Riding the Vstrom through this beautiful and spectacular country, crossing many mountain passes in and around the Swiss Alps Region, is a bike riders dream. Arriving at locations totally unplanned makes for a diverse and interesting trip. The only other ingredient needed was a touch of fine weather so we could fully appreciate what was around us and luck was on our side, not only with the weather but also the random meeting of some very kind and interesting people.
Catch-up Blog – This is a continuation from the “Romantic Road Blog”
06/09/15 – Heading out of Bad Kolhlgrub in Bavaria we headed south into Austria and a quick visit to Innsbruck where daughter Jess and husband Si spent quite a bite of time living the dream snowboarding and having fun back in 2005 PC (pre children…). It was a quick look around the city where mountains and boarders surround, coffee and cake under our belt we were soon back on the road.
Travelling on good Austrian roads through very green countryside it was time to head into the lesser used roads which was fine until we travelled a road for quite a distance when we came apon 3 guys sitting on a log having a break. No english spoken but the old universal language of hand waving we knew that the planned route wasn’t going to happen, road closed, thank goodness for the GPS. Was getting late in the day and time had come to find some accommodation, located some free wifi and got online and booked a little place miles from anywhere, just a small village on the side of a hill with great views down the valley and it had a bar..
07/09/15 – Next morning was coolish when we set off and after some great bike roads we arrived at the boarder crossing checkpoint for Lechtenstien, a few checks, no problems and on our way to explore this small country. We headed southwards towards the Capital of Vaduz and spent time taking in its history and sights. It was a little under whelming in some ways, not sure what we were expecting but still a nice area to spend time looking and riding around under clear blue skies.
Late afternoon and back into Switzerland, we had found some accommodation and it was a long way from anywhere again, it’s part of the fun not knowing exactly what to expect when you get there. It was a great ride (mainly up hill..) to this very old and small village called Ronzano, finding our “da Norma” accommodation was the next challenge. It was again an unexpected gem, being a long way from any village it hit upon us that the evening meal might be a little light on tonight. Asked Norma if she might be able to find us something to eat and it was no problems, I cook dinner for guest’s !!
While Norma was organising the evening meal we went for a stroll enjoying the sun, views and the villages old wooden houses, most being well over 100 years old and full of character, wood must be very good in these parts. We were called to dinner along with a German couple, Norma presented a table full of fabulous home made breads, cheeses along with typical Austrian foods. She joined us for the meal and explained the how’s and why’s of it all which made for a talkative and enjoyable evening, breakfast the following morning was no different from the night before, just wonderful !
08/09/15 – It was back on the bike and riding some of the great mountain passes in Switzerland on our way to Andermatt which is central to many of the best alp roads in Europe. From here you have Italy in the south, France to the West and Germany in the north and long before the many huge tunnels now joining these countries Andermatt was at the cross roads to all.
– Our reference to everything Alps
Many of the passes can be found in the “Great Motorcycle Roads of Europe – A Bike Eye’s View” blog so won’t double up here but to say it’s just so spactacullar to ride and take in the beauty of the mountains. Jo gave me a book many years ago when we first started dreaming of a trip to Europe called “Motorcycle Journey’s Through The Alps & Beyond” written by American John Herman and in many ways is the benchmark publication for motorcycling in the European Alps. We’re well on the way to crossing around half the 300+ Alp Passes mentioned in the book along with quite a few that don’t get a mention being in countries or places not covered.
Next Blog: Switzerland – Above the Snow Line
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