Commuting - A Swiss Commute

OK. After seeing how Nathak's ride was, I was forced to take my digital camera to record what *my* trip looked like.

Although I did end up shooting a couple of shots of myself unintentionally, it was a nice day, and I ended up taking about 10 extra minutes to play photog...

There are a number of pictures here, ending with me being at my place of work, the University of St. Gallen...

Enjoy...
Tom

As I had to drop off our tandem at the bike shop to get a brake overhaul, I didn't ride along the train tracks to work, but still ended up looking at...cows!

Remember, this is in Eastern Switzerland, land of the cows...

Now, it's down the hill (heading to the church where my wife and I were married)

now we're in the forest...one of the most dangerous portions of my ride in the winter...dark, and twisty!

My neighbor upended his Porche near this section...I just rode past, as it was pouring rain, and he was being attended to (and I didn't realize it was him!)

Coming out of the forest into the sun...

The forest road follows the river Glatt...

Can it be? YES! More cows! Even today, (lots of drizzle) my ride was ridden to the sound of cowbells...even when traveling along the Autobahn!

Here we're riding heading towards Gossau, along a nice two lane road.

I took this shot for two (oops...make that three) reasons:

[list=1]
Woman on a bike
Public Transport (Train Bridge)
Sheep (they don't only have cows here)
[/list=1]

yup! I did say sheep!

Lots of trucks share my commute with me. Swiss truck drivers are quite excellent, and I've only very rarely had problems with them (as opposed to car or scooter traffic)

Note the cyclist waiting for the trucks...

Here's a death traffic circle which recently got added to my commute. Swiss drivers just don't get traffic circles, and indeed, some will actually STOP on the circle to let those who must yield onto the circle!

Here's where I got pegged last April. Buses AND bicycles share the far right lane, other traffic the other two lanes.

A nice shot of a fairly often seen bike lane JUST WHERE THE TRAFFIC HAS TO STOP.

It's not like the cars always keep it free, however...

Again, nice bike path, which keeps cars a bit away from one. In the winter, however, this can be much smaller, due to snow and ice issues...

The ride is a mix of farm and industrial and the weather was nice for a change...we've had nice weather, but there had been a number of rainy days recently.

Here's a nice shot showing bike signs. Switzerland has a number of decent bike paths.

Like I said before, my commute paralells the Autobahn. Trucks are much nicer to deal with here than back in the States...

If any of you have used XP out of the box...do I need to say more?

This is taken from a largish bridge that I have on the commute facing north. Bicycles have to share with foot traffic.

Sometimes, the lanes are narrowed even further for work on the bridge.

Sights like this make it a joy to ride in in the morning. The mountain range is called the Saentis

Here's one of the buses that I play tag with. The drivers are quite nice, as long as you play by the rules (let them go, they let YOU go)

Note that it's an ELECTRO bus...

By the time I got to this bigish climb, I'd managed to catch the bus in the last picture. I ALWAYS end up waiting at this light... :mad:

The climb takes me into a neighboorhood zone where you can only go 30 km/h

here's a detail of one of the warning signs (children's painting)

and here are the warnings to cars & trucks:

A fast ride along staggered parked cars

and I'm at my office! Here's a shot from the balcony:

(the mountains in the background are the Saentis again, this is taken towards Appenzell)

and looking to the East, we can see Lake Constance (Bodensee)

Perhaps off topic, but my bike gets to have a safe place in my office...

Hope you enjoyed the virtual commute!

(P.S. Thanks Mom!)

P.P.S. For bikies: note the "reflectorazation" on the bike... head tube, saddle, cranks, seatstay, and rear spokes.

I. Hate. You.




;)

What a great commute! Cheers.

Excellent pictures, I would have expected alot more hills than flats. ps The bike is great also

I was in Interlocken in 2001 for a conference and the way the tour busses flew down the highways (very narrow in my opinion) I don't know if I would feel safe on the highways or not ;)

Overall I would kill to live in Switzerland, The best country I have visited for scenery.

You are so lucky.

Cool pix. Reminds me of my time in Buchs. Beautiful scenery in that region. And cows!! Cows everywhere!!!

I ride through the suburbs in Fremont/Milpitas/San Jose, California. After seeing pictures of European commutes, I'm starting to wonder what I'm doing here. Those routes are beautiful!!!

really a nice commute :D great pics

hey Tom,

sweet pictures and commute.

i'll be coming briefly through Switzerland in 3 1/2 weeks on my way to southern France (Nice) for a mountain bike and rock climbing vacation... although probably only spend one day in Switzerland for a short day climb of a mountain peak -- maybe something in the 3000m range...

and some time this summer i will be heading to Zug (south of Zurich) to meet up with a MTB friend and ride some local trails.

Switzerland is a cool place - i was in Zurich just last February - stopped for a day on my way back from Chamonix - i'm still undecided long term if i want to live in southern Germany, the western US (Rockies, Cascades or Sierra Nevada), german-speaking Switzerland (east), eastern Austria, or western Canada... but i've been thinking more and more about Swizterland recently --- obwohl Swiezerdeutch ist richtig schwer!

but i think Switzerland is about as bike-friendly as Bavaria... and the mountains are higher!

wonderful pictures.......ohh i would love it if my ride to school was that nice. i've always wanted to visit Switzerland. it seems like an awesome place from what i've read and seen.

Hi Tom, nice commute! Some of those shoulders looks kind of narrow, specially when sharing the road with big trucks. Overall it looks really great. You´ve got a beautiful commute.

Take care.

Anders

Mange Takk...

Yeah, it can get a bit dicey, but if you have situational awareness dialed up, you're pretty much OK. It's the cars who give me fits...they often go and E X P A N D to fill the bike lanes typically once or twice a week.

A gentle tap on the right rear window usually brings immediate relief. A smile doesn't hurt, either...:p

hej do,
tt

Such a beautiful commute. It's good to see the different environments we exist in.

Cracking photo's too. I think I need a new camera. :)

Where are the potholes? Don't they have potholes in Switzerland?

:eek: