Lovely Switzerland

Konrad Bucher Girton College 2016 Travel Awards Report

The trip for which I received kind financial support from Girton College this summer started,

appropriately enough, by cycling into Cambridge in the pouring rain on a cool mid-June day,

Thursday the 14th. In fact, since I applied for funding for an extended cycling trip, this is what I would

be doing for most of the next ten weeks and a bit.

The first two days to the ferry at Harwich were pre-

determined (and, incidentally, very wet); after that, the only

deadline I had to meet was to be in IJmuiden on the 23rd of

August – until then I was free to cycle wherever the road took

me. Temperatures increased as I made my way due South-East

towards Cologne in the first instance, though rain was always

on and off, with some heavy thunderstorms. On the way

through the Netherlands, I discovered what I’d only heard

about so far – what a great country it is for cycling (apart from

the wind). Literally every road with any amount of traffic has a

cycle path next to it, so there is hardly any need to deal with

car drivers.

Having visited friends near Cologne and near Gießen, I made

my way towards the Southern half of Germany. I especially

enjoyed the Odenwald, a forested upland area south of

Frankfurt/Main – the views were enormous! In the central bit,

basically throughout the state of Hesse, I had to deal with ticks

multiple times. I should probably mention that this was my

first extended solo vacation and I was enjoying it immensely,

but experiences like these were also greatly appreciated.

I circled around Stuttgart on the way to my grandparents’,

who I had not visited for two years. It was great to see them

again, and cycling there from one of the places that feels most like home (Girton!) gave me a great

sense of distance and achievement. I rested there for a weekend, but got tired of a TV-based lifestyle

soon enough to be extremely keen on getting going again. Via the lovely landscape of Upper Swabia,

I reached Lake Constance, finally getting to enjoy an extended period of blue sky weather.

Switzerland was

surprisingly different in

all sorts of respects, but

especially in terms of

language. It took me a

long time to get used to

the accent, and when

Swiss people talked

amongst themselves, I

felt like I needed a

translator! The scenery

was expectedly breathtaking. Why did I

Nice cycling facilities in the Netherlands

go to Switzerland? There is one place in the Swiss Alps that has a special place in my heart since I

first went there aged 4 and then every second summer; slightly less often in recent times. The last

couple of times the scenery has always felt surreal and it took me several days to lose the feeling

that I was only dreaming being there. By cycling there this summer, I was making sure that I was

suffering on my way up and that I was getting a sense of the transition from flat land to mountains

that always seems to go too fast when you drive. To get there, I had to cross the Furka pass. I was

very lucky with the weather and was able to wear only a t-shirt at the top, at a lofty 2400 metres

elevation. After a taxing three-hour ascent from Andermatt (1400 metres) I was rewarded with a

bombastic descent into the Valais.

Having spent a few days exploring the Rhône Valley (and climbed a mountain in trainers!), I

ascended to, well let’s call it ‘my special place’… I did in fact feel like I had earned being there this

time round, but to make up for all that positivity, it just felt very lonely on my own. You can’t have it

all I suppose: most of the time the advantages of travelling on my own, for example not having to

compromise on route decisions, rest times, and budget, outweighed the disadvantages, so it was all

right to suffer for a bit here.

In the end I stayed in the

chalet for less than 48 hours

because I woke up with a

sore and stiff neck on the

second morning, in the

midst of the most intensely

beautiful sunrise it has to be

said. The doctor in the valley

was on her summer holiday,

so I went to see one on the

other side of the mountains

(requiring a shuttle train). In

the end, it turned out to be nothing more than intense muscle tension, probably caused by sitting on

a bicycle for too long!

I made it back to Germany surprisingly quickly (it was mostly downhill, to be fair), and was glad to be

finally able to survive on my limited budget of roughly 15 Euros a day again. I haven’t mentioned it

here yet, but one of the most annoying aspects about Switzerland for me personally was that there

was very little fun to be had getting food. Camping, for some reason, tended to be much less pricey.

Anyway, I spent some time with relatives in Bern and Basel on the way and then went on to discover

the Black Forest, which is very beautiful, though not as stark as the Alps. I didn’t actually see any of

Heidelberg, although I crossed my outward route (for the first time on the trip) very near it, but I

visited friends in the wider outskirts. We have now just about reached the halfway point: I left

Cambridge on June 14th and stopped cycling on August 28th. On July 21st, I was camping on the River

Neckar near Mosbach and feeling overwhelmingly positive about the trip. After a long day to

Würzburg, I entered former Eastern Germany, which made for the next big waymark. The difference

between the two halves of the country is, despite unification being more than 25 years ago,

remarkably apparent. Not only are fields in the formerly socialist East a lot bigger and Plattenbauten

(collective housing from the sixties) visible in every village, but, especially in rural areas, lower

standards of living are often apparent. Rural Eastern Germany is also known for tended towards the

populist far right, which was evidenced by a large number of election posters taking position against

The scene of the drama

refugees and ‘the establishment’, as well as, quite chillingly, on-road graffiti proclaiming ‘no right of

asylum’ at one point.

Another thing that is particularly problematic for cycling and that one would not find in Western

Germany (or at least to a much lesser extent) is cobblestone roads. More about these later. I crossed

the Thuringian Forest and the Harz

mountains to arrive in Braunschweig

and spend some time with my

maternal grandmother and my mum

herself. My mum also joined me from

Braunschweig continuing the

northward trajectory for two days,

which made me realise a) how much

fun it is to have someone to share

experiences with and b) how much

faster I travel on my own. I circled

around Hamburg, but before that I

went through Lüneburg Heath, a unique and (comparatively) untouched landscape and nature

reserve in central northern Germany. I grew up in this country, but there were so many places that I

hadn’t previously visited and that were so worth visiting!

It was getting August by now, meaning that it now tended to get dark before 9pm. I would usually

try and find a place to camp between 5pm and 7pm; setting up camp and having dinner would then

take another hour or so. I had by now reached a healthy routine and any anxiety I started out with

had dispersed long ago. Of course one does have to watch out for traffic (except in the Netherlands),

but as long as one is careful and anticipates drivers’ actions, it is perfectly safe. I never felt

threatened in any way on the road. I’m

just mentioning this now since the latest

I ever arrived at a campsite was exactly

9pm the day I left Hamburg. I had stayed

with a family friend and only left in the

early afternoon, so it was pushing it a

bit.

To tick yet another box, I skirted the

Baltic Sea coastline near Lübeck and

then headed to Berlin, enjoying some

very lovely alleys, which are very typical

for this part of the country, on the way. I also went for a swim on a perfectly calm and warm evening

near Berlin on the day I spoke to two native English speakers, having talked to none at all for a very

long time previously (probably since meeting a family of American tourists on Burg Teck in late

June). I was then again able to have

four nights in a row inside, spending

a day with my uncle and cousins in

the suburbs of Berlin and visiting the

organic farm on which I worked

during my gap year after a full-day

The Brocken funicular railway

Ship spotting on the River Elbe

Chased by a storm in North-eastern Germany

cycle of about 100 km. It was great to see all these wonderful people again.

No extended trip goes by without at least one day that just isn’t much fun at all. The two following

days were such days; I had strong headwinds on both, miserable rain on the first and intense burning

sunlight on the second. I was probably slightly undernourished due to the low population density

and the consequent scarcity of shops, my trusty steed started having mechanical issues (that was

actually pure bad luck: a small branch that was lying on the road just got jammed in between the

mounting for the mudguard and the wheel, breaking the former), I was getting sunburnt and, to top

it all off, the campsite on the second day was right next to a swimming pool that held its annual

beach party that night, which went on till 2am. I woke up late the next morning, hungover despite

being a teetotaler…

Fording a river. There would have been other options, but this was more fun

I went through and stayed in Göttingen, a small town with a large student population that

correspondingly reminded me a lot of Cambridge (as did Freiburg and Lübeck earlier on), and then

headed West to meet my mum at the ferry, skirting the Ruhr conurbation on the way – I had spent

most of my childhood in this rather ugly part of the country and had little desire to go back and visit

the cities proper. Going through the Netherlands was much the same as on the way out, except I

was now going the other way, which meant that I was now cycling into the wind rather than with it.

This was annoying but not surprising at all. I discovered yet another natural area I hadn’t previously

been aware of, the Veluwe, which is a moraine landscape like Lüneburg Heath, but different in many

respects. As it’s in the Netherlands, it is crisscrossed by paved bicycle paths (fietspads), but I’ll stop

going on about Dutch cycling facilities

now.

My trip proper ended at Haarlem

train station, where I was once again

joined by my mother. However, all

was not over as I still had to get home

from there. We took the overnight

ferry to Newcastle just as a long-

Just a normal Wednesday morning in Newcastle

awaited heat wave settled in Holland; this meant nice and pleasant temperatures around 20 degrees

in Northern England and Scotland. The Southern Uplands were probably the least populated area I

had travelled through during the entire summer, and I continue to be fond of the single-track roads.

Without any major issues (well, I forgot my mobile phone at the bed and breakfast the last morning

and had to cycle an extra 20 km to get it back) I arrived home at 8pm on August 28th, feeling at an

absolute high. I can thoroughly recommend cycle touring, though it has to be said that only

introverts will enjoy it on their own. I think it did wonders for my personality and worldview, and

that’s not even talking about my leg muscles! I am incredibly thankful to all at Girton who made the

financial support I received possible!

(A more thorough journal is available at www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/kfb26, though as of

9/Nov/2016 it is only half finished)