Stage 18 & 19 - Gersau to Menaggio, Italy - 226 km total

Stage 18 - Gersau to Biasca - 131 km

I will try and make this quick, I don.t have much time now to recap.... Today was a busy day, and by that, I mean traffic. The first 30k were mostly flat and decent roads, not too much traffic. But after that it got busier and started to climb. The first "section" was about 40k and it was the first time that I had backtracked on any roads I had been on before. Rolf and I were on the downhill section from Andermatt to Mussen two weeks ago, but now I was going up the mother. It.s funny how you remember a decent to be pretty quick when you fly down it without any effort. But going back up it is another story. I will upload pics as soon as I can, but it was a tight, curvy road with a lot of cars. Oh yeah, I recall it to be somewhat steep, but a few days and a couple of hundred kilometers later, you forget these things! From Andermatt there is about a 4k section that is flat, then it goes back up 9k to the top of Gotthardpass. Not a bad climb, but still quite a few cars. I guess that.s what happens on the weekends around here.... The decent on the other side was crazy. The first 12k were cobblestones, not the big chunky ones, but they still aren.t smooth. So I had to brake the entire decent. It finally turned to another 35+ km of downhill on smooth roads. So the finish was nice into Biasca, I wish I could say the same for the town. No need to stay there for scenic reasons... My advice is to NOT cycle up the side I just decended, if anyone is reading this and taking notes. I think the last 12k of cobbles would be a killer. Just my 2 Swiss Francs....

I got my days messed up when uploading, this is Biasca to Mennagio, will fix later...

Bellaggio is the peninsula off in the distance, aka High Rent District!

A hostel with a great view of Lake Como!

View part deux.

Mark, Al, mule eating briars, Ed and Bob. A fine crowd, great wine and a really good lamb steak. Gimmie some protein!

Stage 19 - Biasca to Menaggio, Italy - 95 km

Today was truly Italian with Ferrari, Porsche & motorcycles wizzing by & passing in the corners. Glad this is the only day in Italy! The ride was mostly uneventful, except for the one climb of about 10k close to Lugano. I didn.t go into Lugano, but heard it.s a nice town. I traveled the north side of the lake towards Menaggio, and it was a bit hairy riding on roads 1.5 lanes wide! And then you add crazy Italians to it, and you have a bad combination. The scenery was nice though, so there was something good to come from it all! I made it to the hostel and met up with 9 American cycle tourists from Ohio and Wisconsin. A very nice group which reminded me of the Tufts, Andre, Kaye, Jerry and Donna crowd. I think most of them had been to Europe cycle touring before, but they were on a 2 & 3 week journey around Switzerland and Italy. We talked about my trip and experiences, and also theirs. They were very kind and invited me to dinner where we got to talk more about everything, including that thing I used to do, work. Thanks to the gang for being so kind and welcoming, like most Americans are I have determined. Regardless of what the French may say (about everyone), I think we have the kindest nation of folks! The Swiss are really..... different. Most of them, but once you learn it.s their nature, it doesn.t bother you as much. Read the book, Ticking with the Swiss, you.ll understand and it.s a pretty good read. Becky and Jeff get to learn a lot from it, I did!