Day 8, Bad Zurzach to Bad Saekingen

5 deg cooler today? ... we don't think so! Maybe two at best. Maybe. Woke up to the news that UK has voted to leave EU. Everyone we speak to today asks us what we think: shocked, appalled then disappointed. What have we done? Indyref2 is bound to follow. The glory days of Empire are behind us and will not return with Brexit. Politics over, I'm on holiday (which is suddenly even more expensive!).
With the heat returned we are particularly thankful that today is a short and fairly flat day (and is back into Germany with reasonable prices). We only got 8k after a mediocre breakfast before we stopped in yet another lovely old town centre (Waldshut) for a welcome iced coffee and cake. Refreshed, we made it another 15k before a second coffee stop in Laufenburg on a terrace overlooking the river and medieval buildings. On we rode through the heat until reaching our stopover town of Bad Saekingen where we collapsed in a town square beer garden for a cold one. Then it was on to the hotel on the edge of town (alright, on the edge of a business park) where we have a brilliant big room with balcony overlooking the Rhine (and the road, and the Franke factory, and the Swiss railway). First ribeye of the holiday was fab; pity the Internet connection is rubbish!
p.s. To all who scoffed at my bargain purchase of Shimano SPD cycling sandals (knocked down from £81 to £19.99 in the sale), they are the business for this trip. Shame about the tan marks, and I did have to watch for the snow in Oberalppass, but they are unbeatable now!
39.5 km; 14.8 kph avg; 2:39 moving time; 264m ascent

Day 7, Stein am Rhein to Bad Zurzach

Purgatory! Not our best day so far! It all started with a wonderful breakfast that was taken inside because even at 08:00 it was too hot outside. We set off and soon left the Heritage-listed town behind but with a slightly unexpected degree of climbing. We elected to take the allegedly more scenic south route which added 11 km to the day's ride, and whilst all very pretty as we rode through fields of maize, sunflower and asparagus it did involve a lot of climbing. Now, 530m in around 45 miles is normally pretty small beer, but when a lot of it is on rough gravel track through woods at over 32C in the shade, carrying the weight we are lugging, it takes on a different dimension! Accuweather predicted a 'real feel' temperature of 38C, and this felt more than reasonable. At times it was as though a fan heater was blowing on us with occasional opening of the oven door! Periodic intervals of smooth Tarmac upped the pace, but amplified the heat. The one high point (literally) of the trip was seeing the Rhine Falls ( biggest waterfall in Europe by volume flow) but you couldn't get a proper look without buying an entrance ticket ... which we didn't. It was a real tourist trap! A lunch stop of bakery-bought pretzel sandwiches was taken in a shady spot by the river, and the calories were needed for the hot climbs (I burned 3637 today). The gasthof we were staying at was reached with considerable relief until we found that the restaurant was closed on Thursday; you weren't allowed to bring food back to eat; and the bar closed at 7pm so we couldn't get a drink after our evening stroll! We went across the road for a pizza, waited an eternity in steaming heat, alone in the pizzeria, and found that they had only fired up the oven when I placed my order. At this Anne finally lost it! She demanded a free second beer each , and got it! The salad and calzone, when eventually it came, were delicious! A free beer at Swiss prices is s real score! Shame we couldn't bring it over to the beautiful enclosed courtyard of the gasthof.
At least it should be 5deg cooler tomorrow.
73.6 km; 15.8 kph avg; 04:38 moving time; 532m ascent

Day 6, Meersburg to Stein am Rhein

We awoke much earlier than planned as the kitchen supplies were trollied down the narrow cobbled lane under our window. We gave up after 45 minutes and went down to breakfast at 07:30. Best breakfast so far : first time for bacon rolls. Such a pleasant change after a week of cheese and salami! We packed up and left the hotel down the double hairpin to the ferry terminal. A quick sail across the lake on mill-pond water took us over to the outskirts of Konstanz. We rode into the old centre for a wander round and the inevitable coffee stop despite only having gone a few kilometres. Today is a short day so no need to hurry. Also, it started out hot, with gin-clear skies, and just got hotter as the day wore on. As soon as we cleared Konstanz we stopped to slather on the sunscreen then tried to keep moving to retain the resultant cooling breeze. Several sections of the path were closed due to high water having flooded them so diversions had to be followed. Brief stops for purchase of a lakeside picnic lunch from the bakery and supermarket, and another coffee stop, punctuated progress until we arrived, well over-heated, at our destination of Stein am Rhein. As we were early, we headed over the bridge for a recce of this absolutely picture-perfect old town, then headed off to our superb refurbished 510-year old B&B. A walk back into the village for tea reminded us we were back into Switzerland from this morning's Germany : a pizza, a Mediterranean salad, 1/2 litre beer and 100 ml glass of wine was £39. By 8pm the heat was still stifling; we estimate it must have reached 30C this afternoon. Bad news is it's going to be even hotter tomorrow.
42.3 km; 13.9 kph avg; 3:02 moving time; 221m ascent

Day 5, Bregenz to Meersburg

Yet again we awoke to rain. After a good breakfast we set off in waterproofs through the drizzle, but it soon stopped and the day improved as time wore on. It was pretty much a dead flat cycle ride around the edge of Bodensee/Lake Konstanz with an exploratory meander around the island of Lindau. We stopped at a cafe by the lighthouse at the harbour entrance for our first coffee of the day, then continued. The Bodensee Radweg (circular cycle route) is a big tourist draw and we were constantly dodging large German tourists on pedelecs and ridiculous continental style bikes with handlebars at almost shoulder height! But the cycle track was first class except for a stretch adjacent the busy main road. A second coffee and cake stop by the lake at Langenargen served as lunch and we watched a Zeppelin airship pass overhead. No, really! Not quite Hindenberg sized, but as the next town of Friedsrichshaven is the home of Zeppelin, it's appearance wasn't a surprise. As today was an easy ride we cycled past our destination to the museum of Unteruhldingen (ancient stilt houses built over the lake) then back to our fantastic and very old hotel high on the hillside in the ancient town of Meersburg. As it was a fine (and the longest) evening, the day finished with a walkabout after tea. We were glad we switched our original plan from the west to the east side of the lake as 1) the weather this side is better and 2) we are in Euro-zone and it's way cheaper than the Swiss side!
70.7 km; 16.1 kph avg; 4:22 moving time; 250m ascent

Day 4, Schaan-Vaduz to Bregenz

The hostel was good for the room and the bed and the facilities, but pretty minimalist on breakfast. Adequate though. We headed off over the Rhine and out of Liechtenstein on a fresh morning with heavy but unthreatening clouds. The official route would have taken us through the town centre of Buchs, but vying with early morning traffic for road space held no appeal so we took the navigationally simpler option of the Rhine flood dyke cycle track. Velvet blacktop was offset against traffic noise from the adjacent main road, but all turned peaceful when we rejoined the official route through the countryside mostly running alongside a drainage canal and through fields. No vine terraces today, but no climbing to reach them either. By now, the clouds had vanished. We stopped for coffee and cake at 33km in Altstatten, a beautiful medieval town centre, and continued in glorious sunshine. It all turned pear-shaped as we approached St Margrethen. This we should have skirted round, but a closed section of Cycleway ricocheted us into unsigned city-centre and industrial outskirts mayhem. Happily, with OpenSource mapping on the Garmin, and weeks of pre-planned routing with BaseCamp, we navigated our way back on course. Rejoining the flood dyke we passed into country no. 3 : Austria. From here if should have been simple, but another closed section (due to flood damage resulting from the recent heavy rain in the region) caused a second deviation from route, prettier and quieter this time! Local signage helped (Anne points out that I missed it and she spotted it!), and the Garmin reassured (I'll claim that one), and we cycled through water meadows and flood polders to find where all that silt the Rhine was carrying was deposited: the Rhine delta on Bodensee/Lake Konstanz. A late picnic lunch stop followed whilst looking out over the lake and we were in awe of the number of cycles 'doing the circuit'. We continued and meandered slowly into Bregenz finally ending up in a beer garden overlooking the lake where we were delighted at how cheap the beer was after Swiss prices. Almost as cheap as home! Then on to the hotel and the luxury of having our own bathroom and beds ready made! Anne has now switched from Swiss Pinot Noir and Blauburgunder, to Austrian Zweigelt. Germany and France yet to come!
68.6 km; 16.2 kph avg; 4:13 moving time; 125m ascent

Day 3, Chur to Schaan-Vaduz

We awoke to steady rain ... how weather changes so quickly in the mountains! We had a slow breakfast and dawdled with our packing in the hope that it would stop. It didn't. Leaving Chur in full waterproofs, with the surrounding peaks swaddled in cloud, we rode past the less scenic industrial areas on the outskirts and into the countryside. We passed pretty villages, with the odd steep climb which happily generated some heat as it was pretty chilly. An early lunch stop at a guesthouse restaurant was a great relief as very little is open in Switzerland on Sunday. We sat outside as the view was to die for, as was the bill. Two bowls of soup, 4 half-slices of bread and two very small (100 ml) glasses of wine relieved us of £29!! The soup was nice; just as well! The rain didn't stop all morning and continued sporadically all afternoon, so not too many photo opportunities today, and no incentive to remove waterproof jacket and over-shorts. As it was a short day today we sidetracked to Bad Ragaz, a pretty spa town, where we had coffee and cake and bought provision for tea. From here we rode up onto the Rhine flood dyke for several kilometres into a light headwind (nothing changes, winds are always headwinds). Surface was fine, flat, velvet smooth tarmac so was a pleasure to ride. As the river swung right we crossed the bridge into our second country. Welcome to Liechtenstein (pop. 35,000). We passed through Vaduz centre into the next part of town, Schaan where we searched for a while for the Youth Hostel. Asking one resident, we got a scare as she told us it was "no more, closed". She was wrong. As we knew there was no catering in the hostel, we feasted on tuna salad stuffed into seeded croissants. Delish! Now I must go and make my bed.
57.1 km; 15.6 kph avg; 3:42 moving time; 302m ascent

Day 2, Disentis to Chur

I learned a salutary lesson today, happily at minimal cost, but more about that later.
We left Disentis with patchy mist shrouding the hillsides and settled in for a 31 km descent to Ilanz. It was not such a relaxing ride as we kept to the main road due to the recent bad weather potentially affecting the off-road option and it was moderately busy. The scenery was stunning but we concentrated on the road and with great relief stopped for coffee in Ilanz. The gloomy clouds disappeared and the sun came out as we delayered and commenced a long climbing section on a beautiful back road out of the town. Eventually we reached the high point for some respite as the sun was hot and bright. So here comes the lesson : as the road tilted downwards we came to a tunnel. We put on just the flashing lights as it was only 150m long, but it incorporated a tight RH bend and was unlit. Transitioning from bright sunlight to total blackness, wearing dark glasses, I had no exit to fixate on, no frame of reference to judge my position or orientation, and I started to wobble. The weight of the bar bag, combined with the weight of the panniers amplified the wobble and whilst I may not have known which way was up, I soon discovered which way was down! Spread-eagled in the dark with cars approaching was no fun. Anne was waiting at the exit having had a similar scare but not following through like me, and we stopped for a drink until I stopped shaking! As I waited I heard a group of motorcyclists screaming towards the tunnel followed by extreme rapid deceleration and a slow passage to my position. Two emerged, slowed, looked at each other and turned round and rode back into the tunnel. I strongly suspect a companion may have suffered a similar scare to me. My only consequence is a bruised hip and scuffed elbow; no damage to bike or clothing. Next time slow down and allow time to adjust to the dark!
We reached the confluence of the Vorderhein and the Hinterrhein (now becoming the Rhein), a raging torrent of battleship grey, silt-laden water, and stopped for a picnic lunch. A steep climb followed (dropped the chain twice - really must check that limit screw!) with the threat of a thunderstorm that didn't materialise. The gentle descent into Chur finished with a beer in the sunshine in the old town. Thence to the hotel for a shower and a pizza.
69.5 km; 17.8 kph avg; 3:54 moving time; 537m ascent!

Day 1 (Zurich to) Oberalppass to Disentis

When my panniers were stuffed to capacity in the first place, why did I have to buy a fancy (bulky) red Swiss drink bottle in Zurich? This, Anne asks whilst refusing to put it her pannier. It's so unfair. Her shoes and clothes are so much smaller than mine and she's not carrying 3.1/2kg of tools, spares and techie gadgets! Anyway, for those interested: I'm carrying 15.5kg ; Anne 11.0kg ; and Anne considers this as it should be as I'm bigger than her, so there!
So, we left the youth hostel at 07:55 in the dry despite the rain pounding down until at least 4am. Departing Zurich on plan, we were a little in awe of the amount of snow (and cloud!) on the distant mountains. The 3-train journey was a beautifully scenic and efficient trip and we successfully made both tight connections without a hitch which meant we avoided two 1-hour waits and got to Oberalppass 2 hours earlier than expected. We alighted above the snow line and walked round, avoiding piles of slushy snow melting in the sun, to the adjacent restaurant for a soup and beer lunch. Appetites sated, we cycled the 21 km to the hotel in Disentis. Or, more accurately, we sat on the bikes whilst they free-wheeled the 21 km down stupendous hairpins descending from 2050m to 1230m. The only break in the rhythm was to don rain gear for a heavy shower that came out of nowhere and stopped just as quickly. The distance passed so quickly that we overshot the hotel and had to retrace 1/2km. After changing we walked down to explore Disentis and get a coffee before returning to the hotel for a beer in the sun and food.
25.3km; 20.0kph avg; 01:15 moving time; 30m ascent (mainly because we overshot the hotel)

Day 0, Tourist/Rest Day Zurich

Plenty rain in the night; plenty rain in the morning; but after a generous buffet breakfast it backed off a little as we walked into town along the route we will cycle to the railway station tomorrow. In plenty of time, inevitably! The day dried up gradually but remained overcast and windless. We did discover one downside to Swiss railways: the cost. Rail tickets for us and the bikes relieved us of £135 for a 75 mile trip (OK, 3x trains). And gentlemen, never turn up at Zurich Hauptbahnhoff with a full bladder as the pisoir fee is £1.20! Maybe that's why the coffees here are small despite costing £3.30 a cup. Yes, Switzerland is not a holiday destination for those on a frugal budget. Maybe that explains the fact that there appears to be no obesity problem here as we have spotted absolutely no overweight folk; but then, there is huge incentive not to eat any more than absolutely necessary as the food costs are so eye-watering! We played the tourist all day (note Anne's rather fetching new cap) walking 18km in the process. Zurich is a fine place with a pretty lake, quaint old buildings and no high-rise, so plenty to see on our walking tour. We watched a closing mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse on the coffee shop TV; it was pouring with rain. As I write the Ukraine/N. Ireland game is playing in pouring rain. As I look out the window, it's pouring with rain. It's not looking good for our journey to the 2000m high point start of our tour tomorrow!
(18km on foot)

Adventure begins

With Anne exerting her usual influence, the (8-seater) taxi was booked for 07:15 and a trouble-free trip got us to the airport so early for our flight that they offered to get us away on an earlier flight! We took the offer as it would give plenty of time at Heathrow for them to check the bikes through. All went well; we, and the bikes, happily, arrived at Zurich totally unscathed. It took nearly 2 hours to unwrap, rebuild, and set up the bikes. This was extended as I cross threaded the pump adapter and, on unscrewing it, backed out the valve internals. With a flat, valveless tyre and a pump with a jammed valve in it, I had to search out a helpful customs man with a pair of pliers. Eventually all was sorted, whilst Anne sat drumming her fingers, and we were on our way. As it was now nearly 19:30, we bought tickets for the train to the centre of Zurich. Wow, Swiss trains are the business. Smart, clean, velvet smooth, silent and totally rattle free, with plenty room for bikes, almost exactly like Scotrail isn't. With just 5km to cycle from the station to the youth hostel, we arrived ready for a pint just before the rain started. Result!

Bikes ready.

Well, I've done my bit, now we shall see how they stand up to baggage handlers at Aberdeen, LHR Terminal 5, and Zurich. I just hope I can unpack the bikes a whole lot quicker than it took to wrap them!

Preparations start in earnest

Time to buckle down, clean and pack the bikes, and think about what we are taking. It's difficult to sit at 10C in Aberdeenshire and think what we'll need in 20C+ temperatures. However, some meteorological similarities exist as for the first few days we are in this area ...

Time is Marching On

The last few weeks have been busy.  Firstly a 6-day cycle tour of the Coast and Castles loop between Edinburgh and Alnmouth at the end of April was a warm-up for June.  It was actually sunny, but freezing cold ... every day!

Then there was a week in Cumbria with a lung-busting climb of Ambleside's 'The Struggle' at 20%, and a more relaxing circuit of Lake Windermere.

This was followed by a long weekend acting as lead support driver, route-marking and looking after the welfare of 35 coast-to-coast riders from BP doing the 8th annual 3-day charity ride Skye to Aberdeen).  Cumulative total funds raised now exceeds £1,000,000!!

Now it's back to final planning of the Rhine trip!

Testing, testing

A little bit of early season cross-training :

And a little bit of cycle training to show we're serious :

This is just a short test to confirm I can post by email.