Switzerland is rich, especially in clichés. Many are largely true. There are some I’m not so interested in – banking, precision watches, nuclear shelters and referendums. But others, I certainly am – including audacious civil engineering, trains, cheese, chocolate and Alpine passes. I experienced plenty of those in summer 2024 when I rode 400 miles across the country, from west to east, with a friend. We enjoyed heroic ascents of James Bond mountain roads, stunning lake and mountain views, and medieval villages that William Tell himself could have shot apples in.
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
Our traverse started on the French border near Geneva and soon crossed the language border, beyond which everything went instantly Deutsch. Our last couple of days in the east, heading to the Austrian frontier at Martina,…