This is an expanded version of the document posted to rec.bicycles in 1990. Some details have been added for "color" and some parts have been clarified. Note: All prices are 1989 vintage and exchange rates.
The start:
Before I left I was given a great deal of "helpful" advice which can be summed up as "That sounds like much too hard work". My protests that I planned to take the trains up the worst climbs and that I'd read from those who had tried both countries that they'd found England worse, helped little. I could tell from the sceptic looks that I hadn't convinced anybody. "No point arguing with him."
Anyway I started out on a Sunday in the beginning of July. I had bought an "Interrail +26" cards (no longer available, sorry) which gave me a month of free railway travel through Europe, so the train journeys for most of the trip cost me around SEK 3000:- (US$490) including couchette reservations and the ticket out of Sweden. Sending my bike as registered luggage cost another SEK 45 (US$7). The poor guy at Stockholm Central had never heard about Arosa, but he managed to find it in his list of stations.
All the way there I was very nervous. Partly because I had a change of trains in only 7 minutes at Hamburg Hbf and partly because I was worried about my bike. What if the frame got bent! What if it didn't show up at all! As the train approached Hamburg I was sweating - we were running 15 minutes late - but German punctuality includes these things nowadays. The train for Switzerland stood waiting at the platform while I came running with my panniers. I made it!
Sleeping on the trains is always a bit hard but I managed to get fairly rested by the time I got off at Chur, in eastern Switzerland near Liechtenstein, next morning. Almost there! Monday lunch at the railway restaurant and then up with the little winding railway to Arosa, among the Alpine peaks. The last stretch is 29 km (18 miles) and takes the train 59 minutes to climb. Calculate the average speed if you feel up to rushing...
In Arosa it rained. Where was my bike? Nervous minutes ticked by as I waited. Suddenly I heard something else ticking. A freewheel! There it was, undamaged save for a sticky address patch they'd put on the seat. I wasn't about to complain. Snap the panniers on and try it out in the rain. Everything O.K! Arosa youth hostel next.
To be sure to get a bed I'd written ahead and booked at the youth hostel. This turned out to be excessive, since we were only four guests in the entire place! They had just rebuilt the house and opened it up for the season a couple of days earlier. I shared the dorm with two Americans and one New Zeelander.
One of the Americans was an Apache Indian who told us some interesting numbers. At the time of the arrival of the first Europeans in America, the Indians were living in ecological balance with their environment. Their population numbers were constant and had been so for a long time. Today, almost exactly the same number of Indians live in America as when the first non-indians arrived. Thus, every non-indian in America today is superfluous and above the level of natural support, he claimed.
Tuesday
Next day I had reserved for bike repairs in case of damages in transportation. Since there had been none I set out for a first trial run of the Alps. The weather wasn't too good but who's complaining? In the 29 km (18 miles) from Arosa to Chur the road drops 1400 meters (4600 ft.) so if you discount the stops I made to take pictures, I out-speeded the train.
In Landquart I had lunch in a delightful old tavern and bought my first "Velo-biljett", the special bike ticket I'd be buying so many of on this "cheater's trip". Three francs (approx US$2.00) bought me the privilege to bring my bike on any "Regionalzug" (local train). I myself traveled for free using my Interrail pass. With my bike in the freight car I went to the Wolfgang pass near Davos, a well-known ski resort. I had originally intended to make a round trip through Davos and back to Chur from the south, but a missed train meant I had to rush back. So I got off at the ridge and headed back at good speed. After almost two hours of zooming down the valley it started to rain again, so I stopped at a station and waited for the next train. The very same train and conductor that I'd gone up with. He looked startled, to put it mildly, when I got on with my bike again, quite a long way from where he'd dropped me off.
That night we were joined by a Dutch cyclist of another caliber entirely. He rode an old 10-speed "Intersport" clunker with half-stepping Simplex plastic derailleurs. He'd just ridden up the valley to Arosa from Chur, but since he didn't like the heavy traffic on the main road he'd gone up the cul-de-sac on the other side of the river and where it ended he'd taken a path down to ford the water and up again to join the main road for the last bit to Arosa. The drop and subsequent climb to cross that valley was easily a couple of hundred meters. He'd had to push his bike most of the way, since he'd broken his rear axle. He always carried a couple of spares, though, since they broke on him pretty often. Next day he was going for a tour to Davos and back the short way (over the mountains). If it hadn't been for the weight of his bike and luggage (he carried even more than I did), I think Jobst would have approved of him.
Wednesday
Next morning I left Arosa and headed down the valley with my full load. Down to Chur again and then another narrow-gauge train due west towards the centre of Switzerland, the mountains surrounding the St. Gotthard pass. A change of trains and a grab for lunch at Disentis and then on to the summit of the Oberalp pass where I got off and freewheeled down to Andermatt. A completely stupendous view which defies words. I stopped practically every hundred meters to take pictures! Shortly after I'd gotten off the train, an express train (the Glacier Express) came along. Presumably it would pass the local train at Andermatt. The tourists hung out from the windows on both sides, taking pictures of the scenery and the crazy cyclist. I, on the other hand, took pictures of them so it all evened out. Then I had an idea. The road had already started sloping towards the serpentines. That train is not very fast... I easily caught up with them, to the cheers of the photographers in the train windows. That way we went on, that little train and I, all the way down into Andermatt. The road turns sharper and shorter than the railway so I had no problems keeping pace with that train. I'd stop, take a picture as they passed, pass them, take another... After a while the passengers stopped cheering. They probably wondered why they'd paid extra to go on an "express" train that got passed repeatedly by a bike!
From Andermatt I turned north, down the valley towards little sleepy Göschenen where I'd be staying the night. The road down passes the "Teufelsbrücke", the "Devil's Bridge". To make room for turning on the serpentines the road has been built on ledges set in the rock side. Incredible!
The youth hostel at Göschenen was a rustic old place with large dormitories with fixed beds made out of huge wooden planks. Nice but a bit simple.
Thursday
The next morning my real trial started. First I took the train back to Andermatt, then west to Oberwald where I got off and started climbing up the mountains. I rode parallel to the old abandoned railway (the new stretch runs in a long tunnel under the mountain) up to Gletsch. It felt very unreal to think that I'd ridden a train on that very track in 1981, shortly before the tunnel was opened. Now the rails were all rusty and rocks had fallen onto the railbed in several places. I saw that there's work going on to re-open the Furkapass-bahn. I hope they succeed!
(Picture: The view up the Grimsel from below.)
(Picture: The view down the valley from Gletsch.)
From Gletsch I turned north, in as much as you can call it that, the way the road was winding, and climbed to the Grimselpass, 2165 meter (7100 ft.) above sea level. From the 1365 meter (4480 ft.) of Oberwald a massive 800 meter (2625 ft.) climb. This took me just over three hours including an "icecream-break" of just over 15 minutes. Pretty exactly 300 m/h vertically. The horizontal speed was insignificantly better - the distance is 12 km (7.5 miles). Despite my fairly low gears (a 26 teeth Biopace chainwheel to a 30 teeth sprocket) I had to stop often to cool down. The scorching sun and lack of wind made me overheat!
Almost at the top of the pass another cyclist with an equally large load caught up with me - an American named Geoff. We started chatting and then rode together the rest of the day. We rested among the restaurants at the top of the pass and made a picnic out of out joined food-stashes. For reasons of traffic security I'll not say too much about the descent, save that we had a lot of fun and when we arrived at the bottom of the valley my cyclometer showed a peak reading of 79.4 km/h (49.3 m.p.h.). On a touring bike with 25 kg (55 lbs) load. I shudder at the thought of a pothole. Luckily the Swiss roads were in excellent condition. That night we arrived at the youth hostel in Interlaken where we stayed for a couple of days. We spent the evening drinking beer with a couple of girls we'd met at the hostel at a local bierstube and then went skinny-dipping in the lake after the hostel had closed for the night. I'm too old to go sneaking through dorm windows after curfew!
Friday
The next day Geoff and I took our bikes up the valley to Lauterbrunnen (another ski resort) and left them there to go by train past Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg where we tried to take pictures of the famous mountains (Eiger, Jungfrau and Mönsch) through the rainy mist. We returned to the youth hostel for supper and laundry.
Saturday Geoff and I went our separate ways. He went south towards Italy to cross to Yugoslavia and return via eastern Europe. I spent an easy day by leaving my luggage at Interlaken and taking my bike on the train to Luzern for a quick look around. I returned the same afternoon by the little Brünig-pass railway and got off at the top of the pass to ride back to Interlaken in the rain.
Sunday
The following morning I pedaled through the morning fog from Interlaken along Thunersee to Thun, the town which gave its name to the lake. It turned out faster to ride than to go by train if you took into account the times needed for changes at Spiez and Thun. From there on a long multi-stage train journey Thun - Bern - Biel - Délemont. The price of the privilege to load your bike on the trains yourself is that you can only go by regional trains and that forces a lot of changes. I arrived at Délemont early in the afternoon, anyway, and had lots of time to find the youth hostel.
Monday
From Délemont I then started the second stage of my journey. No more trains for a week but purely human power along the Massif du Jura, the border mountains between Switzerland and France. I wasn't feeling sure about neither my own climbing ability nor the condition of the roads so I started out very easy. Délemont - Le Bémont: 40 km (25 miles) with an incline of 400 m (1300 ft.). Arrived at 3 in rainy Le Bémont, a rural hamlet where dried manure in the village street constitutes a series of natural speed-bumps. On seeing the village it is at first hard to understand why anybody has built a youth hostel there, but a placard about bird-watching excursions clicked together with the name of a neighboring village (Montfaucon) and the falcons I'd seen riding the thermal winds over the fields on the slopes. Bird-watchers' territory.
Tuesday
Le Bémont - La-Chaux-de-Fonds: 50 km (31 miles) varying terrain. Arrived in time for lunch. Luckily, La-Chaux-de-Fonds is a nice little town in its own right with lots of watch-making history so I spent a pleasant afternoon shopping and looking around.
Wednesday
La-Chaux-de-Fonds - S:te.-Croix: 60 km (37 miles) lots of climbing. Arrived at 2. I was beginning to feel "jinxed". Since I'd made it a rule to always phone ahead and book rooms I couldn't just go on to the next place, even if I had the time. Spent the afternoon until the youth hostel opened on a sunny slope above town, trying to read a French magazine.
Thursday
Finally the longest stage. S:te-Croix - Les Rousses (France): 80 km (50 miles) with some fairly hard climbing. From Vallorbe and up to the Vallee de Joux I ran into a long series of roadworks that made riding difficult since I'd get stopped by traffic lights every so often and there was little room for cars and trucks to pass me. Arrived at Les Rousses at about 3 but feeling quite "pooped". The next day was the bicentennial, the 200:th anniversary of the French Revolution and a great deal of my planning had been made to see to it that I was on French territory when this happened.
Friday
July 14:th 1989 I spent in Les Rousses and its surroundings. I went for a beautiful but quite strenuous ride in the surrounding mountains before lunch and spent the afternoon writing a whole bunch of postcards (which I'd thoughtfully bought the day before) and taking it easy. When I ran out of postcards I remembered that only a few kilometers away, on the other side of the border to Switzerland, it was still an ordinary workday with shops and post-offices open, so I went there to write some more cards...
Later in the afternoon a minibus full of cyclists arrived with a trailer-load of mountain bikes. Some of the guys were inquisitive about my bike and I tried as best I could to explain in French. As I rode off into town wearing jeans and a sweater they looked scornfully at me. Apparently, no REAL (tm) French cyclist would ever ride in jeans.
That night the youth hostel was kept (unofficially) late open so those of us who wanted to could go into town and watch the fireworks which were the only celebrations that could be noticed in this quiet country town. But it was a remarkable feeling to stand under the red, white and blue fireworks in the clear evening sky and listen to "La Marseillaise" from the cracked speakers on the town hall! And when I rode back I was happy for my jeans and sweater. It got COLD at night up there in the mountains.
Saturday
The next morning I got ready to return to Switzerland. As I entered the breakfast room wearing my cycling clothes I was met by wolf-whistles from the ladies in the mountain-bike group and a jealous "incroyable" from the guy who'd disapproved of my jeans the night before. I can't help it that my faded old Look jersey and shorts with their "square" patterns make even my thighs look bulgy...
A quick descent from Les Rousses to Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) and a flat ride along the beach to Lausanne for a night's rest. I was beginning to feel drained and could tell I was running low on my energy depots.
Sunday
From Lausanne by train to Montreux and from there up into the mountains towards the highlands - Berner Oberland - again. From the top of the pass just after Gstaad I freewheeled down to Spiez and then went on to Interlaken again.
Monday
After a night in Interlaken I took the train by way of Luzern - Olten to Basel and then left Switzerland behind me after a little over two weeks. In the half day that remained before I had to get on the trains for home I wanted to see a little of Germany. I barely had time to explore a small corner of Schwartzwald before it was time for the last night at a small youth hostel set in an old farm outside a small town.
Tuesday
After breakfast at the hostel I cut down to the main railway line and registered my bike from Bad Bellingen - a small sleepy town but with full railway service.
I myself went via Mannheim (where there's a good youth hostel close to the station) and Hamburg where I finally got on the night train for Stockholm.
The epilogue followed a few days later when I collected my bike at Stockholm Central, completely unscathed save for a new address sticker on the seat. After I had finally managed to peel most of the old one away!
Final summary: One seat cover ruined by railway address stickers. One water bottle dropped down an alpine ravine one sleepy morning when I fumbled on a bridge. One flat (the real classic - a thumbtack!). 5 days of rain, 7 of brilliant sunshine. A total of about 800 km horizontally by bike (500 miles) and about the same by train (within Switzerland). Total cost: approx SEK 7000 (US$1100). It was well worth it!
Some facts:
The Interrail +26 card was a 30-day railway pass for "seniors" (=aged over 26...). It was available to European residents only but has now been discontinued! Overseas visitors can look at the Eurail passes instead. (The "regular" InterRail pass for people up to 26 years of age is still around at this time but it, too, is being questioned.)
Neither Interrail nor Eurail passes give fully free transport on all railways in Switzerland. Many of the private companies give a 50% discount but some - most notably Furka-Oberalp-bahn (Brig - Andermatt/Göschenen - Disentis) give no discount at all. If you're flying in or for some other reason don't need the option to go on trains outside Switzerland, the Swiss Holiday passes (available for 4, 8, 15 or 29 days, I think) will give you better coverage of railways plus free postal coaches and some lake and river cruises! Well worth looking into.
The Velo-Biljett is a 3-hour bicycle supplement allowing you to carry your own bike on regional trains. Cost: SFR 3.00. If you want to go on faster trains (Schnellzug) you have to register the bike and let the staff handle it. Cost: SFR 6.50 (I think). On express trains registered luggage can not be conveyed but if you can register it ahead of time (like the night before) it should be waiting at your destination when you arrive. I preferred to load my bike myself on trips within Switzerland which limited my choice of trains somewhat but not too badly.
Some of the regional trains had regular old-fashioned "boxcars" with hooks in the ceiling to hang bikes from. Other (more modern) trains had some of their doors marked with little bicycle stickers to indicate where you could put your bike. Usually this was an open space where the toilets should have been and with a few hooks in the ceiling. On one train it was just a bit of uncluttered floor where you could put a bike or (maximum!) two.
Generally, Switzerland is a very "civilized" country (the most civilized in the world?) and at no time did I feel any fears or worries that couldn't be attributed to my own actions (like going too fast). Most youth hostels had some room or shack where you could put your bike overnight, though at two of them (Le Bemont and La-Chaux-de-Fonds) you had to leave it outside. I never felt particularly worried about the bike and frequently left it with the panniers on, leaning against the wall of a cafe or grocery store while I did my re-fuelling.
Part of my route planning was made with the help of a brochure from the Swiss Tourist Bureau here in Stockholm. To my delight I found a series of "Cycling Routes" with excellent booklets including maps of the recommended routes and even height profiles of the roads! My ride Délemont - Les Rousses followed their Geneva - Basel "Jura" route (in reverse). They also had other routes. Worth checking out!
To round this off: I had a great time in Switzerland and would recommend anybody who has an opportunity to go there. Don't be afraid to go by bike if you have a decent modern bike with low gears (touring or mountain bikes are the obvious choices). Just be prepared to share the sights with many others.
