This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Zürich
There are two ways to cycle from Zürich through the Swiss countryside, cruising through Alpine passes, natural moorland and lakeside villages. One way is to use all your discipline and plenty of preparation to get fit enough to pedal up into some of the most daunting terrain in the world of cycling. The other way is to use your brain and get an e-bike.
Battery power magically shrinks mountains and flattens painful ascents, allowing you to focus on the sort of scenery that quickly leaves words like “spectacular” and “breathtaking” feeling inadequate. This smart way of exploring becomes even easier if you use Switzerland’s ever-reliable rail system to expand the zone you can discover, and a travel agency to plan your itinerary, provide bikes, book hotels, move your luggage each day and give you an app to guide you.
I signed up to Eurotrek, one such agency, and joined the final three days of a seven-day itinerary called Route 1291 (named after the year Switzerland was founded), which seemed to provide the most diverse scenery of any similar routes and can be managed on e-bike by most cyclists. Our group of seven were, like me, reasonably fit without being at all athletic or even regular cyclists.
Before meeting our steeds, we set off from Zürich Hauptbahnhof for Lucerne, a scenic train ride of just over an hour, and then on to Sörenberg, a village that serves as a less-than-daunting ski resort in winter. After a night in Hotel Sörenberg, a clean and unfussy family-style hotel, our luggage was duly picked up and taken ahead while we set off unencumbered on our 184km route.
Day One: Sörenberg–Entlebuch (57km)
I had never been on an e-bike before but it took all of three minutes wobbling around the hotel car park to work out its four power modes and five gears. Each bike came with a pannier for packed lunches, jackets and a battery charger, plus a mobile phone holder. As I discovered to my peril, it is a good idea to check you have a good data plan and bring a portable charger, as the app can soak up quite a bit of power. It is also worth bringing your own phone holder, as some of the holders we were given were frustratingly wobbly.
The day began at 8.30am for a gentle climb through one of Switzerland’s largest stretches of moorland, largely on smooth roads with barely any traffic, which was comforting as we all got used to our bikes and their power settings. The area is known as Lucerne’s “Wild West”, not because there is anything lawless about it but because much of the terrain is natural and protected by Unesco “biosphere” regulations that emphasise sustainable agriculture, forestry and tourism. The result is a calming mix of forests, rocky outcrops and sloping meadows that are laced with wildflowers and alive with red kites and dozens of other bird species.
The tinkling of cowbells set off my Swiss cliché alarm, but the foothills and slopes were quiet enough for the chimes to carry so far that at times they built up into their own lovely orchestra.
Within an hour I was feeling totally at ease on the e-bike, and the whole group had no trouble staying in a comfortably spaced peloton rather than stretching out between leaders and any distant stragglers.
Before anyone had worked up a sweat, we stopped for hot chocolate and meringue with cream at the chichi Landgasthof Kemmeriboden-Bad in Schangnau (meringues were first made in this region). Within an hour, it was time for lunch at an upmarket cheese factory, the Bergkäserei Marbach, where we tasted buffalo cheeses and meats from a farm a few kilometres away. We even fitted in a visit to see the water buffalo, lounging in their own dipping pond.
By 5pm we reached our target, Drei Könige, a boutique hotel in the village of Entlebuch, feeling nicely tired from an active day in fresh air rather than being horribly saddle-sore. We dined with the sort of relish that comes after outdoor exercise, but nobody had the energy to go looking for a late night. Directions
Day Two: Entlebuch–Sursee (68kms)
Our second day was dominated by stunning Alpine vistas, with bright blue skies, crisp, clear air and such beautiful panoramas that I stopped frequently to try to absorb some of the detail of the sprawling pastures and peaks around us.
Much of the morning route was spent zooming along ridges with amazing views on both sides of the road. One of the most glorious happened to be from a beizli, or casual pub, run by the Holzwäge family on a crest in Holzwegen at an altitude of 1,050 metres. Here, we helped ourselves to cakes and drinks on a garden terrace without seeing any hosts — their kitchen operates on an honesty payment system.
This sort of arrangement was a surprising feature of the whole trip. We frequently came across unmanned roadside kiosks offering ice creams, coffees and other treats on the assumption that travellers would do the right thing and leave a payment. To make the most of this, it is wise to bring cash, as the locals tend to use a Swiss card-payment system called Twint, without accepting foreign payment apps.
We rolled down into cool forested valleys before tackling an uphill section steep enough to force a couple of our less fit cyclists to get off and walk, which is not easy given the weight of e-bikes. Lunch was a relaxed three-course spread on a shaded terrace at Hotel Menzberg before we went on to the walled medieval town of Willisau, which is known through Switzerland for the Ringli biscuits of the Amrein bakery and chocolatier.
Owner Michael Renggli-Kurmann explained that the 170-year-old recipe uses lemon, honey and orange and no egg to produce a tough, ring-shaped cookie that is more than 50 per cent sugar and hard enough to break a tooth if you don’t know how to eat it. The correct routine is to break the biscuit on the point of your elbow and then let the pieces soften in your mouth for a while before trying to bite into the sugar crystals.
Our final night’s accommodation was in a larger lakeside town called Sursee. We ate at Wilder Mann, a restaurant that has been feeding people since at least 1495. Traditional dishes include smoked salmon in a delicate white-wine soup, venison and puff pastry with mushrooms. Directions
Day Three: Sursee-Lucerne (59 kms)
The final run into Lucerne was a shorter route with a couple of stiff ascents, climbing 917 metres and gliding downhill for 961. Passing slowly through small hamlets and past isolated farmhouses, I discovered the quite endearing local custom of putting baby signs outside houses to welcome the arrival of new family members. The Swiss can often seem formal, with a penchant for privacy, but this tradition involves sticking up images of large celebratory cartoon characters and the baby’s name and birthday, so that the family’s good news can be shared with neighbours.
The highlight of this final pedal was a visit to the Schloss Heidegg, a 12th-century lakeside castle that is the oldest surviving residence in Lucerne canton, and is surrounded by extensive rose gardens and a small vineyard.
The ride into Lucerne follows a swiftly flowing river, the Reuss, and then you are suddenly in the middle of the city. We lounged at a lakeside beach for a while before dropping our bikes at the station and stepping straight on to a train back to Zürich.
Peter Wilson was a guest of Eurotrek
Eurotrek’s Route 1291 tour (seven days, six nights) costs SFr1,335 ($1,485/£1,155) per person in July and August or SFr1,289 (£1,433/£1,116) for the first half of September, including accommodation and breakfast, luggage transfers, route guide and access to a helpline. E-bike rental is SFr269 ($300/£232). Shorter versions of the tour are also available
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