Realp

It’s a little chilly in the morning when we leave. Partly because this route is in a valley with high cliff faces shading the road. The first village is Altdorf

As with most towns so far, a lot of buildings are decorated with paintings and sculptures . It’s mostly separate bike roads today until we pass through villages with narrow streets then it’s back to the yellow painted lanes. I wish our councillors back in NZ could come and bike here to see how it’s done.

After about 20kms of steady incline we came to Amsteg where we caught the first train up to Andermatt. The road gets very steep with lots of tunnels from here but the train ride is one of the most scenic I’ve seen. Look for the spiral near Wassen. As you approach it you can see a little church way above you. After you pass Wassen you are looking down on it. Magnificent engineering.

At Göschenen we disembarked and crossed to the platform for Andermatt. The train we came up on entered the Gotthard tunnel here to reappear on the other side of the alps in Italy. This is now a narrow gauge track, for the last VERY steep climb into Andermatt

But first it’s coffee time. Swiss blueberry pie I was told. Bloody delicious

The town was awash with Lamborghini, RollsRoyces and all other sorts of rich boys toys. The accommodation prices were certainly up there as well so we headed on to Hospental three kms away. For some reason this was a town that Christine always wanted to see.

Lots of accommodation but the place was dead with not even a shop to get food. We were still climbing now but with a very strong tail wind so we didn’t really notice it. Although it was only 1.00pm we decided to stop in Realp and found this Zimmer.The ‘Pension Furka.‘

The Furkapass which you can see on the top of the map, is where we are heading for tomorrow. It’s often closed in winter so there is a special train which you can drive your car on, leaves from here and comes out on the other side. We could have taken that train but we especially want to go over the pass. 😬