SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011

MONTANA 2 BERLIN 5 NAOSHIMA, JAPAN 8 MONTREAL 9 LOS ANGELES 11

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Exploring the BeachTowns of EasternLake Michigan.

BY JENNIFER CONLIN 9

SALLY RYAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The $100 WeekendIn Madrid Comes InA Bit Over Budget.

BY SETH KUGEL 10

THE road east out of Sören-berg rears up into a series ofsteep turns that climb theGlaubenbielen Pass, thehigh point of a road the

Swiss Army punched through the Alpsmore than 60 years ago. Though theoccasional car and bus make the jour-ney to the top, these days much of theroad belongs to cyclists.

On a cool afternoon in mid-July Iwas one of them. I hadn’t ridden muchall season, yet something primordialkicked in when I spied another bikerjust ahead. His calf muscles wereswollen like Salamanca hams, and hewas stooped over the bars, sweat drip-ping onto the pavement.

Easy pickings, I thought, as I toreafter him. Within moments I’d reeledhim in. He, gasping; me, hardly out ofbreath: I felt, well, guilty. “You’recheating!” he panted in German as Isped by. “You’ll be out of powersoon!”

He was right: I was cheating. Withthe mash of a button on my handle-bars, a 250-watt electric motor hadspun to life and increased the power ofmy pedal strokes by 150 percent. Sud-denly I had my own domestique, a 26-volt brute that seemed to grab thesaddle and shove me onward every

TOMAS VAN HOUTRYVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Flyer electric bicycle helps a rider get over the Grosse Scheidegg Pass in Switzerland.

OverThe AlpsOn a Bike

With A Boost

Cycling Swiss mountain passes withbattery power (and some breath to spare)

isn’t a bad way to cheat.

BY TIM NEVILLE

Continued on Page 6

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Reisebeilageder Sonntagsausgabe der New York Times vom 28. August 2011.Auflage 1.7 Millionen.

Originalformat:297 x 520mm

Überreicht durch:Herzroute AGHohengasse 17 3400 Burgdorfwww.herzroute.ch

6 TR THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011

time I pedaled. In a few minutes, I hadreached the summit, taken a short walkand realized that cycling big Alpinepasses with some breath to spare mightnot be such a bad way to cheat.

Here in the United States electricbikes are slowly becoming more pop-ular — you can, for instance, take e-biketours in San Francisco and Napa Valley.In Europe, the trend is more developedwith robust rental schemes in placeslike Britain’s Lake District, Versaillesand Amsterdam. But it is the Swiss whohave embraced the concept with themost imagination.

For 50 Swiss francs a day, about $62at $1.25 to the franc (with discounts formultiple days), you can rent an electricbike from one of 400 rental stationsaround the country and then set out onsome 5,600 miles of well-marked bikepaths. With hundreds of places alongthe way to obtain fresh batteries free,you don’t need to be a whippet-thin rac-er to roll for days through the spectac-ular Swiss hinterlands — up steepmountain passes and past soft mead-ows, burbling creeks and curious cows.You’re free from unforgiving trainschedules and away from the touristhordes but still have access to all thetraditional Swissness you can take atinns and restaurants along the way. Andsince sweating is cheap, a famously ex-pensive country just became a littlemore affordable.

No doubt traditional cyclists are roll-ing their eyes. Electric bikes go againstthe very core of what makes a bike abike, they say, and I agree. I’ve moun-tain biked along some of the hardeststretches of Colorado’s Continental Di-vide, and pedaled across Iowa (not flat,by the way), up thigh-numbing climbsin New Mexico and, yes, even acrossmost of Switzerland.

THE physical accomplishmentof doing those trips under myown, fleeting power certainlyhelped sear them into memo-ry. With e-biking, the indelible

pride of conquering my own limitationswould, I know, vanish with the push of abutton. But the benefits were too in-triguing. Electric bikes aren’t motor-cycles — I’d still find plenty of exerciseand reap the pleasure of watching acountry unfold beyond a novel set ofhandlebars. Maybe the joys would beeven greater since I’d be able to lookaround without a burning, gasping bodyto distract me.

With that in mind I rented a Swiss-made Flyer C Series electric bike fromthe main train station in Bern. It lookedlike any other bike for the most part butweighed a crushing 60 pounds, a good40 pounds more than my road bike athome. There were four power settings— high, standard, eco and no assist —controllable through a digital consolemounted near the left-hand grip. Atorque sensor near the cranks would tellan electric motor how much to assist mebased on the power setting and howhard I was mashing on the pedals. Itwas no free lunch: no work, no help.

My plan was to spend four days on a

150-mile, inn-to-inn route that wouldtake me along the rolling heart of theEmmental valley, through the Entle-buch Biosphere, and up and over a se-ries of Alpine passes — a fine mixture ofpastures, mountains and forests in re-gions that many foreign tourists knowlittle about. I’d have flatlands and hillsand the chance to find out whether thebenefits of an electric motor outweighedits own weight.

My British friend Tom Stephensjoined me on the inaugural leg towardan inn I had booked, 45 miles away inFischbach. As it happened, we set outinto driving rain.

“I suppose the weather could beworse,” he said. “It could be hailing.”

Bad weather or not, our bikescharged ahead. We cruised through sog-gy forests and past farms selling free-range eggs. We drafted off each other,which seemed more Nascar than Tourde Suisse. On the flats I often left themotor on “eco,” a 50 percent boost to myown pedal power, unsure of how quicklythe batteries’ 30-mile range might dwin-dle in hilly terrain.

Things really kicked into gear after alunch of thick goulash at a tavern inBurgdorf, when we picked up Route No.99, also known as the Heart Route, de-signed for e-biking. Peter Hasler, the

route’s architect, mapped the first 37miles of it in 2003 by following narrow,mostly car-free paths originally used byfarmers. It ran through coveredbridges, past castles and over asphaltand packed dirt from Burgdorf east toWillisau. Last year he expanded theHeart Route to about 180 miles, fromLaupen, near Bern, to Zug, near Zurich.

Another section extending south toLausanne on Lake Geneva is scheduledto open in 2012, with the idea that theroute will eventually stretch across theentire country.

“The electric bikes really opened upthe possibility for me to direct peopledown the most beautiful pathways eventhough they might be more demand-ing,” Mr. Hasler said, adding that he

sought to highlight “exceptionally beau-tiful” aspects of the country. He foundthem at their best in the Emmental.

It took no time for Tom and me to seewhat he meant. As any cyclist knows,on a bike you not only feel the landscapebut smell and hear it too. Yet, with anelectric bike, instead of worrying aboutthe next grueling climb, I could relaxand inhale musky patches of Russianolive trees and wonder whether cows orsheep would be around the bend basedon the tone of their bells. We spedaround weathered wooden chalets withgeraniums bursting from window box-es. The path itself was paved and nowider than a sidewalk, a rollicking rib-bon that rose and fell with the surge ofthe land.

We stopped about 20 miles outsideBurgdorf in Lünisberg, which seemed toto be no more than a couple of farms,one of them run by the Flückiger family.Ursula Flückiger emerged from thekitchen, wiped her hands on an apron,and sold us slices of plum pie and twocold glasses of fresh milk. “How do youget that to taste so good?” Tom askedand ordered another round.

We never made it to the bed-and-breakfast. Our batteries were down toabout 40 percent by the time wereached Madiswil, a village about 10miles short of our goal, and we decidedit was time for us to make our first swapfor a fresh battery. We followed a redsign with a bike and a battery on it tothe Gasthof Bären hotel, one of 600swap points around the country. The ho-tel tavern was cozy, with wood tablesand tidy windows blurry with rain. Ayoung woman disappeared behind awooden door and returned with twofresh batteries. I was just about to leavewhen Jürg Ingold, the owner, offered ustwo rooms that had suddenly comeopen. It was an easy decision. We tookhot showers and headed for the pub,where we tore into plates of entrecôteand chicken, and lingered late into thenight with a small bottle of red Swiss-Italian wine. The silverware came sort-ed in a bike saddle and the bread wasserved in a fender.

The 11-room exposed-timber inn, builtin 1746, is something of a mother ship fore-bikers who, at least in Switzerland,seem to gravitate toward finer food andcrisper sheets than more budget-ori-ented long-distance cyclists. On a busyday Mr. Ingold said he would get 100 cy-clists coming by to change batteries.“Some order something to eat or drink,others spend the night, some swap andgo,” he said.

The next morning Tom returned toBern, leaving me alone for Day 2. Iplanned to turn south for 60 miles. Therain had stopped and it was barely 60degrees. Perfect cycling weather.

Whereas I had been skimpy with thepower the day before, this time I de-cided not to hold back. I put the bike in

Over The AlpsOn a Bike

With A Boost

ABOVE LEFT Installing a battery on a Flyer bicycle. ABOVE Riding electric bikes in Madiswil, where there is a place to swap b

From First Travel Page

FROM TOP Lamb salad at Gasthof BäreObwaldner dairy farm Glaubenbielen P

TIM NEVILLE, who recently returned toOregon from several years in Switzer-land, writes frequently about the out-doors.

Several outfitters offer electricbike tours in Switzerland. For Eng-lish-speaking guests, DuVine Ad-ventures in Somerville, Mass., hasguided, fully supported weeklongelectric bicycle tours with set de-parture dates starting at $4,495without airfare, as well as custo-mizable trips (888-396-5383; duvine.com).

The Swiss company Baumeler

also offers five-day tours of theHeart Route from 1,280 Swissfrancs a person, or about $1,600 at$1.25 to the franc, including guide,three-star hotels, bike rental andluggage transport (41-41-418-65-65;baumeler.ch/reise-velo-herzroute-21427.php, in German).

On your own: If German orFrench isn’t an issue, you can renta Flyer C9 on your own throughrentabike.ch for 50 Swiss francs perday, with discounts for multipledays and for returning the bike tothe pickup point. Be sure to specifyyour bike size in the Notes sectionof the reservation form.

Veloland.ch, offered in English,has printable maps of bike routesin Switzerland, including battery-swap points as well as the namesand contact information for elec-tric-bike friendly hotels along theway.

For farm stays, visit schlaf-im-stroh.ch.

The company SwissTrails ( 41-43-422-60-22; swisstrails.ch ) can helpyou rent an electric bike, providemaps and arrange luggage trans-port and hotel reservations, start-ing at 669 Swiss francs for a four-day, three-night tour of the HeartRoute, including bike rental. Swiss-Trails will also do just luggagetransfers (one 44-pound bag) be-tween hotels across the country,not just the Heart Route, for 180francs total for three days.

For more information on theHeart Route, visit herzroute.ch (inGerman). The founders of theHeart Route also offer self-guidedday trips along a portion of the bikeroute, including bike rental and athree-course lunch, for 99 Swissfrancs per person (41-62-959-55-55;herzroute.ch).

R O L L I N G O U T O N A N E - B I K E

FROM TOP Route signs; controlsshow intensity of power andbattery level; e-bike batteries.

C M Y K Sxxx,2011-08-28,TR,006,Sc-4C,E1

TR 7THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011

“high,” which increased my own powerby 150 percent; eventually the motorturned off at about 16 m.p.h., the legallimit for an electric bike to still be con-sidered a bike. (Other models go fasterbut they require plates, like mopeds).

But I was in no rush. I stopped at thecrest of a small rise and settled into apleasant wooden bench perched undera colossal linden tree. The Alps soaredbehind manicured hillsides to the south;the gentle, rounded backs of the Juramountains rolled to the west. There wasno way a tourist could come here with-out a bike, and I relished the serenebeauty splayed before me. Five Flyerriders rode by and waved. They were allwell into their 50s, the largest age groupof Heart Route fans, Mr. Hasler had toldme. Then two small tractors carryingfour farmers rumbled by.

“Grüessech miteinand,” I said, a Ber-nese greeting.

“Grüezi,” they replied, a linguisticclue that I’d crossed into the Lucernecanton and another of the Swiss-Ger-man dialects.

About 10 miles down the road, in Wil-lisau, population 7,200, I carbo-loaded onchocolate-dipped Florentines andswapped my battery near the train sta-tion. From there the path shot along asmall lake, the Soppensee, before itturned to gravel and then concrete. Ared sign pointed out a junction I’d cometo dread. The Heart Route was wonder-ful, but I couldn’t stay on it. Anotherfriend was waiting for me to the south,so I pointed the front wheel down RouteNo. 24 and hoped for the best.

IREGRETTED it at first. No. 24, theEmmental-Entlebuch route, fol-lowed the Little Emme River alonga busy stretch of road. When it fi-nally swerved onto quieter country

roads, it turned into a steep climb up a600-foot hill. I actually broke a sweat.

Near the top, a sign announced I wasentering the Entlebuch Biosphere, a150-square-mile Unesco reserve of high-land marshes, alluvial forests and karstformations. The air hissed through myspokes as the path became level. Thelong, toothy spine of the 6,800-foot-highSchrattenfluh rose to the south. Far be-low church steeples stood like exclama-tion marks above the villages of Entle-buch and Hasle. I ground around a cor-ner and a woman gazing across the lazyfields spontaneously smiled and wavedto me from her window.

Around 3 p.m., I began the slow,steady climb toward the top of the mile-high Glaubenbielen Pass. It was harderthan I’d expected, and after reachingthe top I noticed I’d drained the batteryto just 20 percent in seven miles.

Yet it was all downhill from there, so Iswitched the motor off and hit 45 m.p.h.,flying down the eastern side of the passwith the soft blues of Lake Sarner shim-mering below.

The sun was slipping behind themountains and the temperature beganto drop dramatically. I stopped, put on awindbreaker and checked my watch. Ithad been seven hours since I’d leftMadiswil. It suddenly struck me that Iprobably could have made the ride inabout the same time with my road bike.I was certainly getting there more com-fortably — I had a big cushy seat, sup-ple front shocks and an upright ridingposition — and with less effort, espe-cially on the ascents. But on the de-scents, I reckoned that my sleeker roadbike would have been far faster.

A few miles down the road, I hit thebrakes at Egghütta, a mountain hutnear Mörlialp run by Wisi and Rita Enz,two dairy farmers who allow hikers, bik-ers and anyone else who make it thisway to sleep in their hut’s loft. Ms. Enzserved me coffee in a bowl and opened abottle of kernobstbranntwein, a stonefruit brandy, for me to add at my dis-cretion. “To keep you warm,” she said. Acrude, wooden megaphone that farmersonce used to offer evening prayersacross the hills hung from the wall. Mr.Enz, with untamed eyebrows and a gen-tle demeanor, strapped a small, one-legged stool to his rear and began tomilk his 20 cows for a raclette cheesemaker in the valley. Meanwhile, I dinedon Älplermagronen, a hearty pasta andcheese dish, cooked in an iron pot overan open fire. The three of us sat up latetalking about avalanches and farm sub-sidies, with my hosts speaking in thethunderous tones of people who spendtheir lives shouting across pastures.

That night, I slept soundly, swaddledin wool blankets atop a bed of clean hay,and set out the next morning with athick wedge of homemade cheese thatMrs. Enz insisted I take. My bill for twohuge meals, two beers, a bottomlessglass of milk, spiked coffee and thenight came to less than 50 Swiss francs.The cheese was a gift.

‘‘THERE you are!” shoutedmy friend Dale Bechtelwhen I finally rode intoGiswil, a village on the farside of the pass. Dale and

his new Flyer had been waiting for meat an outdoor cafe, ready to tackle Day3, a 35-mile push over the Brünig Passand up half of the Grosse ScheideggPass.

Under bright skies Dale and I workedour way up Route No. 9, the Lake Route,toward a row of serrated peaks.

It was on this route, when the roadtipped up to a 12 percent grade, that Ilearned that I had been riding the bikeall wrong. On a normal bike you want tofind the perfect cadence that balanceseffort and speed. This doesn’t work sowell on an electric bike. Instead youwant to shift into a higher gear (harderto pedal) and then resist the urge tostand on the pedals and push hard. Thetrick: stay seated, and let the enginepick up your slack and ferry you upsteep pitches with about the effort of abrisk walk down a flat city street.

Finding this “sweet spot” on thee-bike allowed us to cruise up the 3,300-foot Brünig Pass so fast that at the topwe’d completely drained our batteries:1,700 vertical feet in less than 8 miles.On the summit, we found what musthave been one of the most spectacularswap points in the country: the HotelBrünig Kulm, an ambling chalet-styleinn. Neither of us could resist orderingbeers on the hotel’s magnificent deckperched high over a valley weepingwith waterfalls. Below, you could justmake out the glacier-carved floodplainof Lake Brienz.

Soon we were descending a steeptwisting path that led to Meiringen, fa-mous for the Parkhotel du Sauvage,said to be the place where SherlockHolmes left for his fatal encounter with

Moriarty. (Arthur Conan Doyle and hiswife were guests of the hotel.) There wepicked up route No. 61, the BerneseOberland route, and the start of theclimb up the 6,400-foot-high GrosseScheidegg Pass.

Rising nearly 4,500 vertical feet inless than 12› miles, the pass was sup-posed to be the most challenging on ourroute, but at this point I’d thoroughlymastered this sweet spot business andleft Dale trailing behind me. As Iclimbed, the Engelhörner fangs ap-peared to the east, a series of impossi-bly sharp pinnacles. The icy blues ofRosenlaui Glacier rose overhead.

We slept that night in a crampedroom in the seven-room chalet atSchwarzwaldalp, knowing that in themorning we would have just anotherhalf-hour of steep riding to reach the topof the pass.

And that would mark the near end ofmy trip.

Originally I’d planned the last day ofthis journey to be mostly an easy 20miles downhill through Grindelwaldinto Interlaken, where I’d catch a trainback to Bern. Those miles went by in ablur, and before noon I was standing onthe platform among hundreds of tour-ists, wondering what I was doing there.

It didn’t take us long to decide to rideanother 20 miles together to Thun,where Dale turned south for home, andI found myself contemplating a signthat pointed to a new section of theHeart Route that Mr. Hasler had justcompleted this year. I could follow itback toward Bern though it would meanan eight-hour, 80-mile day. My batterywas still nearly full, the sun was stillhigh, and my map showed a swap pointwell within range. I bumped the motor into high and sped off around thebend. Æ

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOMAS VAN HOUTRYVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

batteries. RIGHT An e-biker crosses a stream along the Grosse Scheidegg Pass. TOP RIGHT Hotel Rosenlaui, on the Grosse Scheidegg Pass. BOTTOM Cows at Glaubenbielen Pass.

Sörenberg GLAUBENBIELEN PASS

ENGELHÖRNER

GROSSE SCHEIDEGG PASS

BRÜNIG PASS

S W I T Z E R L A N D

EMMENTAL VALLEY

Entelbuch Biosphere

Mörlialp Giswil

MeiringenInterlaken Schwarzwaldalp

Grindelwald

Thun

Lünisberg

Madiswil

Lucerne

Zug

Rosenlaui Glacier

Soppensee

Lake Sarner Laupen

Willisau

Burgdorf

Bern

10 MILES

Basel

Geneva

Area of

detail

ITALY

ALPS

JURA MTS.

GER.FRANCE

Lausanne

Lake Geneva

Zurich

en in Madiswil; cheesemaker at thePass; apricot pie, at Hotel Rosenlaui.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

C M Y K Sxxx,2011-08-28,TR,007,Sc-4C,E1