June 14th: Zurich to Meiringen to Hotel Rosenlaui

 During the trip planning phase of the tour, I’d written to Hotel Rosenlaui to see if they had room, and when they replied in the affirmative for June 14th->June 16th, we’d bought plane tickets to match their availability. Getting up at 4:30am was no problem since Boen and I were both jet-lagged. The airport Hilton had made us park our tandem outside all night, but since it didn’t rain, all it took for us to exit was to eat our supermarket breakfast, checkout, unlock the bike and then ride 6 miles to the Zurich main train station it not being worth the effort/risk of taking the train with the tandem from the airport. I knew from experience that the train from Zurich to Luzern would leave from a surface track, obviating any need to negotiate lifts, escalators, or other obstacles to a happy train transfer. 

Arriving in Luzern, the transfer to the panoramic train to Meiringen was similarly easy, since it was early enough there were no conflicts for the bike car. On the train, we could see rain drops splash occcasionally on the panaromic roof and windows, but not in sufficient quantities to derail our plan to ride. 

Off boarding the train, we loaded up the panniers and immediately started out of town towards the highway onto the Grimsel/Sustens passes. There were light sprinkles on our faces and at the Lammi bus station (not renamed despite the permanent closure of my favorite sausage restaurant in Switzerland) we stopped to take off our helmets and replace those with cycling caps for the stiff climb ahead. Despite the light sprinkle, we did not need rain gear as even the effort of reaching the Rosenlaui intersection had warmed us up. Later on, Kristine would tell us that we should have given our panniers to the post bus for delivery to the Hotel and then ridden up the road with no load!

 

The climb starts out with a stiff 12-13% grade and then flattens out a bit at the Hotel Zwirgi, after which it manages to be a little gentler until the entry into Rosenlaui valley where the road suddenly flattens out and widens as you get a view of the Rosenlaui Glacier and the surrounding mountins which that day was obscured by rain clouds. 

We rolled into the hotel around 10:00am, just before they closed the breakfast buffet, and the staff hurriedly rushed us into the cafeteria for freshly brewed hot coffee, hot chocolate and invited us to partake of whatever was left of the buffet breakfast. We dug in, of course, the light supermarket breakfast long having vanished into the atmosphere with our efforts. 

As we ate, I spotted Andreas Kerhli, the former proprietor of the hotel, and rushed out to chat with him. He told me that the hotel was now managed by his son Jacob, and he had bought the Kalterbrunnen restaurant, the last landmark before entering Rosenlaui valley on the Grosse Scheidegg road. He told me he would still see me around as he does still help out at Rosenlaui, ahd Kalterbrunnen was only open on the weekends and holidays. 

With food in our bellies, the weather no longer looked so foreboding. Our rooms weren’t going to be ready anyway, so we left our panniers in the lobby after parking the tandem (after waxing the chain) in the special Rosenlaui bicycle storage cellar and collecting the bus pass from Jacob. We packed my Sea-to-Summit backpack with rain gear and a water bottle and proceeded to take the bus from Rosenlaui to Grosse Scheidegg. The bus driver advised that the hike to First might be closed because of the late snow, but that the next stop down, Schreckfeld was still open. The weather looked reasonable so I persuaded Boen to give it a try despite the cold. 

Hiking along the ridge, the weather started getting clearer and clearer, and we were granted occasional views of the peaks – the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau occasionally being visible as clouds came and went. Around us all was green and obviously wet, and Boen enjoyed being able to make snowballs and throw them at me. 

Arriving at Schreckfeld, I talked Boen into hiking down to Bort for the views rather than taking the cable car all the way. We saw lines of 70 minutes or more for the mountain gravity tricycle and at least 30 minutes for the First Flyer, a zip-line type attraction that required that the rider be more than 45kg, so it wasn’t an option for Bone anyway. The hike down to Bort was attractive but marred with encounters with people who can’t manage even a 3-wheeled vehicle down a mountain fire road. The place was full of Asian tourists, the kind of people who’ve been trained by theme parks to think that waiting 90 minutes or more for a 15 minute experience was more than acceptable and a good use of vacation time. A hiker or cyclist, by contrast has no waiting time once he gets off the train, bus, or cable car, and in a place like the Berner Oberland, the views start immediately and never end until you get to your destination.

 

Arriving at Bort, we took the cable car down to Grindelwald, where we bought ice cream. Sun came out and we enjoyed the warmth as we made our way from the cable car station to the bus station, where we hopped onto the bus to Hotel Rosenlaui. Boen didn't get to see much of the bus ride as he immediately fell asleep right away. He awoke as the bus pulled into Schwarzalp, where we would have to change to the bus to Rosenlaui.

At Rosenlaui, our room was ready and we moved in, showered, did laundry, stretched, and took a short walk before dinner. The hotel now has a policy against phones, tablets, and cameras in the public areas of the hotel, a policy I agree with, but means that the delicious food and amazing presentations can only be described in writing, a feat that my skills are not up to par with. 

I took another melatonin pill before turning in.