July 5th: Linthal to Bern

 We woke up to clouds and even light sprinkles. The clothing that was hung from last night was still damp, though it should dry in plenty of time today. We showed up to breakfast 10 mimutes early, and were given no problem as we walked through the breakfast room grabbing food and eating as though we were cyclists on a bike tour. 

Putting the damp clothing into the outside mesh pockets of the panniers, we headed up the Klausenpass road onto the initial cobblestone section which serves as a warning for motorists coming down the pass that they're about to enter the city limits. Once past that section, the sun came out and bathed the valley in dreamy painter's light. It was gorgeous and I shot several pictures during the climb but none did it justice. 

The road climbs steeply in the first few kilometers but Boen was motivated to see his mom and his brother and poured on the power. We made excellent time despite stopping in several places to take pictures. Then the first part of the climb was over and we entered the Urnerboden valley, with views of the upcoming climb looming before us. To my surprise I didn't see any water fountains in the valley, and again, stopped at a house with an open door. There was a man outside with a bike that I thought was the owner but he denied that. 

Being desperate, I simply walked into the house with my water bottles and filled the bottles for the final leg of the climb. We then ate the rest of our emergency food. As we were about to leave a woman came out of the house, closed the door, and got on her bike. We smiled at her and she smiled back and then rode off. 

We too, rode up towards the wall that was looming ahead of us. Fortunately, in true Swiss fashion, the road doesn't go straight up, but switchbacks in various corners, never exceeding about 10%. As we climbed the views got better and better, and having to stop every 250m of elevation gain meant that we had ample opportunities to take pictures. The traffic wasn't too heavy, and there were a few cyclists who passed us, though not as many as on the famous Italian passes. In true Swiss fashion, though, they rarely said a word to us. 

At the summit was a cafe, a bathroom and a water fountain. We got others to take pictures of us and then proceeded to descend the frequently single lane Altdorf side of the pass, which is gorgeous. You can truly zip down at speed but this time with Boen in the back seat I took it a little easier and spotted something I'd never noticed before: a viewpoint with a bench seat, designed so that the bench seat would only be stable if someone was sitting on it! I stopped the bike and told Boen to get on, and then snapped a few pictures before getting on myself and wondering at the gorgeous view of the opposite mountain range across the valley. 

A pair of cyclists came by and offered to take pictures of us, and I of course agreed! They were UK citizens now living in the valley, and one of them had just mentioned to the other that they hadn't seen a tandem for a while! We kept descending the Klausen pass road, this time seeing a lot more cyclists coming up the Altdorf side. 

Rolling down through Altdorf I finally realized that the train station I wanted wasn't Altdorf (which didn't have a railway station) but Fluelen. I found the train station that I used 10 years ago with Arturo, accessible via an underground tunnel from the Altdorf road. It's amazing how spatial memory is so sticky and persistent. It was no effort to remember the tunnel entrance at all. 

I bought train tickets to Bern on my phone. The train pulled up minutes later and we got onto the bike compartment. The conductor scanned my passes and reservations (with a tandem, it was a lot of scanning and swiping!), and then told us we had a tight connection in Zurich and gave us directions. 

The Zurich transfer was hard but we had help from other passengers and made it to the train with time to spare, having changed out of our cycling shoes into running shoes! Xiaoqin and Bowen met us at the train station (after some confusion). We checked into the Hotel National Bern, which also had a closed restaurant on account of some event. We walked through town and noticed that the river had people floating down it with exits, so we went back to the hotel to change to swimming clothes and then went to do the same thing! 

The Aare river was fast and cold, but it wasn't too bad, though Boen got out of the river early because he panicked. Xiaoqin also had a hard time but there are multiple exits on the river --- as far as I know, Switzerland has never lost a tourist from swimming in the river so I assume at some point there's a safety net. Well, the water was cold enough that twice was enough, so after everyone had had a go at it we got dressed  and went back to the hotel for the evening. I'd booked tomrrow's train to Zurich for 11:00am to synchronize with Xiaoqin and Bowen's return to Munich. We only had a short ride back to the Zurich Airport Hilton, but the forecast was that it would rain at noon. But it didn't matter, at this point, even an unwaxed chain would get us home.