Day 2 - Chur to Rorschach and lunching in Lichtenstein

I didn't start cycling until late morning on the second day.

Not because I was too tired (surprisingly), but it just seemed to take ages to get going and also the ageing computer in the hotel made getting my blog post done rather hard work.

The fan was so loud I was convinced it was about to blow up.

When I did get going I headed straight for the Rhine and picked up the cycle track, just behind a cyclist on a recumbent bike. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't keep up with him on the tarmac, and it was only when we hit a dirt track section that I was able to overtake as this really slowed him down.

This game of cat and mouse continued for around an hour as the surface kept changing from rough to smooth, until finally I had to make a short stop to adjust my front mudgard. I'd just passed an elderly lady walking her dog, and when the recumbent came through around 30 seconds behind me something strange happened.

He started barking really loudly at the woman and her dog!

I feel a bit better about not being abale to keep up (having now read that recumbent bikes are faster than normal ones), although I think I'll always be slightly wary of the people who ride them.

I made good progress and reached Vaduz in just under two hours (39km) where I stopped for a pleasant lunch and took on some more fluids. It had been very hot and hydration was clearly going to be the main challenge for the day.

It wasn't until I left Vaduz that I realised the signposts on the east bank were different, and on closer inspection realised that I was actually in Lichtenstein and that so was Vaduz.

It wasn't to be the first time that day that I would have benefited from having a map.

I carried on up the Lichtenstein side of the river until I reached a sign telling me I was in Austria, at which point I decided enough was enough and crossed back over to Switzerland at the next opportunity. I'd already crossed over two international borders without showing my passport so I didn't want to push my luck, and all the way up the river from there I could see that border controls were very definitely operational.

At lunchtime I'd decided I would push on as far as Rorschach on Lake Constance, which an email from mission control had confirmed as being another 59km, thus completing my 100km for the day.

I should have read the email more closely.

Had I done I would have realised that the distances referred to drivetime, and in fact the road cut off a large corner of my route. I'd been averaging a pretty consistent 20kmph on the flat, so in the end when I finally reached Rorschach I was able to put a fairly accurate estimate of the distance together - about 80km from Vaduz.

The town itself ended up being a nice place to break the journey, and I had dinner and a couple of beers on the 'seafront' with a view looking out over the lake while I watched the firework displays for Swiss National Day.

It was also Yorkshire Day so a double celebration for me.

I've been rediscovering some long forgotten German, and today I re-learnt the word for large beer - 'grosse bier'. Though given the state of the computers in the hotels I am staying in, perhaps learning how to say 'your internet facilities are rubbish' would be more appropriate.

So once again, I am struggling to upload photos.


Statistics for the day:

Distance, 119km (estimated)
Elevation, nothing!
7 hours total (6 hours ride time)
Total distance covered, 214km (ave. 107km per day)

Day 1 - Andermatt to Chur and the hills that nearly killed me.

The road to the Oberalp Pass from Andermatt goes straight up the side of the mountain.

The uphill is uttlerly relentless for almost 7km, and combined with the thin alpine air my heart was pounding almost immediately.

I can't have been more than a kilometer out of Andermatt when I heard a noise that filled me with dread. The clicking coming from the rear of the bike was getting louder and louder, and when I looked round I saw something worse than I could have possibly imagined.

I was about to be overtaken by a guy on roller blades using a set of ski poles.

It took well over an hour of gruelling slog to reach the point where the road started flattening off, and from there I made fairly rapid progress to the Oberalp Pass at 2042m, and first sight of the rivulet of water that is the Rhine.

It was really tough going, but well worth it. The view down the Rhine valley was amazing, and I hardly touched the pedals for the next 21km as I let gravity take over on the steep run down to Decentis, passing through chocolate box perfect towns along the way.

I'd really enjoyed the ride up to this stage.

After lunch things got a bit tougher again, and although the general trajectory was still downwards there were long sections of flat for the next 30km, along with a fierce headwind that made it quite tough going in the blistering heat.

It felt a bit like cycling into a hairdryer.

I was just starting to feel tired when it appeared in front of me. Another hill.

At first it didn't look too bad, and although I was struggling a bit with the heat I was looking forward to getting past it. I'd really thought the hilly section was behind me, but this thing just kept going up and up for about 10km in the scorching heat and for the most part at an even steeper gradient than the Oberalp Pass Road from Andermatt.

It almost destroyed me over the course of two very painful hours, and to make matters worse the route was now very busy with lorries and cars whizzing past my left hand shoulder. By the time I got to the summit and a petrol station my entire body was craving calories, which were rapidly consumed in the form of an ice-cream and a can of pop.

Somehow it didn't feel like nearly as much as I'd expended on the way up.

I'd been following highway 19 which should have taken me all the way into Chur, but my next challenge came at the summit of the hill when I reached a long road tunnel with signs prohibiting cyclists. I'm travelling without a map (on the basis it would be hard to lose the Rhine) so this gave me serious pause for thought as I had a choice of two alternative turnings, but no idea which would get me to Chur.

By this stage I really couldn't have cared less about where I ended up, so I took the option that came most naturally - the one that went downhill. I figured it would end up at the bottom of the valley sometime, and from there I would be able pick up the Rhine again.

The route down through Flims was very fast, and I must have hit speeds of over 50km per hour in places as I raced toward the valley floor, rather fortuitously picking up the 19 again as it exited the mountain further down.

I'd only managed another kilometer of the 19 before hitting another tunnel prohibited to cyclists, with the alternate route involving another uphill while the tunnel went down into the mountain. I was hardly in the mood for it, but at least this time the gradient wasn't too bad, and after another swift downhill section on the other side I once again rejoined the 19 a couple of km's later.

Just outside Chur I picked up a cycle path that ran alongside the Rhine, which by this stage has turned into quite a substantial fast flowing river. This was more like what I'd signed up for, and despite the exhaustion I found myself starting to enjoy the ride again.

I finally arrived in Chur 8 hours after leaving Andermatt, booked into a hotel and immediately ran myself a cold bath to try and revive my aching limbs.

I am quite sure the ride is going to throw up lots more challenges along the way, but it feels really good to have completed what is undoubtedly the most physically demanding section. A quick check on the internet confirmed what I was hoping for.

It really is all downhill from here.


For those of you interested in statisitics:

Distance, 95km (plus the unplanned bits)
c. 1.5km of combined elevation
8 hours total (of which about 7 hours was ride time)

I'll have to catch up on photo's at a later stage, as can't get them to upload from here. 

I think the first bit might be a bit hilly ...

The view from my hotel room window in Andermatt.

We arrived in Andermatt just before 9pm after an epic 510 mile drive from Lille.

Or rather it should have been a 510 mile drive, but for a few wrong turnings and a failed attempt to find lunch at a nice local restaurant en-route.

I can only imagine that the whole of France must have been on holiday or strike, because despite it very definitely being lunchtime every single restaurant we found (in three separate towns) was closed.

The climax of our failed attempts to find lunch was when we stopped at a Best Western hotel just off the motorway on the basis it would be definitely open, at 1.58pm. After answering the call of nature we returned to the hotel bar at 2.01pm to find the barmaid turning off the lights.

Thankfully we had better luck at the motorway services, where I was able to have a steak cooked to order. I think that could only happen in France.

The remainder of the days calories were provided by a bag of acacia gums, which came in a range of flavours, all of which seemed to be located on a continuum of flavour that began with pine resin, and ended in toilet duck.

I do not recommend them.

It turns out my driver Damian has some history of driving this route, having previous driven a "£60 Volvo with no brakes" the exact same route passing through Andermatt in the Staples to Naples rally a few years ago.

Thankfully he has upgraded his car since then.

My first impressions of Switzerland are very good. It's been on my list of places to visit for a long time and the scenery is as stunning as the people are warm and friendly. Despite managing to reserve a hotel room online for the wrong evening, the manager just laughed and charged me 80 swiss francs less than the agreed price.

Andermatt is a lovely little Alpine town, that seems to be doing almost as well with hikers, cyclists and touring motorcyclists in the summer as it does in the winter when it turns into a ski resort.

We spent the evening having a pizza and a couple of beers in a friendly local bar that never seemed to want to shut. In the end the bar tender outlasted us and we headed back to our hotel to grab a few zzz's before the morning.

I'd definitely come back here, however now the time has come to ride.

Setting off for Switzerland

I set off yesterday morning for Switzerland, feeling like this is probably the most hastily organised and poorly planned trip of my life.

I threw some clothes, spares for the bike and other essentials into my new panniers, and headed out for the first time on a fully loaded bike.

I quite like it.

Once I got over the feeling thqt the panniers we're going to jump off the back of the bike with everypot hole in the road, I found the extra weight quite stabilising and made good progress to Tottenham, before picking up the Lea Valley Walk and heading north to Enfield Lock for my lift to Dover.

We made it to Lille for our first overnight stop at 11.15pm and will complete a further 8 hours drive to Andermatt in the morning.

A big thanks to my logistics support: Damian, for agreeing to drive me to Switzerland at such short notice, and my Dad (the self-proclaimed Fat Controller) who will be feeding me route information by email as I go.

If you would like to support the trip, please find time to make a small donation, or spread the word. If you would like to join me and cycle part of the route, email me at fretwell.mark(a)gmail.com and let's see what we can work out.

In return I'll try to write as much as I can inbetween truning pedals and sourcing calories.