Andermatt, Switzerland

Hello from Switzerland. Today is the second sunny day we have had in the last month and boy does this country need it. The endless rain has caused flooding everywhere and some villages are totally cut off. Fortunatly the flood waters are receding and the weather is supposed to be nice for a while. Heather and I made it over the 2044 meter high Oberalpass yesterday which felt really good. We were thinking of cycling all the way to the Matterhorn (actually Zermatt) but we are now thinking that we will head east.

Either way the important thing right now is that I have a computer with a USB port and I can upload photos. So I am just going to upload a bunch of photos and if I have time I will write more. This blog has been a bit bland lately since we have not been able to upload photos!

The Burg Eltz Castle near the Mosel River


Eating lunch on the Mosel in Cochem. Notice the new haircut I got in Cochem.


Heather in the defensive tunnels at the Rheinfels Castle ruin. They filled them with dynamite and blew them up under the attackers.


Cycling down the main street in Sprey.


Heather and Wolfgang navigating the military tunnel complex on the Maginot Line in France.


A typical German campground. They setup their trailers on Easter and leave them up until the floods start (usually in October). Most of the time these trailers are empty so campgrounds are kind of strange ghost towns sometimes. They might get used for 6 weeks of the 6 months that they sit there. It's a German thing I guess.


Sewing up my tire. It worked great and got us the 30 km to the bike shop.


Cycling through the flooded Rhein River. We had to change our route and camp at different campgrounds because of the flooding.


The Rheinfalls where the Rhein River becomes non-navigable by commercial boat traffic.


Two Austrailians we met a couple of times along the river. One really rainy morning in Schaffhausen Jade made us some hot egg and ham sandwiches and brought them to our tent. Like room service in a tent. It was fantastic.


Then just out of camp after our hot breakfast sandwiches heather ran over a lag screw that went completely through the tire, both sides of the tube and into the rim. Luckily the rim still works fine.


Check out the size of that thing! What are the odds that it would stick straight through and into the rim! I put in a new tube and it has worked fine ever since.


Looking across the river from Germany into Switzerland. There are lots of towns like this and the river this far upstream was a clear and beautiful green color. No flooding here.


At camp in Bad Ragaz. It was actually nice weather that evening.


It was raining so bad in Trun that Heather joked with the owner of the campground that we would camp under their beer garden umbrella. It kept raining and there wasn't anyone using the tables so we moved a few things and camped right there. We got a couple of good laughs from folks.


A lovely beer maiden in Ruras.


Heather cycling up the 2044 meter Oberalpass. We were a bit worried about physical limitations of our bodies but no problems. Just good fun!


At the top of Oberalpass!


Luke cycling on Oberalpass.


In Andermatt at the end of our trail which started in Rotterdam. Notice the wonderful signs for cyclists. It's ironic, the Swiss are known for their excellent maps but the signs are so good here that you don't need maps. Awesome country for cycling.


Looking back at Oberalpass and the switchbacks that we came down.


Tonight we are going to head back over Oberalpass and back towards Chur. We will then head towards the east part of Switzerland and into Austria. Other than the couple flat tires the bicycles are holding up great and we love them more and more. I'm really glad we spent a little extra on the bikes. We have heard some horror stories from others about their bikes. Our bodies are holding up well too. I am constantly sore in the legs but the Brooks saddles have become rather comfortable so no problems there. We miss a few things: summer BBQs, friends and family, and Seattle food. Thai sounds so good right now. I guess I am hungry. Will post again soon! Must go eat...

We made it to Oberalpass!

We made it to Oberalpass! Now downhill ride to Andermatt. It is a perfect sunny day in the Alps full of mountain and glacier views.

Hanging out under large umbrella

Hanging out under large umbrella Trun Switzerland. We had over 24h without rain, ya! Today was spectacular! 2000 ft ride up valley.

Rode along the Boden today.

Rode along the Boden today. Swam in lake last night. Camping in Rhein delta, one of the largest natural areas in Europe. PSB is about the same size. We are so lucky in US. Austria is beautiful and just as rainy as Germany. We invested in rainwear for our feet!

Camping on high ground in

Camping on high ground in Gertweil. Rode in rain last 3 days. Rhein is flooding. Switzerland underwater. Shit weather but having fun!

Luke saved the day with

Luke saved the day with his McGyver tire sewing skills. In the past 3 days we have been through 1 tire 2 countries & 3 tubes. Fun!

Camping north of Kehl, Germany.

Camping north of Kehl, Germany. Cycled to Maginot Line bunker and toured 3km of the tunnels at Fort Schoenenbourg, France today.

Cochem

Hello from the Mosel River in Germany! We have had an excellent time cycling up the Rhein to Koblentz and then up the Mosel to Cochem. We have been on our bicycles every day since Amsterdam (except for one in Rotterdam) and loving it. The weather has been just about right for riding: cool with a little sun here and there. It has rained on us just about every night but the days have been fairly dry. We have not put the tent away wet yet.

The ride from Rotterdam was really flat, windy and kind of plain all the way up to Dusseldorf. We cycled most of the time along the top of the dikes where the Dutch have built some really nice cycle paths. Like I said in a previous post, the cycle paths in the Netherlands are the best. Cyclists even have right-of-way in almost all situations we learned. We really did not see any topography of any sort until we got to the area just south of Dusseldorf. Up till then I think we were sleeping in areas that were lower than the level of the river. It is quite amazing that all of this water management business with windmills and all has been around for many hundreds of years.

We have been alternating between staying with hospitality club folks, other cyclists and campgrounds with just the right mix to get some privacy and to have interesting discussions with local folks. For the past few nights we have been camping along the Mosel River and visiting the towns and castles that dominate this entire valley. The hillsides are vineyards and the valley bottom is small villages where the sell their local wines. The most common variety is Reisling.

Yesterday we cycled to the town of Beilstein where we walked around for a while and just enjoyed the atmosphere. The towns 180 residents run like 30 restaurants, hotels and wineries. We then cycled a few kilometers to Brutting where they were having "Winzerfest". We had some brats and drank a bottle of wine while listing to about 1000 Germans sing to this oompah-oompah band. It was quite fun. We have pictures and a video but I forgot the camera cable again so no photos for you today. I will put them up later.

Tomorrow we head back down to the Rhein and then south to St. Goar. Should see some good castles in the next few days!

Spent the last 6 days

Spent the last 6 days cycling the Rhein. We are camping tonight in Winningen & plan to cycle along the Mosel for the next few days.

Hamburg & Holland

F.Y.I. - We have added photos to the More on Norway, Sweden & Copenhagen post.

We had intended to go directly from Berlin to Amsterdam but could not get a reservation for our bicycles so we decided to go to Hamburg instead. Originally we were planning on cycling from Copenhagen to Hamburg but going to Poland changed that. So we had cycle maps of Hamburg and thought we might ride from Hamburg all the way to Amsterdam. So we arrived in Hamburg on a rainy Friday afternoon and set out to find our maps that we had sent to an American Express office. We found the AmEx office and they directed us to another location where our package could be found. A whole bunch of things had gone wrong that day and both Heather and I were amazed that we had been so nice to each other all day. When we found our package at the AmEx office we were really excited that something had gone our way finally! But... we opened the package and the wrong damn maps were in it! My wonderful father had sent us exactly what we asked: "Please send the Hamburg to Amsterdam maps to Amsterdam and the Amsterdam to Zurich maps to Hamburg." Shit. Just one more failure in a long day of troubles.

Then it started really raining hard and we had no place to stay, no maps to cycle on towards Amsterdam and it was 8:00 at night. The closest campground was 50km out of town and there were no trains that would get us anywhere we wanted to go. So we booked a train to Amsterdam for Sunday morning and started looking for hotels. Heather asked at a few places and each time the clerk simply laughed and said that there weren't any rooms left in town. We didn't understand this until the 4th or 5th place we went and the lady behind the counter laughed really hard. Heather asked why she laugh and she told us that the largest bicycle race in Germany was this weekend. All hotels were booked within 20km of Hamburg. So we cycled to an area that I thought might be less desirable towards the industrial part of town. Heather managed to talk a clerk at this hotel we found into giving us the last room in town, so we booked it for two nights! We felt really lucky.

The next morning we got up and intended to cycle into Hamburg to check out the town and just have as relaxing a day as possible after the difficulties of the previous day. Of course, it starts raining really hard and we spend the morning watching CNN on TV since it is the only station in English. Around noon there was a break in the rain and we headed into Hamburg. We rode around for about 30 minutes before it started raining again but we just rode on. The center of Hamburg is actually a fairly nice place. It has canals and a nice square, lots of parks and trees. We wandered around town on our bicycles for a while looking for a place to sit down and relax. The sun eventually came out and we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon at a small food and drink festival near the town square.

Cycling in the rain in Hamburg


After hanging out all afternoon we headed to the town square to check out the bicycle race. The big race wasn't until Sunday morning but we did see the kids race and the special needs racers. There were vendor tents everywhere and we spent an hour or so just wandering through the crowd with our bicycles. People were really interested in our cycles because you can't get Surly's here very easily. We talked to a few folks and had a nice time checking out all the gear.

Watching the kids cycle race in Hamburg


Sunday we got up and caught the train to Amsterdam. We were met at the train station by Rena, a wonderful person that we were connected with through some folks we were planning on staying with in Rotterdam. Rena made us feel at home in her small Amsterdam apartment. We spent Monday riding around the city and in the afternoon went to the Van Gogh Museum. I have decided that I really like the Van Gogh stuff. No surprise I guess, everyone does I think. Tuesday we rode around the city some more, found the package that we had sent to the Amsterdam AmEx, hung out at a cafe on the square in the Red Light district and had a very pleasant day with great weather. That night we went out for South Indian food which was excellent and then Rena took us to the Red Light district to check out the scene. Very interesting but completely mellow which I didn't expect. I thought it would be one big party for some reason. Amsterdam is a great city that feels like a big town.

A canal in Amsterdam


Thursday morning we headed out of Amsterdam towards the coast. Holland has awesome bicycle paths and there are bicycles everywhere. Amsterdam is by far the best bicycle city we have seen and the countryside is no different. Almost every road has separate cycle lanes on each side of the road. There are signs everywhere with distances and separate stoplights. There are even bicycle land round-abouts. Really a nice place to cycle. We rode 60km (some of it in the rain) and ended up camping on the coast in a campground just outside the sunny town of Katwijk.

Opening a bottle of wine on the beach by our campsite


Thursday we awoke to beautiful sunshine, walked 10 meters to the busy cycle path that runs all along the coast of Holland, and headed south towards Rotterdam. The whole beach scene in Holland is wonderful since there aren't any cars for most of it. The whole of the coast is sand dunes which have been altered to provide a barrier to keep the sea water out. The dunes extend a kilometer or more inland and the only thing in the dunes are cycle paths. There are little towns every 10km or so but between towns you only see bicycles. No blasting stereos, no lowered cars with absurd mufflers driving around, only people on cycles heading to the beach. There are even huge bicycle parking lots!

The really nice cycle paths along the coast of the Netherlands


The mouth of the Rhine River! We will be cycling along (or near) the Rhine for the next month or so.


We followed the Rhine into Rotterdam and after 85 km of flat fietspad found the home where we are now staying. The couple we are staying with are avid cyclists and have done cycle trips all over the world including Chile, India, Iceland, USA, Hungary, Turkey, Pakistan, Africa, Australia, and many more. They have done enough cycling that they are now testing bicycles for a Dutch manufacturer and have a website where you can see some of the places they have been. They have some very nice bikes! Last night we had a wonderful dinner which Marco and Lisette cooked for us and enjoyed talking to them about their travels. We are finding out that the world is very small. Lisette works for ESRI, the company whose software I teach and use at the UW!

Today, Heather and I are washing our sleeping bags since Marco and Lisette have an electric dryer (the first we have seen in Europe), doing some work, and updating the blog. It is raining really hard outside so I think we will spend the day here working on our plans and then cycle out of town tomorrow either towards Brussels or along the Rhine.

Updating the blog in Rotterdam. Notice the photos on the wall from Marco and Lisette's cycle trip around the world.

Spent the weekend in Hamburg

Spent the weekend in Hamburg and saw a bicycle race. Amsterdam was really interesting and now we are cycling towards Rotterdam.