Introduction → Meet the Teams → Race Tracker → Leg 1A → Leg 1B → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4 → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12 → Leg 13
Leg 20.08 – “We didn’t tell you to be a jerk to everyone.”
It’s time for Leg 8 to begin and teams must hop on a train from Liege, Belgium to Zurich, Switzerland.
Upon arrival in Zurich, teams must make their way to the Lindenhof where they must search the area for brand new 2020 Kia Niro PHEVs which will have their next clues.
That clue directs teams to drive themselves to Chapel Bridge in Lucerne.
Here, teams must search the bridge for their next clue. That clue will actually be one of the paintings amongst many on the bridge.
The painting is of the Lion Monument in Lucerne. Teams will find the next clue at this monument where they will learn about it honoring Swiss Guards who were massacred during the French Revolution.
Teams must now make their way to the Church of St. Leodegar where they will find a Double Road Block: Painting It On or Putting It On.
Teams will get to join in the festivities of Fasnacht, Switzerland’s Carnival celebrations. The team member who chooses to paint must choose a mask from a set of photos and finish painting it.
The team member who will put it on will wear the mask and full costume and will be guided by their partners as they find a matching mask amongst the hundreds of drummers to receive the next clue.
That clue directs teams to the Sigriswil Panorama Bridge where teams will learn of the next Road Block: Who wants a good view of the Hinterstockensee?
For this Road Block, teams will drive themselves to Stockhorn where they will bungee jump.
After the Road Block, teams must drive themselves to the historic Hotel Bellevue des Alpes in Klein Scheidegg.
Here, teams will park their 2020 Kira Niros and pick up a St. Bernard friend. They must accompany their new friend on a train to Jungfraujoch where they will introduce them to a mountain rescue guide in exchange for their next clue.
But first! Teams must check in at the Double Yield Board before purchasing tickets for the train.
After safely accompanying their new friend, teams must now take a train to the North Face of the Eiger.
And here, they will find another Road Block: Who’s only got 5 Road Blocks? As this is the 12th Road Block of the Race, the team member with only five Road Blocks MUST complete this one.
For this Road Block, teams will traverse the North Face of the Eiger to pick up a new friend, the Travelocity Roaming Gnome to receive the next clue and an alphorn.
After the Road Block, teams must take their new friend and their alphorn on the train back to the Klein Scheidegg and hop back into their brand new 2020 Kira Niros.
Teams must now drive themselves to Kleine Ruge Wiese in Interlaken.
In a Switchback to TARPHDME6, teams must transport four 23-kg wheels of cheese to the bottom of a hill using a sled. Teams must keep the cheese on the sled at all times. If a team’s cheese rolls down the hill without them or their cheese sleds break, they must start the task over.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg. If any team rolls two or more wheels of cheese to the bottom of the hill in the incorrect way, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated. If ALL teams roll two more more wheels down the hill, the ALL U-Turn will be activated.
After the cheese, teams will have to complete the Detour: With the Fingers or On Its Face.
In With the Fingers, teams must head to Brunngasse in Brienz and find where they can learn how to play the Schwyzerörgeli, a traditional accordion used in Swiss folk music. When both team members can play the tune, they will receive the next clue.
In On Its Face, teams must head to the Brienz Violin School where they will learn how to make a violin. Teams will learn how to properly prepare the top and back plates of the violin. Once they have properly prepared a pair of plates each, teams will receive the next clue.
Teams must now head to Harbor Istelwald along the shores of Lake Brienz where they will find this mysterious piano player. Teams must accompany his piano playing with a tune on their alphorn before being given the next clue.
And that clue points teams to Two Lakes Bridge on Harder Kulm. This stunning viewpoint is the Pit Stop for this Leg of the Race.
The first team to arrive here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+ as well as a trip for two from Travelocity to Switzerland in order to enjoy the country a little more.
And the last team to check-in WILL be eliminated!
“Director’s” Commentary
So this Leg was supposed to be a Crash Landing on You tribute of some sort. Since TARPHDME’s last Switzerland visit was season 6, it was a perfect time to visit again. In the end, this Leg ended up being more of a recycled Leg instead with only very vague and random references to CLOY. lol
First off, we have a quick stop in Zurich. A few CLOY scenes were shot in the Lindenhof. And of course, it’s the location of a classic TAR3 Detour. But here, it’s just a connection between Liege and Lucerne where teams will pick up their Kias.
Now, most of this Leg is recycled from TAR22. That Leg was very linear as teams has to hop on trains from Route Marker to Route Marker. This is a very unique Leg because it’s mostly a self-driving Leg (hopefully in snow!) with a portion of it requiring some train travel. So for the first time ever on any TAR (I think), teams will have to park their cars, use another mode of transportation and then return to their cars later. Very interesting!
The first task in Lucerne will have teams keeping their eyes peeled for the faintly marked painting on the bridge. I believe, based on my Google scouting, that the paintings on the iconic bridge are only placed during Fasnacht. So, that fits well with the Double Road Block later.
This task though is just to get teams possibly running around not knowing what they’re looking for. And then we can also hope teams head to anywhere else but the Lion Monument, so that’s some great confusion at the start of the Leg.
If a location has some kind of Carnival tradition, you can bet TARPHDME will design a task based on it. lol This Double Road Block is definitely a TARPHDME staple now and it’s a simple, straightforward task. Paint the mask and look for a match. Both tasks that have been done on many a TAR in the past. But the main point of this task though is to highlight a fun, cultural moment from the area.
The Sigriswil Panorama Bridge was an important location on Crash Landing on You and it would look great from a 8K UHD drone. So of course we’ll visit it here. Would be great to bungee jump from this location, if possible. But we’ll just put the actual bungee location here instead. Having it at another location also provides for more opportunity for teams to get lost as well.
The TAR22 recycle begins here as teams leave (not really abandon) their cars for the trains. I foresee the trains possibly being equalizers. And that’s fine, especially as we have a first come, first served task at the Eiger with the Road Block. Keeping teams as close together as possible is a must.
St. Bernards are great, so having teams meet a new friend is a wonderful little task.
If you read the Race Tracker scenario for this Leg, you may understand why I put a Yield here. An ideal scenario is all teams arriving here at the same time and the Yield being the decider in whether or not a team makes a train or not. That will put teams 30 minutes behind. But if those Yielded teams catch up later, it would make for great TV.
The Road Block here is good enough for another extreme task. Scaling the North Face of the Eiger would be a once in a lifetime moment. And being the 12th Road Block, teams will have no choice on who will perform it. It’s a good 12th Road Block.
Teams return to their cars to drive to the Switchback. Of course we’ll have teams try out the cheese wheels again. TAR22’s Switchback was very uneventful compared to the original. So we’ll have to figure out a way to keep things crazy and fun here.
The Detour gets teams to Lake Brienz and I think both sides can be tedious and present their own unique challenges.
The last CLOY reference is this little random Route Marker where they meet a piano player and play the alphorn they have to carry around with them.
Originally, I had the Pit Stop here on this pier with Captain Ri. But my Google scouting found the stunning viewpoint of Two Lakes Bridge, so we had to have the Mat there instead.
Overall, a pretty good Leg that has the potential to be very exciting and competitive.