Alps Extreme tour (4AE230b)

what a nice riding day we had! Perfect riding temperature, all set, let's take off.  of course we had to go to Kuhfai to tey the amazing apfelstrudl. After some twisties and a detour we rode upnto Hoch Imst to have a delicious lunch. And then it was finally time to get south to the Kaunertal glacier. Splendid views , good roads and a gondola ride at the glacier before we headed our way back to Fiss. On the tollroad back we had to try to pass a huge herd of cows whonwere jumping and running up and down the mountain road. A nice dinner outaide clised the day !

What a blast we had today. The real Alps extreme experience! Six passes, with among them the Queen of the Alpine roads: the Stelvio pass! Under a clear blue sky we started this morning in Fiss with a loop through the toll free part of Switzerland, via Reschenpass and lake through Glurns for a nice coffeebreak and then up to the 48 switchbacks to the top. During the lunch the downhill side opened again after a bicycle race and we followed our way over the Gavia pass, Tonale pass and the Mendola pass towards our hotel in the middle of the vineyards, apples , citrus field and so on. Great day with a great group!

Switchbacks , switchbacks and maybe some more switchbacks! What a beautiful day in this riders paradise!  over 300 km of riding fun, beautiful weather ( a bit too hot sometimes!), but a great day with this fantastic group of experienced riders from California. After this long day some took a nice dip  in the lake of Levico Terme. And tomorrow: rest day ...well, more or less!

Due to the dense traffic and heat we decided to do half of the Lake Garda loop today. After some 'mountain excitement' we finally arrived at Lake Garda for an refreshing icecream and some cool wind from the lake. After that we headed back accompanied by a hot wind towards Levico for some rest and recreation near the lake. All together a leisurely day in South Tyrol

Finally after 4 straight days of sunshine, the rain came this morning. And not just a little bit ......  But the good tbing was , that after some  childhood sin stories and some hot chocolate we were a le to continue our way to Dobbiaco. And the weather became better and better and so we had some apectaculair views in the high Dolomites, which was absolutely great!  So after  doing 7 passes today and a very nice dinner we called it  a day !!

And then, all of a sudden, there is already the final riding day.  With four more spectacular passes to go, we left our nice and friendly hotel, with a big thunderstorm on the Manghen pass. So we had to hide from that and took a nice hot chocolate and telliing some nice stories toneach other. Then slowly the sun reappeared, and we fully enjoyed our tiny mountain roads. On the  last pass, the Timmelsjoch  we visited the  beautiful and reopened motorcyxle museum. Unfortunately accompanied by some rain we rode through the Oetz valley back to Mieming where everyone handover the bikes back. With a very good farewell dinner we concluded this great riding week with this great group of excellent riders (and passengers !) from California.  Thank you all for the great riding, your good company, and all the good stories.  For us it was a pleasure to have you all on tour and we hope to see you all at another tour somewhere, sometime!! Ted & Ralph