A cold night with a glorious awakening. Andrew, who’d risen earlier to wander about Andermatt, woke me up as the sun was rising over the hills.

Here’s the view from my tent door.

Warning: I took many photographs this day.

After breakfast and a warm-up and a quick check of our bikes by this bridge:

We started the Big Climb. Theoretically, after this climb, it would all be downhill afterward.

Wisely, we chose to tackle the most concentratedly difficult section at the very beginning. The following are pictures taken on the long ascent:

Whew.

And as we finally reached the summit, the clink and clank of bells proved that the cow signs were appropriate.

And finally, we reached the summit nearby the glacial lake that spawns the Rhine.

And because of the excess of pictures in this post, I’ll pause here and split the day into two parts.