Bern to Altdorf: Interior, Rural Cross-Country, Dicey Traverse W-E, Interior Ski Areas

You can't get some places from where you are, easily. 

A road may look fine at the outset, with a level area, but it will change to switchbacks and Alpine passes if you are going non-Autobahn.

Cross-country, Alpine road, lower pass

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If time matters, don't try going cross-country, no matter how inviting the first level area looks. Use the Autobahns and prepare to be bored. For speed plus dull, see FN 1

Our preference:  If you want to see the country, set off cross-country.  The problem is that Alps seem to go north to south, and if you are trying to go west to east, you will need time, patience, and care. But it is worth it.

Be prepared.  Roads stop.  They just stop.  No more.  Nada. Little yellow signs show where hikers may head, and how long it will take to get there (1 1/2 hours to this village or that);  and there are separate biking signs for the wheeled.  Cars?  Turn back.

Alpine road, Switzerland; interior ski-hike community. Road stops.

Meanwhile, remember that you are very high up here, and weather will change fast.  We had a rain-sun, cloud-clear day, and the odd part was looking up and seeing gray, then looking back as clouds scudded by and there is a huge mountain on top of you.  Love it.

Dead end, Swiss Alpine road, ski-hike-bike area, interior rural. Go back.


Just beyond the sudden dead end was the area we had wanted to follow. The map did show the line stopping. We couldn't believe it.  Believe it.  If the map shows roads stopping, that is so.

Switzerland Alpine area. No road through.


So, there we were, trying to go from Bern, trying to get around Lucerne to get, from the southern end of the lake, up to Altdorf and Burglen and William Tell country.  And we were stuck.  There are intermittent level-ish areas, with farms and cowbells, but finding your way around and through takes time.  Time well spent. Stop the car, open the window, hear the cowbells. Breathe.  Aah.  Inhale.  Oops.


Alpine farm, Switzerland, cows. Not all are chalets.


Then another interior recreation settlement area - small houses, nothing like the big resorts with the flowery chalets and pubs.  There are even modest apartments up here, very sensible, within reach - and all the signs for the hiking and biking.  Everyman's Switzerland.
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Swiss ski area, interior, Everyman's Switzerland, modest homes, apartments

Down to one lane here.
Alpine ski-hike modest apartments area, Switzerland

Then, back on a more mainstream road, there will be a road house somewhere. These probably do not have gas, so watch the gauge and aim for a town fast.

Alpine road house, but no gas, Switzerland

Back up the switchbacks, another pass, up high enough and the rescue huts or perhaps these are for longer-term residents, we could not tell.

Then up again, seeing beyond the forage and trees.
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Alps, Mountain View, from interior ski area

One lane paved road - that becomes a one land dirt road soon after.  Go back. No lay-bys.  Generally, on one lane roads, there will be periodic broader areas so cars can pass.  The one closest to the lay-by is supposed to back back into it, and stop while the other goes by.  On switchbacks and other tight turns, usually there is a little broader area right at the turn. Strategy:  sneak, peak, little beep, and go.

Interior hike and ski settlement, Switzerland: one lane, no turnaround. Back up. Now.


Now:  GPS for getting out of places.  Our GPS, that we took for the first time, did not work because the rental car connection in the lighter had been worn out by the boor before us, who apparently did not report it to Hertz, or Hertz just doesn't check those things.  A GPS would help, but then again, when it did work, it just chose the boring roads. We would take a GPS again, though, because Swiss signs often are for the next nearest town, or pass, much of the time. We would want to plug in our ultimate destination instead.

So, study your map and decide if you want to go over and through the passes, because those roads will be narrow and slow for novice Alp drivers: two lanes where you are lucky, but 1 1/2 lanes much of the time, and the switchbacks go on and on.  Up to summits way beyond treelines, to sheer rockface.

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FN 1  For speed, take the Autobahn from major city to major city, if you must; and you will have level, multi-lane megalithic roadways with people whizzing past at far more than 100km per hour - more like 140 km per hour, we estimated. On six lane roads: speeds say slow lane, converted to mph, might be 30-40 mph. Middle lane might be 60 mph. Fast lane might be 85-90. Does that sound right? We saw no Autobahn accidents, even where people were going over 140 km and that might be 110 mph. Roads built for speed, people self-select how fast to go. See someone on your tail, move over.  We avoided all Autobahns, or Autostrasses, unless we also needed to make time, as at the end of the trip, not at the beginning.