Route down to east Switzerland?

EnglishChris

Hi,

I'm planning a ride down to the St Gallen, in east of Switzerland in the summer to visit a friend, followed by the Panorama Mountain Bike Route across to Lac Leman. Then possible on down to the south coast, depending on time and legs. I had originally thought I'd buy a Michelin map and pootle down the quiet roads of France, but then looked at the map and realised that St Gallen is quite far east!

One options seems to be to start from Dover / Calais and just head down through north east France, close to the border with Belgium, Luxembourg and then cut through the bottom left hand corner of Germany.

The other might be to head across Harwich to the Hague, where I do have friends I could visit, and then to head across Holland into Germany and route down the western side of Germany. Looks like there could be a lot of forest riding that way, and I'd like to do as much of this 'off road' as possible (though not too cross country!). I have read that Holland, whilst made for cyclists in some respects, is pretty dull and windswept and northern Germany always seemed pretty industrial, though I have never cycled there.

Anyone got any experience of cycling these routes, and any recommendations or opinions? I'm going to be fully loaded on a mountain bike, camping as much as possible, and taking it relatively easy, at least in the beginning.

Cheers, Chris