AMA Alps Challenge (CA12402)
Our first Riding Day startet on a sunny and warm morning in Erding. Total distance of this day was approximately 178 miles through the hilly landscape of Bavaria and up and down the mountains in Salzburg and Tirol. Our Highlight of the day was reaching the highest mountain of Austria called Großglockner. Temperature dropped to very comfortable 50 degrees Fahrenheit. ☘️
We had a great first day of riding yesterday and the Grossglockner High Alpine Road was already a real highlight of this tour. But today should be even better, because we're off to the Italian Dolomites, the motorcycling paradise in the Alps par excellence. We leave the East Tyrolean capital of Lienz in the morning and make our way directly towards Italy. We stop briefly at the border, of course, because a photo at the border crossing is a must. We then continue on to our first coffee stop on Italian soil at Lago di Misurina and get a first impression of the impressive landscape and begin to understand why it is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We then continue over the Passo di Giau towards the Passo di Falzarego, where another highlight awaits us, the gondola ride up to the Lagazuoi at more than 9000 feet above sea level, where we enjoy our lunch break with probably the best view of all time. In the afternoon, we continue over a few more passes to our destination for today, the beautiful city of Bolzano, where we will spend two nights.
Today we got a Restday in Bolzano, the capitol of South Tirol. We used the day to explore the area to the north of Bolzano and did a nice loop with the Penserjoch and the Jaufenpass as the highlights of the day.
After two days in Bolzano it was time to leave today and head over to the little town of Livigno in the west of Italy close to the border of Switzerland. To get there we first rode the amazing Mendelpass, which might just be the perfect road. Nice sweeping corners and perfect tarmac, what more could you wish for to start the day. But this was not the only highlight today, since we also road the Gavia Pass, one of the highest passes in the Alps, and also one of the most challenging, since the way up is mostly single lane and you always have to watch out for oncoming traffic. Getting up to the top is a real achievement and everybody in our group can be proud of himself to mastered this unique mountain pass.
He who rests, rusts. According to this motto, we got back on our motorcycles today and headed through beautiful Switzerland. Forcola di Livigno (2,315 m), Bernina Pass (2,328 m), past St. Moritz*, Albula Pass (2,312 m), Davos, Flüela Pass (2,283 m), past the Ofen Pass* and through the Munt- La- Schera Tunnel back to Livigno. *As thunderstorms were forecast for the afternoon, we skipped these two extras this time.
Oh what a beautiful day we had. Today we rode both the Stelvio and the Timmelsjoch Hochalpenstraße. Two of the highest and most beautiful roads in the Alps and it was a blast. We started in the morning in Livigno and headed straight to the Stelvio Pass, also called the King of the Alps because of its famous east side with all its switchbacks. After we managed to get safely down from Stelvio we headed east to Meran, where Ralph had prepared a nice picknick for us. After our lunchstop we went on to our second highlight of the day, the Timmelsjoch Hochalpenstraße, that brought us back to the Ötztal in Austria, where we will stay for the night.
Every great tour has to come to an end someday and so today is our last riding day on this wonderfull trip. We leave the ski town of Sölden in the morning and head north through the Ötztal, but before we leave this area we take a little detour through the beautiful Kühtai Valley. After a nice coffee break we stopped by at the Edelweiss Garage to take a look behind the scenes to see where all the bikes are maintained between the tours. We then continued north to leave Austria and head back to Erding, where we started more than a week ago. It has been a great tour, with a lot of amazing mountain roads, spectecular views and great conversations with a lot of laughs at our breaks from riding. Thanks to all the participants for making this an amazing experience and hopefully we will see each other again on another tour someday soon. The Tourguides Michael, Ralph and Daniel