We rode across the street to check it out and a
local Swiss told us that indeed, this Ferry did go to Luzern. I went
into the office to check the price and it was slightly over 20 Swiss
Francs per person with our bikes.
The day started out overcast but dry. Breakfast was good and more than ample. Apparently our complete consumption of everything on the table the day before had made our hostess think that she did not provide enough food, so she kept asking us if we had had enough. We nodded and Steve paid the bill: 100 Swiss francs for 2 nights. When people tell me that Switzerland is an expensive country from now on I'm going to assume that they're just trying to stop the huge numbers of tourists from flocking to the country driving up prices if they really knew how cheap it really was to stay in Switzerland.
By the time Steve was finished putzling around, it was 9:00am and the drizzle had started. We rode back down to Schwyz again this time following signs for Brunnen. Along the Stattersee I saw a sign for Gersau that indicated that Gersau had a ferry that took cars! Intrigued by the possibility of taking a ferry trip I sped up and we got to the Ferry terminal about 5 minutes after it had left. Feeling a little dejected we rode on, with the drizzle slowly becoming rain. We rode past a youth hostel, where two young ladies asked us how far it was to Gersau in German. I didn't understand what they said, but Steve figured it out just as they were about to give up in frustration and speak English!
Riding past Vitznau the rain became an absolute downpour making
raingear a necessity. We pushed on, not having a choice but not only
did it rain hard it got colder. I was having less and less fun on this
trip! Finally at Weggis we stopped for Steve to use a
bancomat. Looking across the street I saw a shelter that indicated it
was a passenger Ferry! We rode across the street to check it out and a
local Swiss told us that indeed, this Ferry did go to Luzern. I went
into the office to check the price and it was slightly over 20 Swiss
Francs per person with our bikes.
"It's your choice, Piaw, as to what we do now." "That's it, I'm taking the Ferry to Luzern." "And then what?" "I'm going to take the train to Zurich, and go to the office. The office is looking better than this rain." "Can I work at your office too?" "No, but we'll have internet access and you can see what parts of Europe isn't shrouded with this miserable weather."
There's a saying in cycle touring that the worst day on the bike is better than the best day in the office. But most folks who say that don't work at Google. I could have ridden some more (and I have done so in rainier conditions, in Scotland), but I had had plenty of good riding when the weather was better, and 3 days of rainy cold descent was really close to my limit, so the prospect of being dry for a change looked really good right now.
Steve, on the other hand, had just arrive not too long ago, had only a few days left in Europe, and was still raring to go. Well, he could climb as many cold and rainy passes he liked, but I didn't feel obliged to do any more wet and rainy passes. 3 bad descents were more than enough to convince me that I could wait for another year to do more alpine roads.
So we ended up in Zurich around 2:30pm. There, Steve went to the airport and bought a plane ticket to Nice. I took a shower, did laundry, bought enough chocolate to satisfy folks back home, and bought a few NBT2s for my cycling friends. Steve and I had dinner, where we went over his possibilities in Nice, and then we said goodbye, never to see each other again on this trip.