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. 

July 4th: Galtur to Linthal

 We woke up to cloudy skies and wet roads, but by the time we finished breakfast and packed up the roads were drying and the skies were only cloudy but not raining. We climbed up to the Kopsee turnoff, and then kept going up the hill past the tollgate, where cars had to pay but bikes got to ride free. From there, the grade goes up and up, but we were well rested and fresh, so the climb never felt like too much even though in several places it was around 12%. 

At the summit, we rode all the way over the dam to the tunnel and walked into the tunnel. "There's a light show in the tunnel!" said Arturo. I never even knew that. The views from the dam top were great, and the light and music show inside the tunnel was well done though hardly deserving the #1 trip advisor attractiom! 

On the other side of the tunnel, the trail kept going but was fenced off with a note that bridges were washed out by heavy rainfall and snowmelt and so the hike around the silvrettasee was closed. 

We took photos and then proceeded down the pass, but before long stopped for more photos because the Silvretta is such a gorgeous pass and after the rains of the past couple of days we were starved of beautiful views and could afford the time. After a couple more stops we began to take the descent seriously and zipped down the pass at speed, stopping only once to let annoying traffic behimd us pass. No more for me are the days of trying to outrun motorcycles down the Silvretta highway. 

Down in Partenen we ignored the bike path signs and headed straight through the tunnels that said "no bikes" until we got to the Gaschurn spar. While the bike path avoided the tunnels, it also added gratituous elevation gain on the descent, where the bikes are as fast as motor traffic and exposure time in the tunnel was minimal. At the SPAR we stopped to eat snacks and I should have told everyone to buy sandwiches and takeout lunch because the rest of the bike path until Bludenz didn't actually have grocery store stops. 

Behind the SPAR the parking lot/sidewalk connects directly to the bike path which is easily one of the best rewards for riding the Silvretta. The bike path descends past beautiful meadows, with occasional stops at cable cars for side trips. We stopped at 2, but the first was deemed unworthy by Arturo and the second turned out to be closed until the weekend! We were still early in the season for hiking! 

Having no choice, we rolled all the way down to Bludenz, getting hungrier and hungrier until we found the Hofer in Bludenz. A strange supermarket that seemed to sell bulk goods as well. We did manage to buy food and Boen got an ice cream which he ate in the parking lot, but the location was unpleasant so we determined to keep going down the bike path to find a picnic area.

 

This took quite sometime, and we were getting really hungry when just past Nenzing we found a water fountain with seats near it. There we ate our picnic lunch, refilled our bottles, and then kept going, only to discover that the bike path took us past 2 lakes that could have served as better picnic areas, albeit without obvious water fountains. 

The bike path into Feldkirch had undergone substantial revision from 2 years ago, and the dreaded uphill there was tempered by having only a tandem instead of a triplet. Once in town I reset my GPS to navigate to the Buchs SG train station. This took us through a beautiful series of winding roads and bike paths, some of which were gravel, through the country of Liechtenstein. Riding along the paths, Arturo said, "Wow, this took us ages to find last time we came through!" Indeed, the Garmin designated route had short cut our path by a good 15 minutes, because we were soon riding over the bridge to the Swiss border. 

We stopped for pictures of the border, and then the route took us under an underpass and on the other side was the train station. Arturo and I looked at our phones and bought train tickets for our respective destinations. His train was due first and was on the first platform at the train station, but ours was later. Nevertheless, he had time to help us take the tandem down the steps to the tunnel connecting the other platforms. Fortunately in Switzerland most platforms have ramps for wheelchairs and tandems so that was all the help we needed. 

We waved at each other across the platform and said our goodbyes. Then his train was here and wisked him away. Boen and I took turns using the bathroom and then got onto our train when it arrived. 

When our train zipped across the lakefront of the Walensee, I got a text message from Arturo saying that our train had just passed him. He'd ridden from Walenstadt and was about to get to his hotel. We had a tight train switch at Ziegelbrucke, but another passenger helped me manage the tandem. "Don't worry, your son made it aboard. I saw him earlier." Boen had abandoned me to run up the stairs while I laboriously pushed the bike up the ramp to the platform. We found each other in short order. I didn't berate him. He would know to stick with me for the rest of the trip and not just abandon the tandem. 

We rode the train until the last station at Linthal and from there rode just 1km to our hotel.We rode in our walking shoes since it was so short. Despite Google maps claiming that there was a steep hill, there wasn't, and when we got there to grab our keys the door opened and the owner greeted us despite telling us via messenger that she wasn't going to be there! She opened up the garage for us to stow the tandem. The hotel was a shared bathroom one, and it was already pretty late so we showered, did laundry, hung things up, and then went to the supermarket to buy emergency food before it closed. 

The hotel's restaurant was closed, but the owner provided a list of restaurants that were open. Despite that list, we discovered that the most highly recommended (and closer) restaurant was also closed! So we walked past the supermarket again and ended up at the expensive place. Fortunately, service was fast, and I paid quickly after telling Boen that we should grab desert at the supermarket instead of at the restaurant. 

A rainbow appeared as we walked back in a very light sprinkle. The forecast for tomorrow was glorious, however, so I expected to ride. Boen was dejected about losing our travel companion, and told me that he would prefer to meet mommy and brother tomorrow evening instead of setting up to ride Sustens pass on Saturday. The forecast for Saturday was steadily getting worse as well, though I still thought we'd be able to make it over the pass before it rained if we got an early start. 

Nevertheless, I decided to make reservations for the tandem on the long distance trains that would take us to Bern the next day. Since reservations were cheap (3CHF), I made them on multiple trains so we were guaranteed to make one. 

Long Term Assessment: Silca Secret Bike Chain Lube

 Late last year I switched to waxing chains. To my shock and surprise, the waxed SRAM PC-1110 chain on the tandem lasted exactly 1000 miles. Now, the tandem is a particularly tough environment for chains, having more than twice the load, and I used that bike under all conditions on and off road. For the tour, I knew I'd have to take the bike a part at least a couple of times, so I bought (at the last minute) a Shimano Linkglide Chain and waxed it before the trip.

On the trip itself, I brought a 4oz bottle of the Silca Super Secret Chain Wax. We used it on the bike every day after the ride, since I couldn't be bothered to add up the miles and calculate when we were supposed to top it off. In Nova Levante, I took apart the bike to put it on the bus and it didn't mess up my hands completely. At the end of the trip, we got home and I measured the chains and the chain was still good. Surprisingly, the 4oz bottle lasted through the entire trip, which means that for a group of 3 singles one 4oz bottle would probably last a 3 week trip as well.

What I've discovered is that while chain waxing isn't too hard, the quick links used to disconnect and reconnect the chain were prone to failure when reused (many of them are not intended to be reused). As a result, any money savings you might have from the waxed chain lasting longer will be swamped by the occasional need to buy a new quick link over the lifetime of the chain.

My suspicion is that for a bike that will be ridden in the rain, it's most practical to switch to oil lubrication during the rainy months and only switch back to waxing after you've worn out that chain. For touring, the cleanliness of waxing might justify the cost and effort, and the wet wax has the advantage of not risking chain failure from a broken quick link.

I'm not sure I will keep waxing past this bag of Silca wax. Carrying a pair of disposable gloves in my repair kit might be preferable!