From historical towns and Roman ruins to mountain passes and alpine lakes, these were some pictures of my 8-day solo trip, followed by a brief trip report in the comments.
by Rajsuomi
From historical towns and Roman ruins to mountain passes and alpine lakes, these were some pictures of my 8-day solo trip, followed by a brief trip report in the comments.
by Rajsuomi
2 Comments
I started from my city in the Netherlands and headed to Aachen, where I picked up the Vennbahnweg, an amazing car-free rail trail that took me all the way to Troisvierges in Luxembourg. I covered a lot of distance that day, but got hit with heavy rain right as I entered Luxembourg. Roads were slick, and I ended up crashing and breaking my front derailleur.
I followed the Our River, which runs along the German-Luxembourg border. It was a beautiful stretch with castles and Roman ruins. I eventually made it to Trier, where I found a bike shop that fixed my derailleur and got me rolling again.
From Trier, I rode to Merzig and entered the Saarland region. I picked up the EuroVelo 5 route and followed it toward Saarbrücken. While stopped at a traffic light, I randomly met a local cyclist who turned out to own a big bike shop in the city. He offered me a place to stay, food, laundry, everything.
I stayed on the EV5, which took me through the Alsace wine region in France. This stretch was a dream: vineyard-covered hills, charming villages, and bakery stops every couple hours. Eventually, I crossed into Switzerland and reached Basel.
From Basel, I headed south toward Thun, Interlaken, and Grindelwald, some of the most beautiful little towns I have seen. Then I climbed the Grosse Scheidegg with insane views of the Eiger, then tackled the Grimselpass. From the top, I hike-a-biked up to Oberaarsee, hoping to camp at the Löffelhorn with views of the Galmihorn and Finsteraarhorn. Unfortunately, a storm rolled in with thunder and low clouds. It forced me to go back down to the Grimsel and ended up sleeping in a chapel for shelter.
The next morning, I took on the Furkapass in cold rain and near zero visibility. Not the most scenic part of the trip, but memorable. I descended to the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne) and followed the lakeside roads all the way to Zurich, where a night train was waiting to take me home to the Netherlands.
Looks awesome, thank you for sharing!