Paul Ziegler
Vacations were infrequent and short for most of my life as there was never time or money. My first trip outside the USA was in 1994. It was the longest vacation I had every taken at 17 days. Perhaps it was my age or the length of time or the distance traveled but I fell in love with Switzerland. It became a dream to return and ride my bicycle there.
I eventually did some rides in Europe in the French Alps and Northern Italy with some days in Switzerland. This just stimulated my appetite for more riding in Switzerland. Europe is dream riding country as drivers are very cautious and respectful of bicycles.
I’ve been aware of BIKE SWITZERLAND for many years and their tours of the country. It’s been high on my list of things I want to do. However, I was a very intimated by the thought of riding a tour across Switzerland as it is the country of the Alps. A daily tour with lots of climbing would be challenging for someone younger and healthier than me. The thought of exhaustion on a remote country road in dairy land and having to milk cows to earn a ride back to the train station scared me!
A review of the BIKE SWITZERLAND website revealed four different tours with four different levels of distance and climbing daily across country from Geneva in the west to Romanshorn in the east. Tours #1 & #2 seemed appropriate for me as neither climbed above elevations of 4000’. I live at 6850’, so these seemed doable. The tour #1 was, hard to believe, essentially flat, and followed many valleys and main roads. Tour #2 traversed back roads and had distance and climbing challenges that I felt I could handle daily given that I had all day to ride.
I signed up for a self-guided tour as no group tours were going in my time frame. Then I started to train assuming it would be much more difficult than expected. I was riding three consecutive days at 6000 – 7000’ with 3000 – 4000’ of elevation gain riding 40+ miles per day. A rest day and another three days of riding. A lot of effort and probably more than necessary.
The details of the Tour are the current price of 3050 Swiss Francs, currently about $1 = 1 Swiss Franc, double occupancy includes 10 nights of hotel accommodations with breakfast, luggage moved from hotel-to-hotel, bike rental (electric bikes are available), helmet and route slip loaded on your cell phone. Rental bikes have a cell phone mount on the handlebars. My cell phone is hard to read in the sunlight and my battery won’t last an entire day, so I needed an auxiliary battery to get me through the day.
The ride was easier than I expected yet there were some climbs and a few surprises being short climbs 100 yards of 12% to 18% that I walked. There was about an equal mix of roads and bike trails. Some roads were so narrow and sparsely traveled that I thought I was on a bike trail. Some of the bike trails were hard packed gravel but easy riding. I missed a turn and did five miles on a freeway which generated a lot of horn honking and waving!
The ultimate reason to do this ride is the scenery. There is an awful lot to see and I found myself stopping often trying to take pictures with my cell phone that did not do justice to the view. I would like to do this Tour again. I believe we could negotiate some discounts for a group of 12 or more. There may be a way to take your own bike but I haven’t figured out the details. I would like to ride this tour in early September 2020. Please contact me if you are interested.
PAUL ZIEGLER, 714-915-0446, paulziegler@att.net
I’m a BCI member since 1987. I have organized rides and out-of-town events for the club.
