August 2, 2017
Lucerne
After yesterday's climb, we all slept well. Today will be easy and mostly downhill to Lucerne. So after breakfast, we pushed off for the great descent. But first, a parting shot.
That was a nice way to start the morning. And while very pretty, the opposite side of Brünigpass is the side with the really great views, and I stopped frequently on the way down to take pictures. We were now back on the main highway through the pass, so there was a bit of traffic . . . and no shoulder!
The lack of shoulder is why Swiss Route 9 actually turns off this main road onto an unpaved, natural trail. While laying out today's course, I decided to bypass the "official" route, as it is heavily forested and better ridden on a mountain bike than a loaded touring bike. Plus, and I didn't really know this at the time, if you take the "official" route, you may miss some of the great views we were able to capture from the main road! And then there is always the fun of the fast descent on a paved road! As it turned out, traffic was fine. People drove politely and only passed when it was safe and clear. And the ride down was a breeze!
And there were plenty of cyclists on the road going in both directions. After about three miles down, there is the first of two very long tunnels. Cyclists are not permitted in either tunnel, but there is a well-signed exit that takes you to Lungern, and from there, to the north and west side of Lungernsee, which puts you back on Swiss Route 9 and is the route we followed. You eventually leave the road and are on the trail as far as Kaiserstuhl, with beautiful views of the lake and surrounding mountains. The riding was easy.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
From here, we left Lungernsee, crested a hill, and laid our eyes on Sarnersee, the next lake in the chain of lakes we were following to Lucerne.
It was not long before we were past the Sarnersee and following the trail along the Sarneraa River.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne) is not much further. One interesting feature of this route is that you bike across two runways of the Militärflugplatz Alpnach, a Swiss military airbase. Pretty unusual!
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
After that, it was a pretty clean run into Lucerne. We had absolutely beautiful weather the whole way. And we made good time, so stopped for a lakeside lunch about six miles out of Lucerne. From there, it was easy roads and bike trails all the way into the city!
Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 658 miles (1,059 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |