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Switzerland: Moto Trip Switzerland: Day 3 - Zürich and Furka Pass

Yearly vacation started and with Nada we decided to have a motorbike trip, exploring Switzerland. We woke up in our private camp, packed our bags and saddled our bikes. We started riding towards Zürich, where we had our first stop. Our bikes were left on the parking lot and we started exploring the city on foot. We did't stay for long, since it was quite hot in the motorbike clothes and we decided to head toward the lakes, passes and mountains. Our highest point of the day was Furka Pass, 2436 m, and soon we ended our day in Täsch, just below Zermatt.

Previous days of our motorbike trip to Switzerland: Day 2 and Day 1.

If you are looking for a camping spot, this sign should be on your ignore list

Short break

Zürich is the largest city in Switzerland with approximately 409,000 inhabitants (2018).

Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6400 years ago.

 

St. Peter is one of the four main churches of the old town.

View from Lindenhof to Limmat

The Lindenhof is a moraine hill and a public square in the historic center of Zürich.

Lindenhof hill is the site of the Roman and Carolingian era Kaiserpfalz around which the city has historically grown.

 

View to Grossmünster, one of the four major churches in the city

Münsterbrücke over Limmat

 

Use of a white cross as a mark of identification of the combined troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy is first attested in the Battle of Laupen (1339), where it was sewn on combatants' clothing as two stripes of textile.

Fraumünster

 

Münsterhof and its Guild houses

On the south side of the town lies the Zürisee - Zürichsee - Lake Zürich. The waters of the Lake of Zürich flow out of the lake at its north-west end, passing through the city of Zürich; however, the outflow is then called the Limmat.

Lake Zürich's water is very clean and after it is additionally purified, it is fed into Zürich's potable water system.

  

Aviation in the lake

View from the right bank of the Limmat

Fraumünster and St. Peter in the Altstadt (old town)

Waterfront below Lindenhof

Historically, the Limmat was an important navigation route. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, voyages from Zurich to Koblenz are recorded. In 1447, the Emperor Frederick III granted the privilege of free navigation on the Limmat and on the Rhine to Zurich. The traditional boat type used on the river is the weidling, a flat-bottomed vessel that is usually 10 metres long.

Compared to other cities, there are few tall buildings in Zürich.

Like many Swiss rivers, the Limmat is intensively used for production of hydroelectric power: along its course of 35 km, its fall is used by no less than ten hydroelectric power stations.

Escape from the city

Lauerzersee - Lake Lauerz

Vierwaldstättersee - Lake Lucerne is the fourth largest in the country and lies in 4 cantons, Uri, Lucerne, Schwyz and  Nidwalden.

Vierwaldstättersee has a total area of 114 km² at an elevation of 434 m.

 

Posing by the lake

KWA Kraftwerk Amsteg hydroelectric power station is owned by Swiss Federal Railways. Rail transport in Switzerland uses 15 kV AC railway electrification with 16.7 Hz. Due to high conversion costs, it is unlikely that existing 15 kV, 16.7 Hz systems will be converted to 25 kV, 50 Hz despite the fact that this would reduce the weight of the on-board step-down transformers to one third that of the present devices.

 

Yamaha and Suzuki

 

Quick stop next to the Reuss river

Häderlisbrücke bridge is a historic stone arch bridge over the Reuss. The bridge from the 17th century was destroyed by a flood in 1987 and rebuilt by 1991 in its identical form.

The Reuss has a length of 164 kilometres and a drainage basin of 3426 square kilometres. It is the fourth largest river in Switzerland (after the Rhine, Aare and Rhône).

 

Curvy road towards the Andermatt

 

The upper Reuss forms the main valley of the canton of Uri, a founding member of the Swiss Confederation.

The average Swiss person travels 2430 km by train each year, almost 500 more than the average Japanese person (the Japanese having the second-highest average kilometres travelled per passenger in the world).

 

The parish church of St. Columban in Andermatt was built as early as the 11th century, when the chapel, built two centuries earlier, was enlarged. The present building dates from the 13th century. The church is the most important Romanesque religious building in the canton of Uri.

 

St. Columban was a parish church for the whole Ursern Valley until 1606 when the new parish church of St. Peter and Paul in the village center of Andermatt was completed.

Toward Furka Pass

Future plans

View in the mirror

Sky is the limit

 

Just above the James Bond Strasse. The Furka Pass was used as a location in the James Bond film Goldfinger.

Still going up to the third highest pass, after the Umbrail pass and Nufenen pass.

Sidelenbach

View from the last curve before the top

Nada and her Thunder (Suzuki GSR600)

 

The Hotel Furka Blick dominates the Furkapass, an important connection between the Rhône and the Rhine valleys.

View from below

Plenty of snow at the Furka pass, known also as Le Col de la Furka

Yep, large amounts of snow are still here in the summer

One of the missions accomplished

We left the Canton of Uri and entered Canton of Valais

 

Cooking in the upper Rhône valley called Obergoms.

Lunch with a view

Rack railway system is often used in Switzerland

1st place for Nada, 2nd for Camaro

 

We settled in Mattertal, in a village called Täsch. This time we used the official camping site.

Day 3: Zürich and Furka Pass - 285 km

GeoCaches found (all received a visit by trackable items "Siebasiach's Figure Eight Geocoin", TB735HE, "Gallotia Mystery", TB7372G, "Kljuc do casa in prostora / A key to time and space", TB2RCC3 and "Julia ud Zweeenes 100000 Caches", TB35GHN):
- Lindenhof - Heart of the city, Virtual, GC88Z98
- BlackBox Micro Paradeplatz Zuerich, GC1HYH2
- Church of Andermatt, GC76GXP
- Furkapass Geocache Trail - 2. Furkablick, GC4G63M, where I placed trackable item "Julia ud Zweeenes 100000 Caches", TB35GHN