Switzerland; chocolate, watches, Alps and lakes

Heading off from the Swiss/French border today I'm pushing south towards Lucerne, but I'd arrived so late I didn't enjoy the view yesterday!

Halfway along the hour ride I stumbled across this! The guys were only too happy to sell an oil filter and some oil and after trying on everything in the shop, took a photo and was back on the road.

Lucerne sits on the bank of Lake Lucerne in the shadow of Mount Pilatus and the decent down to the town is postcard perfect scenery.

The lake is fed by glacial run off through river Reuss which runs through the centre of town.

The town was founded in the 9th century and prospered due to its position near the Gotthard Pass through the Swiss Alps. The old town walls are still in tact with guard towers!

One of the main sights of Lucerne however is a bridge form the 1300's crossing the river.

Unique to the bridges in this area is the triangular artwork which is mounted in the ceiling every 2m or so on both sides, much of this has been destroyed over its 600-700 year life span but has been faithfully reproduced if damaged.

After a massive (expensive) meal at a bar facing the river I headed to bed and hit the Lucerne Transport Museum the next day. Pro tip; don't go to a museum on a weekend if at all possible!


The museum started with a brief background of the area; specifically the Alps and why transport in the area has been so hard and so valuable for so long.

The next stage of the museum dealt with trains; a whole warehouse of old trains. Trains don't fly and have far too many wheels to I skipped ahead - but did take time to (try) to take a photo of the most ambitious rail project to date - 55km long and taking 17 years to build is a two directional set of rail tunnels beneath the Alps; to connect all of Europe via one high speed rail line. They had to stop several times due to the variability of the rock encountered shown in various colours here.

Taking an enormous step backwards into the motor vehicle hall I get to see the origins of the modern car; with the obvious exception of the horse drawn carriage the most modern ancestor is the 'land yacht'; a wheeled ferry using sail power to move people around in the 1600s; it looks incredible fun and might have to be the next project?

Skipping ahead...significantly...the museum has a commercial submarine used by tourists to explore Lake Lucerne, sadly it no longer operates (I'd have paid to go on it).

Leaving the museum I headed back to the main river in Lucerne for another (expensive) dinner. Did you know monks get to go on hoilday? Me either!

The lake is incredibly beautiful and has a New Zealand-ish feel about it.

My next goal is to make it up Mount Pilatus to the toboggan run halfway up - in the summer months the ski runs are closed but the adventure park halfway up is definitely open.

For the first time however my GPS utterly lets me down; taking me slowly up switchback roads.

Underneath the gondola...at least I'm going the right way!

Which then become gravel tracks.

Which then became a hiking path, and culminated 5 kms (30 minutes) from the 'address' pulling a 20 point turn on a muddy hiking track cut into the side of the mountain before very gently returning to the base of the mountain.

I took this photo whilst the road was still paved; an hour later and only slightly further up the hill I called it quits and headed back down; but the view was amazing from the gondola!

Getting off halfway to the top it was time for food, and a bathroom; the food was expensive, however the bathroom was free and came with this guy! He moo'd as you came thru the door.

Due to the rain I'd failed to get on a toboggan at Langenbruch (last stop) so I had to make the most of this; 30 Euro gets you 5 turns down the mountain and I'd give it an 7/10 on the '0 - Queenstown Luge scale). ​

They also tow you backwards up the hill to start again; allowing for plenty of great photos, of which this is not quite one.

But this one worked less terribly!

Walking back down the hill you can see the track as well as the lake at the base of the mountain; it looks nice and flat in the photo but it is actually exceptionally steep!

Jumping back on my bike I'm trying to push my way over the Swiss Alps to Geneva and I strike the first epic failure of the trip (not bad given how long it took). The Swiss Alps passes are mostly all still closed! Some open early June, others late June, however at this point I can get halfway up the Alps and go no further. 


At least the scenery is nice!

However after a little while the rain sets in and the previously fun roads are getting a bit more dangerous!

My phone is giving very conflicting routes to my TomTom and I stop for dinner at the only cover I can find; it's also decided to rain really heavily which is fogging my visor completely, ruining the ability to move at speed and so over the course of two Aldi pretzels and one iced coffee I decide to grab the closest accommodation I can and solve the closed passes problem over wifi and a beer. There are no photos of this process as it involved me being in a pretty shitty mood at being halfway across the globe and 7 days out from being able to ride the roads I'd come for!

Next morning I decided to cross under the Swiss mountain passes by way of a vehicle train; my route would loop me around Lake Geneva and put me back in the Alps in 4/5 days which might allow enough time for them to be opened!

The ride out of the Alps was incredibly beautiful; everything I'd missed yesterday due to the weather came up brilliantly today!

I dropped out of the Alps to a Castle on the Swiss / France border; one of the things I wanted to see most this trip was a castle/fort first recorded in the 11th century. It marked the gateway into the Alps of which Lucerne was one of the exits, and is also one of the most visited castles in all of Europe. ​

Lake Geneva too is incredibly beautiful however after spending several hours climbing in and around the castle I'm running late (who has a 7pm check in closure) and cant stop!

​Unless its for an amazing photo.

I arrived at the hotel 10 minutes before close, got my key, got my room, had no wifi, routers are broken, got back to reception as the hotellier was leaving, got upgraded to a Chalet (apparently nowhere is fully booked in the mid/low season) and set about trying to find food!


That all for this time! Next time...who knows!?