…with the sound of music..? It looks like that in the photo below. You think maybe Julie Andrew’s is about to start singing?

I really like the next two photos. Bidding the three mountains farewell with the promise of a half decent looking day.

Alas the rain radar told a different story. We had watched it and knew without doubt that the band of rain was too big to miss Switzerland and we were bang smack in the middle. We had the morning though!

I took one last look up the valley and then turned my back. Maybe I will see these three again. It had been 35 years since my first visit and let’s hope a lot less until my next.

We headed straight into Interlaken as we needed to cross the river and ride down the ‘other’ lake side towards Brienz. We knew from our return bike ride yesterday that it was a good road and we would start with a couple of shorter climbs.

We stopped a few times on our way to Brienz as the lake was magical.

We turned left at Brienz, and again there were Swiss Airforce planes busy with their low altitude flights. Yesterday we had seen and heard many flyovers. I have since learned that the main airbase for the Swiss airforce is just a few km away at Meirengen.

There is a single runway and a series of large caverns in the adjacent mountain where the aircraft and ammunition is stored. You can drive the plane right though and out another cavern opening.

Then we climbed. The graph below shows the nasty one. As far as climbs go, on a loaded bike, we both felt this was tough. Not as long as say climbing to Les Gets in France last week, but steeper and pinchier. There were extended periods of 9-13% plus gradient.

There was no verge at all. There were many sections of no side barrier and long drop offs. I moved further out into the lane in those sections as one mistake by me, or the lightest tap by a car and life was over.

The vehicles were in abundance and would have difficulty overtaking due to the oncoming traffic.

It’s a hard place to stop when pushing 9-13% plus as you need to be able to twist your shoes out of their cleats and then re cleat to start again on a steeper slope. That is hard to do and keep your balance. Well it is for me.

On some left bends there was a little excess on the right hand side so I would move over there and jump off and wait. They were all very patient and highlights the huge difference riding here vs Australia. Not one car horn today.

Tony took a few photos climbing.

We often stop for a breather at the top of climbs and Brunig Pass had a cafe restaurant. So we stopped and had a hot chocolate (do it yourself version, as we were presented with a mug of warm milk and a sachet) and I ordered ‘something’ to eat. My German comprehension is far less than my French and she said croissant, and something else that sounded like mousse. I ordered the latter.

Mistake. Awful. It was like a five day old dried out sausage roll, with thick dry pastry that was inedible filled with stuff that almost looked like a sausage roll but sweeter. I got a spoon and scraped it out to eat leaving the thick pastry that you could use as a weapon.

Also turns out the cafe is 10 metres ascent short of the top of climb so our legs did protest after a break. Brunig Pass boasts a bus and train station and a few other eating places. Then it was into the descent, which included a few areas of roadworks.

We stopped here to look at the view of this lake, Lungerersee. The town you can see is Lungern.it was super picturesque.

Down in Lungern we stopped at a small supermarket and grabbed a bottle of Perrier to refill our bidons.

The weather is closing in and the blue sky has gone. The next lake we ride past is Sarnersee.

Lake Luzern (Lucerne) twists a lot. Our approach is from the south. 10 km out we don our rain jackets as there are a few spits. Can we get there without getting wet? Looking less likely as it is raining over Mt Pilatus.

5 km to go, it rained. Just a steady downpour. We went direct to our accomodation despite being 1.45 hours too early. The young guy said we could come back in one hour….and we discussed the bike storage. That took 15 minutes as he conferred with his grumpy boss.

The boss said they could go outside in the rain. I looked at the spot and said no reminding him that when I made the booking I was advised they could store our bikes safely and securely. Back to the grumpy boss. Voices raised and the grumpy one came out and eye balled me, saying something…..but not one bit of warmth in his eyes or voice.

The young lad took me down one level in the lift where they store all kinds of stuff. Perfect storage! So now only 45 minutes to kill in the drizzle.

Around the corner we found a cafe and ordered some lunch. We ate slowly. We ordered more hot drinks. Voila, 45 minutes had passed.

Stored the bikes, showered and washed our clothes. Hanging the clothes out windows today was doomed to failure. This is our laundry set up here.

The rain had eased so we headed off to wander around the city. Some lovely buildings, statues and fountains.

We popped into a few bike stores whilst wandering as we needed some chain lube. In this store was an ex- pat from the USA who has lived in Switzerland over 20 years. He was impressed we had cycled Brunig Pass loaded, and told us in his younger years he used to skateboard down it 😳 I was thinking of those open drops…..

He had this steel bike custom made locally and had it treated to look old and rusty much to the disappointment of the manufacturer. He has since had a motor added so he now rides it 20 km to and from work.

Another day has gone. A shorter one at just under 80 km. We have two nights here too, as a second day of free choice. We have mapped out a ride to the far end of the lake to Fluelin, and a ferry ride back.

We need to check ferry schedules and the weather forecast is not brilliant. We do have options of stopping earlier at other ferry locations.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe, smile on 😊