Wk 12 – Matterhorns & Blanc Monts

Monday 10th to Sunday 16th June

Mon 10th June – Andermatt SE Loop – 155k

3 Passes – Oberalp Pass 2044m, Lukmanier Pass 1974m, St. Gotthard-Pass 2106m.

It’s a miserable looking day with cloud base down to street level in Andermatt which is 1500 asl anyway. We head off for Oberalp Pass.

Oberalp Pass, cold, white and miserable.

But immediately after crossing the pass the clouds cleared.

Railway Viaduct Val Bugnei

Looking back at Disentis Abbey. We’d stopped here for a night in 2022.

Check the retaining work going on here.

This is an abseiling park in the gorge below the bridge above

These 4 pics are taken within 100mtrs of each other.

Further down the road (is it ‘up’ if you’re travelling north, and ‘down’ if you’re travelling south??) Further south was Lukmanier Pass with its Lake Sontga Maria.

Lake Sontga Maria

Lukmanier Pass – The 57klm long Gotthard Base Railway Tunnel runs about 1500m underneath here.

We kept going down to Biasca where we turned right for the famous Gotthard Pass with its various roads and tunnels.

Looking down on Airolo from Punto Panoramico San Gottardo

The original cobble stone pass, Tremola road, was closed. Have a close look at this pic and you’ll see how much work is involved in keeping these passes open. We rode this in 2022.

Gotthard Pass

Another Grand Tour of Switzerland Foto Spot- Hospental, just short of Andermatt.

Tues 11th – Andermatt NE Loop – 55k

Today was supposed to be a 120klm loop ride taking in the amazing passes of Furka Pass 2429m, Grimsel Pass 2164m and Susten Pass 2260. But they were all closed 😦 Which was a bummer x2.

So in the wet and cloudy conditions we thought we’d see how close we could get to Susten Pass. We got to within 4klms of the top where a barrier brought matters to a sudden halt at Sustenbrüggli Cafe which was open.
There were about 30 guys heading off in full mountaineering kit – there are some serious peaks up behind here.

Sustenbrüggli Cafe – can anyone identify the wayward moto??

We then came back to Wiggen where there’s the 1940s Wiggen Factory cable car – no amount of Google searching shows any history.

Licensed to carry 10 people – the cable car, not the Panda car.

We had a brew and our lunch, while Brown’s Cows marched by with bells ringing.

A couple of bridges over the deep gorge at Göschenen.

Then the historical Häderlis Bridge.

Häderlis Bridge. Built in 1649 on the site of an older footbridge. A flood destroyed it in 1987. In 1991 an identical stone arch bridge replaced it.

We retired to our comfy apartment for hot chocolate and strudel – as you do in Switzerland.

Which brings me to a point of immense wonder. YOU DON’T SEE ANY FAT PEOPLE IN SWITZERLAND! Now considering their shops are stuffed with all sorts of delicious breads, and just as many cakey things, not to mention that apple strudel, with ice-cream. Why is that? Well, you can say you got it from me – “there are no flat places in Switzerland”, so you’re either walking or pedaling UPHill, steeply, or you’re doing the same thing DOWNHill, just as steeply.
So there you go, you can eat as much strudel and other carbs as you like, you just have to live in Switzerland, and not own a car or moto 🙂

Wed 12th – Andermatt Lay-Day

A lay-day is where we do nothing. Well that’s the general idea, but I’m usually catching up with this blog, or planning the next few days travel, or doing my bookkeeping job.

But today the 171klm Stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse is coming through town, bypassing it actually. So we walked a couple of Ks (remember yesterday’s strudel) up the road and watched them go through the final sprint section for the day.
Norma and I enjoy watching the highlights of the Big 3 European bike races on SBS in Australia, and by comparison the Tour de Swiss is pretty low key. But that doesn’t mean the riders and teams and organisers don’t take it really really seriously.

There were a couple of dozen of these Team Buses – all the big teams.

And there were dozens and dozens of these team cars.

And there were dozens and dozens and dozens of these motos roaring up the road.

And there 24 teams and so 20 dozen of these masochists – I takes me ‘at off to ’em.
They can eat as much strudel as they like – but I bet they don’t.

This is the breakaway, they were a long way ahead of the rest with only 12klms to go. The guy in the red helmet is Adam Yates who eventually won the race.

This is the main peloton, but there were 3 or 4 others. These guys must have been freezing; it was about 6c.
We clapped and cheered them on – we were the only spectators at this sprint section, so I’m thinking the crazies who you see on TV don’t follow the Tour de Swiss – there were no TV cameras either, so that probably explains it.

We had fun and wandered home to our delightful apartment, which today had been surrounded by market stalls.

Thurs 13th – Brig & The Matterhorn – 145k

No Passes Today

Because Furkapass is closed, we’ll load our little white Fiat 500 Hybrid onto a train and take the 15klm Autoverlad Furka tunnel which only takes 20 minutes.

We were 2nd on board

GOMS Suspension Bridge – Norma being very brave.

Our next stop was GOMS Suspension Bridge which was built in 2015 and is 280m long, 1.4m wide and crosses the Lamma Gorge 92m above the wild Rhone River.

But the highlight of the day was catching the Gornergrat Railway to Gornergrat 3089mtrs, where, along with hordes of other tourists, you get spectacular views of the Matterhorn at 4478m. Bear with me, because it really is a sight.

This from the train just out of Zermatt – If you want to save around A$160 each you can see it from Zermatt here and here. They’re both a short walk from Zermatt station.

Anyway, we didn’t know that so took the ridiculously priced Gornergrat Railway, which climbs 1450m from Zermatt to Gornergrat Railway Station. This line was opened in 1898 and was electric rack from the start. Quite impressive.

Me and me mug ‘aving a brew.

Matterhorn sans me mug.

These guys having a lot of fun and making a lot of money. Good for them.

Me and me gorgeous lady.

A wider view

And another Swiss Grand Tour Foto Spot.
It took me 10 minutes to get to take this pic. Which brings me to another gripe (sorry); if you’re one of those who can’t help but take untold pics of self in various poses while holding up everyone else, please stop it 😦
I took my pic, and the guy behind me asked me if I wanted him to take one of me, I told him I wasn’t that vain, I’m sure it ruined his day 🙂

And so to Brig.

Fri 14th – Sion – 115k

1 Pass – Simplon Pass 2006m,

Another cloudy day as we kept heading west. First was a detour to Simplon Pass. Napoleon first had this road constructed in 1802.

Simplon Pass in the fog, with the Simplon Eagle (centre)

The 678m Ganter Bridge, which became known worldwide because of its spectacular span and its movable pillar feet, by means of which the bridge could be shifted by up to 50cm to compensate for slope movements.

It was a very pretty drive on another slight detour to observe the Pont Suspendu de Niouc which is one of the highest suspension bridges in Europe.

Built in 1922, the 190m span is used as a platform for bungee jumping. I was so disappointed it was closed on the day.

Lac Souterrain De Saint-Léonard was next on the plan. Saint-Léonard underground lake is the largest underground lake in Europe, apparently. We paid our Euros and took a boat ride.

Crystal clear.

And plenty of these large introduced rainbow trout.

To lovely Sion, where we took our customary wander.

Handsome brute hey. Me, not the goat. You’ll note we don’t do many pics of self, mainly because it’s about what we’re seeing and not about being seen.

A plumber’s nightmare

The 11th century fortified Basilique de Valère. It’s a steep climb up here

The ruins of the 13th century Château de Tourbillon

Looking out over Sion which, even though it’s in Switzerland, is very very French.

Sat 15th – Chamonix – 130k

3 Passes – Col des Planches 1411m, Col de la Forclaz 1527m, Col des Montets 1461m

It was another damp morning as we climbed out of Sion on our detour loop to Verbier which is a ski village in SW Switzerland. It sits at 1500m and is open for skiing 10 months of the year.

But first we did our first pass for the day. Col des Planches at 1411m is nothing special but it’s set in some lovely forest with plenty of logging happening. We saw hundreds of these log stacks throughout the Alp with a lot of saw mills servicing the obviously huge timber industry.

Col des Planches

Looking down on Val de Bagnes as we climb to Verbier.

Verbier was very quiet it being the season ‘tween winter skiing and summer hiking. We spent our last Swiss Francs on a coffee and descended towards this region’s capital, Martigny, via Val de Bagnes.

Overlooking Martigny and the medieval La Bâtiaz Castle where we stopped for a brew and some lunch.

It was a lovely drive, which would have been an even better ride, to Col de la Forclaz .

Some people have all the fun.

You can tell as soon as you cross the border from Switzerland, where the roads are better than perfect, into France, where the roads are terrible, not unlike our Victorian roads in Australia.

Col des Montets isn’t that high but it’s extremely popular with hikers and sightseers.

Col des Montets

With views of the remarkable Aiguilles Dorées

And so to the heart of French mountain sightseeing – Chamonix-Mont Blanc – It is one of the oldest ski resorts in France, and hugely popular with alpinists and mountain enthusiasts. It also hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924.

The view from our apartment window with the La Jonction glacier in the mid foreground. It really does look like it’s ‘right there’, but it’s probably 7 or 8ks away.

Sun 16th – Mont Blanc Views

Today we joined the queue for the massively popular two stage, and the world’s highest vertical ascent, cable car ride to the top of Aiguille du Midi which sits at 3,842m and where we were hoping to observe western Europe’s highest mountain at 4,806m, Mont Blanc. Regrettably for the hundreds of tourists it was pretty much a white out.

The views on the ascent where pretty good though.

La Jonction glacier close up.

Plenty of climbers.

But this was as good as we got of the famous mountain.

But we got this one the next day from a different viewpoint, which should be, will be , in next week’s blog. See you there and then.