about places to stay, so we navigated to one likely candidate, only to find today a random ruhetag (self declared holiday). We made our way to another likely candidate - the Bahnhof Hotel, in Altdorf. This fairly seedy place declared itself full. I asked the price anyway - 110 francs.

Booking woke up enough to mention some further off route and expensive places around Fluelen, so we just proceeded into town. We found a place at the Gasthaus zur Rose - utterly basic, toilet down the hall, no breakfast, for 82 francs.

After dropping our gear we wandered into town, which is small and wonderfully set between the Lake and steep mountain slopes. The Lake might be called Lake Lucerne by some, but really it is the Stattersee and the Urnersee. They comprise a curvy lake system that ends at Lucerne (Luzern).

Our stock of Swiss francs was getting low, so we set off in search of a bank machine. The town has one bank only - the Urner Kantonalbank, and their machine consented to give us 300 francs, after refusing 600. Now we wandered past the small town schloss and found a BBQ in progress. Always hungry, we closed in to see if we could buy some bratwurst. A sweet girl approached us and asked if we would like backpacks. Say what? Well, this was the 100 year anniversary of the Bank, and we had happened on the party they were throwing for the town. If felt also like a party for the Grampies, because not only the backpacks but also the bratwurst, risotto, drinks, and apples were also free. Formerly hungry Grampies rolled out really stuffed.

Throughout the descent and the party we (and everyone else) were heavily buffeted by a warm south wind. Because it waas heading exactly our way, we sometimes travelled over 20 kph on the flat without pedalling! But at the party, i threatened to carry away our suppers! This wind is called the Foehn and is formed when winds from the south drop moisture on the windward side of the Alps and then race down the leeward side. The wind like this can last several days, and is rumoured to produce migraines and even pyschosis. We checked ourselves for migraine and psychosis, and so far have a clean bill of health. The fact that everyone here knows that a Foehn is in progress seems to explain how we were in the rain at Taverne and then came down from Goschenan in warm sun with a wind at our backs.

Our path now leads to Lucerne, but again the Swiss route guide warns of dangerous roads. It recommends using the boat to bypass these roads. So tomorrow we will start by trying to get on to one of the ferries that plies the lakes. It leaves from here at Fluelen, and we have already walked over to have a look at it. It's tricky, because we don't want to continually shortcut our cycle trip. On the other hand, we don't want the trip cut short on a dangerous road. We will choose some sort of compromise tomorrow. And hey, after a "plane flight" through a mountain today. why not a "sea cruise" tomorrow?

Lucerne is shown in this upside down map at the bottom, while we are closer to the mountains, at the top

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 2,627 km (1,631 miles)

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