So strangely enough I haven’t been doing any mountain biking this Summer, but I have still been out cycling round town. Right now I’m actually more at ease on the bike than I am sitting or lying down, as the Surly LHT lets my bump hang in a really comfortable spot – and biking is a lot less pressure on my feet than walking, so cycling is all good as far as I’m concerned.

 

The Legacy Trail, Canmore bound

 

For some reason I hadn’t gotten around to biking the Legacy Trail yet though – it’s the new bike trail between Banff and Canmore, only just completed a month or so ago. Well, completed in the sense that it’s all sealed, but doesn’t actually have any bridges yet – so for the five missing bridges, you have to cycle onto the highway shoulder for a bit. Aside from that, and the slightly annoying gates to open and close near the Banff end, it’s an awesome little trail, and is getting a lot of traffic.

 

 

From my work to home it’s about 23km – and feels more like five, the road just flies by.

 

Biking 36 weeks pregnant, Mount Rundle and Lawrence Grassi in the background

 

No-one else wanted to come and play, so I did a solo bike-hike up Ha Ling (aka Chinaman’s) Peak. The trail was still pretty snowy – though down low there were some bare/mud/killer ice patches, then it was back to packed snow of varying slush levels.

The Yaktrax worked great for it (underneath the shoe they’re a diamond pattern of wire spiralled over rubber – grippy enough unless you’re on ice, then something spiky would be better – apparently some people don’t like the Yaktrax as they fall apart? Maybe if you’re running in them).

 

Ze goggles

 

 

Snowy trail

 

 

Yaktrax, and my 5-10 shoes which are coming apart at the front and letting snow, water and mud in. Toes nice and wet by the end of the day.

 

 

Summit shot from Ha Ling Peak, looking out over Canmore, and Grotto Mountain, and towards Calgary

 

 

Steep drop-off, there’s a few rock routes up the cliff below me.

 

 

Back down the hill to rescue the bike from the tree it was tied to, then down the road to home.

 

On the next morning we left our bikes behind to guard the apartment and tried walking around Paris. Our walking muscles had atrophied, and this proved to be a task more challenging than expected. Around as many of the major sights we could manage, and through random little back streets and interesting areas, in and out of shops and museums, until meeting up with friends for hot chocolate later in the day. This was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had, and I may never be able to drink a normal hot chocolate ever again. Rather unfortunately it was followed up by the best falafel I’d ever had, in the Jewish section of town. With our cyclist’s appetites still fully intact, we then went out for a second dinner with the friends we were staying with, and swore we’d never be able to eat normal food again.

 

Notre Dame

 

 

At the Louvre

 

 

Sitting on a bridge over the Seine, drinking hot chocolate and watching the sun set – bliss

 

 

My accomplices in hot chocolate debauchery

 

 

Look, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background… sort of (no I didn’t go there to get a photo close up)

 

The following morning had us repacking and riding our bikes down to catch the Eurostar at Gare du Nord. We’d decided to pay the extra to have our bikes transported fully assembled – which was definitely worth it given the lower levels of hassle, and the small luggage space available for normal luggage on the train. Even our pannier sacks (the trusty cheap stripy plastic woven bags) took up a lot of room.

We cleared through French and UK immigration without any problems – there were no Schengen zone questions directed as Alex. This was something which we’d worried about – Australian nationals are now limited to 3 months travel within the Schengen zone, making extended European trips illegal. But I’m a dual EU/Australian citizen, and technically as we were married and he’s a visa waiver national then we could live and work in any country – we just have to register by 3 months. Travelling should also be covered under this provision, but I didn’t really want to have to argue the point, and didn’t have any documentation to help back me up. Due to the lack of stamps in his passport it wasn’t really obvious when we’d entered the Schengen zone, which we’d been in for just a little over 3 months – I can see this being a problem if we’d hit an uncooperative border guard, even if we’d been in the Schengen zone for under 3 months, as the onus is on you to be able to prove it.

The Eurostar seemed to take no time at all, and the chunnel section was barely obvious – maybe one day it will be a glass tunnel so we could stare out at all the plastic floating around in the sea. Then finally – London. We grabbed the man who was trying to escape to somewhere inconvenient with our bikes, and reattached panniers, exited to meet our mountainbiking old family friend who was meeting us, and headed off into London, and a much less simple world.

We got going along the river once more – it was fast cycling past lots of vineyards still in the full swing of harvest, and a sunny warm-ish day. After finding a bakery in Remich we continued on to shop for groceries in Germany, then onwards along the river into France. As we crossed the border, the bike path was suddenly filled with lycra-clad road bikes. On arriving on the outskirts of Thionville we discovered that the campground was closed for the season, and so instead we disappeared into the forest by the Cattenom Nuclear Plant – nice and scenic it is too.

 

Luxembourg grapes – the ones that were machine harvested often had stray un-harvested grapes you could take, and very tasty they were too

 

Our forest was noisy and spent the night dripping on us. From here we just had to return to the Moselle River, then find our way to Metz where we had a warmshower.com host organised for the night. The cycle path continued to Thionville, where we ended up on an unpleasantly busy road for a few kilometers before finding our way onto a new cycle path by the canal and river. It took us most of the way to Metz, until we hit the workmen who were still making the bikepath ahead of us. They shooed us onto the road, and from there we headed into Metz to see the sites – such as the impressive cathedral and multitude of yellow sandstone buildings. Before too long it was 4pm and we met our warmshowers.com host and returned to her apartment where we were offered all manner of tasty treats and hospitality (and were introduced to the card-game Set, which could get incredibly addictive).

 

The impressive cathedral of Metz (after nearly 5 months in Europe, our architecture and impressive building standards were quite high, but there was a lot of Metz worth looking at)

 

The following morning brought drizzly and miserable weather, but at least it was warm. As we packed our groceries into our panniers outside a supermarket in Metz, a man came up and asked us a question in French – we weren’t sure what it was, but on hearing the word ‘kilometer’ I showed him the odometer on my bike computer. “Magnifique!” He responded… followed by some effusive sentences and some more French we didn’t understand. That’s one thing about France – we haven’t found the roads or drivers the best, but there have been a lot of displays of random enthusiasm from passing cars and cyclists and pedestrians.

 

Autumn tree on the plateau between Metz and Verdun, site of many battles in the past

 

Initially the road we were following was quite busy and full of ups and downs, but gradually the road grew quieter and the drizzle eased, and we were surrounded by war memorials and graves. Cycling along a plateau with Autumn trees lining the road we grew closer to Verdun, then just a few more hills and we descended into town. The fort and statues and fountains and old walls and river and such things were admired, then we headed out of town as the sun set to find some forest to camp in.

 

Drawing near to Verdun

 

 

Verdun

 

As we cycled out of our little patch of forest, we passed one of the Army signs informing us that the area we’d just left was one of the no-go Red Zone areas (areas that were physically and environmentally destroyed during the First World War, remaining closed due to hundreds of thousands of human and animal corpses and millions of unexploded ordnance that contaminated the land)…. Oops. We’d entered it from farmland on the other side, where there had been no signs. Well we hadn’t come across any unexploded munitions, and hopefully had been respectful enough that any ghosts haunting the area hadn’t been bothered by our presence.

Another rainy day, it started with mizzle, moved on to drizzle, then decided on some real rain. We cycled on through the rain, along small roads crossing rolling hills, dead hedgehogs, and huge piles of what I assumed were turnips but are apparently sugar beets. Then we retired to a dripping patch of forest – we’d hardly seen another soul all day.

 

And then the scenery looked like this for a few days

 

Well the following morning the rain had gone, but the empty rolling landscape was beginning to get a bit repetitive, even if the autumn trees lining the roads were very pretty. We dreamt of being on the French Riviera. Or maybe somewhere in Italy, or Greece… maybe Turkey? Cycling through town we found an open bakery, and a French Army man stopped to chat with us, telling us about the training he’ll be doing in the mountains soon.

Around 12.30pm I called for lunchtime. Alex told me it’s only 11.30am and not time for lunch yet. “No it isn’t!” I declared in alarm. We both checked our cameras, which confirmed the 12.30 verdict. It occurred to us then that this being a Sunday, Daylight Savings had probably just ended, and the GPS was clever enough to know this. Alex tried to claim that it was still too early for lunch, but my stomach allowed no arguments.

 

More round autumnal trees

 

Gradually the sun came out to glare at us from between the clouds. We passed a few cyclists on roadbikes, and motorcyclists who waved and made peace signs at us. Then it was just the standard piles of sugar beets and a headwind for the rest of the afternoon.

 

 

Then sun now rose at the incredibly early hour of 7.16am, so we could be on the road easily not long after 8. Making good time along the small quiet roads we were soon on the Seine River plain – although we barely saw the river at all, we were just picking our way along near it on small roads. Lunching on baguette and a very tasty Camembert (oh French cheese, how I will miss you), we continued into a headwind – but at least it was sunny.

 

Into the Seine floodplain

 

On reaching Montereau we found an actual campground, and after settling down for the night realised that we would probably have been better off hunting for somewhere free to camp. The showers were the trusty old ‘pull and hold chain to make water come’ variety, with only one temperature setting: ‘hypothermia inducing’. The toilets were manky and dirty, and the whole place seemed to mainly work as short-term accommodation for workers in town – who were being noisy and drinking all night.

The next morning we were on the final stretch into Paris. And a foggy morning! I’d missed the foggy mornings recently. We continued picking our way on small roads, occasionally getting trapped and doubling back, and doing our best to avoid riding on the busier roads, which were more than a little hairy in the fog.

 

10,000km

 

Finally the fog burnt off around midday, and we lunched by the Seine on a patch of grass that even had wifi available, as well as copious amounts of sunlight and some swans. We ended up going through some interesting urban areas on our way in, but then gradually made it to the outskirts of Paris proper, with views of the Eiffel Tower, just as the sun was getting close to the horizon. We battled the traffic into town, with more and more bike lanes gradually appearing.

 

Lunch by the Seine with curious swans

 

Our destination was an old friend’s place near the Bastille – but we were early, so found a nice patch of street with a cheese shop, bakery/patisserie, wine shop, fruit&veg shop and bookshop all next to each other. If you lived above them you’d hardly have to leave the area. Finally we finished our dinner and moved on to my friends place – the panniers were removed from the bikes and the bikes locked up for the final time. Sad but exciting.

 

The Bastille by night – we’re arrived (no other pictures of Paris coming in, the light was low, and we were too busy battling traffic)

 

Distance cycled: 517km
Sleeping arrangements: Wild camping, warmshowers.com, campground and friend’s house
Days of rain: 2/7
Public toilets: Available
Bike friendliness: Good until we got close to Paris, then it was harder to find quiet roads, and the busy ones didn’t have much shoulder
Free wifi availability: Well we found one lot of free wireless at least

We were leaving the Black Forest now and heading along the Rhein – first to Strasbourg, and then north and into Germany again. Plans were vague, there were a few places we’d like to reach to the north-east, but we didn’t know where exactly we’d get from here.

We hadn’t camped too far from Strasbourg last night, so a long sleep-in, then a quick cycle in the cold and we were in town, cycling around to check out the sights before meeting Julien (a friend from the internet – ah, magical internet) at 6pm. At his place he fed us dinner and PIE! and we met his white rabbit, before heading out to sample the Strasbourg nightlife – it’s always an experience going out in Europe, whenever we’ve done so the group has been a varied mix of nationalities with all sorts of different languages in common with each other.

 

Strasbourg – old railway building

 

 

Tea with Julien (and route planning)

 

We were woken by the white rabbit at 8am, then after a few morning chores (laundry, market, new rear wheel for Alex after he realised his old one had cracked on the rim), Julien took us for a tour of the city (where I learnt that both budgerigars and cockatiels are Australia – I’m so used to them being a common pet bird I didn’t realise), before leaving us at the University after lunch.

From there we crossed the Rhein into Germany and cycled north in the cold and wind. The cycling wasn’t terribly exciting (although we did find blackberries!) and neither of us felt terribly motivated. We found a patch of forest to camp in, and kept the deers company.

 

Leaving Strasbourg along the Rhein – nice and sunny, but cold and windy

 

 

Standard forest camp, hidden from passers-by

 

After another sleep-in (well, the mornings are getting darker and colder) we packed up in the sun and cycled off to find a bakery. It was one of the coldest days we’ve had yet – I had on pretty much all of the clothes I own (including my down jacket), and still wasn’t feeling particularly warm. We continued north along the Rhein, cycling through towns where a glance at a thermometer sign let us know that it was 4oC. Ah. The cycling was boring and thoroughly NOT RECOMMENDED; although the wind and cold weren’t really improving our impressions of the area. In the end we found camping in another forest, and the whole day had passed without really noticing anything much exciting about our surroundings.

After yet another sleep-in (we were getting 10-12 hours sleep every night, and somehow kept needing it anyway) we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed to cycle onwards along the river. Today was slightly warmer than yesterday, at about 6oC. But then it started to rain. After stopping to shelter a few times we gave up and found a campsite – this was huddling in the tent weather if we’d ever hit it. If we had any definite goal to aim for we could have made ourselves keep going, but at this point we were just meandering and trying to see a few more interesting towns before we had to be in Paris in 12 days time. So campground it was.

The owner seemed initially hesitant to let us camp there – apparently he thought Alex was Irish, and there’d been a few scamming Irish thieves in the area recently. As soon as he saw Alex’s Australian passport he became thoroughly friendly. So we set up by a power-point and spent the rest of the day catching up with things on the internet and watching movies in the warmth of our tent as the rain continued to fall outside.

 

The campground by a nuclear power plant

 

We lay around in the tent waiting for the rain to clear the next morning, which it did eventually. Cycling onwards we spend some time wandering around in Speyer – a very touristy town, then continue on to Neustadt. There was a little rain, and the day seemed windy and muddy. Up and into the hills we went, before getting side-tracked south and diving into a forest to find camping. Our first attempt at finding a camping spot led us to one of the hunting setups we’d seen a few of before. They have corn, apples and a salt lick scattered on the ground, all surrounded by high towers for shooting from. We decided it didn’t look like a friendly spot to camp, and moved on to a patch of forest further along.

The shortening daylight hours mean it’s now nearly 8am before the sun is up. We left our forest and backtracked to the main road which we followed to Frankenstein – there was even a convenient castle perched above the town, just the thing for aspiring mad inventors to work in. The traffic was quiet, and the road scenic, and it wasn’t so bone-numbingly cold as it has been recently.

We spent some time wandering around Kaiserslautern, which has the best fountain sculpture I’ve come across, and then followed the bike path to Lauterecken before striking out on road 270. We left the road just before 4pm to stop early, following a rough trail above the road to camp on an old section of track, between two blackberry thickets. We spent the rest of the daylight hours reading and eating and watching the autumn leaves fall. As you can perhaps tell, our cycling is beginning to wind down now – although it hasn’t helped that our current route isn’t terribly exciting. We’d hoped to reach Heidelberg and Wurzberg and perhaps even Frankfurt – but a series of cold and unpleasant days put and end to that idea.

 

Frankenstein

 

 

Kaiserslautern fountain

 

Deep frost overnight leads to another cold morning – we’ve taken to storing the Nutella in our sleeping bags overnight after one night a week or two ago where it solidified overnight and had to be chipped out in the morning. Sleeping bag warmed Nutella is always lovely and spreadable (and yes, Nutella became a staple breakfast food at some point a couple of months back – I was dreaming of finding the 5kg jars that are reportedly sometimes available in Italy – just imagine the look on a car drivers face as they overtake you cycling up some mountain pass with 5kg jar of Nutella tied to the back of your bike).

 

Frosty leaves

 

Anyway, the morning was cold, but pretty; we made lots of stops to photograph the frost as we got going. The leaves were raining down from the trees as they defrosted in the morning sun, leaving huge piles on the road. When we reached Idar-Oberstein at 11am it was a toasty 0oC. The cold didn’t seem that bad with nice scenery to distract me from it, although our fingers and toes were getting quite numb at times.

With the standard bakery, grocery and lunch stops out of the way we cycled on through Morbach and down to Bernkastel. There was lots of going uphill, then plateaus, wind turbines, and then a hairpin descent down to the river valley. Once we hit the river (the Mosel) there were hoards of tourists – and no wonder, as it’s quite an interesting old town, with lots of old buildings and cobbles and shoppes. After a thorough poke around we continued west along the river. Today’s scenery was definitely an improvement over the last few days! There were grape vines all over the hills on either bank of the river, spreading out in all directions.

 

On the Mosel River

 

 

Vineyards and wine for sale everywhere along the Mosel – and it was sunny and warm!

 

When we found a campground by the river to stop in for the night, a friendly man came over and asked us if it would offend our honour if he offered us a table and chairs? We said why no of course not, and thank you very much. As we sat up to prepare our meal with the aid of these fancy chair and table arrangements, he came by again and offered us a half-bottle of local red wine that he wouldn’t need, and some glasses! Thoroughly overwhelmed by his generosity and our good fortune we enjoyed our wine and dinner, sitting in chairs and watching the sun set over the vineyards and the Mosel River.

 

The glasses and table lent to us by a fellow camper, together with the half bottle of red wine he gave us! (Plus the Spot, and preparations for dinner)

 

We awoke to another frosty morning – a really deep hoar frost which covers the table and wine glasses and bikes and panniers and the tent. The sky was almost clear and the sun was appearing – oh for a warm misty morning! With frozen fingers we packed up the tent and headed to reception to quickly go online and try to sort out some housed accommodation for some of the coming days.

After a bakery stop in town we continued along the river. It was a nice sunny day, the river was clear and blue(ish) and the grapes were being harvested and lots of wine was for sale. We grabbed some meat and cheese for lunch on a bench by the river, then continued. Apart from the morning, this was turning out to be a reasonably warm day. It’s been a nice cycle along the Mosel so far, along quiet roads and bike path, well sign-posted too. We hope it will continue in France.

 

More vineyards and cute little villages along the Mosel

 

Finally we crossed over into Luxembourg, and found a campground in Wasserbillig, on the river and looking across into Germany. My German came into use once again as we met the elderly campground owners who spoke only German or French. But hurrah, the shower was free! We’ve noticed that the rule of campgrounds in Europe seems to be that the more expensive a campground is, the more noisy and unpleasant it will be to camp in, the more likely that the facilities are dirty, and the more likely that you’ll have to pay extra for a shower. The best campgrounds we’ve stayed in have been the cheapest. Sad but true (and they’re always the ones that are impossible to track down on the internet, so you just have to get lucky and find them by chance).

 

Into Luxembourg, the last ‘new’ country of the trip

 

Distance cycled: 487km
Sleeping arrangements: Wild camping, a campground and a friend’s house
Days of rain: 2/8
Public toilets: Available
Bike friendliness: Not bad, some difficult following poorly signposted trails along the Rhein, mostly good roads to cycle on though
Free wifi availability: Lousy

Leaving Liechtenstein, we cycled through four countries in one day (Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, Germany) to reach the northern shores of the Bodensee. Actually, the Switzerland part wasn’t strictly necessary, we just nipped over there for lunch for the sake of increasing our country total for the day. Most of the day we followed along the Rhein bike trail, with cycling that grew progressively less interesting as we left the mountains behind us.

 

Liechtenstein calf is curious

 

 

Out of Liechtenstein and into Austria, leaving the mountains behind

 

After getting round into the northern, German, shores of the Bodensee, we headed inland across the hills. The plan was to meet up with an old friend who’s currently staying with his girlfriend and her parents on their dairy farm, a serendipitous meet-up after seeing a comment from him on facebook that he was in Germany.

Once there, we spent a day relaxing. Well, there was a hike up a mountain with 1km elevation gain. But we did catch the cable car to get down again. And we stopped for a while to have Radler and Apfel Strudel and Kasepatzten (the best Strudel I’ve ever had, and Kasepatzten is so deliciously tasty) before we got to the top. And after all the hiking we went to a sauna/swimming/spa place, and spent 2 hours getting thoroughly relaxed – I’ve never appreciated a sauna so much before!

 

The best Apple Strudel EVER

 

After all the relaxing we set off the next day to cycle off across green hills and valleys and through little towns to get to the Bodensee again. Once there, we joined the great hoards of cyclists there and headed anti-clockwise. A laze around by the lake for lunch, then more of the nice but repetitive cycling along the Bodensee. It was a warm day, and mountains hovered in the distance across the lake. We reached a campground at 4.30pm, and spent more time lazing. It was just one of those days.

 

By the Bodensee

 

 

A maypole – a common sight through Austria and Southern Germany/Bavaria, they’re erected by the town on the first of May, and have little symbols representing the professions of everyone in the town, as well as all sorts of other symbolic type decorations.

 

 

The flippy eared calves

 

Discouraging rain the next morning led to a later than planned departure. We were heading to Zurich, but a distance that looked short on the map turned out to involve lots of hills and no straightforward routes to follow. Thanks to the squiggly nature of the border, after we crossed the border into Switzerland we crossed back into Germany twice more before finally landing in Switzerland for good. Although the rain finally cleared up, the day was overcast and miserable, and by the time we reached the outskirts of Zurich it was getting dark and starting to rain again.

We struggled through the streets of Zurich in the dark and the rain, and finally reached Fiona’s apartment, where she heard the squealing of our brakes out on the wet streets and came out to find us. The day was then rescued as we were received with cheese fondue and chocolate fondue and wine, and had all sorts of fun and interesting conversation and got to sleep on a bed! With pillows!

 

Impressively colourful Zurich graffiti – can you spot the tree?

 

On the recommendation of our hosts we headed into the centre of Zurich the next morning and found the Sprüngli shop and hunted down some hot chocolate and tasty chocolate snacks. Then on to the lake, and following the river north out of town. It took us a while to find a good route, there were lots of unfriendly roads, or bike tracks that ended. The day was overcast, and we gradually picked our way up to Germany, finding camping just over the border along the river.

 

Small town Switzerland

 

 

Watching Switzerland burn down from the safety of the German side of the river

 

After crossing into Switzerland first thing to spend our remaining 50CHF on groceries for the weekend, we crossed back into Germany (ignored by the border guards as per usual) and headed vaguely north, into the Schwarzwald. The roads were steep and gravelly, and then it started to rain. My failing chain and cluster felt horrible in the wet – they are getting so worn they really need to be replaced, but I’m hoping to make them last until Paris. Anyway, with the hills and the sleepiness and the rain, all I wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep, and Alex wasn’t feeling much more enthusiastic.

 

Into the Black Forest (leaf strewn road and lovely stone retaining walls)

 

It didn’t even get to 3pm before we saw a sign for a campground and leapt at the opportunity for an early escape from cycling today. We set up and spent the rest of the day lying in the wet tent, as the rain went on and on and on.

 

Black Forest backroads

 

The rain hadn’t decided to give in overnight, so after a decent sleep-in we rose in the rain and cycled into St Blasien to find a bakery for breakfast (the quality of croissants has been improving noticeably as we draw closer to France). Anyway, so we cycled up and up in the rain, then descended to Titisee. It was feeling cold, as well as raining on and off – not optimal cycling weather, although the Black Forest was looking lovely and atmospheric and Autumnal in the mist and rain. We cycled on through St Margen and then St Peter, where we found camping on the outskirts. Failed to find any Black Forest cakes however.

 

Autumn colours in the Black Forest

 

 

9000km in Titisee

 

 

At camp

 

It rained overnight again, and we slept in, feeling unmotivated. Another internet voucher purchase, and we sat around on our laptops, hiding from the rain but not the cold. The weather looked like being very cool but at least not raining for the next few days, and the current rain was supposed to clear up after lunch. In the end we left the campground a little after midday, and the rain was indeed clearing. We rolled downhill in the cold to the river valley, cycling along and then starting the hunt for campgrounds. We found two that were closed for the season before giving in and deciding to wildcamp. The rain had stopped and the sun was out as we disappeared into the forest for the night.

 

Cheeeeese

 

Distance cycled: 498km
Sleeping arrangements: Campgrounds, wild camping and friends houses
Days of rain: 5/8 (boo to the return of the rain)
Public toilets: Available
Bike friendliness: Reasonable good, mostly we found quiet roads to cycle on, some bike paths too
Free wifi availability: Lousy

It seemed a bit chilly on waking up this morning – and on sticking our heads out of the tent we discovered there’d been a frost! Well, we were camping at 1472 metres, so it wasn’t such a surprise, but it made it much harder to leave the sleeping bags. In the end we bought a voucher for 2 hours internet from the campground, and lazed around in our sleeping bags looking at the weather and possible cycle routes, and trying to decide where to go from here. To follow the Alps west, or to head north? We came to the sensible conclusion that the good weather probably wasn’t going to last forever, that the forecast held precipitation, and over any alpine passes that was going to be falling as snow (a good idea, as a few days later it was snowing on at least one of the passes we’d crossed).

 

Coming into Zuoz (I think), one of many little Alp towns along our route today

 

After a morning of lazing around we headed into town then uphill to Albula Pass/Pass d’Alvra (2321m). It was a rest day so we only did one 2000m+ pass. We mostly followed the road – largely on one of the Swiss national cycle routes, although I forget which number. There were lovely views, and a clear blue sky, and I stripped down to a singlet once again as it warmed up. We cycled through a series of little towns with cobbled streets, and passed lots of other cyclists, both on the road and mountain-biking.

 

La-Punt Chamues

 

 

Turning off to climb over Albula Pass (Pass d’Alvra)

 

 

Albula Pass

 

 

Albula Pass

 

We wound up a series of hairpins then to a more gradual ascent through an open valley, and then descended without putting enough clothes on. It was shady and cold and we both ended up freezing cold with numb fingers. 1321 metres of descent (past cliffs and railway line and under bridges) later we found a campground under some electrical wires. They ask us “Isn’t it too cold for camping? Are you sure you want to camp?” Yes we’re sure.

 

Descending alongside the railway

 

Another freezing cold morning the next day leaves us lurking in our sleeping bags in the warm for some time before we summon up our courage to exit into the frosty world outside. Even with all our warm layers on, the cycling is very cold until after 10am when the air starts to warm and we leave the valley and stop descending.

 

At the Herbstfest

 

We passed a Herbstfest (Autumn festival) some time after Thusis, which had tractors and donkeys to ride, as well as piglets and goats and rabbits and Swiss music, and some sort of cattle show and sale, with all the cows wearing their best enormous show bells. Some of them seemed fairly uncooperative on the whole showing front, and stubbornly dug their hooves in, then just sat down on the spot – meanwhile the handler was busy trying to drag them around by the bell collar.

 

The valleys start to widen, and crops appear again

 

Lots of cyclists and horses shared the path with us as we passed near Chur. Then we were heading north again, and passing through the Heidi Alps! I get very excited and Alex looked at me as if I’m a bit odd. Heidi was the first book I remember reading though. In Maienfeld we hit another festival, with piano accordions and wine flooding the streets.

 

Vineyards outside of Maienfeld, by the Heidi Alps

 

After dallying a while, we climbed the hill past Maienfeld, through vineyards, and descended through a Swiss Army base (with cliff bunkers and everything) to reach Liechtenstein. It seems strangely similar to Switzerland, and we found a campground in Balzers – that unsurprisingly had cow bells sounding through it.

 

Into Liechtenstein

 

Distance cycled: 135km
Days of rain: 0/2 (wooo! the sunny spell continues)
Public toilets: Available
Bike friendliness: Reasonable – We followed the Swiss cycle routes. Route 6 took us through some unpleasant tunnels and road on the section between Thusis and Tiefencastel (I think the route description suggests you’re better off taking the bus or train for this section, the riding isn’t that nice anyway). It improved after that though, with lots of hills and cows and fields, and more crops again.

We had an overnight deer barking at us, but were otherwise undisturbed. This was good, because I was feeling a little trepidation about the steepness of today’s ride. We got away as soon as it was light, as it’s always nicer to not be sharing the road with cars and motorbikes. And that plan actually worked really well, often we’d be cycling along for 15 minutes without a vehicle passing, it didn’t start getting busier until after 9am, and even then it wasn’t too bad. Unlike the Großglockner, this road had no toll, and no picnic benches, but it was still a really nice ride. And, as we discovered, it was no steeper than the Großglockner! Our legs were perhaps a little more used to the mountains now, but it even felt a bit less steep. So slowly, hairpin by hairpin, we climbed up out of the valley and into another sunny day. The numbered hairpins pleased my stat-tracking brain, and counting down to the last one was kind of satisfying.

 

Setting off early paid off though, as the road was mostly deserted until we neared the Pass

 

 

Still hardly any traffic

 

We cycled past the rustling of a deer, but don’t see it. Right by the road wall I passed the ears of a hare, which stayed determinedly still. Then a Least Weasel (at least that’s what I think it was) poinged across the road to safety, where it peered out at me from a crack in the wall. We cycled underneath a couple of Hoary Marmots who then start peeping in alarm when we reappeared above them, sending hoards of Marmots scurrying in the few hairpins below us.

 

All the hairpins we’d cycled up already

 

Finally we reached the summit – Stilfser Joch/Passo dello Stelvio (2757m) is just a ski resorty touristy mess without much of a view, so after pausing for a coffee (and some thumbs up from motorcyclists that had passed us on the way up) we rolled onwards. After a short downhill, there’s barely a few hundred metres of slight uphill before you reach the border with Switzerland at Umbrail Pass (2501m).

 

Passo dello Stelvio

 

 

Umbrail Pass

 

The descent from here was slightly hair raising – there’s lots of hurtling towards hairpin bends that seem to have unprotected cliff drops on their edges. In reality there are no cliffs, but it’s still a bit steep and spooky. Actually descending steep hairpin roads in general tends to be a bit spooky on a fully loaded touring bike with nothing but V-brakes to hold it back. We stopped a lot to help prevent the brakes from overheating, and to enjoy the views. And to have lunch before we descended too far into the valley (there be dragons).

 

Alex flies down through the amazing scenery and slightly scary road on the descent from Umbrail Pass

 

After lunch we continued the downhill rolling (on gravel road for a few kilometers too) to arrive in Santa Maria: where everything was closed for lunch/siesta. So we continued up the valley and onwards, heading uphill again (much more steeply than we’d expected when we looked down on the valley from above). We hit a few supermarkets that would open in an hour… then an hour later… then finally reached the steep switchbacks to Ofenpass/Pass dal Fuorn (2149m). It’s much steeper than Stilfser Joch, and a busy road to boot. And it was getting nice and warm; I’d long ago stripped off to a singlet.

 

The Umbrail Pass road turns to dirt for a few kilometres as we descend further

 

 

Pass dal Fuorn

 

Finally that is over too though, and we descended again before climbing to Ova Spin, and then had an even steeper drop into Zernez (1473m) where we finally found some groceries (ow my wallet) and a campsite. With cowbells. Now to sit and work out where we’re going to go next. Because the Alps are fun, but can this good weather possibly hold?

 

Descending through the Swiss National Park

 

Distance cycled: 66km
Days of rain: 0/1 (wooo! the sunny spell continues)
Public toilets: Available
Bike friendliness: Reasonable – we were cycling on the road the whole time, the main thing was to be careful on blind hairpins on the descent, as motorbikes and cars could appear behind you unexpectedly and going much faster.
Total ascent for the day: 2019m