I bought a new nice Rotring pencil in Walenstadt (427m), because my other pencil did not work well in the morning, but then I was off for the day. It had just about dried up outside and no rain, but it was certainly not sunny today. Today started with a gently uphill ride to where one goes around the corner up toward Glarus. It started to rain after 45 minutes and first I stopped to take cover in an old tunnel on the way up, but then when it seemed to rain less I continued. Then again when I reached the high point of the road (743m) it was again raining so much that I took cover at the big restaurant at the top. I was not in a mood for stopping there, so waited outside, but I was getting very cold. Eventually I had to go down in the rain as there were no sign it would end raining anytime soon. I guess both stops had delayed me with an hour or so.

Down in Mollis (444m) (I had taken this same road – not many choices around here) back in 2004 and vaguely remembered the small short-cut road via an airfield (?) and took that one again, which was good. Here it stopped raining until I reached Glarus (502m) where I only stopped for a chocolate bar and coke and then headed up a small road to Schwammhöchi (1053m). It rained lightly at first but then it started to rain more and more and there were no places to take cover along this road (at least not any warm place which would have been the only choice by now). So, I just kept going up this surprisingly hard little pass (which kept me warm). There should be nice views from the top area over the Klöntaler See, but now the clouds were all around and it rained immensely (actually more than ”immensely”, but). To add to the fun, there were sections of cobblestones on the road and I had trouble getting safely down. I thought the pass should be renamed to ”Schwimmhöchi”. When I was down by the Klöntaler See I was totally soaked and shivering and still this was only part way up the next pass.

The nice road along the lake was not too pleasant to me as I could not get warm there. At the other end of the lake was a camping place, but more importantly a restaurant, so I decided it was lunchtime. I got a towel, but would have needed a bath and new clothes. I ordered a wienerschnitzel and camomille tea (the place is expensive and I would not really recommend it, but for me it was good). I might have been able to stop at a restaurant higher up which might had been a better choice, but what did I know.

After waiting as long as I could (one and a half hour or so) I just had to get going as I at least needed to cross Pragelpass (1515m) for the day. I had planned to do so many exciting and hard small passes in the area, but there was no way to even contemplate this now. Pragelpass is a somewhat nice pass and also pretty steep higher up. The top itself is not very nice. Then there was a more than a kilometre before the descent started. The descent down to Muotathal (610m) is quite steep at the end, so I got a bit problems braking with my frozen hands.

Schwyz looked interesting, but I took a shortcut down to Brunnen. Now it had stopped raining again. Down in Brunnen the streets were dry and I saw a guy cycling in just his jersey, while I was shivering with my wind-jacket on. I went down to the quay at Brunnen looking for information on the boat that possibly could take me and my bicycle over Vierwaldstätter See to the other side (Trieb). A boat just arrived as I came down there an I asked the guy at the boat and as asked to board right away. It took off directly over to Trieb before I had even looked around to see what Brunnen looked like.

In 15 minutes I was over in Trieb – this must be some kind of record (Swiss effectiveness is nice sometimes, when it works). The boat fare was not so expensive and it was a very nice boat (as you can see in the photos). Only I had a bicycle, so no problem finding a place for it. Only 3-4 people went off in Trieb.

I was happy it had worked out so well and no rain anymore. I got renewed energy again and cycled really fast up the serpentines from Trieb (435m) – this is quite a climb up to Seelisberg (846m) and nice also. I had some more photos on the way up here and that was it for the day.

Just before Schöneck it started to rain heavily again. So I went slowly down to Beckenried. It shortly stopped raining, but as I continued toward Stans it started to rain more heavily once again. When I arrived in Stans it was now already 19 pm and it was raining like hell. I had planned to go over the steep Ächerlipass (1458m) at least this day also, but no sane person would do it under the circumstances. Twilight was approaching and I was quickly loosing any will to try and get further this day. I found an expensive and not so good hotel. (Hotels seems to be less good the more they cost.) It was ok, but the price was the steepest I paid during my trip – I think it was around 80 euros including breakfast, but I could not care less (I also had a bit more money to use this Summer than before, so better use them when I need it). There was really only one more rather expensive stay in France during the whole trip.

I also ordered some quite nice Thai food in their restaurant. Then I went out on the town (Stans is a nice town) as I needed more to eat. I borrowed an umbrella. I noticed some pizzerias in the centre, but had seen one on the way into town and decided to walk over there. The clientele was not the best, but it looked like I was very lucky in my choice as they had great pizzas, served by a friendly Russian girl who probably owned the place. I then asked for a big ice cream and got one (I did not dare tell them I had already eaten a big dinner before ;-)). Now I felt better again!