Day 86 - Interlaken

After Kev had been struggling with the flu on and off over the past 2 weeks it was my turn to feel like I couldn't break out of a paper bag!

Never the less hunger took over and with no Swiss money (yes those canny Swiss still have their own currency) we set about changing some euros, booking Kev's Jungfrau trip, finding the local Market and applying to the IMF for a loan like most countries in Europe have!

With the days chores completed and even the washing done we dusted the bikes off and went in the general direction of a big block of rock with snow and ice on it called the Eiger!

Although we did only 10kms this was enough to indicate that the cycle route up through the valley could be a stunner with lovely Swiss gingerbread houses set against the imposing giant.

We changed direction and this time cycled to the other side of Interlaken for a fabulous all round view of the Brienzee. On yet another magnificent weather day the aqua sea shimmered surrounded by mountains. Locals took advantage of the unseasonal warmth and sat by the lake or set up beach umbrellas and took in the sun.

A ride back to our hotel gave us a look at this unusually designed town well spread out, 2 railway stations but somehow by not being on the sea lacking substance other than being the so called adventure capital of Switzerland!

With time on our hands we put together a slap dash meal in our appartment talked footy with the Grand Final a couple of days away and considered our journey given we areonly 7 riding days from completing this epic adventure!

Distant view of the Eiger !

Day 85 - Faido to Interlaken - 45 kms

It was after 8am the sun had yet to clear the Mtn tops and Henley despite me deflating a tube in his ear, (normal banter for persons who have spent 3 months together) continued to sleep at least until I mentioned that breakfast was on the go!

Our climbing started immediately leaving Faido and the 20kms to Airolo provided for some steep pinches as well as spectacular gorge like scenery. We were following the old road over the top since replaced by a freeway and a massive road tunnel 16kms the longest in the world completed in 1980 - in discussion the night before KH thought we were riding through it !!!

Even the railway tunnel completed over 100 years prior was a marvel although costing over 200 lives. This pass is one of the most famous and important of Europes alpine passes linking Nthn and Sthn Europe with the pass itself being a crossing point since the 13th c.

Kev with the big climb in the background !

Approaching Airolo and already sweating from our effort in the higher altitude sun we saw for the first time a mass of roads climbing steeply out of the valley in switchback fashion. Our road signalled the start of the steep climb with a sign indicating a 900 metre gain over the next 12kms. While not overly steep when you factor in panniers, the sun and the fact that we were climbing on cobblestones you get the picture that this was no picnic!

Half way up the switchbacks tightened to the point where they doubled back on each other giving a magnificent view back down the valley.

One of the 37 switchbacks !

Having stopped to refill my water supply I could see KH about 5 switchbacks behind and boomed "put in Henley" - I'm sure Kev though God was communicating directly with him!

Finally we made the top (2100 metres)a touristy type place and desperately sought out a coke zero and some food -according to KH we were ripped off but I for one wasn't complaining as options were few.

The boys' triumph !

The 9km downhill was unbelievable in terms of spectacle and riding. At times we flew over the cobblestones noting not all corners had barriers - this was certainly not a good time to be taking in too much scenery!

The plan to head to Interlaken was pretty light and simply included catching a train, how, where and when had yet to be determined. Thank god for a lovely lady at Hospental who got us
on a train, thank god for the conductor who accepted Euros and all our change to pay for our tickets as we had no Swiss francs and thank god for the Swiss family man who helped us after 3 hours and 2 changes get on to the right train with our bikes in the right compartment to Interlaken - this was travel stress at it's worse and proves that having some plan is a good idea!

We arrived at our hotel just after 7pm showered and had one of the best Thai meals ever congratulating ourselves on our cycling achievement and the fact that we'd somehow ended up in Interlaken!

Day 84 - Luin to Faido - 94kms

A big day! We started off lateish after little sleep from traffic buzzing past our window. Some video taken by the lake showed Henley head butting and king hitting me and I expect him to get a Phil Carman like sentence when I present the evidence to the AFL tribunal on my return.

Some mire great lakeside cycling took us to the Swiss border and with the border police showing little interest we cycled with all our contraband into Switzerland !

Almost immediately you could feel / sense a difference - places looked cleaner, the bakery smells were more pronounced and the prices had just about doubled!

We cycled on to busy roads to Bellizona and picked up the Swiss cycle velo route that would hopefully guide as over the Alps. Kev got immediate first hand experience of the cost of living in Switzerland with an $8 salad sandwich despite his protests

The cycle route on small roads and paths would have been scenic if not for power lines, cement factories and quarries which seemed to block any shot of the mountains. My 2nd puncture on the trip occurred soon after but with KH's help we were soon back on the go with some real

climbing (10+% in small sections) that gave for great views of the massive freeway system high up that seemed to run around and through the mountains

Massive Freeways !

With light fading because of the high sided valley we were in we settled fir overnight accommodation at Faido just 20kms from the big climb at Airolo. We ended up sharing our hotel with half the Swiss Army and made a mental note not to upset them during our stay.

Finally a dinner with some meat - Schitzel x 2 had us feeling part satisfied after way too
much pasta of late. We went to bed realising that tommorrow would bring us to face what we'd come for the 34km climb over the St Gotthard pass hoping our 3 months of cycling would help us endure!

Climbing the valley !

Day 83 - Milan to Luin - 67 kms

We made up for last nights lousy dinner by attacking the hotel's buffet with a frenzy before "team magnifico" sprang into action!

KH set about assembling the bikes (only partly destroying the hotel room this time) while I headed off to the airport to hopefully obtain maps thar would get us out of the busy precinct and on our way to the Italian Lakes.

About to try and navigate out of the Airport area ! 

With both missions accomplished it was a lateish start on a fine morning before we jumped on our bikes. I nearly made it out of the hotel car park before realizing KH hadn't tightened my head stem, "it's not important he said"! Another 200 meters and KH's bush mechanic skills came to the fore when he used a small piece of discarded electrical conduit to fit through the head of my brakes split pin which was annoyingly catching on my rotating spokes - it now matches the cable ties holding my pannier arm and the occy straps holding my panniers and front handle bar bag in place !

The maps were perfect and soon had us cycling beside an isolated river / loch past nearby forest and towards the lakes as confirmed by a helpful 1000 word to the minute Italian cyclis

We hit Lake Maggiorgore at the 25km mark and what a site it was with a never ending sea, hills with villages hanging on precarious high points on the hills, mountains in the distance and a great hazy smog that I remember so well when journeying this way 20 years ago.

The cycling took in roads with little traffic right on the lake which made riding an absolute delight. The numerous tunnels though were a different matter with noise amplified even a 1 litre citreon sounded like an approaching b double !

A side tripe to a cliff hanging monastery gave close up views of this beautiful lake.

Magnificent lake panaorama !

Another 30kms if lovely cycling and we called it quits at Luin only 20kms from the Swiss border and our hotel looking directly over the lake.

Famished we raided the local supermarket (this time KH did weigh his fruit) before going out for yet another pasta meal "don't they serve anything else in this country" quipped KH missing his salad sandwiches!

After dinner we took in the old town and it's narrow dark alleyways with even KH a but nervous before marvelling at the night time view of the lake - what a beaut spot !

Day 82 - Barcelona to Milan

With bikes packed and appartment cleaned we farewelled Kim on her way to Santorini Greece no doubt to recover from her near nervous breakdown from having to drive the team "bus" in France while Kev and I headed off for our next leg to Milan.

Arrival at Barcelona airport brought a few challenges and interesting sites a) finding our terminal b) Henley trying to steal a workers trolley to transport the bike boxes c)me panicking because I couldn't find our flight listed thinking I'd done a Viv before realising I'd got the flight time wrong
d) Henley spending 1/2 hour taking on a coke machine that wasn't co-operating

While our flight was uneventful getting our bikes to our hotel was not! We'd officially listed our bikes as missing after waiting for a good 30mins - when asked to describe them we just said "bloody big" cardboard boxes!

They turned up eventually at the entrance to the baggage terminal - apparently flying a low cost airline means as long as throw your bags anywhere that means we've delivered!

After KH spent an age trying to work out how to get his 1 euro back from his returned airport trolley we bordered an bus towards our airpot hotel getting off one stop too late and faced with a 500 metre carry of boxes and luggage back - "stuff that " Henley so we caught the bus back one stop the other way and this time ended up with only a 300 metre carry- by the time I arrived at the hotel I looked back to see Kev still arguing with his bike box so I went back to help.

Pretty tired we soon set about finding food and with little open we settled on a restaurant at s nearby hotel which easily succeeded in achieving our worst meal on trip so far - KH's spaghetti bolognaise included a small mound of spaghetti with a tiny topping of tomato based source that wouldn't have fed a mouse!

Back to the hotel it was crash time hoping that the seemingly hundreds of planes landing and taking off would take notice of our hotels blinking red lights and continue to fly over rather than through us!

We're finally in Italy and our challenge will be how to get out if the damned airport as we have no local maps .... one to sleep on !!!

Day 81 - Barcelona

After so many great weather days in Europe the rain finally arrived In Barcelona restricting our movements for the Sunday.

Viv & Linton made the most of their final morning of their trip by catching the metro out to the suburbs for some last minute shopping but had to settle just for a coffee with the shops closed.

Self and Kim took in Gaudi's wonderpiece and like the guys yesterday were gobsmacked by the design and scale of this cathedral called by some to be the 8th wonder of the world.

Gaudi's masterpiece !  

Our time as a group had come to an end and we sadly farewelled Viv & Linton as they departed to the airport for their long journey home by way of London and Hong Kong - so many great memories to add to our collection of joint holidays - thx for your fab company and for being great friends!

Kim, Kev and self spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the side alleys of Barcelona in parts narrow enough to be mugged by someone who wouldnt have to leave their front door.

This place has so many unique bars that a pub crawl would see you incapable of getting out of a street let alone an area!

Our last night was spent searching for the music as every street was set up with a stage you kind of figured that a party was about to happen but no we had no luck and thought maybe the
rain had put a halt to the festivities ( how wrong were as revellers were still going home at 730am when we were getting up!)

We settled instead for a spectacular light show in the city's constitution square that had thousands jammed packed watching a homage to arcade games and visual effects done exactly to the shape of building that the light was projected upon giving the impression that the building itself had come alive!

What a great way to finish our time in Barcelona - its time to move on for our final leg cycling the Italian lakes and heading over the Alps into Switzerland by bike !

Just a laugh !

Some of the more recent significant moments on tour !

Mega - When asked by KH about conditions in the Outer Hebrides to Stornaway said "that was the day we had the headwind behind us"!

KH - "This is bullshit" when he had to leave all his fruit behind at the checkout in Barcelona when he didn't realize you had to weigh and wrap the fruit yourself prior to the checkout!

Linton - his magnificent impersonation of Michael Caine in the old film the Italian Job when driving the van at speed down footpaths in Figueres!

KH - having succeeded in ordering a salad sandwich or baguette in every place we've visited by using complicated hand charades and quasi English!

The sight of the 5 of us looking at a guy putting in petrol in his car in France with us tring to work out how to use the fuel pump - we scared the hell out of the guy!

Linton - accidentally putting the car into reverse at a traffic light and heading off backwards as he accelerated the van!

KH - the sweep on our out of control canoe zig zagging down the Dordogne saying - "I've got ut all under control"!

Kim - Doing us all a favor by whacking KH on the head every time she tried to stroke her
paddle in the water!

France - The land of com ce com ca - wins the award for the most number of shops on consecutive days not open - what the hell are they doing !

Kim - Successfully blocking the equivalent of the M1 ( for carts and horses) in St Sulspice when she got the van stuck on an impossibly steep corner -in the hour she was there we did
not see another vehicle !

Viv - having to run uphill to get into bed in Carennac with the steeply sloping uphill floorboards from the 15th c

The boys - having to carry bike boxes through Barcelona for 5 kms after finding our one and only bike shop - if the first box missed we usually got people with the 2nd or 3rd!

KH - convinced on descent in a cable car that lights on a nearby sports field were in fact the lights for Barcelona Airport - directing air traffic into a hill!!!

Linton - philosophical when told Collingwood down 3 goals at 3/4 time and absolutely orgasmic when Jonesy's text told him about their 3 point win!

The green walk lights at Barcelona pedestrian crossings that go red after just 2 flashes
requiring pedestrians to run or be run over!

Viv with her flashing red love glades (bought for 3 euro) telling Linton he was in for some fun if he put on his matching ones in bed!

Life you've got to laugh !!!