Day 13. In which we storm the Citadel

After leaving Lake Como, we travelled to Andermatt where I have some lovely, welcoming distant relations who seemed genuinely pleased to see two hairy bikers rolling up on their immaculately clean doorstep. Andermatt itself is apparently known as 'The Citadel' of Switzerland - a sort of last-ditch stronghold, surrounded by many mountains that are as hollow as swiss cheese and filled with nuclear-powered cuckoo clocks. Irony of ironies, the town has actually been taken over by a canny property developer who is changing the face of this old-time resort in ways that leave the locals shaking their heads in disbelief.

I can't omit a brief note on how we got here because, although a couple of weeks travelling at high speed around some of the most scenic bits of europe seem to have maxed out my ability to take in any more mountains, valleys, lakes and view, this was simply the best bit of biking road we have found so far. Sorry Germany. Apologies Italy. The Swiss get the thumbs up on this occasion, though with one important caveat.

For those with a map to hand the route tto take runs north of Como towards Lugano and touches Lake Maggiore at Locarno. Then head towards the St Gottard Pass and turn right at Biasca up along the Val Blenio and down along the Val Medel - it's a road of about 62km on my map and, believe me, you won't find a better more scenic bit of road this side of Watford Gap.

That diagonal line running up towards the left is a rare bit of straight road.
I would occasionally see a small black dot racing along miles ahead of me. That's Charlie.

Or will you? You arrive at a strange, middle-of-the-mountains place called Disentis where you can catch your breath before continuing because this is the start of the Oberalppaass: 32km of heaven-sent road that leads down into Andermatt and, on the afternoon we road it, was surreally beautiful. Perhaps it was something about the afternoon light, the sweeping cloud,the chilly wind that made this an unsettling stretch of road. We stopped more than once to take our bearings, take photos or just get our breath. You get the idea.

What can one say about this amazing scenery?
The roadside snap doesn't begin to do it justice.

And the caveat? The 'best' biking roads are not necessarily the most scenic. In some ways, the A500 in the Black Forest was the 'best' road because it snaked its high-speed way majestically through an apparently endless forest which was hardly distracting at all.

Whereas the stretch of road between Disentis and Andermatt or the section preceeding it along the Val Blenio is actually so challenging, so long, and so visually scenic that I almost found it 'too much'. It was hard to concentrate knowing that on every side were ooh-ahh waterfalls, 'look at that!' glaciers, drop dead gorgeous alpine views and OMG precipitous edges, that you couldn't afford to look at for more than a nanosecond lest you ended up going that way.

Not actually us but some other bikers trying hard to concentrate on the corner 

and not be distracted by the scenery!

Yet, when I stopped the bike to take a photo, it was as if the film had come to a stop on a rather boring frame. I had either just missed the moment or it had yet to arrive. Maybe that's why you can find endless video biking clips on Youtube: it's something best seen in motion.

Could be north Wales or the Lakes perhaps.
In fact this pic was taken half way down a glorious valley
of perhaps 20km high-speed riding, with another 20km to go.
Sorry folks, you have to be there to appreciate it...

I've stuck a couple of snaps on to the blog but the best pictures, as always, are the ones in my mind!


Jony