The church of Wassen stands on a terrace above the Reuss, and passengers on the old Gotthard railway see it three times as the line spirals through tunnels to gain height, a famous trick of nineteenth-century engineering that makes travellers think they are going in circles. This stop lies in that village, at the foot of the Susten pass, where the road leaves the Reuss valley and climbs west into the Meiental towards the Bernese Oberland.
The Susten road was built between 1938 and 1946, one of the first Alpine passes designed for motor traffic from the start, and its engineering is a pleasure to ride, with wide, well-banked bends, stone walls and tunnels. The eastern side climbs through the Meiental, a narrow valley of farms and forest, while the western side drops past the Steingletscher, a glacier that hangs above the road near the top, and down the long descent to Innertkirchen.
Andermatt, a few kilometres south, is a mountain village at the crossroads of the Alps, where the Gotthard, Oberalp and Furka roads meet, and it has been transformed in recent years by a large resort development. The Schöllenen gorge, between Andermatt and Göschenen, is crossed by the Devil's Bridge, where legend says the devil built the first bridge in exchange for the first soul to cross it, and the locals sent a goat.
The Susten is usually closed from late autumn to early summer, depending on snow. Weather can change quickly, and the top can be cold and windy even in summer.
Wassen is tiny, so do not count on it for fuel; Altdorf, Erstfeld or Andermatt are the safe bets. The village does have a couple of inns, and a coffee on a terrace here, listening to trains disappear into the mountain on one side and bikes winding up towards the Susten on the other, is a very Swiss pleasure.