It is worth noting at this point in time that the guide book suggests you can complete the Rhine route in 2 weeks and here we are Day 44 and still half a day from completion ! I also think cycling from Holland to the source is the better way to go so you’ve built up fitness for the hills.

Today we cycled from Disentis/Munster to Llanz; the first town on the Rhine and then finished at a small village Versam. This breaks the ascents up so today we ascended over 10kms and tomorrow we have 2 steep ascents but only 25kms till we are back in Chur from where we caught the train up to Disentis .

Cycling in the mountains was stunning following the steep Rhine gorge down.We stopped in Llanz for coffee and ventured in to the old town but very little left of the really old buildings.As we finished coffee a procession left the church singing and carrying icons, girls had flowers around their neck . All part of this Corpus Christi Day…public holiday but at least here a few things were open.

From Llanz began the 1st 2km ascent which we thought  was ok,  then it was going down how you hate that and then 6.5 km uphill. Again just manageable . We had planned to have lunch in Valdenas so once we got up to the top of the hill and saw a restaurant open we just parked up and collapsed into a seat. It was only when we looked at the menu that we’d  found out we’d stopped at an upmarket restaurant.He had a french rating of 14 , from Gault &Millieu apparently there scores do go up to 20.They are a more purist rating apparently than the Michelin Rating.

The menu of the day was more than what we’d normally pay so we ordered one of those to share and a salad. It was really good I had a salad aswell with the menu of the day and it was the first proper salad since leaving Oz. Beautiful ingedients all from their gardens: yellow grated carrots, various seeds, pomegranite seeds, different lettuce  types and then one of those foam dressings and edible flowers. Even better it wasnt a tiny serving, it was a large plateful.Bread was supplied including totally black poppy seed bread never had anything like it.Main course for me was lasagne    (sharing of course with hubby ).Lasagne I’m not normally a fan of but this was delicious.The chef was very exciteable telling us he got a whole cow from Germany for his beef, I wonder whats wrong with Swiss cows?

The restaurant was called Gasthaus am Brunnen and the Brunnen was the town wooden water fountain situated where we were sitting. This was the oldest wooden trough in Europe dating from 1700s where animals used to drink from the trough and women do their washing.

It was then a descent and then a 3km climb. I just made it, hubby was chatting away about the scenery, vintage cars passing us and motorbikes. I could not speak. Maybe time hubby carried the heavy padlock and cable…I was peddling at times at 7km an hour so glad I broke the ascent day up .A gentle descent into Versam to our guest house where we were staying . A welcome sight, relief to get out of the heat.

Versam is a tiny village perched overlooking the Rhine gorge. We are in a proper wooden Guest house so swiss. Tomorrow we complete the Rhine we’ll miss it.

In these upper regions of the Rhine  the flow is controlled by the hydroelectric power stations so it doesnt seem such a natural river up here. There are alarms to keep you away from the banks if they are letting a large volume of water down so it prevents anyone enjoying the river I think…..

Gasthaus Rossli

Versam