We are staying in a hotel with a Peruvian theme….restaurant and staff. I would not recommend it, poor quality mattress that has one of those rubber sheets like you put in your children’s bed when first toilet training at night, that makes you sweat.

Breakfast was a mess, made worse by a power failure in the dining room and an incredible influx of a tourist group. Food handling techniques were poor to non existent, no hand sanitiser in sight.

We ended up grabbing our breakfast and relocating to an adjacent room that had no one in it.

The rain radar contradicted the weather forecast that said it was going to rain. I could not see that the rain would hit the area, so we took off to ride down to the far end of Lake Luzern to Fluelen 51 km away, planning to return by the ferry.

We grabbed our bikes and made our way out of Luzern through the peak hour traffic. We had some 20 km of more suburbian like riding to do through a series of built up areas, but some nice vistas from the lake promenades.

We cut across a couple of sections of land turning away from the lake.

Returning to the lake and various sculptures and water features.

The skies were lifting, and we could gradually see more

The further down the lake we went, the better the scenery got.

The lake weaves around, with varying headlands jutting out, on both sides, creating narrow passages looking reminiscent of fjords. We are heading towards those snow capped mountains.

When you head up hill from Brunnen there is a sign saying the road ahead is dangerous and that it is recommended you catch the train or ferry. I have never seen such a sign before and we were like ‘eek’.

However very quickly we realised that this was not the case and that cyclists and walkers were very safely accommodated.

The last section of the lake, riding from Brunnen to Fluelen is the best section of riding scenery and infrastructure wise.

Getting to those mountains was an engineering masterpiece. We rode through multiple tunnels. Some were newer two lane tunnels, with a raised broad footpath for bikes and walkers. Others were older tunnels adjacent to newer ones for cars. The older tunnels were just for cycles and walkers. We must have ridden through nearly one km worth all up.

In other places the sides were open with a cycle track to the side.

The closer we got to Fluelen the more amazing the scenery became.

As we rode the last section of lake, we could see the ferry criss crossing the lake to various villages. We arrived at the ferry terminal 10 minutes before it was due to arrive and leave.The ferry departed hourly and the return trip took 3 hours.

As it was approaching 1 pm we decided to catch this ferry rather than explore further. The weather was lovely now, sun shining so it promised to be a great trip back. It cost a total of 112 Swiss francs (about Aud $185) including 16 Swiss francs for the bikes.

We found ourselves a great outdoor seat at the rear of the ferry looking backwards, so that we could savour the view of the mountains for as long as we could.

The closer we got to Luzern the clouds came rolling in, like some great performance on stage, the curtains were closing. It was a magnificent performance and one that we would long remember.

This ride rates. If you are a cyclist and heading this way we can recommend the route. A shorter option would be to get the ferry to Vitznau and ride from there.

The day held another highlight, as we had dinner with friends Sandra and Rolf, friends I met in the Maldives in 1985. I have had a few catch ups in recent years, but not since 2019 due to not being able to travel.

We had a lovely meal at a local Swiss restaurant and I do so value our friendship lasting so many years.

Well another day has gone, and tomorrow we ride back to where we started 3.5 weeks ago.

Thank you for reading, stay safe, smile on 😊