[Yak] Get to Switzerland!

[Derek & Sharon Wilbraham]

   We just came back from a 3 week trip cycling through Switzerland. It 
was fantastic! I was on my Bike Friday New World Tourist and my husband 
was on our coupled DaVinci tandem with our 7 year old daughter. We were 
fully laden, camping as we went along. We flew direct from Boston to 
Zurich  on Swiss Air. Our bikes packed into regulation size cases and 
flew free as part of our checked luggage allowance. We flew in and out 
of Zurich. We booked a night at the beginning of our trip and 2 nights 
at the end of our trip at the Welcome Inn in Kloten. They had free 
shuttle service to & from the airport and held our luggage for us for 
the duration of our trip. The staff were very friendly and Kloten was a 
good starting point for us. We highly recommend them. For you folks that 
are purists and want to start cycling from the airport, not a problem! 
The national bike route #5 has signs starting right from the airport!

Our plan was to start in Zurich and bike to as many of the places that I 
had highlighted on a map of Switzerland based on things I had read in 
some tour books. We underestimated some distances and the terrain slowed 
us down some so we never made it to the Italian part of Switzerland, but 
we did and saw quite a bit. The national bike route network was very 
impressive. We could have done without some of the off road pieces and 
lost some of the signs when we really needed some alternate routes (we 
ended up on a very busy piece of road headed toward Visp with no 
shoulder and large trucks. More than we cared to deal with but we 
gritted our teeth and pressed on). For the  most part, the bike routes 
worked very well. My husband is the navigator and made do with the Swiss 
Cycle route map from Kummerly & Frey  that showed all the national 
routes , local bike routes, and campgrounds/hostels. We also had a Swiss 
Camping guide with us but found that the cycle map was sufficient.

Our trip took us from Zurich, east along the lake to Rapperswil, joining 
Route 9 across the lake to Einsiedeln, to Zug then Lucern,  then south 
over the Brunigpass to Meiringen, to Interlaken (for 2  nights). We took 
the train to the Jungfraujoch for a day trip - gorgeous!, onto Bern via 
Route 8 (in the pouring rain only to be turned away at the youth hostel 
because they were full so we back tracked to a campground to camp in the 
rain). From Bern to Lake Neuchatel picking up Route 5. We cycled around 
lake Neuchatel using Route 5 for part of it, then went onto Fribourg, 
Murten, Bulle, and Gruyeres following parts of Route 4, back to Bulle to 
take the train to Geneva. We then cycled along Lake Geneva, following 
the Rhone route 1 to Visp, took a train to Zermatt that evening to look 
around, then continued on to Oberwald, over the Furka Pass to Realp. 
Onward to Andermatt,  over the Oberalp pass , following the Rhein route 
2 to Chur. Then took a train from Chur back to Zurich. The trains were a 
non issue for my Friday. On two of the trains, the tandem was fine. 
There was a large train car where you could use lashing straps to secure 
the bikes to the side of the car. On one train, my husband had to stand 
next to the tandem in the entryway between cars in case people got on or 
off the train because the bike area was only made for single bikes to be 
stood on end on a hook.

When we arrived back in Zurich, we still had most of the day so we 
decided to do a quick ride through the city following the walking map 
and then cycled to the zoo - which was also uphill. We thought we would 
have an easy day. We biked like 16 miles that day and 10 of them must 
have been uphill. Oh well, that meant more chocolate to eat! We still 
had a day padded in before going home so we rented a car and drove north 
to Schaffhausen, Stein am Rhein , along the Bodensee, down through 
Liechtenstein and back to Zurich. The lake route which is also part of 
National route 2 was full of bike tourists. It's a very flat and scenic 
route with lots of villages scattered along the lake front. We missed 
our bikes very much that day. We'll just have to return some other time!

Switzerland was a bit pricey overall but we mainly shopped for food in 
grocery stores with the occasional treats. Grocery store shopping also 
allowed us to afford chocolates, cookies & cakes,  Swiss beer, and wines 
:-)  In the morning, we treated ourselves to pastries in the 
bakeries/konditories/patisseries/boulangeries. We also treated ourselves 
to fondue in Gruyeres and raclette in Zermatt. We wish we could have had 
more time.  The mountain passes were hard work but we did them and it 
was very rewarding. We determined that anything over 10% was too 
difficult with our load so at some points, we just got off & pushed. 
Also, something to consider, our digital cameras had overexposure issues 
at high altitude. My digital Canon Rebel always performed flawlessly on 
other trips and I was very disappointed with a large amount of photos 
looking overexposed in bright sunlight. My husband's Pentax also has 
some washed out photos.

Please feel free to contact us offline with any questions about the trip!

Sharon, Derek, & Jenny Wilbraham
Bath, Maine