We took the train from Locarno to Andermatt to cycle over the Gotthard Pass. When we got to Andermatt there were many police around and an armored vehicle blocking the road.

We discovered that Russian President Medvedev was visiting Switzerland and happened to be arriving in Andermatt to lay a wreath on a monument. A few minutes after we arrived four impressively large and immaculate identical helicopters landed behind a barricade. The one included here shows Medvedev at the second window (the one in the dark suit).

The road to the top of the pass is about 18km long and rises 640 meters in 9 of those kilometers.

Neither words nor photographs can capture the road down the other side. It is amazing that anybody would even consider building a road, never mind achieve a perfectly consistent grade and pave it all with cobblestones!

The modern main road goes through a tunnel and so the old road is quiet with many cyclists toiling up it and the occasional car.

We cycled down it and then along the valley to Faido where we caught the train back to Locarno. The area after Faido is industrial with many ugly quarries.