English2009 - Aare
The decision on this year's route was made last year - there was the Rhône Valley and trips deep into the Welsh Alps, so it's time for the Bernese Alps. However, there were doubts whether we would even go to the Alps with our bikes due to the weak zloty. I started with extremely careful preparations. Unlike in previous years, we had to leave in July, just during the school holidays in most cantons. For this reason, after carefully planning the route, I decided to book all accommodations. First of all, I booked places in the facilities of the Youth Hostel Society. You go to the website www.youthhostel.ch, look for a free date, make a reservation and pay. Unfortunately, you have to pay the entire amount at once. I recommend these facilities not only because of the attractive price (for Switzerland) but also because of the buffet for breakfast with delicious Swiss cheeses, yogurts, cold cuts, etc., of course included in the accommodation price. The second organization with cheaper accommodation is Swiss Backpackers – www.swissbackpackers.ch. Unfortunately, they do not offer delicious breakfasts in the price of accommodation, but you do not have to pay for it when booking online and they have a kitchen at guests' disposal. Speaking of meals, So, having learned from the experience of last year, where our main problem was finding places to eat lunch and the considerable costs associated with it, I decided to take dinner from Poland. That is, I bought 6 liters of soups that only need to be heated and I took a gas stove. Everything took up some space in our luggage, but we were satisfied and will do the same on our next trips, which I hope will happen again.
3.07.2009 - Meiringen, Lauterbrunen
We left on July 2nd. We stayed overnight in Germany. July 3 from Germany to Meiringen. As planned, we were in Meiringen at 9 am. I checked on the Internet that there is mass at 9:00. We found a church, but the lady cleaning the church announced that there was no mass. We collected folders at the railway station and tourist information. We did some shopping in "Migros" and started implementing the planned second point: exploring the Aare River Gorge. There are signs, so we go by car to a parking lot outside the city. It turns out that you can buy combined tickets to the gorge and the rack railway to the Reichenbach Falls, which we also wanted to see. The Aare River gorge is 1,400 m long. We walk along bridges and tunnels carved in the rock. Apparently, at its narrowest point, the gorge is only less than 1 m wide. The winding corridors, the noise of the rushing stream, and the narrow bridges are impressive. I invite you to watch the film.
Following the signs, we approach the cogwheel railway leading to the Reichenbach Falls, the place of the death of Scherlock Holmes in the novel. We move to the 19th century. The cable cars are a faithful copy of those that have been carrying tourists since 1899. The 700-meter journey takes only 7 minutes. We are at the waterfall. In the foreground, a figure of Scherlock Holmes cut out from plywood with a hole in place of his face, so you have to take a photo. Then we go up the waterfall, go through 3 observation decks and come back along the same path, down the funicular.
We are driving from Meiringen through the Haslital valley through Interlaken to Grindelwald with the intention of visiting the ice cave. And it turns out that you had to check on the Internet, and not rely on data from the guide. Although the guide is published by a reputable company and is quite new, its information is already outdated. So, we arrive at the right parking lot, we look around for signs, look at information boards, nothing, not a word about the ice cave. You have to ask. There is a shop and here I learn that the glacier has melted and the cave has collapsed. To cheer ourselves up, we bought some ice cream, walked a bit towards the no longer existing cave, returned to the car and went to Laterbrunnen. There is a waterfall in the middle of the town, which can be reached via a path, then through a tunnel carved in the rock into the middle of the waterfall. So we go up and down. We hear church bells. We look into the church and it turns out that there will be a mass. We participated with several people, and judging by his looks, the priest was probably from the Middle East. We return to Interlaken for the night.
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| Wąwóz rzeki Aare | |||
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| Wąwóz rzeki Aare | |||
4.07.2009 - Interlaken - Berno
We stayed overnight in a Swiss Backpackers camping center called River Lodge. I recommend this place. The friendly host of the facility allowed us to leave our car at the facility free of charge. Great - the car is guarded and it's free of charge. We take everything we need out of the car, we install them in bicycle panniers and say goodbye to the car for the next 5 days. The route is mainly downhill. Sunny weather, We ride along the shore of Lake Thun to the city of the same name. There we observe young people jumping from a bridge into the rushing Aare River and floating along the current to the next bridge. This is a local custom. In the afternoon the weather turns bad. Incredible downpour. We wait it out, partially soaked, under the roof of some building. The rain is weakening, we're moving on. And here's the surprise. The route leads under the railway bridge. There's a huge puddle in front of us. We stop to assess how to get over this obstacle. Cyclists also appear on the other side. They decide to drive through the puddle. And what we see. They sink deeper than half a circle. So we have no chance of passing. What to do? This is where the maps I prepared and printed out before my departure turn out to be helpful The Swiss cycling side. I printed the pages to an exact scale, so the location where we are and where we find paths is through which we will make a detour and join the trail. And we did it. We are in Bern in the evening. We booked accommodation in a youth hostel. But how to get there? There was a signpost along the way but it seemed to me that it led to another shelter. We are constantly riding the bike path. It's time to ask people. As always, the friendly Swiss will help you in any situation. A nice lady on a bicycle leads us to a place where we just need to ride down the hill and we are there. The shelter is large, bicycles have their own storage space, people come from all over the world. Illegally, we use heaters to make tea, eat our own bread, buy juices and small beers, take a bath and sleep.
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| Interlaken - River Lodge | To my | ||
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| Spiez | Thun | Nieco przemoknięci | |
5.07.2009 - Berno - Biel
It's Sunday. Breakfast whose main ingredient is Swiss cheese. Then we go to mass in the Catholic church, which is located a few minutes from our accommodation. We go back to get the bikes, install the luggage and set off. The youth hostel is located near Parliament, but that it is much lower at the river level, so at the beginning there is no riding, just pushing the bikes up the hill. We tour the Parliament and stop at St. Peter's Cathedral. Vincent, further through the old town, fountains, clock tower. We leave Bern around noon. Happy that the mountains are behind us and the route will pass quickly, we soon realize that it will not be so easy. There are steep hills that sometimes force you to get off your bike and push uphill. Halfway there, we make adjustments to the route. Unfortunately, we won't have time to visit Papilorama - the tropical butterfly garden. In a certain village we stop at a self-service shop. Its self-service is so advanced that there is no one inside it. You take what you want, you put the money in the piggy bank. Will there ever be such things here? There are more examples of this type, because from time to time there is fruit placed somewhere, a price is displayed, and that's all. After a rather tiring route, we reach Biel in the evening. We have a nice large room with a bathroom.
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| Berno - pod Parlamentem | Berno - katedra św. Wincentego | Berno - wieża zegarowa | Berno - starówka |
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| Berno - starówka | Berno - starówka | Berno - starówka | Berno - Parlament |
6.07.2009 - Biel - Zoffingen
We prepared breakfast in the kitchen available to overnight tourists. We bought breakfast products the day before in the night shop. The longest section lies ahead of us - about 80 km. It's certainly a lot for 11-year-old Agata. The route turned out to be quite easy, the terrain was almost flat. We drove along the Aare from west to east. The most important city along the way is Solothurn. It was worth visiting the T. Kościuszko museum. Unfortunately, I did not prepare an important detail - the address. If so, let's just look around the baroque architecture, although the bicycle route did not run through the most interesting part of the city. Everyone liked this place of noon rest. One of the photos commemorates this. There is a house in the forest, swings, a slide. It may seem quite primitive, but sometimes it happens that tired people do not want much contact with great history and architecture, and only want a bench in the shade. At the end of the day we left the Aare Valley turning south and the climb began. We had a bit of trouble finding our place to stay. The lesson here is that that you need to have a map prepared for such an occasion. We had dinner in the garden of our youth hostel.
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| Bociany | Solura | ||
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| Solura | Chatka w lesie | Szybka jazda | Aarberg |
7.07.2009 - Zofingen - Lucerna
The destination of today's route is Lucerne. There are towns with medieval buildings along the way. Some rain. Everyone fell over that day. To begin with, Ania drove wrongly onto a wet curb. She bruised her leg and hip. Then Agata hit a fence because she hit the brake cable so unluckily that the brake disengaged. Then Krzysztof's and mine fell harmlessly, because I wanted to adjust the camera attached to the handlebar with one hand while driving. Please believe me, never on this trip or on the previous ones, no one fell, and everyone was here in one day. It's time to move on to more enjoyable things. We arrive in Lucerne. Of course, you have to ask again for directions to the youth hostel, but there is a kind person and everything is fine. Large elegant hostel. We have a room, bikes hidden in the basement, so we're going to the city. Lucerne at night. Well, not quite at night, because we're here before dark. The old town, the chapel bridge - it's really beautiful.
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| Schronisko młodzieżowe | Poczekalnia przed sklepem | Kościółek | Miasteczko |
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| Zegar | |||
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| Lucerna wieczorem | |||
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| Lucerna wieczorem | |||
8.07.2009 - Lucerna - Sarnen i Meiringen - Brienz
The last day of our tour. The route leads us to the old town, which we admired in the evening. After leaving Lucerne, our route runs around Lake Lucerne. From time to time we get closer to the lake. We also have a beautiful view of Mount Pilatus. Leaving the Lake Lucerne area, we meet the army performing some military exercises. We're lucky because they let us pass while all the cars are stopped. Then we pass through a large military airport. We are on the trail all the time. The terrain becomes mountainous, although it is not yet uphill. As planned, we end the route in Sarnen. There we board the train, which climbs steeply up the hill and takes us to Meringen, where we started our trip. In Meringen we get on our bikes and ride through the Haseltall valley to Brinz on Lake Brinz. We eat dinner here and decide that the children will rest in the place where we had dinner, and I take the train several kilometers to Interlaken, from where I take our car and return to pick up the children. It's already evening. A phone call to relatives in Germany that we will be there late at night and we set off. Goodbye Switzerland, ...maybe we'll see you again next year...
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| Schronisko młodzieżowe | Lucerna o poranku | Pilatus | |
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| Jezioro Czterech Kantonów | Haseltal | Meta | |
Strony internetowe
Wodospad Reichenbach: www.reichenbachfall.ch
Wodospad Lauterbrunen: www.lauterbrunnen.ch
Przełom Aar: www.aareschlucht.ch
Ośrodek kampingowy sieci Swiss Backpackers o nazwie www.riverlodge.ch
Szwajcarska strona rowerowa: www.veloland.ch
Zestawienie kosztów
Oprócz wymienionych w tabeli były wydatki dokonane wcześniej na ubezpieczenie PZU Wojażer 115,00 (na 10 dni + gratis "Zielona Karta" do 26.05.2010), żywność około 50 zł (zupy, herbata, kawa i cukier). Koszty w tabeli podane są we frankach, a na koniec przeliczone na złotówki.
| Data | Nazwa | Noclegi | Żywność | Inne |
| 3.07 | Winieta szwajcarska | 40 | ||
| Bilety wstępu do wąwozu Aare i wodospad (13 * 2 os.dorosłe + 7 * 2 dzieci) | 40 | |||
| River Lodge Interlaken - 31 CHF * 4 os | 124,00 | |||
| 4.07 | Ubezpieczenie OC rowerowe - 5 CHF * 4 os - ważne do 31.05.2009 | 20,00 | ||
| Jugendherberge Bern - 37 CHF * 4 os (przez internet 14.06.2009) | 148,00 | |||
| Zakupy żywności (rachunek zgubiłem) | 35 | |||
| 5.07 | Lago Lodge Biel-Nidau - 33 CHF * 4 os. | 132,00 | ||
| COOP w Biel (sklep nocny) | 31,65 | |||
| 6.07 | Jugendherberge Zofingen - 31 CHF * 4 os (przez internet 28.06.2009) | 124,00 | ||
| MIGROS w Solothurn | 36,30 | |||
| 7.07 | Jugendherberge Luzern - 36 CHF * 4 os (przez internet 28.06.2009) | 144,00 | ||
| MIGROS w Zofingen | 5,05 | |||
| Apteka w Sempach - maść na potłuczenia Voltaren | 10,35 | |||
| 8.07 | Bilety kolejowe Sarnen-Meiringen (14,80 * 4 rowery +14,80 * 2 os.dorosłe + 7,40 * 2 dzieci) | 103,60 | ||
| Zakupy żywności (rachunek zgubiłem) | 35 | |||
| RAZEM franków | 672 | 143 | 214 | |
| RAZEM zlotych (cenę franka przyjąłem 3,02 zł) | 2029 | 432 | 649 | |
| Koszty paliwa według kalkulacji 1,60 CHF/litr (w Niemczech trochę droższe, w Polsce trochę tańsze), przy spalaniu 8 litrów/100km koszt 100 km wynosi 12,8 CHF. Dystans tam i z powrotem wynosi 2700 km. Zatem koszt wynosi 12,8 CHF * 27=346 CHF | 1045 | |||
| RAZEM wszystkie wydatki | 4190 | |||