Oops, just caught! The Postbus driver has actually already pulled out of his parking bay. But when he sees us rushing towards him, gesticulating wildly, he stops his bus again. Although for him this means stopping, getting out and hoisting our bikes onto the rear rack. The other passengers look less friendly as we look for a free row of seats on the bus, but that could also be due to the early hour. In any case, we sink into the cushions, relieved, and off we go. The inhabitants of the last houses in Meiringen are still asleep, but nature is already wide awake. Soon only flowering meadows pass by the window, then we wind our way up along steep, rocky slopes.
As our gaze finally wanders over alpine meadows with huge granite boulders, we reach our exit point "Grimselpass". Once again, the driver helps us unload the bikes, greets us in a friendly manner and drives off. There we are, standing at an altitude of 2164 metres in thin air. The sun is shining on us, but not yet warming us. With clammy fingers, I click through the menu on my GPS device until our planned route appears on the display: over four mountain passes, through four Swiss cantons and all in just two days - that's the plan. Sounds very ambitious, but we have the ticket for our ascent in our pockets.
The principle is familiar from major European cities: a hop-on hop-off tour on a sightseeing bus. In Switzerland, this is not only possible in historic urban canyons and shopping streets, but also in the centre of the glacier-covered summit regions. Our bus route for this tour is called "Central Alpine Passes".
You can download the complete travel article "Swiss Central Alps: Four-Pass Tour" from BIKE 9/2020 as a PDF in the download area below.
You can find this article in BIKE 8/2020. You can read the entire digital edition in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or the print edition in the DK shop reorder - while stocks last:
