|
4. Week In Italy to the Upper Italian Lakes : Lago di Como, Lago di Lugano and Lago Maggiore. The Ticino ,Italien speaking Switzerland. Back across famous passes into the Alps : Zermatt and Grindelwald before heading back to Lucerne and Basel. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We leave Switzerland for Italy and after the donwhill from the Malojapass through the Bergell Valley will reach a totally different world with a subtropical climat at the shores of the Lago di Como. Belaggio the famous tourist place is reached by the ferry boat across the lake. From here we will visit , the church for cyclists at Ghisallo decorated with cycles and trophees, gifts of thanks from almost every famous italian professional cyclistsl We cross from the Lago di Como to the Lago di Lugano and are back in Switzerland. In Gandria we may load the bike on a boat to take us to Lugano without any own efforts. The same is true when we will have reach the third lake, the Lago Maggiore. The boat brings us to the other side of the lake and we can stay on it to Ascona. The lazy life is over when we bike through the Centovalli to Domodossola to start grinding to the heights of the Simplonpass. The downhill on the exellent road to the bottom of the Rhone Valley will be fast. We still have to get to Zermatt on the same day. The train takes care of the tired riders. Everybody who will ride all the 125 kilometers and climb the 2500m of day will get a small cowbell as a present and price for his/her efforts. |
Zermatt is a nice place to recover and look at the Matterhorn if the weather allows it .Take a stroll or hike using one of the many facilities which make climbing obsolete. On the map the distance between Zermatt and Meiringen-Grindelwald does not seem to be many miles but there are some of the highest mountain peaks between. However the train- and bus system allows you to make this day a pure downhill event. The Grimsel-Pass has a good smooth surface, but care must be taken when entering the dark road tunnels at high speed especially when coming from bright sunlight. Meiringen is a centre of mountaineering. Those who wish can rent a mountain bike and ride to Grindelwald but there are many other things to do : Visit Bern the Swiss Capital, go to Brienz by boat and the Brienzer Rothorn on the steam train, join the Japanese tourists and climb by train to the Jungfraujoch, 3454m/113330 etc. For the Brünigpass next day you again have the choice between train and bike and after crossing the road from week 1, our route follows the Lake of Lucerne into Lucerne itself. We leave the Alps behind us cycling north and cross the Jura Hills to reach Basel on our last day of cycling. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||