Cheeky Friday off work in Graubünden, Switzerland

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Back in August I cycled along the dramatic Landwasser gorge (south of Davos) for the first time - this ride - and I thought Caroline would love it for the amazing scenery and not-too-difficult riding conditions. For various reasons such as being busy with other activities, and unsuitable weather when we weren't, our plans to go back there came to naught, and with winter fast approaching we had pretty much shelved the idea until next year.

Looking at the weather forecast for this weekend, though, with sunshine, temperatures up to 14 deg.C and no snow yet, I realised there might be an opportunity to do this ride together after all if I could get the day off on Friday - we already had plans for Saturday and Sunday - luckily my boss is a fellow cyclist and so he could hardly refuse!

Our plans were almost derailed (excuse the pun) when our train from Zurich - where we were living at the time - to Landquart was delayed (who says Swiss trains are always bang on time?!) and we missed our onward connection to Davos.  However, an alternative connection via Klosters got us there only a few minutes later than originally planned. We were somewhat alarmed by the thickness of the ground frost as the train climbed higher, and indeed it was pretty darned chilly when we started our ride, despite the sunshine.

The grandeur of the Landwasser gorge was enhanced by the autumn colours on the trees, and we both enjoyed the ride, which was on a gently descending, smooth gravel track with a few short tunnels which added atmosphere but were easily negotiable without lights.

Due to the low sun angle at this time of year, the gorge was totally in shade and was very cold, so we didn't hang around long - agreeing to come back next summer to enjoy the views and take more photos without freezing to death!  We escaped instead up into the sunshine on the road to Davos-Wiesen, where we had our sandwiches in a sunny sheltered churchyard overlooking the valley.

Our route then took us downhill by road to Bad Alvaneu, at the confluence of the Landwasser and Albula rivers, leading to the third (uphill!) section of the ride - at first following the Albula upstream on a riverside track, before joining the Albula Pass road which we climbed as far as Bergün (1367m)

In Bergün almost everything was closed - the summer season having ended and the winter season not yet started - but we did find an open bakery/café where we rounded off our day out with cocoa and chestnut vermicelli (hers), espresso and cherry flan (his), before loading the bikes onto the famous Albula Railway back to Chur and onward connection to Zurich.  Definitely a ride worth repeating - preferably in warmer weather!
 

Type: 
Ride
Workout_type: 
default
Date: 
2016-10-28T08:12:09Z
Avg Pace: 
4:11/km
Elevation: 
1333.7
Distance: 
38628.5
Moving time: 
9712
Activity id: 
758273059
Strava title: 
Cheeky Friday off work!
Total photo count: 
5
Title: 
Cheeky Friday off work in Graubünden, Switzerland
Summary Polyline: 
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Average speed: 
3.977
Cover image: 
https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/DCY3w1D_R6vYJuEnCGTjDnja5K89WEIXP60s7L_BLm8-576x1024.jpg

Comments

Laza o/
Sun, 10/30/2016 - 12:16
Very nice.
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