HAT 2403 HAt and summer - die Alpen, heiß und hoch
Well , not everybody arrived on the same day, e.g. Keith and Mark got here earlier to participate at the Guided City Tour Munich. After a dinner together with Markus and Alberto last night they were looking foreward to this little excursion. Taking the S-Bahn downtown Munich, getting off at Isartor, the tour started. Checking on Viktualienmarket, having a look at St. Peter Cathedral, watching the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz, climbing the tower of Frauenkirche, paying tribute to Micheal Jackson's Memorial and after many more things having a look athe Hofbräuhaus - quite a tour. In the meantime in Erding Hanna and Alberto prepared for the welcome briefing and the handover of the motorcycles. Everybody arrived and at 7 pm the tour started officially. After dinner everybody went to bed early, lookinf excited foreward for the week to come.
After the morning briefing the big group was devided into two smaller ones. One was taken care by Alberto, the other one was under Markus' command. Cruising through the hills of Bavaria with a quick stop at Wasserburg for some pictures we reached the "Bavarian Sea" - Lake Chiemsee. A short stop with some coffee and we climbed the saddles again to head on. Lunchstop at Pillersee, the perfect location for trying out some local cuisin, for example "Kaspressknödel" - that word is a tongue - braker. But we were still heading for the highlight of the day, the Großglockner High Alpine Road. The closer we got to the top the more dense clouds and fog became. But Markus told us not to worry, because it looks like the sun would be out on the other side of the high mountain range (it was explained earlier, that the Alps are a continental weather devide), and so it was. Getting out of the tunnel on the highest point the sun hit our faces again. the only minor downside was, that Großglockner was hiding his highest point in a cloude. Finally we ended in Lienz, a lovely province town, were we walked to a a five star dining place to finish a great first day
Instead of taking the road on the bottom of the valley the tourguides took us on sometimes goattrail-like roads along the hillside of the River Drau-Valley West towards the Italian border. There we turned South, entering the Dolomites, mountains you cannot imagine, protected by the UNESCO, by beeing titled a World Heritage Site. Scenes like paintings, rough peaks, white shimmering rocks, lakes imbeded in an absolute stunning environment - just mindblowing. but not enough, Hanna toped our euphoria with a surprise: a picnic in spot, where you, beside the scenery, you could watch motorcyclists riding around that one curve, while you bite in your yummy sandwich. After some more passes we finally reached our hotel in Bolzano - and telling by the temperatures: it is summer!
For some it was a restday, for some others a full riding day. And for some an in between. Our friends from Brasil were exploring the town, while the early morning birds took off with Alberto to explore the souther passes of the Dolomites. Three prefered the four hour roundtrip with Markus, which was a nice mix of pass roads and cruising through wineyards and orchyards. One guy became special: Charlie rode his motorcycle all the way to Bormio, just to get on a bicycle and to climb Passo Stelvio without a motor - chapeau Charlie!
Today's day is probably the the most eagerly awaited day of the tour. We leave Bolzano and head west through the Venosta/Vinschgau valley and endless apple plantations, morning highlights: we visit the fortified town of Glorenza, a perfectly preserved village with a 10 m high wall. to climb the legendary Stelvio pass. With a height of 2750 metres it's the highest in Italy. Its narrow hairpin bends are a challenge for every motorcyclist. At the top we enjoy the best sausage in the Alps from our friend Bruno. Not enough, so let's take a leap into the Lombardy region and also ride the Gavia pass, at 'only' 2650 metres above sea level. We cross the Swiss border and the icing on the cake awaits us at the Bernina pass with breathtaking views, made even more spectacular by the sunset.
Geeting closer towards the end todays ride is offering some incredible passes. Pretty soon after taking off in Pontresina we climb Albula Pass. Not only the landscape is amazing, also the descend on the northramp. According to the narrowness of the valley the engeniers had to plan the railroad in a special way: most og the turns are inside the mountain, so looking ath the tracks you get the feeling that there is mor than one trainline. After lunch we entered Liechtenstein and after a quick check if the duke is home in Vaduz we crossed the border into Austria and headed for Furkajoch. but there was still one more pass to climb - Hochtannberg, where our hotel, the Jägeralpe, welcomed us. we definitely enjoyed the secluded place, where after an great dinner, the sound of cowbells put us to sleep.
Knowing that weekends during holidayseason come with a lot of traffic and beeing in it for a short section, the tourguides decided to skip Castle Neuschwanstein and to take the optional route. So we got to see Castle Linderhof, the place where King Ludwig spend most of his time. We visited the castle, learned about his affection for art and music - and got to see a real king-size bed. After a good lunch in Ettal we headed through the rolling hills of Bavaria back to Erding, our starting point and final destination at the same time. Well, we hope everybody made it home well. Thank you for having been on tour with us and as we mentioned, maybe we see each other one a future tour. Thank you for everything, greeting from the playground for motorcyclists, all the best, Hanna, Alberto and Markus