Personal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Mountaincycling, Mountain Cycling, Switzerland. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Mountaincycling and navigate the world using Google Earth
Although I am from perhaps the flattest country on earth, I have always loved the mountains. Whether flying over them, walking in them, or seeing them in a distance, my heart always makes a beat extra when I spot them. Therefore, a favourite country of mine in Europe is Switzerland, the lowest part of which is still higher than the highest point in my own country!
Obviously, I went to Switzerland especially in the time in which I still cycled the mountains. I kept all the records of the mountain passes I climbed and there is only one pass of over 2,000 metres left which I did not climb! Of all the tours I made, I select one from the heart of the country to Nice, France. Not in a direct line, but following the ridge of the Alps. The first pass was the Susten, then I climbed Grimsel, Furka and Gotthard all on one day. The second day included Nufenen and Great St. Bernard, which is where I left Switzerland. The pictures you can see here were taken on that tour. A fragment from my diary: "The snow walls next to me are getting higher and higher, they are now higher even than the busses on the road. I feel smaller and smaller in comparison."
One more reason for which I liked Switzerland so much as a cyclist was that their roads were superb, as compared to other countries in the neighbourhood. While writing these lines many years after the last cycling tour, a kind of nostalgia comes to me. Whenever I fly over the Alps, I try to recognize the roads on which I cycled. Maybe it is time to go back with my bicycle!
