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Today was essentially a rest day but differed from our usual format, falling into three parts as it did. We did some early morning sightseeing in Lucerne. We took a ferry across Lake Lucerne and then cycled a short distance to the village of Schattdorf where we're now located.
Today was a public holiday in Switzerland, Corpus Christi. We hadn't discovered this until last night. It meant that pretty much all shops, including the supermarkets were closed today. But, but, but, but, but... what about our lunch and dinner?! And what about ferry tickets? Would it be hard to get a ticket? Would there be room for our bikes?
We got up at about 6:00 and were soon out in the streets doing a self-guided walking tour of Lucerne that we'd found online. It turned out that this was a great time to see the city as it was quiet and the light was excellent. Lucerne is a beautiful city.
At 8:00, the ticket office for the ferries opened and we had no problem buying tickets for the Lake Lucerne ferry for both us humans and our bikes. That was one potential problem avoided! Phew!
We went back to being tourists and walked a little more of the city. We intended to catch the 12:12 ferry to Fluelen and so sightseeing done, decided to take it easy back at the apartment where we were not required to check out until 11:00.
When the time came to leave, M1 carried the two bikes (one at a time!) down the four floors to the street again, not without a little difficulty it has to be said. The stairways were narrow and included tight bends at every floor.
Bikes and bags back at street level, we loaded up and walked our bikes to the ferry port where we took up position right at the gates so we could be first on and grab a space for the bikes. You can't book space for a bike in advance and it's very limited so this seemed prudent.
We got ourselves and bikes on the 12:12 ferry OK and settled back to enjoy the three hour journey across majestic Lake Lucerne.
As for food, at this stage we had a large bag of crisps, half a packet of breakfast cereal and some biscuits. We would not starve. We did still hope to find more food somewhere. Maybe a convenience store would be open in Altdorf? We didn't know.
Crossing Lake Lucerne from the city of Lucerne in the west to Fluelen in the south-east was a delight. This is a very pretty country.
We disembarked at Fluelen and to our surprise saw that a shop attached to the train station was open and it sold sandwiches! M1 went in and bought sandwiches for now (a late lunch) and sandwiches for later. Not exactly camping mush quality but it will do and the shops are open tomorrow.
We joined Eurovelo Ev5 and cycled towards the mountains. Yes, we're in the mountains now. It's exciting.
The ride to our apartment in Schattdorf was only about 9 km but we still cycled gently and carefully, aware that our legs really need to be rested.
The AirBnB apartment itself is a bit sucky. All sorts of issues and it was horrendously expensive too. A one-star review will be posted, the first ever in about 10 years of using AirBnB. But... the washing machine works, there's electricity, a working shower and a bed. We have the basics and if the place had cost a third of what it did, wouldn't mind the issues. All's good. This is temporary.
Tomorrow is a proper rest day. We'll be doing nothing more than hitting the nearest supermarket for food. Rest, rest and more rest is the order of the day now because on Saturday, we're cycling to Andermatt, a fairly enormous climb if ever there was one. M1 did it in 2022.
That's it for today :-)
Photos
At the ferry port
Cycling Ev5 from Fluelen to Schattdorf
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