2012 - Greg's Cycle Tour Zurich to Amsterdam: DAY 5: MON 27 AUG

Ride: 104km

Awoke to a fine sunny day and left the motel about 6:30am and headed for the lake via the city. The traffic was light, cautious around me and very patient. Upon reaching the lake I joined an excellent separate bike path along the right or south bank. The fairly long and thin lake is about 40km long and up to 3km wide. At its deepest it goes down a staggering 500ft. The water is a beautiful blue colour and as I cruised along a very smooth bike path it all felt pretty good. Although there was a headwind it wasn't strong enough to slow me down or lessen the very pleasant atmosphere. What a brilliant day's ride, well sign-posted, great facilities and a huge variety of scenery.

From the banks of Lake Zurich I hooked up with a path that eventually joined the banks of another lake called Wallensee. This was a smaller lake but even more picturesque, as the banks on the other side were made up of mostly sheer cliffs and mountainous farms/fields. The side I was riding on was through farms, dark cold forests, long well lit bike tunnels, along the side of cliffs and through lovely Swiss villages. It was one of the nicest days I've ever spent on a bike tour. And despite often being surrounded by mountains, cliffs and hills it was fairly flat all day as the roads and paths followed the valley, rivers or shores of lakes.

I arrived in Sargans about 3:00pm which was fairly good going considering the distance I rode. Upon checking with the only motel in the town, the Lowen, I was given a single room. I would have rather booked ahead but was not sure where I would end the day. Lucky for me an International Jazz Festival finished up at Sargans the day before I arrived. After completing my washing chores I headed out for dinner about 7:00pm. Found a Chinese restaurant about 20m from the motel and had duck and veggies which were nice. Managed to stay awake till 10:00pm but after getting to sleep okay awoke at 2:00am. The town clock, which had no sleep mode, rang very loudly every 15 minutes all through the night. A window banging in the wind somewhere in the motel all night also did not help my jetlagged interrupted night.