Yesterday when we went to the Autoverlad Simplon station we noted that there were car train departures every 90 minutes and at the times of 10 am or 11:30 am. Fitting our current pattern of hotel departures, we thought that the 11:30 would be best for us. As the train only requires about 20 minutes to get from Brig to Iselle that would get us to Iselle for a noon start. That was the plan.
For some, taking a train over a route that can be cycled is not fair play. The Simplon pass does start here in Brig. The climb is short, about 10 km, and the grade is consistent, about 12 degrees. As trip advisor says. ¨the Simplon pass is a beautiful drive, the car train is 20 minutes of blackness.¨ Tough choice, but unfortunately 1400 meters vertical on loaded bikes was just not in the cards for us today, 20 minutes of darkness it is.
Breakfast at the Shlosshotel was leisurely and enjoyable. We had plenty of time to make our train which was only about 10 minutes from our front door. Arriving early at the station on this sunny warm morning we were really interested to see how all this works. As we waited, we struck up a conversation with a man who spoke perfect english and why not - he was from Victoria BC, the home of a number of Cycleblazers. As our 11:30 departure time approached, the lady who sold us our tickets for the train began frantically explaining to everyone - the train is cancelled!
The cars that were lined up all turned around and went on their way to enjoy the wonderful drive over the Simplon pass, we presume. We went to the main station to see about a passenger train leaving the broken engine with a sea of men in orange coveralls surrounding it.
The next train to Iselle would leave at 1.22 pm, roughly 20 minutes later than the next car train IF the train issue could be resolved... The decision was to stick with the car train and use the passenger train as a back up. Off we went back into Brig to find some lunch stuff and explore the area some more.
Back at the station we were told YES the train was going on schedule which made things easier, but our day was now 90 minutes behind schedule. We would instead be leaving Iselle on our bikes at 1:30. This was not a real concern as the planned ride was about 60 kms of generally downhill - from the mountain pass to the lakeshore.
The Palace in the morning light. It is very quiet here now but with parking for eight tour buses it must get very busy at times.
This car could have motorcycles and bikes. Today just one other cyclist. We sat in the car in front of this car for 20 minutes of total darkness except for a small bit of tunnel lighting. It was weird.
Our ride from Iselle started with a 15 km run downhill to Domodossola. The plan was to ride through Domodossola and have a look around but with the later start we primarily just rode through the busy streets and were actually happy to leave the car traffic behind. The next 40 kms were wonderful backroads through small communities and navigation was easy. The afternoon wind had picked up and unfortunately it was a head wind today.
Our lunch stop had great views but we were unable to find a park bench and instead sat on some pavement behind a cemetery wall. At this point some fuel was necessary. It was quiet and nice but not worthy of a picture.
The Toce river near Iselle. We will follow this river all the way to Lake Maggiore.
This bridge appears to be in the middle of nowhere. A nearby sign suggests the river is dangerous as the flow can change at any time due to water control upriver.
Getting closer to our destination of Baveno, the cycling got a whole lot trickier. We were now on busy streets and as we reached the town which stretches for a number of kilometres along Lago Maggiore, we headed down through a pedestrian zone to avoid the road. This was short lived and we were forced back to the road to finish the last 3 to 4 kms.
Getting close to our hotel we stopped for our customary post ride beer. We like our hotel location so we added a third night here but we will need to change rooms. Dinner was a simple affair at restaurant close to our hotel and we called it another successful day on the tour.
Shut down on trying to make our way along the lake front. We pushed our bikes up the slope on the right!
Arriving late into Baveno, we chose a place for a beer out on the furthest point of land, so we could sit in the sun. Turns out that this is the ferry dock we will use tomorrow and only a block from our hotel!
