After a slightly cooler night camping at just over 1000m elevation in Grindelwald (we got to try out our new long johns!) we packed up our rather dewy tent and mentally prepared ourselves for the challenge of the day ahead. We would be heading over Grosse Scheidegg, a pass closed to private vehicles with some rather steep sections (they were mostly coloured coded bright red in our helpful diagram of different gradients over the pass.)

A chilly mountain morning.

Cycleway grade sign: STEEP!

We headed up through Grindelwald, and were soon on a small road with only hikers, fellow cyclists and a few public buses to share the road with. The road was too narrow and curvy for the buses to safely pass while cycling, so they tooted their loud, slightly obnoxious horns as a signal to pull over while they passed through. This horn soon became my new favourite noise, as it provided a legitimate excuse to pull over and let my legs and lungs recover for a few seconds, without any admission of fatigue.

Looking back to Grindelwald, with views of the Eiger

We made our way to the top of the pass and enjoyed our lunch while looking down to the valley we would roll our way down that afternoon. We haven't quite managed to get our head around the fact that there are almost always hotels, kiosks and accessible public transport to many of these high alpine areas. Solitude is not easily experienced anywhere in Europe, even in the mountains.
We cruised down to Innertkirchen, set up camp and cooked our standard pasta/pesto/salami/vegetable-of-some-sort/whatever-else-we-can-find one pot meal to fuel us for the mammoth journey we had planned for the next day. We would be heading over the Grimselpass and Furkapass to Andermatt, which included about 2300m of elevation over about 65 km. This would be our biggest daily elevation gain and had me nervous whether I would make it through the day for the first time in a while.

Slightly tense smile

We made it to the top of Grimselpass and took advantage of one of those convenient shops, to partake in a sugary, ice cold beverage. I guess they do have their benefits! We had a steep downhill, followed by another uphill ahead. This particular view towards Furkapass was quite intimidating given we had already completed a whole morning of solid uphill.

Pondering my choices in life

We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves as we made it to the top of Furkapass and had even overtaken a fellow cycle tourer on our way up the hill. We were overtaken by a friendly local road cyclist, who thought we "were mad" for cycling in this area with all our panniers on. He then commented that this would be the third alpine pass he had traversed on the same day, which left us wondering who was "the mad one".

Still smiling

The highest point we have cycled to

It appears chivalry isn't dead, see the guy below pushing his girlfriend's bike up the hill

We arrived into Andermatt and set up camp under the shadow of tomorrow's hill. The cycle tourer we'd overtaken cycled by an hour or so later, and when I had a closer look at his face, I realised he was about 70 years old! What a legend!

The next day we climbed to the Oberalpass where we joined the Rhein River again at its source. It was interesting to see the river in its baby form, as we had followed it quite a way much closer to the sea in Germany and Holland.

I am meant to be showing seven fingers - 7000 km done and dusted!

We meandered down the valley, managed to set up camp and were halfway through cooking dinner when the forecast thunderstorm hit. This eased off sometime during the night, and I was looking forward to enjoying a deeper sleep. However, the local village church bells then started chiming at about two o'clock in the morning and they seemed to go on forever. Why? Does anyone actually enjoy hearing these bell at all sorts of ungodly hours!?! Maybe they don't bother other people, as somehow Dave didn't stir the whole time.

Even the clotheslines in Switzerland are spectacular

We had one more day of cycling before checking into an Airbnb in Austria for a bit of a rest - it would be seven days in a row of pretty intense exercise and my body was starting to moan. We headed further down the Rhein River, crossing over into Liechtenstein for a few kilometres and ending up in a town near Lake Constance in Austria.
Our time in Switzerland was awesome. Although it was expensive, and at times I thought my lungs might explode, it has definitely earned a special spot in my heart. The scenery is simply stunning and the rewards were definitely worth any challenges along the way. Maybe next time we visit we will be cruising through the mountains in one of those ridiculously expensive cars which kept passing us on those hills, smirking at those young ones that are cycle touring and camping.

 -  Sarah

We arrived in Interlaken to weather reports predicting up to 25mm of rain over the following few days. We thought our little tent probably wouldn't hold up to this level of moisture so checked into the 'Balmer's Tent Village' - a hostel made up of tents that were significantly more waterproof than ours. The hostel also had great common areas with a bar to hang around while waiting out the rain.

Jungfrau (4158m) from near the Tent Village

The rain wasn't forecast to start until the following afternoon; so in the morning we headed up the Harder Kulm funicular (thanks Aussie Bill for the free ticket!). The views, 700m above Interlaken, were stunning. The two lakes either side of the town were an unreal blue colour and hogsback clouds over the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau signaled the bad weather on its way.

Interlaken with Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau above

We hiked up the ridge a bit further to get away from the crowds before walking back down to Interlaken. Our legs are conditioned for cycling after 5 months on the bikes - both of us were a bit sore after the steep two hour descent!

Descending from Harder Kulm with Lake Thun in the distance

Sure enough, the rain started late afternoon and continued for the next 24 hours. It was a good time to catch up on the blog and photo editing, and also chat with fellow travelers.
The day off also gave us time to rest our legs before hiking the 'Faulhornweg' in the mountains between Grindelwald and Interlaken. The 16 km alpine track from First to Schynige Platte to First is considered one of the best day walks in Switzerland, if not the world. We had to take a train to Grindelwald and then a cable car to First at 2168m. The walk up the main street of Grindelwald past the flash hiking gear stores made us wonder if we looked the part - we had no poles, no bright new soft shell jackets and sneakers half destroyed by six months of cycling!

The Eiger (centre right) looking mean

The clouds hanging around from the previous day's weather made for atmospheric scenes as we started up the hill towards the alpine lake of Bachalpsee. There were hundreds of people heading up to the lake, many of them in shiny new hiking gear, presumably purchased on the main street Grindelwald for their two hour venture into the mountains. The outdoor industry has a good racket going on here; the track is a highway and we shouldn't have worried about being unprepared. It's a bit sad that people are made to feel they have to spend all that money just to go for a walk in the hills!

Bachalpsee

Schreckhorn (4078m) centre left and Finsteraarhorn (4274m) behind

We left the crowds behind at the lake and headed to the summit of Faulhorn (2681m) where we joined James & Yasmin for lunch. We'd heard there was a hotel at the top of the peak - a strange concept for us Kiwis - and sure enough there it was, selling cokes and schnitzels to hikers. We`re beginning to understand why some tourists in New Zealand think they'll be able to buy drinks at the tops of mountains or on the Great Walks...

The ridge descending towards Schynige Platte

From Faulhorn it was nearly all downhill to Schynige Platte. We passed through different alpine terrain ranging from rocky moonscapes to green meadows with glimpses of the high peaks in breaks in the cloud.

Sarah cycling beneath the Eiger's infamous north face aka "Mordwand" (Murder wall)

Campsite in Grindelwald

Last rays of sunlight on the Eiger

  -  David

When we started on this adventure we had a very rough plan of our route, especially the latter stages as there were so many unknowns. We really didn't know how many kilometres we could do, we didn't know how we would handle the hills, the weather, living in a tent; we basically had no idea what we were doing. Things have turned out pretty well, and with our flight out of Frankfurt still a number of weeks away, we realised we had a bit of time to hit some more countries and were keen to challenge ourselves with some more hills. Switzerland seemed an obvious choice - chocolate, mountains, stunning scenery and melted cheese, what more could a girl ask for! As we approached the border to Switzerland we came across actual security at the border crossing. This gave me that nervous feeling when you feel guilty even though you haven't done anything wrong, which was completely unnecessary as we were waved through without so much as a second glance. I guess criminal profiling probably doesn't extend to New Zealand cycle tourers...

Basel

With three passes that day and some fairly high temperatures we set off towards a small town named Solothorn. Switzerland has an extensive system of walking, cycling and mountain biking trails which are easy to follow and well signposted. They even have cross country routes that you can do on roller blades, though we haven't yet spotted anyone doing one of these!

Up and up...

...and up

The one way you can get lost on these cycle trails, even while diligently following the signs, is if you are going in the complete wrong direction. This is what happened to us the next day after hooking back on to the trail from our campsite. We eventually realised something didn't seem right, so turned around and found ourselves almost back at camp about eight kilometres later.

Solothorn

We made it to Bern, the capital of Switzerland, albeit slightly later than planned. We liked the look of the place so decided to spend the next day exploring it properly. We walked into town from our campsite along the River Aare and were surrounded by people walking along in their bathers. The cool thing to do here for people of all ages, shapes and sizes is to jump into the river, sometimes with something floaty, float your way down river, then walk up the path and do it again. We couldn't get over the sheer number of people in the rather swift river, with the national government building providing a picturesque backdrop.

Why is no-one at work?

After leaving the Rhine River we followed the Neckar River for 20km to the university town of Heidelberg. The town escaped major bombing in World War II so has a remarkably intact old town - a rare thing in this part of Germany, and a big draw for tourists.

Heidelberg

We had a few nights booked at a hostel so we could have time to both explore the town, and catch up on blogging - at this stage we were two countries behind schedule! The most striking building in town is the huge Heidelberg Schloss (Castle) perched on the hill overlooking the Aldstadt (old town).

After a short sharp walk up the hill we arrived in the castle and checked out the slightly unexpected range of attractions within it's walls: a pharmacy museum, the largest wine keg in the world, and many half-ruined towers (destroyed by everything from the French to lightening strikes!). We got another view of the castle the next day as we followed the 'Philosopher's Walk'; a track that winds its way up the hill on the other side of the river, where the university philosophers and poets would walk and talk. The temperatures in the mid 30s ensured that there was more huffing and puffing than walking and talking; but the views over to the castle and Aldstadt were awesome. A cold local beer at the cafe on top of the hill was very welcome.

Heidelberg Aldstadt

View of Heidelberg from the Philosopher's Walk

The plan from Heidelberg was to head south through the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) for a few days before heading southwest to the German/French/Swiss border. Having spent more than a month cycling in the very flat areas of Northern France, Belgium, Holland and the lower Rhine, the hills of the Black Forest were a bit of a shock to the system. On the first day high temperatures, navigational issues, and hills got the better of us and for the first time on the trip we fell short of our intended destination. We arrived in the town of Pforzheim at about 6pm with around 20km still to go to the nearest campsite. After stopping at a cafe to use the internet we were able to book a budget hotel last minute. This was a good wake-up call for us - we hadn't had any real hills since the Pyrenees in July!

Typical Black Forest views

The cycling through the forest was lovely. We were mostly following cycleways that stuck to quiet roads or dedicated trails. The shade of the trees brought the temperature down in the, still 30 degree, heat and the locals were extremely friendly to cyclists and we couldn't go more than 30 seconds looking at Google Maps before someone asked where we wanted to go.

Germany is big on green energy - many house's roofs are covered in solar panels

That's a ski lift on the horizon and ski runs coming down on the left

Locals cooling off in Freiberg

After a couple of days in the cycling through the forest we came up to a pass that bought us past skifields and traditional mountain houses before descending steeply down the other side to the Rhine Valley again. We arrived at nice campsite in the town of Freiberg for a curry-wurst dinner and more great German beer.

Freiberg

The next day was one of those days where so much happens that by the time you go to bed, it feels like a whole week has passed. Sarah had a job interview scheduled in the evening, so we'd decided to cut the 70km distance to the Airbnb we'd booked in half by getting the train partway. We had a chilled morning before getting the train; cycling around the Freiberg old town and getting coffee, only to find ourselves running late for the train. After negotiating our fully-laden bikes up escalators and down stairs we made it on the train with seconds to spare.
We got off at our halfway point and started cycling on the Rhine River route once again. The river had changed dramatically since we left it at Mannheim - gone were the factories and barges and instead the river was not unlike the Clutha. We saw a small snake on the track, and then I got a puncture - only the second we've had on the whole trip. Eventually we arrived at the Swiss/French/German border and crossed over to the French side where our Airbnb was. As we took photos on the bridge (it seemed crazy to us Kiwis that you could see three countries all from the one spot!) we got chatting to an Australian guy who recognised the NZ flag. When we told him we were heading to Switzerland he fished out a couple of vouchers from his bag and gave them to us; cheers Bill for the free breakfast and cablecar ride!

On the bridge between Germany and France, and that's Switzerland straight ahead!

We eventually made it to our Airbnb and Sarah had her interview via Skype. The final hurdle for the day was finding an open supermarket at 8pm, in France, on a Sunday. This turned out to be impossible and we settled for a bar meal. What a day!

  -  David