Day 21: Andermatt Passes

Day 21 · Andermatt

After a solid night’s sleep, I took a leisurely morning before heading out for a little 2 hours ride. After my hotel breakfast I popped over to the Coop for a lunch sandwich and some pain relief cream. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but it did take the edge off of my achy hands so I guess it’ll do for now.

For my loop today, I went the other way over the Gotthard pass, and skipped the part of the cobbled Tremola that I did yesterday. It was interesting seeing the road from the faster, more highway perspective. And honestly not much less stressful of a road since the modern road is faster and up on huge bridges with tiny guardrails.

After that I headed west to the Nufenen Pass, which was a lovely road with light traffic. As the alpine passes get colder and the greenery is turning brown and red, they’re starting to remind me of Death Valley which is kind of funny. I suppose both climates have long, inhospitable seasons that make it a challenge for plant and animal life to thrive, leaving them both most obviously defined by their rocks and cliffs.

After the Nufenen, I came back to Andermatt via the Furka. The last few days I’ve been a little over motorcycling because I’m so tired, but hitting what has been my favorite road on this trip again (and with an unladen bike) reminded me that I do still actually love it. That is such a great road. Stelvio is cool and all – but the west side of the Furka is truly a road for driving and it’s ones of the best roads I’ve ever ridden. You can see in the photos below that the colors are indeed shifting with the seasons!

Since it’s both Monday and the summer touring season is coming to a close, there was way less traffic this time around which was nice for me too. I might even take it a 3rd time tomorrow as I head back to Interlaken and start to make my way over to France.

After my ride, I headed back to the hotel to put on some street clothes. I thought I might take the gondola up over the town and see what was going on up there, but the pass for the ride was over $40 and I just … I don’t think it’s worth it to see what’s up there. It would have been nice to go for a walk outside of this tiny town, but I’m not spending that much to do it. Instead I went to one of the only open cafe’s today and had an $8 cappuccino and sat in the sun. Switzerland is stunning, but boy do you pay for it.

After that I hung out in my room catching up on my reading (book number eight) before venturing out again for dinner. As I noted, there’s not a lot happening in this town, and also it’s in the mountains so it’s kinda cold (high of 58ºF today). At least my hands got a nice rest.

For dinner I had a leek risotto with a spiraled sausage (delightful) and some dehydrated pears cooked in wine (lovely to eat, unattractive to look at). Also I think I should note – I’ve been having regular cappuccinos (with regular milk) most days for the last week and my stomach is FINE. Apparently I’m not lactose intolerant, there is something wrong with the milk in the US.

Tomorrow I head back to the Interlaken region, though this time I’m staying in a smaller town on the other lake, and I believe I have a lakefront room if I’m reading this reservation right. I’ll also take the Furka for a third and final time, and then climb out using the Grimsel Pass. It’s truly a rarity to be able to stack great passes like that, and it will be worth the sore hands.