We awoke refreshed this morning in what many felt was the best hostel of the tour. Breakfast was included in the overnight price and we were able to sit on a table outside the dining area near the river in glorious morning sunshine.

Our bike bags were quite heavy so our first task was to get rid of them. We rode back to the station, packed all the bags into a single package and checked it in at the luggage office. We paid a small charge of around £8 to get the bags transferred to Zurich station, where the tour would finish in 10 days’ time, but we felt this was a price worth paying for not having the extra weight during the tour. We stocked up with food and drink from the excellent Migros supermarket on the station concourse.

Riding all the way from Basel to Solothurn would have been 58 miles - too far for our first day – so we used the train to take us as far as Olten from where the route was mainly flat. Swiss trains are very bike-friendly: you have to pay half fare to take a bike, but you can put it anywhere on the train without restriction. We put all our bikes easily into a bike area of our carriage and were able to sit near them. We passed the time by looking out for cranes which Michael said had been everywhere on his previous visits: we counted more than 25 that could be seen from the train in the first ten minutes of the journey, so it seems even more of the Swiss population have their own personal cranes these days.

One of the many delights of cycling in Switzerland is the network of well-signed national and regional cycle routes that criss-cross the country. We bought take-away lunch at Olten station and then immediately joined national cycle route 5 which starts at the station entrance. We followed it south-westwards along the river Aare, green with meltwater from alpine glaciers, enjoying quiet traffic-free roads and tracks nearly all the way.

The sunny weather showed off the real beauty of the Swiss countryside today, although it was perhaps a little hotter than we would have liked by the time we reached the HEP station at Rothrist. We were looking for a shady place for lunch and finally found it when the cycle route went offroad through a forest after Boningen. There was a very well made see-saw nearby which kept us entertained.

The cycling route continued all the way to our hostel at Soluthurn. Along the way we rode past fields of vegetables and sunflowers – Ash just couldn’t resist plucking a face out of one of the sunflower heads. Because the route was mainly flat we made good speed and arrived at Solothurn to find loads of people enjoying the river: they were jumping off a bridge near the hostel and floating downriver.

The hostel was very modern. Our room was on a high level, giving us excellent views across the river. Two of us used adjacent showers without noticing that one was supposed to be for females: a couple of women who came along later became rather irate when they heard the sound of a male in their shower.

Solothurn is a large town with many shops, so we were surprised when we walked all around the town and failed to find a single shop open. It turned out that we had picked the worst possible day to visit Solothurn: today was Swiss day when everyone in the country celebrates the birth of Switzerland. Shops close early and stay closed, and a lot of people come to Solothurn to celebrate because of its long and proud history. We ended up enjoying hot food in a little pizza restaurant but we did not have a great night: it was oppressively hot even by Swiss standards, and loads of people were outside eating and letting off fireworks until 2am! It’s normally quiet and peaceful here – we just chose the wrong night!

When we awoke this morning it was as if last night had never happened: all the people had vanished and the whole place was tranquil and calm. As we were leaving at 9.40 the warden gave us the fabulous news that because today was Swiss day, every shop in Switzerland would be closed except those at stations.

We crossed the bridge, bought rather expensive provisions from the kiosk at Solothurn station and then rejoined route 5 for a day that would be a good deal longer than yesterday. It was already quite hot, so we couldn’t help feeling envious as we heard people splashing around and having fun in the luxurious Solothurn swimming pool.

Our first stop was the tiny village of Altreau, famous for its feathered residents, a family of storks, who get special nesting areas built for them on the local houses. As we were leaving the village Ash couldn’t help noticing an amazing grand prix race car in an expensive-looking display garage. The sign inside the window said it belonged to Swiss race driver Dominik Kocher, but many of our youngsters wished it belonged to them.

A little further down the valley we noticed planes taking off from a local airfield, circling a few times and then dropping out several paragliders for the long, slow descent to ground level. This was Grenchen, a fairly major airfield, but to us it just seemed like the Swiss were wealthy beyond imagination to be able to enjoy such exciting sports in such a rural location.

We took shelter from the sun on the ancient wooden bridge at Buren but didn’t bother visiting the town as there was no station there. We missed the turn for Bienne where there was a major station, but were fortunate enough to find a garage near Gummen that had enough cold drinks and snacks for us to buy lunch. We ate it in the shade of a tree by the river.

It was no surprise that everyone wanted to go for a swim. Michael remembered a delightful spot by the first lake at Sutz, but when we got there today it was packed with locals and tourists. Switzerland is landlocked, but the locals get plenty of water fun with their lakes which have beaches and waves just like the seaside, but have the advantage of being fresh water, shallow and safe. The lakes are enormous, quite large enough for hundreds of people to be out on them in their expensive boats.

We continued along the route looking for another lakeside bathing spot. Ash’s mind must have been elsewhere: going around a bend he was looking up at the trees, veered off the rough path, hit a gully concealed in the grass and ended up being projected into the air. He had a nasty groin injury and needed ten minutes to recover!

We soon found another nice spot by the lake, at Täuffelen Harbour, but there were still a few people around so we just used the drinking fountains to refill our water bottles and sat in the shade near the many boats for a rest.

On a previous tour the Hagneck HEP station made an impressive site, extracting huge amounts of electricity from the fast flowing Aare-Hagneck canal. Evidently it had not been impressive enough however, as now it was being rebuilt to be bigger and better than before. Unfortunately this meant we had to negotiate a hilly detour around the building site.

Next stop was Vinelz where we branched off national route 5 to take the short-cut to Avenches via Ins. By the time we had climbed a long hill across fields and through woodlands we felt we might have done better to stay on route 5 which would have been flatter!

After Ins the route was flatter and quite fast. We worked our way around the smaller Lake Morat to Murten where Michael was sure everyone would enjoy a swim. But in the end they preferred to be closer to the hostel before getting wet, so we carried on around the lake to Faoug. Here at last we found what we had been looking for. There was a busy camping site by the edge of the lake, Camping de la Plage, that was all set up for fun bathing. Everyone went in, wading out through the warm, shallow waters and then swimming the last few metres to the first leisure platform. It was so refreshing to be in the water after such a long, hot day of cycling. Some went out to a second platform but everyone had fun diving and jumping into the water. When we eventually returned to the beach there was an outdoor shower ready for a rinse off. This was a truly idyllic spot, demonstrating yet again that the Swiss really know how to enjoy themselves.

We rode the final few miles to Avenches hostel feeling damp but cool and invigorated. Sadly the warden could offer us no food, but we rode the short distance to the local garage and managed to get enough provisions from there. It was another very warm night, but by leaving the windows wide open we managed to get enough of a breeze in our room to get some sleep.

Today was to be the longest cycling day of our tour, and the excessive heat also made it the most exhausting. We planned to follow the relatively easy national route 5 to Lausanne rather than take the more direct but hillier route 1, so our first task was to use regional routes via Payerne to re-join route 5. It took us a good deal longer to reach Payerne than we had anticipated, but when we arrived we were rewarded with a huge co-op with a cool and shady multi-storey car park on top, so we used the opportunity to buy takeaway lunch and plenty of drink for the day from the huge range of products on offer.

We got away at around 11.30, then while following route 34 back to lake Neuchatel we misread a sign and ended up in Payerne military airfield! There were no warnings or barriers, no sign of life and no obvious security cameras, yet we had ridden alongside the runway and ended up next to some enormous locked hangers that looked as though they may contain some impressive military hardware. We found out later that the site is currently home to the Swiss Air Accident investigation board, and that by 2015 it will have been converted to a spaceport for satellite and space flight launches.

There was no respite from the intense heat until we reached the tiny village of Bussy. Here we luxuriated in the shade provided by a farmhouse and refilled our bottles from the village water fountain. These fountains can be found all over Switzerland, in virtually every town or village and even sometimes in the countryside. The water is always fresh and ice-cold. The Swiss pride themselves on never needing bottled water, and these fountains are yet another reason why Switzerland is the perfect destination for cyclists. Lawrence couldn’t wait for lunchtime so started eating his chicken while we rested.

We soon reached route 5 at Estavayer Le Lac and followed the flat cycle path along Lake Neuchatel looking for a nice lunch spot. We hadn’t found one by the time we reached Yvonand but Michael noticed a forest track heading off to the right in the general direction of the lake and thought it would be worth investigating. A few hundred metres later we had discovered the perfect place for lunch: plenty of shade, fabulous views across the lake, nobody else around and even a few benches to sit on! We spent an hour here just soaking up the tranquillity. Ash fell asleep on one of the benches, but he was still sore from his gully accident yesterday.

We had to press on now as there was a long way to ride today. Will and Ash managed to get separated from the group in Yverdon Les Bains but we soon met up again on the far side with the help of a phone call. Ash and Michael bought ice-cold drinks from the multi-storey co-op and the rest found refreshments in a nearby shop.

Despite the intense heat everyone was keen to cycle the rest of the way to Lausanne, although I’m sure the fact that our cycle route followed the train line all the way played a part in their decision. So we set off at around 3.30 on a route that was mainly flat or downhill.

Will was desperate for drink by the time we reached Chavornay so we detoured over the bridge to find a water fountain in the town. We did find one, but unusually this one was marked as unfit for drinking, so instead we refilled bottles from a local shop and public toilets. Ash was now suffering a bit with knee problems, no doubt caused by his accident yesterday. He toyed with the idea of taking the train, but in the end Will convinced him to cycle.

There was a climb on the route up to La Sarraz, but after that it was pretty much all downhill to Lausanne, through many interesting field and forest tracks. When we reached Echandens we were so tired with the riding and the heat that we decided to leave route 5 and take the direct route to the hostel for the last few miles: it was a main road but was still relatively quiet. We finally got to the hostel by around 8.15, totally shattered but pleased to have made it without using the train.

After much-needed showers John and Will ventured down to the lakeside for a pizza meal while the rest of us made do with food we had brought with us. We were soon in bed, but the room was uncomfortably hot without air conditioning.

After last night’s ridiculously-late arrival we were all very tired this morning and had no intention of leaving in a hurry, even if that meant we had to use trains later to make the day’s ride manageable. Ash needed some Sudocrem for his saddle chaffing, so Michael and Ash left around 9.55 to visit the nearest chemist shop. When we got there we found it was closed on Saturdays, so we had to ride a little further to find one that was open – they sold it by the tube for around £7.

We checked train times and found that we could take a train from Vevey to Montreaux later and then a second train right up through the mountains to Château d’Oex, cutting around 38 hilly miles off our journey. This would leave us free to properly enjoy the lakeside journey to Vevey. After some group photos outside the hostel entrance we left very late at around 10.55.

After riding through the grounds of the International Olympic Committee we quickly found ourselves on the banks of the enormous Lake Geneva at Vidy Promenade, making an idyllic sight in the morning sunshine. After two miles or so we had reached Ouchy, the central area of Lausanne, with the impressive modern fountains at Place de la Navigation. A quick detour up to the station to verify train times brought us within sight of a McCafe, and as John and Will were keen to go there we all went in, even though it was against Michael’s life policies to go to such a place! We all had McFlurrys – Lawrence and co had Toblerone flavour while Michael and Ash tried Ovaltine flavour, which is very popular in Switzerland, and were very pleasantly surprised by how good it was!

Returning to the lakeside we continued eastwards through Place du Port, where many bateaux boats were waiting to be hired, looking for somewhere that sold food or coffee for lunch. Ridiculously we reached the end at Quai d’Ouchy having found absolutely nothing! There was a nice quiet little beach place there near the Tour Haldimand statue with swans and ducks, so most settled down there to eat what they had while Ash and Michael rode back along the lakeside path to buy pizzas they had seen earlier. Ash cleverly managed to ride back one-handed with a pizza box balanced on the other hand. The swans got very interested in our food and got very close in their attempts to get some. After not being too successful, one came along near the end looking rather aggressive!

Leaving there at about 2pm we continued along the Cycle Route 1 to Lutry, stopping for water refills wherever we saw a water trough. It really was turning into a very hot afternoon. The cycle route then started climbing through a hillside that was covered with vineyards, with one climb being almost vertical, so our leisurely ride didn’t turn out to be quite as flat as we had hoped. We were rewarded with some fabulous views of the vineyards and Lake Geneva, however, so it was definitely worth the effort.

By the time we reached Grandvaux we were hot and tired, so when we found a restaurant there, the Hotel Du Monde, with outdoor shaded seating, commanding exceptional views across the lake and also selling iced drinks, we didn’t waste any time finding a table. This turned out to be one of the finest places we visited all day, and we were in absolutely no hurry to leave.

We eventually set off to continue along Route 1, which started with a little more climbing but ended up mainly downhill to Vevey Station. By now we were really exhausted by the heat, so we were very glad that there would be no more cycling today.

We took the first train the short distance to Montreaux and actually arrived there in time to catch the 5.42 train to Château d’Oex, but we needed to get food from somewhere, and this seemed like the largest town we would see for the rest of the day. We went to a nearby Coop to stock up and also visited a café near the station where Michael and Ash shared a crepe.

We then boarded the later train to Château d’Oex, which probably left around 6.42. The train zig-zagged up the mountain pass above Vevey offering superb views of first Lake Geneva and then the mountains with peaks reaching over 2000m. We ate our Coop food on the train, then Lawrence spent much of his time annoying everyone by zooming in on them with Michael’s camcorder – at least it kept him amused.

From Château d’Oex station it was all downhill to the Youth Hostel, where we had another late arrival, although we weren’t as late as last night, and we had already eaten our food. The beds in our room were arranged in an interesting manner, with two bunks pulled together so they were adjacent!

John organised a chess tournament after showers, which kept us amused for the last part of the evening.

The sun was shining and the church bells were ringing out across the valley this morning as we prepared to leave Château d’Oex. John had a puncture, saw a very smart looking workshop pump near reception, asked the warden if he could borrow it and was told it was for use hostellers' use! It seems like this is very a cyclist-friendly hostel! Lawrence and Will decided they had time to play a game of chess in reception while the rest of us got ready and Ash took a video of the hostel, showing our rather cramped dorm that nevertheless had exceptional views to the meadows and mountains outside. It was a delightful hostel. When we were ready to leave, however, Lawrence, sensibly, decided he needed to put on sunscreen, but it delayed us and we wished he had got ready before starting his chess game!

After group photos we set off around 10.10 for another very long cycling day, except this time there was much more downhill then uphill. Within the hour we were entering Gstaad, where we passed horse riders practicing their skills in the Lovell Summer Camp. It was a peaceful scene, made all the more special by the mountain backdrop behind. A short time later we entered Gstaad itself, a popular tourist town, and when we found the Early Beck patisserie on the pedestrianised Promenade, there was no question that it was the place to stop for refreshments. Temperatures were quite hot already, so we all appreciated the chance for ice cold drinks and ice creams as well as early lunch items. Lawrence liked the look of John’s hot sausage roll so much that he went to buy one too, but came back with a different one – he had gone to the wrong shop!

Route 9 continued up Grubenstrasse, which offered great mountain views looking back towards Château d’Oex, then more climbing through Schrönried, and after a final climb through Saanenmöser we had completed our 14 miles of climbing. We took some videos and photos as we contemplated the long 39-mile downhill ahead of us, then just got on with enjoying it!

Our route took us down to Zweisimmen, around the railway tracks and then down the side of the river Simme. It was quite hot by now and we Ash saw some shady trees by the path he couldn’t resist climbing one while the rest of us cooled off.

We followed Route 9 along the quiet side-roads for as long as it kept going downhill, but when we saw it starting to climb again we joined the main road that was running parallel to it, as that was just non-stop downhill. We stopped near until Enge im Simmental, where an old wooden bridge over the River Simme gave us good views of several rafts being swept down the fast-flowing river. A few metres down the road we found a café in a layby, serving drinks and ice creams – Ash and Michael availed themselves of the refreshments, trying out a new drink called Sinalco that Ash said tasted of blood orange. We were only around halfway to Interlaken and it was already past 3.30.

We continued along the main road all the way to Spiez, maintaining a good speed. Somewhere around here, Michael received some bad news about one of Ash’s friends back in England, but Ash took his step-father’s advice and decided to delay receiving the news until the last day of the tour.

The final twelve miles or so along the banks of Lake Thuner was fairly flat and we soon found the hostel in Interlaken. This turned out to be a modern building, right in the centre near the railway station. A large tunnel entrance just outside took cars and bikes down to the underground car park, which was quite an unusual feature.

Facilities were good, with separate showers off the main corridor, just like we had seen at Basel hostel on the first night.

Today was our planned “rest day” of the tour, with just 17 miles to cover, and Michael had planned to use it for a scenic rail excursion to the Alpine Jungfraujoch Top of Europe station. Things didn’t work out quite as he had planned, however.

We had a leisurely start at Interlaken Youth Hostel, then Ash took a video of our room where he mentioned the interesting Korean gentleman who had shared our room last night. Ash then had fun riding the bikes out of the underground car park beneath the hostel, and continued to entertain by doing pole tricks for John to catch on his camera. By around 11.05 we were finally ready to leave.

The first task was to get Lawrence’s bottom bracket repaired, as he couldn’t bear the creaking anymore and felt sure his bike would break down if it wasn’t fixed. We found a Trek bike shop called Zwei-Rad Götz in nearby Unterseen: they needed several hours to repair it and suggested it would be ready after 3pm for a cost of 80-90 Swiss Francs. We left it with them, Lawrence borrowed a loan bike from them, we called in to the nearby Coop for coffees and snacks, returned to the hostel to park up the bikes and then went to the adjacent Interlaken station at 12.15 to buy our Jungfraujoch train tickets.

We were greeted with some very disappointing news. There was apparently a cap on the number of tickets that could be sold in a day, because of the limited train capacity, although we hadn’t been aware of that, and they had sold all 5000 of today’s tickets by 10.30. We had been sleeping right next door to the station and could easily have bought the tickets before breakfast if we had known. It was all very annoying, and we felt our whole day had been ruined, but there was absolutely nothing the ticket office would or could do to help us.

The hostel had an excellent restaurant, open all day, so we returned there for lunch while we made new plans for the rest of our day. We had a little time before the bike could be collected so we attempted to look around some of the more interesting parts of Interlaken, but when we couldn’t even find the town square we gave up and collected the bike early at 2.50. The bike, unsurprisingly, had a British Thread on the bottom bracket, and that was more expensive, so it cost 95 Swiss Francs in the end. But at least it was done, and Lawrence was far happier to have a properly functioning bike.

On the way back to the hostel we took a look at the HEP station on the River Aare and called in to the Coop at Interlaken Station at 3.50 to stock up with provisions. We then set off along Route 9 towards Brienz, which took us along the south-eastern flank of Lake Brienzer. Will seemed unhappy about something for the first hour or so, but we weren’t sure what was wrong.

The route started flat and downhill, taking us through the quiet farming village of Sengg. The scenery was superb as we approached Iseltwald, with mountains on the far side of the lake coming right down to the edge of the lake. As we passed through Iseltwald we noticed a diving board right by the lake in a campsite, and on further investigation we were told it was a public Lido, so there was no charge to use it! Suddenly we knew how we wanted to make up for missing the mountain railway! Everyone except Michael went in (he was on camcorder duty) and it was an absolutely perfect location for an afternoon of fun. Everyone did jumps and dives and somersaults into the icy waters of the lake, and some ventured out to the nearby floating platform for a rest in the sun. Ash got the prize for the best flips into the water, and everyone was so happy here that it was probably one of the nicest stops of the tour.

Dark clouds were beginning to spread overhead as we left at around 6.00. The route was now hillier as it took us past Giessbach Falls, so we were grateful for the opportunity to stop and have a good look at them. A path allowed us to walk right under the main falls, offering us some great photo and video opportunities.

It was dark and thundery as we left Giessbach car park, and very soon it began to rain. We got quite wet before we found shelter under a bridge near Brienz, just 0.9 miles from the hostel. We waited for a while, but the rain showed no signs of stopping, so everyone except John and Will made a dash for the hostel, and even they followed a few minutes later.

There was a new warden in Brienz hostel and he had put us in a large 12-bed dorm with a family that included two teenage girls, a boy, parents and grandparents! Never in all the time we have been hostelling have we ever been put in a mixed-gender dorm, and we all felt this was totally unacceptable. We complained to the warden who said he didn’t know of any rules prohibiting mixed-sex dorms, but he said he would look it up! Meanwhile, there was nowhere else to sleep, so we had to make the best of it.

Next, we asked him for food, but again he failed to be helpful – he said he couldn’t offer us any food as we were too late arriving! They did have a small self-catering kitchen, however, that included a microwave oven, so we went to the nearby SOCAR garage to buy some ready meals at 8.40 and ate them in the kitchen. It turned out to be satisfactory, but not what we would have ideally liked after a late arrival.

We managed to wash some of our laundry and left it in the warden's drying room overnight to dry.

Today was our big Alpine Climb Day and the weather was looking good as we got up early at 7.30. When we retrieved our laundry from the warden’s drying room, we were disappointed to find that it wasn’t completely dry, although perhaps not totally surprised. Michael took a quick video around the hostel and grounds, which bordered Lake Brienz itself, then after some group photos outside the hostel we left around 9.20.

We didn’t plan to ride the entire distance to Hospental today, as the second 670m climb to the Furka Pass would be a climb too far for our group. We had reserved bike spaces on the last 17:20 bus from Gletsch to Hospental while we were in Interlaken yesterday, but there was a good chance that we might not make it to Gletsch in time, as we would have nearly 1700m of climbing to do before then. We needed a Plan B, so we rode into Brienz, stocked up with provisions for the day at the Coop, then went to the train station to enquire about train options. We found that there was a train from Oberwald at 20:44 that went through a tunnel under the mountain and stopped at Realp, just before Hospental. That would completely avoid the Furka pass, so now we had our Plan B.

We took some final photos of Lake Brienz as we left the village at 10.10, then followed the flat valley route past some impressive waterfalls. Turning right at Meringen to follow Route 8 we were faced with a rather ominous sign warning us of 1650m of climbing over the next 30km, so when we came across a convenient water fountain just around the corner, in Schattenhalb, we took the opportunity to refill our water bottles.

Well, we hadn’t been climbing very long before we started going downhill again, to Innertkirchen, which was rather annoying. There was a bakery on the corner there, so Michael, who can never resist such establishments, stocked up with some fresh Danish Pastries and then, finally, we started the main climb just before 12.00, having ridden just 13 miles. At least the new sign we passed made allowance for the 180m of climbing we had just done – just 1480m to go over 24km, or 16.0 miles. Michael tried to encourage everyone by saying it was 160 clicks, and he kept giving readouts from his SatNav as we continued the journey which told us how many clicks remained to the top.

It was a very long and testing climb, and John particularly was finding it tough today with his heavy panniers. Michael had hoped to reach the halfway point on the climb before we stopped for lunch, but after just four more of the 16 miles it was 1.15pm and people needed to eat. We found a convenient woodland beside the road and ate lunch there in the shade, so at least everyone was rested and refreshed when we set off again at 1.50.

The only problem was that Lawrence doesn’t ride well after a meal, and he had eaten a large meal today, so for the next hour he was running in slow mode. Then the pace quickened, and we marvelled at the mountain scenery, the Handeggfall Suspension Bridge, the hairpin bends and the Swiss cattle. We clearly weren’t going to make the 5.30 bus at Gletsch now, but I think we always knew that was going to be too ambitious.

The skies became dark and cloudy around 5.35, and by 5.45 a full thunderstorm had broken out all around us, with heavy rain and actual lightning that made us all feel a little unsafe on these exposed mountain roads. Ash and Lawrence were in high spirits now, but Will was definitely not happy with the weather! We tried to take shelter under a rockface by the side of the road, and got some interesting video clips, but we really didn’t have time to stop: once everyone had arrived we set off again in the rain.

Ash’s knees had been hurting a lot on the earlier part of the climb, probably caused in part by his fall on the ride from Solothurn, and he had spent much of the earlier part of the climb riding at the back with John. Now, however, for the final two hours of the ride, he was right up at the front with Michael and keen to be first to Grimsel Pass. And he was! We reached the Grimsel Pass sign by 7.00 and took several photos and video clips there. The rain had stopped now, but it was quite chilly at this altitude – it had felt more like UK temperatures for the last few hours.

There was a very short ride along the top of the pass, which brought us to the Grimsel Pass sign on the Eastern side. This time it had a clapped-out motorbike beside it, so we took a whole series of photos of the group who all felt very pleased to have reached the top. The improved weather was making everyone feel better now.

A few metres further along we reached the Grimsel Pass Overlook, a place Michael had visited previously on the 2003 tour, and what incredible views it offered. There was the series of hairpin bends leading down to Gletsch far below, the Rhone Glacier nudging its way impressively towards us from the left, and the second series of hairpin bends that we would have had to ride to cross the Furka Pass if we hadn’t got the train lined up. We spent some time there just taking it all in – and taking another series of photos and videos so we would never forget this wonderful place.

It was around 7.20 when we started the exhilarating descent of the hairpins, and about 7.32 when we arrived at Gletsch at the bottom, just two hours late for the last bus. But now, instead of turning left up the Furka Pass and on to Hospental, we were heading right to Oberwald, and that turned out to be more downhill all the way! It seemed we had finished our climbing for the day, and actually we were all very grateful for that.

Oberwald was a quiet place, but the station was still, strangely, not that easy to find. We found it eventually, bought our tickets at 8.02, then had to wait a little for the 8.44 train. This was a car train, so we got some good prices, just 36 Swiss Francs for all of us, with the kids going free! The train was very warm, making it comfortable and welcoming for us to eat our supper, which consisted mainly of cheese and rolls.

When we got off at Realp we had just two more miles to ride to Hospental in the descending darkness, and that was all downhill too, so it had been downhill all the way from Grimsel Pass. That certainly helped make up for the difficult climb.

It was rather late when we arrived at the hostel, and we only just had time for showers before we went to bed. We had a very interesting dorm in the roof area of the hostel, with all our mattresses side by side in a row! Cosy! There was another thunderstorm during the night and the rain started coming through the roof window above Michael’s bed, so he had to close it for a while to stay dry.

John said later in the tour that he only just managed the climb today - he was pleased he had achieved it, but he would definitely not want to do it again. He thought Michael was the only one who seemed to be enjoying the hill, with no pains or illnesses, and perhaps, on this occasion, he was right.

Ash was not too happy this morning. He had been understandably tired and sore after yesterday’s long ride and had been looking forward to a good night’s sleep, but first there was the thunderstorm, then soon after dawn there had been loud bells ringing periodically outside our window that could easily have been an air-raid warning!

We had a long, 57-mile ride ahead of us, although the first third was supposed to be downhill and the remainder was relatively flat. We left just before 10am, which was as early as we could manage after last night’s late arrival. Within two miles we were in Andermatt town centre, watching a horse-drawn carriage picking up its next load of tourists. We bought provisions from the Coop at 10.25 and then started what we hoped would be a very long and exciting downhill ride through the Schöllenen Gorge.

Very quickly we were greeted with the sight of multiple hairpins disappearing into the distance, with some sections protected from snowfalls – it really was an incredible piece of road engineering. Needless to say, we really enjoyed the next few miles. There was more engineering work going on at Göschenen, where existing railway lines and bridges over the river were being extended with the construction of the Gottthard rail tunnel, due to open in 2016.

The descent became less pronounced as we continued. Delightful wide valley scenery with a mountain backdrop greeted us at Erstfield, and soon afterwards, at around 12.30, we reached Altdorf where we planned to buy our lunch. The station shop, which was right on our route, turned out to be expensive, and it took us a while to find the main shops. When we did find them, most were closed for lunch, making them pretty much useless. We ended up having to buy hot takeaway food – Ash had a burger and chips and Michael had a cheese pie. When we came out of there, the bakery had, surprisingly, opened, so Michael bought a very nice strawberry flan to share with Ash.

It was now gone 2pm, and whilst we had covered 24 miles, they had been the easiest miles of the day, and we still had another 33 miles to go. We didn’t fancy another late arrival, so we decided to die to Brunnen and take the train from there – Swiss trains are fun, and it didn’t take much effort to convince ourselves that we needed to try as many of them as we could on our tour!

Route 2 from Altdorf to Brunnen was noisy, running right next to the main road in many places. There was even some climbing along the first part of Lake Urn. The cycle route skirted around the frequent tunnels, but the path around the Axen tunnel brought us to Alte Axenstrasse, a picturesque spot by the lake that even had its own picnic table! We stopped there for lunch in the sunshine and took photos of the impressive views which stretched out in all directions.

As we neared Brunnen we followed a road bridge that overhung the lake, which Will had identified earlier as a good place for lake jumping. It was immediately clear to Michael that it was not a safe place to jump though, so we pressed on, much to Will’s disappointment. The SatNav led us easily to Brunnen station where we bought our tickets for Lucerne at 4.36.

And so we found ourselves on another Swiss train, which took the strain all the way to Lucerne, offering some great views right from the window. It dropped us near the railway museum just before Lucerne itself at around 5.50, so we were able to finish the day with a little more riding, two miles in fact around the end of Lake Lucerne and through the busy town to the hostel. We checked in at 6.23.

After making beds and showering, we checked out the hostel restaurant. Most wanted to eat in the town tonight, but Michael and Ash thought the desserts looked very good value, so they bought a large Custard Slice for just two Francs. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that others soon joined them.

Lawrence didn’t fancy going down to the lake this evening, so the rest of us left him at the hostel to rest and rode our bikes down in the hope of finding the Lucerne Open Air cinema. We did find it, right by Lake Lucerne around two miles from the hostel, and several were going in to enjoy this evening’s movie, but we couldn’t help wondering if a rainstorm might distract somewhat from the movie!

John had seen a shop selling Crepes on the way out, but when we returned it had closed. We ended up returning to the station where we bought our meals from McDonalds at 9.30, which of course kept John and Will happy! Ash and Michael just had McFlurries.

We got back to the hostel by around 9.50 and were in bed for around 10.40. Michael sneaked downstairs when everyone was asleep to use his phone with the hostel WiFi service, first to check the latest news about Ash’s friend’s tragic accident, so he could update Ash properly about it tomorrow evening, and second to check the weather forecast for tomorrow. which looked rather unpromising.

The weather forecast for our final full day of cycling was for rain all day in Zurich, and spreading to Lucerne during the morning. After an early breakfast and Ash’s usual video of the hostel, we set off at around 9.45 and followed the cycle route towards Zug. As we were leaving Lucerne we came across a Penny Farthing bike right beside the path, part of a Sculpture Park on the banks of the River Reuse. Several tried it out for size – it’s probably the only time we are ever likely to sit on one!

We continued at a good pace, but it was ultimately impossible to beat the rain that was coming our way, which started as we entered Rotkreuz at 11.10, just over ten miles from Lucerne. One of the first things we saw as we entered the town, however, was the most inviting café we had ever seen, the Hotz Rust Bakery. It was really warm and welcoming on what had become a miserable, wet day. The drinks and cakes turned out to be so exceptional that John and Michael had to photograph them, so we quickly rated this café the best of the tour. It was all the more enjoyable when a thunderstorm arrived outside with torrential rain.

Conveniently adjoining the café was a Migros supermarket, so we bought our provisions for the day there. It was still raining when we came out, so we rode to the nearby train station to see what trains might be available if the rain continued. Well it did continue, so we bought tickets at 12.29 and caught the next train to Zurich, which took around half an hour. We really are learning a lot about Swiss trains!

We arrived at Zurich at around 1.30, where of course it was still raining. Lawrence like the rain, but still seemed really happy not be cycling in it today. Our bike bags had been shipped from Basel to Zurich during the past week, so we collected them now, earlier than planned, since we were there. They had somehow lost the yellow bungee that Michael had put around all five bags to hold them together, but everything else was there.

One of the things everyone had been looking forward to doing today if we had time was to go swimming in the Public River Swimming facility on the River Limmat - they had seen videos of the fun we had on our last tour to Zurich in 2006. Now that we had arrived in Zurich several hours earlier than planned we had plenty of time. After riding just under a mile to get there, however, we were extremely disappointed to find that it was closed: the only door leading into the facility was locked.

We didn’t quite understand why it would be closed, as it was just a safe section of river with a wooden viewing area and diving board, but we guessed that perhaps there was no lifeguard available today. Lawrence, Will and Ash were really keen to get in somehow, as they may never get the chance to come here again, so we asked some locals nearby and they pointed out that the facility could be entered via the river rather than the door, and that most locals do that when the door is locked. Ash immediately volunteered to give it a try. We access the river just a few metres upstream from the facility, and after checking things out carefully Ash swam across the fast-flowing river and allowed himself to be swept the last short distance to the steps under the diving platform. He was in!

Ash tested out the diving board while we watched enviously from the riverbank – after jumping in, the river swept him down to toward the far end where there were more steps to get out. Just when the others were preparing to follow Ash down the river, he told us there were some people inside the facility, and they kindly let us all in.

So now all three of our intrepid teenagers could have fun, and they made the best possible use of the facility, trying many different kinds of jumps, flips and dives. After his first jump, Ash grabbed on to some chains by the side of the river to stop himself being swept down towards the end and managed to get a splinter of wood right underneath his nail – fourth finger of his left hand. It caused him agony and would clearly need to be seen by a medical professional, but he wasn’t going to let it stop him enjoying this place, so he continued doing his jumps, flips and dives. The rain pretty much stopped while we were there.

When we had been there about an hour we headed back to the station where we had been told the pharmacy should be able to help. They took one look at the nail and immediately directed us to the doctors surgery next door. Here, Ash was seen immediately by a large, black American woman doctor who started by injecting local anaesthetic into the finger, which for whatever reason caused Ash a huge amount of pain and didn’t seem to numb the area as much as she said it would. She then proceeded to cut back the nail to remove the splinter, which was formed from very old wood and broke into multiple pieces. All this time Ash was shaking and suffering extreme pain. Her assistant, who had been holding Ash’s finger still while the doctor used the knife, left for a while at one point, and then Ash got a nasty cut in his finger from the knife when he involuntarily moved his hand during part of the procedure! Somehow it didn’t seem very professional, although of course Ash was grateful that she had seen him so quickly. When the work was done, just after 6pm, we were charged £150 plus £12 for a pack of painkillers and were suddenly very grateful that we have the NHS in the UK.

The rest of the group had been shopping in the many excellent station shops while Ash and Michael had been in the doctor’s surgery. Now Ash and Michael went around them too and bought some coffees, hot chocolates and desserts at 6.30 and then some excellent pizzas at 6.45, all from the Migros Take Away in the station. They ate everything outside under a tree. Ash really needed to get food in him after his finger surgery!

Now it was raining again, although not too heavily. We had planned to look around the lake attractions, as we had done on our previous trip in 2006, but it was late, it was wet, and Ash was finding it difficult to cycle with his finger bandaged up and painful. Even John, who had been most keen to see the lake, wasn’t keen now, so we rode straight to Zurich Youth Hostel and settled there for the rest of the evening.

Ash had decided to receive the bad news from England tonight, so after we had showered and made up our beds, Michael got a key to Conference Room 2 from reception and the two of them talked privately in there for half an hour. One of his best friends had tragically been killed in a motorcycle accident, so it was a very difficult time for Ash.

Back in the dorm Ash wanted Michael to let everyone know the news, so they would understand why he was so quiet. He received a huge amount of support from everyone, as they were all concerned to see him so upset.

We got to bed around 10.45 after a very eventful day. There was only one window in our room, and it wouldn’t stay open on its own, so Michael held it open during the night with a bungee strap.