Alpen Pur für Guatemala
Our tour started in Seefeld and after getting used to the bikes in the morning and visiting the "Gacherblick" view point and the lake Resia we stopped for lunch at the Bella Vista Hotel. Silvia and Ricardo have been here before, so they wanted to stop there again. Unfortunately the road up the Stelvio pass was closed till 4 pm for a bicycle race, but as this was a bucket list item of the tour group, we waited until the road was open again, to take on the 48 switchbacks up to the top. Following the road to Livigno, we entered Switzerland on the Bernina pass road an reached our hotel in Pontresina.
Our second day was the day of the many pass roads. We passed St. Moritz in the morning to start with the Maloja pass road, followed by the Montespluga, where we had coffee on top next to the lake. After riding up the San Bernardino pass road, we enjoyed our first Pizza for lunch. In the afternoon we touched Bellinzona to go north again and ride the Lukmanierpass followed by the Oberalppass. After riding through Andermatt, the famous ski resort, we continued alongside the lake Lucerne to reach our hotel in Brunnen.
This day started with a ferry ride across lake Lucerne followed by nice roads to Meiringen and up the Sustenpass. After going up the Furka road as well, we stopped to enjoy a picnic at over 2000 meters surrounded by mountain flowers. In the afternoon we followed the road to Brig, where we turned south into a small valley, until we reached Täsch, where we had to park our bikes to take a taxi for the last stretch, as Zermatt is a car free town. In the evening we tasted the typical Swiss "Raclette".
As there is so much to see in Zermatt, we decided not to ride today and started with a walk through the town to get a feeling of this place and do some shopping. After lunch, we took the Gornergrat train up the mountain, up to over 3000 meters, to enjoy the beautiful views of the peaks and glaciers around us. Unfortunately the Matterhorn was covered in clouds at first, but luckily it showed itself later. For dinner we went to a very nice Italian restaurant.
This day started with a ride to Brig, to visit a motorbike clothing shop. After that we rode the Simplon pass road and crossed the border into Italy. The roads became smaller and we had a lot of fun following the road through the forest, down to Cannobio at lake Maggiore. After having lunch at the lakefront, we continued to Intra, where we took a ferry across the lake. In the afternoon we crossed the border into Switzerland again, to reach our hotel in Lugano.
This day was rainy, so we put on our rain gear and followed the lake Lugano back into Italy going east. After a nice lunch in a small Italian restaurant, we took on the famous Tonale pass road, before arriving at our hotel in Commezzadura.
Luckily the wheather was sunny again, so we followed the road through some nice ski towns to have a first stop in Stenico. We continued on roads around lake Santa Giustina to stop fo a picnic at lake Coredo. In the afternoon we went up to mount Penegal, to enjoy the view into the valley, just before passing through Bozen to reach our hotel in beautiful Klobenstein.
Today we only took a short ride to Kastelruth, to spend some time in the town centre and shop for some souvenirs. In the afternoon some of us enjoyed the SPA area of the hotel while others explored the area by foot and visited the earth pyramids.
On our last day, we started our ride through the Sarn valley, where we found almost no traffic at all. After climbing the "Penserjoch", we followed the Brenner road to Wattens, to visit the Swarovski crystal museum. In the evening we arrived back in Seefeld, where we celebrated the birthday of Rafael at our farewell dinner. It was a good tour and we all had a great time, bringing home a lot of memories.