Vacation Part 1: Ride around Switzerland (LOT'S of pictures and words)

[Heidi]

This year my big summer vacation consisted of 9 days in Switzerland, and 8 days in France. The plan was to tour parts of Switzerland by bike, carrying only what we could fit in out backpack and in a small bag on our bike racks. We could only bring one bike for the whole trip, so I chose my YETI 575 because it would be ideal for the Chamonix, France riding. With the 29 pounds my Yeti weighs, the 25 pounds in my rack bag, and the 30-35 pounds in my backpack, it made for quite some strenuous riding. I wouldn’t change anything if I could do it again though – it was a true adventure.

We arrived in Geneva, but our bikes didn’t. So, we walked downtown and stayed in a hostel. The next morning we took out some free bikes and road around Old Town Geneva checking out the sites.

St. Peter’s Cathedral
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Cause I’m a cowgirl baby.
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Here I am with my free bike!

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One of the many great things about Switzerland were all these water fountains with clean drnking water running out. It was VERY convenient to be able to refill your camelback whenever.

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I soo need one of these cool motos.

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I had prearranged to store our bike cases at Echo’s sister’s house just outside Geneva and was happy when I called to check, and the airline had delivered our bikes to her place. So we headed off by train to her place. For this 2 week plan to work, we had to also stash a bag of stuff we would need for the second week. So, after picking our bikes up and assembling them, we took the train to Martigny to store our bag in a locker. The trains in Switzerland are handy, but not cheap so we utilized them as little as possible to cut down on expenses. We headed to Sion, which our book said was a sleepy little town. It was the opposite, busy with young people everywhere. I felt like I was in downtown San Diego! We had dinner and a few beers, and then headed for the hostel we had picked to stay in. To our dismay, it was full and so was every other hotel we could find in town. It started pouring and as the night grew later, we decided to just find a dry safe place. We rode down to the fifth floor of an empty brand new parking garage and slept in the stairwell. It was dry and warm at least.

Up early, we headed for Kandersteg. It was overcast and drizzly outside unfortunately, so I didn’t take many pictures along the way.

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Kandersteg ended up being one of my favorite places, for its peaceful, sheer beauty. We did a grueling ride up to Oshensie Lake. The gradient was easily 30+% and it was a granny gear grind that was near impossible. The hardwork and efforts paid off though.
Once in Kandersteg we did our first INSANELY steep ride. We rode up to Oeschinen Lake which sits at 5191'. It’s 60m deep, snowmelt, and provides water for the Kandersteg valley. The trail is really probably a better hike because it is so steep. It is easily 30% grade in a lot of spots. It made for very slow going, but hey, all we had was time.

That is the village of Kandersteg way down in the valley. At this point we were only halfway up the trail.

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Giant snowmelt waterfalls and rivers ran down into the valley.

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We are headed up there!

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That's Hotel Oeschinensee across the lake.

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Here I am enjoying the singeltrack around the lake.

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We stayed the night in a hostel that served a great breakfast. We loaded up on Muesli, yogurt, bread, cheese, and coffee and hit the trails. The next day we took a series of insane singletrack, dirt roads, grassy slopes, paved paths, and roads to Interlaken. It was a long day of riding, but again, the views were remarkable. We were lost quite a bit of the time…there are TOO MANY trails in that region and we got sidetracked and followed some wrong trails. That’s cool though, we were up for an adventure.

[Heidi]

Not a bad way to start a morning.

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When at a crossroads, it's always tempting to take the downhill trail. Unfortunately, after consulting the map, we took the uphill.

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Thank god there is a bus schedule posted up here. We grew to learn that the yellow signs were hiking signs (but you could ride the trail) and they told how long it took to hike places. Lots of times that was close to how long it took to ride too since the trail was so technical and steep.

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It's tough work descending, I needed a break.

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After a stop in some tiny village to refuel on some almond and hazelnut filled pastries, we pedaled up and over the mountain down into Interlaken.

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We didn’t get to Interlaken until early evening and checked into the Happy Inn…they lets us store our bikes in a small garage! The roads in Interlaken were cluttered with people and cars, but we rode around checking out the sites. Beers were well deserved that night.

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After croissants and coffee we rode to Lauterbrunnen. It was a great meandering ride on a series of gravel roads, dirt roads, and singletracks alongside the river so we took our time and enjoyed it. We had our typical lunch of bread and cheese, checked into our hostel and then set out for our afternoon ride.

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Lauterbrunnen Valley boasts 291 waterfalls and we certainly saw a lot of them on our ride up to Murren, which is perhaps the most beautiful village in the Bernese Oberland.

Gee, you think they get lots of snow in this area? The road was lined with these avalanche shelters.

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The village is perched high up above the Lauterbrunnen valley at 5400 feet above sea level. It’s way up on a cliff essentially. From the Mürren side of the valley, the view of the famous Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau is simply the best. Above Mürren rises the great peak of the Schilthorn at 9600 feet. This is accessibile by the spectacular cable car from the village. At its summit is the superb revolving restaurant with its magnificent 360 degree panorama. This was James Bond’s “Piz Gloria” in the film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.

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Our ride started innocently enough with a paved little path out of the village. It promptly turned to a dirt road and the climb was on. It switchbacked up and up and then turned steeply upward. I’m fairly certain we took a wrong turn because from the looks of the topo map it should have been a gradual climb and this was nowhere near gradual. The trail was beautiful and the scenery was spectacular with waterfall after waterfall.
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Can you see the fenceline in the background? The trail follows that UP.
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This is how MOST people get to Murren.
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Not us, notice the steep fencelines the trail runs up along in the background. OOOF!
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We started down there a few hours ago!
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Derek and I rode promptly to the little market and bought a chocolate bar to reward ourselves for making it!
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The descent was a fast furious little piece of trail that dropped us back by our hostel. Tough, tough riding was followed by a giant helping of genuine alpenmacaroni, apple struedel, and beers. AHHH, what a day.
The next day was our biggie with over 6000’ of climbing. We awoke to perfectly clear skies so we decided to push on up to Kleine Sheidegg. It’s a brute of a climb up anyway you ride it. Most people just take a train up. Pfffft, slackers. We rode up through Grindelwald where we stopped for lunch, and then turned upwards once again. This was another serious climb. I think it was about two hours of switchbacks that were steep at times. It was a total grind up and up and up. As we approached the top (6183’), the views made it all worth it.
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Here is the train heading up.
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It’s easy to enjoy climbing with views like this.
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Here is a graph of the last 11km. I actually was able to pedal my 30 pound bike with 35 pound backpack and 25 pound bike rack up that last section. It took ALL my might, willpower and strength, but I was determined and successful.
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Clouds had rolled in by that time, but not socked in. As we stopped to take pictures, these horses came down the hill and right up to us. They were very curios about our Peanut Round cookies we’d picked up at lunch and tried to steal them from my rack!
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At the top people looked at us like we were crazy. The goats were equally curious about our food and I had to shoo them away.
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The singletrack down was insanely beautiful and crisscrossed a nice fireroad. We rode all the way down to Wengen grinning.
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Here is the entire Jungfrau mountain range. The top of Europe!
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Wengen lies on the opposite side of the Lauterbrunnen Valley from Murren at 4265’, sitting on a sheltered terrace facing southwest. It’s another gorgeous car free village. This is one of Switzerland’s best-known ski resorts, most famous for hosting World Cup downhill and slalom races on the Lauberhorn every January. I really enjoyed our stay in the village.
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The next morning after our traditional breakfast of pastries and coffee, we set out for Interlaken again.
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It was stormy looking weather and we got rained on several times along the way. Once back in Interlaken we made a decision to take the train to Bern, Fribourg, and then Vevey where we would stay for the night. Good thing, because it rained HARD all the way there.

[Heidi]

Bern…it is the capital of Switzerland and it was a zoo of people. After spending the last few days in quiet, car free little villages I was uncomfortable around all the people and traffic. The sites were enough to make us push on and do some looking around for a couple hours.
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When it started pouring down rain, we hopped back on the train for Fribourg. I really liked this city and it was much less packed with tourists.
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Mmmmm beer. Is there anything it can’t do?
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What in hell’s name is this SUPPOSED to look like?
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Another train ride took us to Vevey. Vevey lies right on the lake and is a great little community. It was warm, sunny and very charming.
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We strolled the streets, had some beers, and enjoyed ourselves.
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The next morning we decided to do a chill ride and took the waterfront path all day.
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Freddy Mercury!
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We stopped and took several pictures, looked through the little sidewalk market in Montreaux, and wandered upon the Castel de Chillion. This is a bit touristy, but we paid our 5 francs to go inside and look around. It’s really amazing inside. The rock on which Chillion stands was oocupied by men of the Bronze age and later by the Romans. Bonivard’s Prison is still intact. Bonivard , prior of St. Victor’s Geneva remained chained for 4 years because he was in favor of the independence of Geneva. He was freed by the Swiss in 1536 and immortalized by the poet Byron.
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Back on our bikes, we continued down the coast where I could see tons of Red Bull banners and lots of people congregated. As we got closer I saw the banners for Vertigo. It was an acrobatic hangliding competition. I’d never seen anything like it so we bought our daily loaf of bread, hunk of cheese, and chocolate bar and sat down to watch. It was a spectacular show, even though I didn’t understand much of what the announcer was saying. We watched for about an hour and then headed on our way.
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It was a great ride along some back dirt roads and a series of bike paths before we got to Aigle. We originally had planned to ride up to Leysin so I called for reservations at the hostel before we climbed up the mountain. The guy was delighted that my name was Heidi! “Heidi like from the Alps?” he asked me.
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After reconsulting the map though, Derek decided he didn’t want to ride all the way up to Leysin for the night, so we found a hotel that let us stash our bikes in the kitchen! We walked up to a castle and winery, took some pictures, wandered the streets, and ended up at a very good little Italian restaurant for dinner and plenty of sangria with local wine.
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Our breakfast the next morning was included with our room and was huge! We were very happy as we set out for Martigny.
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The ride was pretty flat for a change and followed the river on a little path. We passed through some great little towns. Check out this art display in some tiny little town we passed through! It an’t no joke yo!
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We rolled into Martigny pretty tired nevertheless.
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This officially marked the second part of our journey. We picked up our extra duffel bag and took the Mt. Blanc Express to Chamonix, France. The train ride is awesome in itself!!!
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[Heidi]

Chamonix riding pictures will be up later this week so look back.

[McGRP01]

Wow. Speechless....

[I Are Baboon]

My goodness! I don't know if I'd survive all those climbs, and more climbs, and more climbs.

So did you go into Beer World? :)

Breathtaking pictures. Looks like SO much fun.

[mtbtom]

awesome.

[Alwayslast]

Sweet pics, sweet Yetis.

[berkshire_rider]

My goodness! I don't know if I'd survive all those climbs, and more climbs, and more climbs.

So did you go into Beer World? :)

Breathtaking pictures. Looks like SO much fun.


Same here. Beautiful scenery/pics, but the climbing would have killed me without a rack and backpack on board. :dead:

[splat]

Awesome simply awesome .

But sleeping in a parking garage ???

[stosh]

Best ride report EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


For the WIN FOREVER!!!!

[partsbara]

nice photos... thanks... my wife and i spent a bit of time around interlaken in winter... great area, looks just as awesome minus the snow....

good job !!

[Heidi]

Awesome simply awesome .

But sleeping in a parking garage ???

Hey, it's all in the name of adventure. Besides, we had more money to spend on beer that way! :)

[Trainwreck]

Incredibly beautiful pictures! The trip of a lifetime. Thanks for the tour!

[ktmsx]

WOW.!!!!!!!!!......I have to agree with stosh best ride report I have seen....

[Slugman]

DAMN.... amazing!

[ghostrider]

Awesome, Heidi! Thanks for posting! I'm heading to Geneva in three days!

[TreeSaw]

AMAZING pictures!!! I am SO envious, although definitely not of all the climbing.

[Echo]

Awesome Heidi! Thanks for reminding me how much I want to go back there... not that I need to be reminded of that :p

[SkaredShtles]

Ahhhhhhhh........ that brings back some memories. Thanks for sharing! Can't wait for the Cham pix. :thumb:

[skinny mike]

awesome pictures! i am so unbelievably jealous of you.

[chicodude]

Best ride report EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


For the WIN FOREVER!!!!

No freakin' joke. Sounds like the adventure of a lifetime

[Skookum]

Awesome stuff, looks so pristine.

And don't hate on those people on the train, 6000 is a mighty chunk...:biggrin:

[greenhood]

Yes, This is definatley the best ride report ever-Inspiring!

[elRey]

wow. just wow.

[pixelninja]

Simply amazing, Heidi. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to more photos.
But sleeping in a parking garage ???:shrug: When my wife and I were in Norway, we missed the last flight to Amsterdam out of Stavanger and the airport closed, so we were forced to either sleep in the parking structure and risk getting kicked out, or find a field to sleep in. We picked the field.

[rpk1988]

Wow. I love Switzerland. When I was there I thought it was awesome and was wishing I could ride. Its funny that some of the same pictures you have, I have to just in different angles. Did you see the bears of Bern?

[Quo Fan]

Just reminds me of how much I want to get back to Europe.

Fantastic pics, great write up.

[hooples3]

That!!!, is one awesome way to go on vacation!

Thanks for sharing your amazing trip!! The write-up was great, the pictures amazing!!! Im sure that took a heck of a lot of planning!!!!

[BrickTop]

Will you and Derek adopt me?

[Borneo]

Sweetness!

Definately worth putting off Sun Valley for a year. Interlaken was one of my favorite towns. Lausanne too.

Can't wait for the rest of the shots and stories....

[hardtales]

Holee effin' crap!
Fantastic!!!

[largextracheese]

Seriously, the best ride report I've ever read. Made me want to buy a ticket today and go. So spectacular!! I need to get over there. Thank you!

[largextracheese]

I want to be sitting in this place right now.........heaven!!
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[Qman]

Seriously, the best ride report I've ever read. Made me want to buy a ticket today and go. So spectacular!! I need to get over there. Thank you!

I'm in. Let's do it.

[Heidi]

If you think these were good, check out my Chamonix post.

[Turd]

Truly an amazing adventure. Thank you for sharing that with us Heidi.

-Turd

[weimie]

I'm so jealous......

Incredible, AMAZING pictures!

[stinkydawg]

Awesome!! It brings back alot of memories! I used to ski every winter in Grindelwald...stayed in Interlaken at the Funny Farm everytime! Then I stayed at the Mountain Hostel in Grindelwald....Love the pics, that is by far the best place in Switzerland.
Oh, I got pulled over by the Polizei in Freiburg, Germany a few times going back home to good Ol Spangdahlem Germany!
Thanks for the pics!