Stages 13 & 14 - Stein am Rein to Meiringen - 182 km total

Sorry, didn.t have cell or internet yesterday. All is well in Meiringen, Switzerland. I.m going to watch, or try to, Jeff Grant.s quadathlon from Thun to the Schiltorn. But had a great ride today with Rolf, and it rained yesterday. I will have to report when I get to Thun where I will be staying with the Sommers, may not get internet tomorrow either..... Will try and stay in Murren near the Grants. Ok, this internet cafe is closing, I will try and find another after dinner. Life is good!

Stage 12 - Stein am Rein to Disentis - 85 km by bike, 150 km by train
I rode the southern half of the Bodensee and fortunately got an early start. It started raining around noon, and didn.t let up. So I took the train to Chur, got off, then decided I needed to keep going because it was over 275 km to Murren where I would meet the Grant.s. I took the train as far as I could to Disentis and bedded down for the night. Judging by the scenery, I didn.t miss too much and missed all of the rain.

It reads, ATTENTION FART EXIT. Uh, huh, huh!
Along the southern Bodensee, near Lindau.

Stage 13 - Disentis to Meiringen - 97 km
I knew today would be a true climbing day, which was the other reason I wanted to get further along on the train. If I hadn.t gone as far as I did by train, I wouldn.t have made it to Murren for sure. It was overcast and rather chilly and I had thoughts of a warm train ride instead. But then my new friend Rolf cruised by pulling his B.O.B. trailer. This was about 8k into the ride and I was just getting warmed up so I was then keeping tempo with him. I rolled up beside him and we started talking. He was heading to Meiringen and said it was about 100k. So we talked and had a great time getting to know each other. There is comfort in misery with a compatriot, so we climbed, and climbed.... The first pass was the Oberalp, but I.m not sure of the distance or elevation gain. At the top we sipped cappuccino and tea, put on more clothing, then bombed down the other side. It was about 7 degrees Celsius at the top, or mid 40.s Fahrenheit. We rolled through Andermatt and on towards the Sustenpass, the mother of all climbs so far on this trip. It was about 18k with about 3600` elevation gain. It kept going and going for a long ways. I thought I could see the top, but once we got to that point, there was still another section just as long with switchbacks at the top! Near the top Rolf picked up the pace to 10 kph to try and stay warm, and get to the next coffee and pastry stop ahead. Then we froze down the other side, me without enough clothing, especially hand and feet protection. It wasn.t raining, but when you.re in the clouds, there is still plenty of mist. At the end of the ride we were both thanking each other for the company and I confessed that I had thought of riding the train earlier in the day, but now glad that I hadn.t. Thanks Rolf, see you in Bern this week!

Rolf!

Sustenpass - The road continues up through the clouds on the lower left, with two sections afterwards. We were only about 5k into the climb at this point.

A little culture in Meiringen. The good thing about band music is that it.s multi-lingual, especially with a bier! This town is very quaint and lies in the valley between two mountain ranges. There were waterfalls everywhere and it was an overall breath taking sight.