Travel report: Cycle tour from Constance to Interlaken

Day 1: Arrival in Constance

We arrive in Constance independently with our car and our bikes. We arrived very early but were able to drop off our luggage at the hotel and park our car in the secure parking lot at Radweg-Reisen. We are warmly welcomed there, served drinks, and given tips for our cycle tour. We start the day in high spirits and explore Constance, the weather is glorious. We redeem our rail checks for tickets at the station, as the tour includes two train journeys in Switzerland, which Radweg-Reisen has already sent us in the documents. Well, if it continues as it starts, nothing can really go wrong, can it?

Day 2: From Constance to Schaffhausen, 50 kilometers

It rumbles violently during the night, we can't sleep a wink. The morning starts with heavy rain and thunderstorms. This annoys us, but we quickly improvise! We drop off our luggage in the lobby and ride our bikes to the port in Constance. There we buy tickets for the boat and take the very first boat towards Stein am Rhein. The bikes are securely lashed down on board, we find the boat trip wonderfully relaxing and we glide along the Untersee and Hochrhein through beautiful river landscapes. We cross the border swimming and, most importantly, we stay dry.
We disembark in Stein am Rhein and visit the fascinating old town and St. Georgen monastery. And who's to say? The weather suddenly gets really good again.
So we get on our bikes and cycle through small historic towns such as Gailingen and Büsingen and on through the Swiss Thurgau region, following the Rhine along its banks the whole time. In the afternoon we reach our destination, Schaffhausen.

Day 3: From Schaffhausen to Zurich, 75 kilometers

Well rested and fortified with a great breakfast, we start the day. Today's stage is long and will take us all the way to Zurich. Right at the start of the stage, we pass the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen and marvel at the thundering masses of water that cascade down here. We are very impressed by the largest waterfall in Europe. The journey continues along the High Rhine and its bends, past beautiful floodplain landscapes and stunning vineyards. We ride uphill and downhill, through Eglisau, Höri, Rümlang and Oerlikon and reach Zurich, Switzerland's largest city on the Limmat, late in the afternoon, exhausted but happy. We marvel at Zurich and its old town with its narrow streets. It's beautiful here. We end the evening in a cozy brewery.

At midday we reach Rapperswil-Jona. A small medieval town situated on the narrowest part of Lake Zurich. After a longer stay there, we travel over the dam of Lake Zurich to Pfäffikon. We take the Swiss regional train to Einsiedeln, which saves us about 400 meters in altitude, and leave the beautiful Lake Zurich. We've got ourselves a good sunburn today. Once we arrive in lovely Einsiedeln, we visit the baroque monastery and round off the day with a good meal and a walk.

We linger here for a while before continuing on to Zug. The route is excellently described, we arrive at Lake Zug around midday and can't stop marveling at how beautiful it is here. We take a long break at a swimming area in Cham, fortify ourselves and take a spontaneous dip.

We decide to cycle on to Lucerne via Baar and follow Lake Zug for a good while. By now, the meters of altitude covered are really getting to us. But we reach our destination of Lucerne in the afternoon. Once again we are struck by the beauty of this landscape. Lucerne and Lake Lucerne lie before us. There is a lot of hustle and bustle here, many tourists are out and about.

Thank goodness we have a hotel a little away from the city. And which one! We get an upgrade at the hotel and a picture-perfect room. An unobstructed view over the magnificent lake with the Alps as a backdrop. We are blown away and visit the hotel bar by the lake and experience the most beautiful sunset we have ever seen. A wonderful day with a visit to three natural lakes comes to an end.