Cycling Up, Up, Up Over the Alps and into Northern Italy: Luzerne, Switzerland to Novara, Italy (8 -17 August 2016)

As planned, we reunited in Horw (Luzerne, Switzerland) the first week of August.  We had some exciting plans lined up: cycling around Lake Luzerne, up and over 2100m Gotthard Pass (1750 meters of climbing!!! in total) and down into the lesser-known south of  Switzerland commonly known as Ticino, where Italian is spoken.  Finally, we would follow the banks of Lago Maggiore into the north of Italy, from where we would point ourselves towards Genoa...

Sonja´s sister Mani, a passionate paraglider, landing in Horw.

A farewell pizza party (even in the absence of Jason and Sonja) in the garden.  (L-R: Mani, Katy, Bo, Anita, Sepp, and Andren).

Fresh pizza with a base of nettles-chard-basil pesto.

On the road again.  Bo before a dip in Lake Luzerne.

Bo and Jeff having a deep discussion about how far up his legs Bo wants the water to reach.

Great Crested Grebe floating on Lake Luzerne.

A clear day gave us fantastic views of some of the BerneseAlps across the lake.

This billboard says: "My milk may contain traces of Alpenpanorama."

The iconic image of the peaks Kleiner and Grosser Mythen, a mountain near Schwyz.

This is an interesting twist on Stand Up Paddle.

Picnic on Vierwaldstatersee (Lake Luzerne) in Brunnen.

Seriously.  To be a toddler on a bike seat on a long journey with scenes like this MUST be as good as it gets.

We made a strategy change when setting out again this time: we replaced the Chariot Cougar 2 with a BOB that we bought secondhand in Germany.  Just the trailer change removed 10kg automatically from Katy´s load.  And Jeff also got a reduction in weight with the shift from the double to the single trailer.  

In Altdorf we passed by the mythical lands of William Tell.  By all folk accounts a total badass, this is the William Tell who split with a crossbow an apple off of his son´s head to spare his and his son´s life.  He went on to help liberate Switzerland from Austrian occupation and thus is a central figure in the foundation of Switzerland and Swiss patriotism.

Although technically German by origin, Snow White and especially the seven dwarves are to be found everywhere throughout Switzerland, apparently.

From Altdorf we climbed very gradually along the Reuss River...

...aiming for Gotthardpass, also mythical.  At 2106 m (6909 ft) it has historically been an important European north-south threshold, especially since around 1300 A.D., but primitive tracks were first put in by the Romans.  

Katy and Bo having a picnic in the shelter of a massive tree, taking refuge from a cold rain in Amsteg.

This sign clearly spells out our destiny: a climb of 1560 meters over 34km.  Yikes.

Views of the gorges of the Reuss as we make our way up the valley.

Jeff and Bo having fun on the suspension bridge.

In Gurtnellen some friendly locals tipped us off on this incredible spot to pass the night, sheltered from the rain in the hut pictured, 

Bo waits patiently while we break camp in the rain.  This was a 10-second break from a 2-hour play in the adjacent play park!

This is August holiday traffic bottlenecked as it waits to enter the Gotthard Tunnel which begins here near Goschenen.  It pays to be on a bicycle.

Katy powering out some steep climbing towards Goschenen.

A construction project of some scope (6 years!) has closed the road to climbing cyclists for 6km between Goschenen and Andermatt.  For this, the Swiss authorities have arranged a bus transport service for bikes.  Best (only) deal in Switzerland at 5 Francs each.   (note: train also possible but with two trailers less than ideal for us).  

A glance at the construction going on.  This was just one small part of it.  One thing about the Swiss, they don´t do things half-assed.

Wild campsite just outside Hospental.

A glance back at the Ursern Valley, the recent storm having left fresh snow on the higher peaks.  Clear skies and rising temperatures meant a green light for our attempt over Gotthard...

... the climb first came up out of the Ursern Valley via various switchbacks...

... to meet a cobbled road (since replaced by a more modern one nearby) which was delightful without traffic...

... inching upwards...

... to finally meet the mythical highpoint at 2106m.  

Goofy antics on top of the world...  According to the maps, we now faced a 1900m descent over the next 100km!

The beginning is one of the classic road descents in all of Europe, La Tremola.  

Katy rounds a corner still near the top...

Bo and Jeff talking strategy:  Basically, hold on tight and scream as much as you want.

Jeff and Bo in a grand sweep...

A short picnic above Airolo as we approach, nearly 13km later.

Following the Ticino River valley beyond Airolo, we found some lovely trails...

.. and made camp here in a quiet woodland.

Traffic-free and nearly-flat cycling had Bo on his bike again.

.. some scenes from The Ticino...

... rife with vineyards, sunshine, classic greenery....

... and some old-style villages.

Katy on a stretch that shows the flatness of the Ticino Valley.

A majestic look at the river itself, running swift, cool and immensely clear.

Faced with 35-degree temperatures, the river won us over fairly quickly!

A roadside self-service fresh produce stand with a charity box (only in Switzerland!)...

...Bo's job was to weigh the tomatoes.

Mid-morning break in a slight refuge from the sun where Bo plays on the bales.

Arrived at the massive Lago Maggiore, we celebrated!

Continuing along the Lago Maggiore, we kept finding delightful places to cool off.  This one is 8 km or so from the Italian border.

Katy checks out the scene before Luino, now in Italy.

A sprawling park on the outskirts of Luino provided a fine night´s rest.

Lago Maggiore ends near a town called Sesto Calende, and from this point on the Ticino River follows a protected corridor for a long ways south, complete with bike routes...

Near Sesto, locals seek out the Ticino to avoid the heat of mid-August.

Bo jumps in on a game of badminton.

We found some great camping in the Parco Ticino.

The river became channeled as we moved south...

... and made for pleasant, easy cycling.

All eyes on Bodhi!  In Turbigo, chats with various locals lead us to the town swimming hole:

The Naviglia Grande Canal, with its cool clear water coming from Lago Maggiore and heading to Milan.  This was one of the first post-medieval engineering projects in Europe, dating back to the 1100's, and is the largest of the Milan canals.  

Bo wasn´t content to just play on the banks, he wanted to go into the "big river" as he called it.  So he floated down over and over with Jeff and Katy and some of the locals...

Sign showing proximity of Milan to Turbigo (43km).  This canal cycling route continues to Milan, but our way is going south to Genoa, not east to Milan...

Bo gazes out over some filled-in quarries on the outskirts of Turbigo, where we made camp.

From Turbigo we would cycle on to nearby Novara, where we would catch a train to Genoa.  In this case we had underestimated the time necessary to go over the Alps and down to Genoa, so we were forced to train the final 155km between Novara and Genoa to be able to make the pre-booked ferry waiting to take us to Sardinia - where we hoped to put an exclamation point on our 2-years-plus of European cycling and travelling...