The Swiss Midlands

Most people think of “Cycling + Switzerland” as high passes, hours of uphill riding, tedious sweating … But there are also lesser known sides of Switzerland: areas so flat and paths so dead straight that you think you’re in Holland … if it weren’t for the mountains on the horizon.

We are not pass despisers at all, but for the crossing of Switzerland we wanted to find a route with not too many peaks. So we decided not to follow the 9-lake route with 6000 meters altitude difference but to ride the Mittelland route called Veloroute 5 and explored the lesser known sides of Switzerland. From the Rhine Falls we first followed the Rhine a bit further and then turned left just before Kaiserstuhl to reach the desired route with not too many meters of altitude. Once again, we were lucky with a construction site; summer is known to be the high season for construction sites. But until now we managed to pass all building sites, because either a strip for cyclists had been kept free or because the building site had been finalized exactly on the day of our passage.

The first night in the Swiss Mittelland we spent in the youth hotel in Baden. Actually we wanted to stay at the camp site but that was closed 10 years ago. The information at the station did not know this yet … The other nights we stayed at the camping sites in Solothurn and at the Lac Neuchâtel. With the latter we had the impression that not we but the camping reception is on holiday: One hour opening time in the late afternoon and one hour in the late morning. From 18.00 o’clock in the evening and until 10.00 o’clock in the morning nobody was to be found. With the help of other campers we found our way in and around and spent the night without paying - an unplanned night for free. Switzerland can sometimes be surprisingly cheap ;-).

Now to the unknown sides of Switzerland … Cycling through the Swiss middle land in midsummer may imply …

• … many more or less flat kilometres along the river Aare as well as the lakes Biel, Neuchâtel and Geneva.

• … proper sweating. Switzerland, too, hadn’t seen any real rain for weeks in summer 2018 and the Swiss suffered because they weren’t allowed to have fireworks on their national holiday on August 1st due to the drought - at least in the canton of Solothurn. We discovered our new favourite drink: Rivella - best chilled, but still warm possible to drink. At temperatures up to 38 degrees, the condition of iced drinks changes very fast and as a cyclist you need a lot of liquid. Even Katharina was quite surprised that she could drink a 1.5 litre bottle on the spot.

• … friendly Swiss, who chated with us for a while, moaned about the hot weather, regreted the expensive prices of their country and the tourists who stayed away. The gymnastics club Biberstein was exceptionally hospitable on the way from Baden to Solothurn. Heated up, we looked in vain for a while for an open shop or restaurant for a cool drink on the national holiday when we met the gymnasts sitting together in front of their hut on the Aare. We asked if we could buy something cool to drink from them. We couldn’t buy it, but we got both refreshing water and lemonade for free - plus a fan package with a Swiss flag and a nice chat. Thank you very much for this special break!

• … several bicycle travellers, among them astonishingly many families, with diligently pedalling children. We also met two Pino tandems.

• … in some villages funny figures with the names of the children living in the house on the walls.

• … nice little towns like Baden and Solothurn with cosy old town centres, rustic wooden bridges and beautiful churches.

• … perfectly signposted cycle paths - especially in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The corresponding routes and the necessary maps can be downloaded free of charge from the internet. Switzerland = Cycling in Switzerland! A similarly convincing network of paths runs through the whole of Switzerland for roller and inline skaters.

• … enthusiastic casino visitors who gamble away their holiday money (and more) in Baden within a few minutes. Thanks to the hint from the youth hostel receptionist that you get free entry and 5 francs starting credit as a youth hostel guest, we also went to the place of gambling and luck was on our side: It was Newcomer Day, so
  1. Matthias was exceptionally let in with flip-flops
     1. We each were awarded 15 francs start credit instead of 5. Additionally, we got a glass of wine for free. We enjoyed the wine, we converted the starting chips into real money, so that we left the casino 30 francs richer than before.
• …. above all river floating! If you see people with swimming trunks or bikinis walking on the streets somewhere in Switzerland in the summer, you shouldn’t be surprised, but look out for the next possibility to go for a river bath. In the Swiss Mittelland, one uses rivers wherever possible: for this, one first walks several metres or even kilometres along the river up to the desired entry point on foot - if necessary, one takes one’s thing along in a waterproof bag, then one lets oneself be carried down by boat, Standup paddle board, air mattress, swimming tires or simply so the river. As one cyclist said very suitably: “Floating down a river is like cycling downhill, swimming without effort”.