The Vitals
Date: August 30 to September 5, 2022
Location: Zurich CH to Basel CH
Distance: ~520 km cycled and 90 km train
Partners: Brittany
Resources: Eurovelo gps tracks, Guidebook by Mike Wells. We carried a paper copy of the guidebook. Great to read ahead on the segments with little fun facts and good routing suggestions when there are choices. Mostly accurate but no tent camping in Mumpf!
Photos: Brittany
The Trip
If reading seems too much like school, check out Eurovelo 15 in 6 minutes.
Part 2 of 2 here
Zurich to Lake Constance
Our trip started with an overnight flight from Toronto to Zurich, landing around 9:30 in the morning. As we descended in Zurich we followed the Rhine a bit and saw some of the terrain we would soon be riding. We had no hiccups collecting our baggage and built the bikes out front of the airport. As with other times when we’ve built up our bikes in a public place, someone offered to take care of the boxes for us before we’d even finsihed.
By 11:30 we were ready to go. The first Swiss sign posts at the airport were impressive with lots of numbered routes for cycling and rollerblading. However, we couldn’t figure out which number we needed to follow to get to central Zurich and made a few wrong turns with some construction detours thrown in. Once we got to the lake, after navigating traffic in an unfamiliar city, we could start following our gps track to Lucerne. The trip was ostensibly about Eurovelo 15 which starts 120 km from Zurich, but it seemed a shame to rush the mountains of Switzerland so we tacked on two days at the start.
The first day of heavy jet-lagged riding is hard to picture clearly. We left Zurich by a quiet road and ate lunch of “Zuriwurst” (cha-ching!) at a picnic stand in a park. After a couple of hours we reached Zugersee and stopped for a swim in the beautiful sunshine at a public beach. Following the swim, the landscape got more picturesque with rolling hills, farmhouses, and green pastures. The last few kilometers into Lucerne were a bit harrowing but we made it to the B+B in a large old house.
After cleaning up we headed out to see the Chapel Bridge which I had visited when I was 15. This was the real reason we had ridden to Lucerne rather than taking the train directly to the start of Eurovelo 15. Black clouds gathered in the early evening and we ended up on a very wet walk in old Lucerne before returning to the B+B for a long sleep after around 30 hours awake and 70 km of riding.
The next morning the rain came back and we delayed our start. We also looked at the plan to ride 100+ km with over 2000 meters of elevation and realized the ambition didn’t match the motivation. Fortunately, the Swiss rail system is very easy to navigate and we enjoyed a multi-train journey over a few hours watching the rain through the windows amidst steep-sided valleys and mountain lakes.
The last train leg was a short, 10-minute climb on a rack railway to the mountain village of Andermatt. From here we would start our bike trip for real. Leaving town, we started climbing classic Alp switchbacks: smooth pavement, a few tunnels, and a cold wind with a few other cyclists and cows with their bonging bells. We climbed the 600 meters up to Oberalppass and stayed at the lone hotel at the pass.
In the last few hours of daylight we hiked around the pass, looking at the network of ski lifts that allow you to travel 10’s of kilometers between mountain villages in the winter. Dinner at the quaint hotel was a highlight with everything on the menu being described as “…something with something and then covered in cheese.”
The third morning was bright and sunny and we were excited to make the 3-hour roundtrip hike to Lake Toma, considered the source of the Rhine. From here, all of the water will eventually flow into the Atlantic but not before passing through 6 countries (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France, and the Netherlands).
From this high point we would rapidly lose most of our elevation before the riding would flatten out two days later. The portion of Eurovelo 15 in the mountains is short-lived but we intended to soak it in.
Down the switchbacks from the pass, we coasted through several perfectly manicured high mountain villages. In the town of Disentis, we crossed the river and continued down the valley on the quieter gravel side. There was pleasant forest riding with a few little climbs and descents. After the town of Ilanz we followed a picturesque winding road through some rock tunnels and high bridges next to what is called “Ruinaulta” or, sometimes, the Swiss Grand Canyon.
Just after the canyon, we descended to the confluence of the Vorderrhein (which we had been following since Lake Toma) and the Hinterrhein in Reichenau. From here until the Netherlands, the river is simply called the Rhine.
This day ended in the small city of Chur at a campground in town. It was quite loud with a nearby highway and a large, echoing cliff but there was a nice grass pitch for tents and dinner was available at the tennis club next door. As this was our first night camping, it was also our first time seeing bread order forms. You can pay for your bread the night before and get it delivered fresh in the morning.
Our longest riding day of the trip started in the chilly dark of the campground but already most of the other cyclists had left. As we were low down in a valley, it was several hours before the sun could properly shine and warm us up. This day featured more mountain villages, big limestone peaks, and four international border crossings.
The first was into Liechtenstein where we cycled 20 or so kilometers but, other than the license plates, it wasn’t much different than the surrounding Swiss countryside. After crossing back into Switzerland (border crossing 2), we cycled across a broad valley on some small country lanes in brilliant sunshine. We soaked up the atmosphere before making our way back to the manufactured banks of the Rhine.
Up on the dyke roads, we started pushing into a growing headwind. The mountains were now behind us and the landscape changed very little for about an hour. This is a downside of travelling next to rivers that have been shaped into dead-straight runs. We took a break when we realized we had already crossed into Austria. Since we hadn’t crossed the river, we thought we were still in Switzerland but the international borders don’t follow the natural boundaries as closely as expected.
Our time in Austria was brief, perhaps an hour. We enjoyed the comically large bike markings on the road, saw a cyclist knock over an old lady, and started tracing the shores of Lake Constance through the city of Bergenz.
The day ended after 118 km having crossed into Germany (border crossing 4) but, again, no marking indicated the exact moment it happened. We camped again at an extremely busy holiday park but enjoyed the pleasure of a hot shower while camping and swam in Lake Constance in the late evening.
The next day started with a little bit of mechanical trouble on Brittany’s bike which ended up being interference between one of the bolts holding on her rack and the teeth of her smallest cog. Once we were on track, we toured through the historic island town of Lindau before continuing along the lakeshore through Friedrichshafen (zeppelin factory, with a few flying in the sky) and on to Meersburg. This is another town I had visited before, this time when I was 23. A big burst of rain met us on the edge of town and we hid under the awning of a building while waiting for it to pass.
Once the rain slowed, we rode through town and caught a ferry across the lake to the small city of Konstanz. The ferry drops you off a few kilometers from the city so we rode through a wet forest before finding the bridge back to Switzerland. This bridge is an important landmark on the Rhine as it is the “0 km” point used as a reference for navigation downstream of this point.
The afternoon cleared up any of the gloomy weather and we flew through numerous lakeside villages with swans and sailboats out on the water. A highlight was the town of Stein am Rhein with an old town full of painted facades. Another highlight was a wagon in the countryside with a jug of apple cider with cups and an honesty box.
The day finished in Schaffhausen, where a steep climb from the old city brought us to a hostel on an old estate. The grounds were full of huge trees and the building looks like a castle. We cleaned up and headed back to the old city where we drank beers on the riverfront while watching the sunset and some birds hunting fish. It was a very peaceful setting after a couple of long days and stands out as one of the best moments of the entire trip.
The last full day before Basel started with a letdown when we stayed on the left bank of the river past the Rhine Falls. There is basically no view from this side and we envied the people we could see observing from the other side. Things improved quickly as we followed a forested track for a few kilometers, then climbed and descended some steeper hills in the countryside.
We started to see a long vertical cloud on the horizon and Brittany realized it must be vapour from the nuclear plant we had seen from the plane. A few hours later, the cloud growing all the time, we made it to the plant and confirmed it.
At this point we were starting to lose some steam but still had many kilometers to go. We started to grind along the bike path on the right bank before reaching the town of Mumpf. We had planned to camp here but the campground did not allow tents. It’s always hard to get going again when you’ve checked out for the day but we remounted and rode another 20 or so kilometers through a forest on broken up pavement to another campground.
In the evening we walked down to the river and went for a swim. With your head under water you could hear a loud humming and just downstream you could see the source: a hydroelectric plant. The current was decently strong so we swam back to shore and walked to the hydro plant and stood atop the dam as the sun finished setting. A quiet, dark walk back to the campground was a nice close to the day.
From this campground we were only about 35 km from Basel. It was a cloudy morning without any particular views before we reached the city. As we arrived, the clouds blackened and the rain started. We spent another spell under an awning before we could ride into the old city through the puddles.
We toured around for an hour but we had a train to catch so the visit was brief. We found our way to the train station, bought some drinks and snacks for the ride, and boarded the train to be whisked to Colmar for the second stage stage of the tour.
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