SWISS Alps CYCLING TourS

Explore Alpine climbs, old gravel tracks, and immaculate cobbles near Andermatt.

All around on our Swiss Alps cycling tour, there seemed to be perfection: perfect, lush grass, every blade greener than the next; perfect, happy cows, their tinkling bells singing mountain carols; perfectly jagged mountains, a light dusting of snow creating high contrast in the golden morning light.

And as we approached the Tremola, we caught our first glimpse of its perfect, precise cobblestones—like a carpet of stones.

Perfect, precise—these are not words that would normally be used to describe cobblestones. But in Switzerland, the cobbles are immaculate. And when you consider that these rocks have been resting high above the valley floor for nearly 100 years, this 5-kilometer stretch of Gotthardpass doesn’t seem entirely real. But for 24 glorious switchbacks, the road is a snaking sliver of man’s creation among the wilds of the Alps.

Yet Switzerland, for all its precision and perfection, is also filled with the rugged and remote, the dirt climbs and the forested tracks. High above the valley, off the beaten path, Switzerland’s reputation for exactness falls away and you’re left with a craggy mountainscape ripe for exploration.