Realp is a village that most people drive through on the way to somewhere more famous, and that is reason enough to stop. It lies at about 1,540 metres in the Urseren valley, a high, treeless trough between the Furka and the Oberalp passes, with the Reuss river wandering through meadows. The surrounding mountains are bare and wide, and the valley has the open, windswept feeling of high Alpine country.
The village is the home of the Furka steam railway, a volunteer operation that has restored the old Furka line, abandoned in the early 1980s when a new tunnel replaced the mountain route. The volunteers rebuilt the track, locomotives and stations by hand over several decades, and in summer the steam trains run between Realp and Oberwald, climbing over the pass. The workshops at Realp are a fine place for anyone who loves old machinery, and the smell of coal smoke and hot oil is unforgettable.
For fuel the sensible plan is Andermatt, a few kilometres east, which has stations and shops and is much bigger than Realp. Andermatt has also grown in recent years with new hotels and apartments, but the old centre remains a pleasant spot for lunch, with a church and a garrison history that stretches back to the nineteenth century. For a bigger town with every service, Altdorf is a good half hour to the north.
A descent check is good advice here. Coming down from the Furka or the Gotthard, the brakes get hard work, and a stop here lets you cool them and look over the bike. The road down toward Andermatt and the Schöllenen gorge is steep and busy, with trucks and tourists, and the wind in the valley can be fierce. In summer the afternoons bring storms that build over the ridges and break quickly, so keep an eye on the clouds. In winter the valley is deeply snowed in, and the Furka is closed.