June 5, 2015
Thinking About Andermatt
Andermatt has been a name only on the edge of our awareness in past years. We first noticed the place when we got copies of the Bikeline books for the Rhein (Rhine). There are three of them. They start at the source in the mountains, with the first book called Von Andermatt nach Basel. The second book carries on, Von Basel nach Mainz, and then finally there is Von Mainz nach Rotterdam. We had cycled the whole thing, with the exception that in the first book we have only gone from Bregenz to Basel. That pesky bit from "Andermatt" to Bregenz was always discounted because of the mountains.
As it turns out the Rhein route itself is not all that bad, or maybe is even great, because after one big hill (the Oberalppass) it is mainly downhill all the way. But right now we are not thinking of Andermatt as a place where we can start a specific Rhein tour. Rather Andermatt is the place we will have struggled (or bused or trained) up to coming out of Italy, and the real question is how best to then get out of there, making our way to France at Besancon and then on to the Loire and finally to Nantes.
There are three choices, really. One is indeed the Rhein route, which would bring us to Basel, and then on to Besancon. But Andermatt is also the source of the River Rhone. The Rhone runs east from there and enters Lac Leman. Then it exits the lake at Geneva and heads for the Mediterranean. We could go as far as Lausanne, on the north shore of the lake, and then strike out for Besancon on a hilly route in the Jura mountains, generally tagged as part of the Via Francigena.
The last possibility would be to continue to follow Swiss Route 3 which would have led us into Andermatt, and to continue on it to Basel, and on to Besancon. Swiss 3 has the advantage that it is the shortest of the three routes, at 370km, Andermatt to Besancon. The Rhein Route, by contrast, is coming up to double, at 622 km, while the hillier Rhone route is 386 km.
The Rhein and the Rhone routes have the advantage of following rivers for most of their length. Importantly, the Rhein (and Rhone too) would allow us to say that we have cycled the whole river, and on the Bodensee we have friends we would very much like to see. But right now, Swiss 3 is in the lead. We have no idea what landscapes we will find along it or what services, and our maps are sketchy. So as the (cuckoo) clock ticks away our final planning time, we are sitting and thinking. At least Andermatt will no longer be a mystery whichever way we go.
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