SWITZERLAND

Switzerland was intended to be the main focus of this Euro-bike tour I'd hatched after New Zealand, and after I'd spent a month biking around in it, I was glad I'd made that choice. A scenic & beautiful inland country dotted with temperate lakes and glacial rivers always made it feel as though the water was close-by.

Interestingly, with it being a landlocked country, not many people actually leave Switzerland by boat. Yet with my bike and one-way direction, I managed to do just that. (For a short time anyway)

 
 

Basel

Here I met up with a friend whom I'd met in the North Island of New Zealand and stayed with she & her family in the university town of Basel. "A" (who's a solid cyclist in her own right!) was such a top chick and we still keep in touch all these years post-travel. We got out for wanders around town and soaked up the vibe on the banks of the Rhine river which I'd followed down from Germany.

I also met an intrepid Japanese traveler named Yuki and we kept in touch and reconvened later on this trip in Munich. Keeping touch with people was a great thing while in-motion.

Western Switz - Biel & Neuchâtel

These summery days riding in Western Switzerland were beautiful. In fact, I don't think I had a single lousy-weather day.

Arriving in Biel was singularly memorable; a local Swiss dude named Rauf also had his bike kitted up with panniers and was on a bit of a two-wheeled excursion. "There is lesser known way into town, no traffic."

We rode alongside the Taubenloch Gorge and shimmied our way beside a building before being suddenly spat out onto the bustling streets seemingly in the center of Biel. It was something I never would have found on my own.

It always pays to have the inside scoop and local intel.

Lausanne, Geneva & Countryside

I'd go on record here and say that pretty much everything in Switzerland is NICE; Parks, streets, houses, buildings, boats, cars - everything.

The people are also an affluent & distinguished-ly dressed bunch, who perhaps, hold more loftier posts of repute than the average individual - European or otherwise. The International Olympics Committee headquarters, the Olympics museum in Lausanne, the United Nations Office and CERN (largest particle physics lab in the world) in Geneva speak to this elevated level of worldly stature.

Despite my transient presence here as a sweaty, cardiovascular-ic rolling nomad, I tried to keep it as classy as I could and was able to maybe endear myself a bit more to the locals simply because all the efforts my cycling required. These were beautiful days of riding.

Central Switzerland

Some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever cycled through was in Central Swizerland between small, quiet towns. Spiez, Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, Stechelberg, Grindelwald were linked by the lagoon-like bodies of water of the Thunersee, Lungernersee and the Sarnersee that held a greenish, glowing radiance. There were also some massive climbs too. I wild camped here and there on the fantastic cycle routes that laced across the country.

I stopped for a breather in Rosenlaui where a thoroughly drunk cook made me a delicious plate of Rösti (coarsely grated potatoes fried with cheese). That's pure cycle fuel.

Jungfraujoch

The Jungrfaujoch is a glacier saddle connecting two major peaks of the Swiss alps. In 1912 a railway was constructed through the mountains to the saddle to what became Europe's highest railway station at 3,454 meters (11,332 ft) above sea level. The 'Top of Europe' building was hewn into the mountainside and features restaurants, shops and a post office. Yet more tunnels were drilled through the mountain, allowing people to climb up tp the Sphinx Observatory, one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world. I lucked-in with a beautiful day for my visit here. Killer views up in the Swiss alps.

Lucerne, Zürich & Swiss Exodus

I cycled into Switzerland's 7th largest city of Lucerne and enjoyed checking the covered wooden Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) and the many stunning oil paintings hanging between its trusses. Also had a boo at the Alhambra Hall of Mirrors and the commemorative ‘Lion of Lucerne’ (Löwendenkmal) which Mark Twain had once proclaimed, "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."

Avoiding a stretch of urban riding I saw as being a bit dodgy, I train’d into Switzerland's largest city of Zürich and continued riding east towards the Bodensee to begin Austria after a month of beautiful Swiss riding.

Switzerland didn’t disappoint. Fantastic country.