Level One

accomplished

To continue following the route we had to cross Lake Lucerne.  A lake that looks a lot like a fjord.  It was relaxed.  Just what we needed in preparation for the almost 1000 meter climb to Andermatt.  The route then proceeded without too many steep climbs, but the 'wall' of high mountains came closer and closer.  At a certain place we could not go any further.  The road was being worked on.  The cyclists were going to get a brand new cycle path, the pedicab driver told the waiting stranded cyclists.  He took us two villages further along the route in 10 minutes.

Bert has problems with his gears.  He was good at cycling with it, I thought, or he doesn't complain about it like I do about mine.  The climb started mildly.  So off we went, into the mountains.  I increasingly use the lightest resistance and Bert increasingly uses electricity.  In a maze of roads and even railway tracks in an increasingly narrowing groove, there was room for us cyclists, sometimes we shared the road with busy car traffic, sometimes we had a road for cyclists only.
5 kilometres before Andermatt, the gears of Bert's bike stopped working altogether.  He tried to fix it, but it kept getting worse.  We decided to work

And there we were, an icy wind.  Tired and dusty and oh!  What a very nice village.