The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Eastern Swiss Lakes

June 3rd to June 17th

Ride Director: Randy Glover
Ride Co-Director: Lucy Glover
Ride Driver: Jeff Messerschmidt
Report by: Bruce Dewey

Eastern Swiss Lakes

June 3-17, 2017

Randy and Lucy Glover, Ride Directors

Jeff Messerschmidt, Van Driver

Doug Arnold, Photographer for group photo

Bruce Dewey, Tripper author

Ausgezeichnet (Excellent) sums up this tour that visited four—yes four—countries by riding between 30 and 40 miles per day. Touring around the Bodensee and northeastern Switzerland, we followed signposted Swiss Bike routes—some paved, some hard-packed gravel—away from traffic. The relatively low daily distances and two-night stops allowed time for sight-seeing and relaxation. The modern, well-maintained Swiss roads, hotels, and other infrastructure are without a doubt the best in the world. We enjoyed magnificent scenery day after day capped off by gourmet group meals featuring excellent Swiss cuisine.

Our starting and ending hotel in Dubendorf was an easy light-rail ride from the Zürich airport. A short trip on a local bike trail took us to the attractive city of Zürich. In addition, the Swiss Air Force Museum in Dubendorf provided an interesting view of the development of twentieth-century Swiss aviation defense.

The first-day bike ride north out of Zürich to Schaffhausen featured the Rheinfalls, Europe’s largest waterfall and a very popular day-tourist destination. With rain threatening the following day, we used a shorter route eastward toward Konstanz, Germany. On the layover day here, folks enjoyed a number of different options including a large botanical garden, an open-air Iron-Age village, and ferry trips across the Bodensee to historic towns.

Cycling on to Bregenz, Austria another layover day afforded a visit in nearby Germany to the home of the Zeppelins which thrived in the mid-1930s until the Hindenburg disaster near New York City. From Austria, we followed the Rhein upstream to the next overnight in Lichtenstein, where we thought we could see the entire country from our hillside hotel.

The remainder of the tour in northeastern Switzerland stopped by lakesides in mountain-valley towns. I especially liked the location and feature-laden hotel in old-town Zug. For the sunny layover day in Weggis, everyone boarded a beautiful 100-year-old passenger steamship sailing to a nearby town and catching the cog railway train to the top of the Rigi—a 5900-ft peak with great views in all directions. From here, folks spread out to options that included hiking and riding the cable car directly back to Weggis. Before returning to Dubendorf, we had a pleasant two-night stay in Rappersville with its castle on the hill and long wooden bridge over the Zürichsee.

So a shout-out to our leaders Randy and Lucy in planning and leading this tour with beautiful routes and outstanding small hotels serving connoisseur group dinners. Jeff, our van driver shared a delightful sense of humor, a cheerful yes to requests to transport for injured and ill riders, and a strong back as he carried in our luggage day after day—all with the punctuality and the precision that are the norm for Switzerland.