Rigi–Reuss–Klettgau

Nightingale's song in the reed beds and meadows beside the tranquil Lauerzersee waters is heard before boulders as big as a house point the way to Arth-Goldau railway station, a bustling iron junction. Picture-postcard Zugersee lake lies at the foot of the Rigi, overlooked by grand villas.

After Rotkreuz you cross the Rüssspitz nature reserve, enter the aargauische Freiamt, a wide valley basin, farmland, the Reuss meandering through the middle, home to over 230 species of native birds. Via historic bridging towns, Bremgarten, Mellingen and Mülligen to Brugg, where the Schwarze Turm (black tower) has guarded the Aare bridge for 800 years. After the confluence of the Aare, Reuss and Limmat, Switzerland’s natural water reserve, the route leads through the Surbtal valley over the last foothill of the Jura to Zurzach – a medieval place of pilgrimage, now a thermal spa. On over the Rhine, the border between regions and countries, up to Küssaburg ruins.

Klettgau is a flat, spacious, dry valley between Wutach, Rhine and Randen, with wine villages on south-facing slopes. Whether Spätburgunder or Müller-Thurgau –the juice from the vine unites people. Now the path becomes narrow for bikes, the route leads to Neuhausen on the Rhine Falls, Europe’s mightiest waterfall. Take the boat into the spray of the surging waters - an experience to dampen everything but your spirits!