Finally! We´ve been waiting for so long, counting days. And today´s the day! Our Ultimate Alps Tour starts in Seefeld. We´ll meet at 5pm for the Welcome Briefing and the motocycle handover. Most of us. Karl get´s his keys right after breakfast. He´s taking part at the Edelweiss Riding School with Julia.

After a cup of coffee and the theory introduction we head to a big training area for Karls "favourite" practice: Slow riding. Slalom, switch backs, circles, emergancy braking. "At my last trainng I was known as Karl the cone killer" he says laughing. Today he deserves the name: Karl the cone King. After the right instruction he passes the tasks with flying colors. Great job! 

As none of them had to die today, we collect all the cones and get ready for a private tour around the beautiful area. Kühtai and it´s lovely curves are waiting for us. We enjoy the ride, working on our optimal line, have a delicious lunch at Kühtaier Dorfstadel and get to ride a cow slalom, too! 

In the afternoon we arrive back at the hotel where all the other tour members have arrive and get ready for the earlier mentioned welcome briefing. Afterwards the Gala Menue of Hotel Eden awaits us with a delightful 7 course menue. What a great start!

Tonight the group is finally complete

We wake up to a chilly morning, but the sun is peeking through the clouds and that is a good omen for the day. We head out of Seefeld and make our way down into the Inn valley and then make our way through the small villages until we climb up to Piller and stop to admire the view at Gacher blick, which is pretty great today considering the wetaher of the last few days. We head down towards the valley and suddenly the road id closed! We have good fortune the Urs has Harley Davidson navi maps which show us a dirt road as a quick and easy shorcut past the roadworks We head up the Reschenpass crossing into Italy and stop to admire lake Reschen and the church tower of the submerged village of Graun. We head on and make a quick coffee stop in the medieval town of Glurns to relax and prepare ourselves for the highlight of the day - the Queen of Alpen passes Stelvio! We are really quite lucky as the traffic is light today and we make all 48 switchbacks with no fuss whatsoever, which is a real feather in the cap for the whole group. Lunch at Bruno's famous sausage stand and then we are heading down the other side towards the tax-free commune of Livigno where we stop for a last coffee and to fill up with cheap gas!!! After that we have a quick but fun 45 minute ride to our hotel in Pontresina, just stopping briefly at the top of the Bernina pass for a group photo. It's been a great first day of the tour and everyone is eager to get out and ride again tomorrow......

Brent cannot wait to try his sausage

Curves, curves, curves await us on this wonderful day. The sky is as blue as it can be, decorated with some fluffy white clouds, the sun shines through the windows of the breakfast room. We injoy some delicious homemade pasteries and rush outside! Let´s get on the road!

The Passo del Maloja is an easy start in the day, followed by Passo dello Spluga, which challenges us with tight switchbacks, some of them even in little tunnels. The road construction is fascinating. And thanks to the tunnel they build, there ain´t too much traffic on the winding roads. Up on the top we deserve a break and visit a cafe. A little bird told us, they have wonderful rich hot chocolate and the nut cake must taste amazing! So most of us try these delights, up on 2115m (6930ft). 

Passo di Sanberdino surprises us with a wonderful variaty of curves. The scenery is rocky, mystic and reminds us of the moon... or at least the pictures you know from it. So far our favourite of the three, but there are more coming up. Today we are Pass Collectors!

Before we master the last two passes we strengthen ourselves with delicious Pizza. The restaurant is right underneath a lovely waterfall and you can hear the splashing in the distance. 

The afternoon brings wide smiles on our faces. Do you know these moments, when you sit on the motocycle, laughing on your own because you are just having a great time? That´s how we felt on Passo del Lucomagno and Oberalp Pass. We enjoy the dance with our bikes and I see many thunbs up when we get to stop on a road construction stop light

Before we arrive the the wonderful Hotel at Lake Lucerne we visit Altdort and the statue of Wilhelm Tell. A little history class with a homemade refreshing ice tea can´t hurt. 

What's hiding in the trees?
It's passo del Maloja

Seems like Julias recommendation was worth it

We wake up looking out over Lake Lucerne and the sky is blue and the sun is shining We head out along by the lake and then take a quick ferry trip over to Beckenried to get the day going. From there we are riding through picture postcard Swiss villages, passing by lake Lungern until we stop for a coffee break at Meiringen to prepare ourselves for the Susten pass. It's a glorious day as we head over Susten, even if there's quite a bit of Saturday traffic. We still manage to have some responsible fun though even if it means hopping past some of the slower moving traffic After completing Susten we turn up towards the Goschenenalp until we find Jule, who has prepared an awesome picnic for us.We sit in the sun next to a bubbling crystal clear stream and just enjoy the tranquility and scenery of the Alps - magic! After lunch we head to Andermatt and then start to make our way over Furka. It's somewhat interesting with a cycle race in progress and a meeting of Morgan 3 wheelers which are all over the place. We stop at Belvedere to admire the view down to Grimsel and up to the Rhone glacier before heading down the vally and making our way to Visp, where we eventually turn up towards Tasch. We drop off the bikes and then it's a taxi up to car free Zermatt with just about enough time for a shower before cheese, cheese and more cheese for dinner (Raclette or Fondue - take your pick!!)

Great place for a picnic

Believe it or not but we did not start our day on the motocycle. We had a good reason to make them wait in the garage, even though we knew there were further more gorgeous streets coming up. 

So what did we do instead? We rode the cog railway up to Gornergrat from where you have the most beautiful view at the Matterhorn! The train ride itself is a highlight already. You sit back in your seat while the beautiful scenery passes by in the super big windows and the Matterhorn catches our attention inevitably. 

We first get out at „Rotenbogen“ from where you can walk to Riffellake. It´s just magical how the famous Swiss mountain reflects in the clear water. We get back in the train and ride further up to the top. The sky is clear and the view fantastic!Did you ever paraglide around the Matterhorn? We did! In the Zoom Center, with Virtual Reality Photos were taken, hot chocolate enjoyed and we head back down to Zermatt. 

At noon the Taxi brings us back to our bikes and we start the engines. There’s a lot of traffic on the roads today… oh, it’s Sunday. That explains why. The curvy roads would most likely be more fun without that little white fiat in front of us, yet we have a great time! Our goal for today is the wonderful city Lugano with it’s fantastic Italien flair! 

One of the most expensive group photos

Oh, the ladies have arrives already

We head out of Lugano and it's a great view as we make our way along the lakeside towards Menaggio. Of course there is chaos at the dock and with typical Italian inefficieny we miss the ferry and have to wait for the next one. Once across we head up throught the villages and eventually find ourselves at Culmine de San Pietro where we stop for a quick coffee. We head onwards and up to Cole de Zambia and down the other side, where we stop for lunch and prepare ourselves to Passo del Vivione. It really does live up to its reputation as a "goat track" but the group does fantastically well and we keep a good speed up, even if it is super windy. We head down the other side towards Edolo and then make our way along the valley until we hit Passo Tonale where we have some fun on the fast sweepers up to the top. From there the executive decision is head striaght to the hotel, where Jule is awaiting us with refreshments - well deserved after a long, but fun, day in the saddle. Does it get any better than this????? You will have to wait and see.....

No Edelweiss tour without a well deserved boot beer

With only 190km it’s a rather short ride today. But we have many highlights on out way! The day starts with some interesting stretches in front of the hotel, followed by the wonderful Passo Daone with it’s narrow winding road in the middle of a forest. Did you smell the woody fresh air? In Stenico some of us enjoy a coffee and fresh croissant, Brent, Mandy and Julia climb up the tiny hill to visit the Stenico castle and it’s exhibition. Fascinating how these majestic protective buildings were put up in a world without modern cranes and techniques! 

We pass by lake Molveno… well. You can’t just pass by. Of course we have to hold on and take a picture of this beautiful piece of earth! Even though the sun ain’t out and some clouds hang deep in the sky the lake shimmers turquoise blue and with the stunning mountains and little village in the background it offers us a unique photo spot.

Whilst we were busy taking pictures and enjoying the roads William prepared diligently a delicious picnic with many local delicacies! Fresh panini, prosciutto crudo and cotto, a variety of cheeses, salami, tomato-mozzarella and a big apple strudel! Not to forget about a lot of ice cubes! Just the way we love it! Thank you William!

In the afternoon we visit the monastery San Romedio. Build over 900 years it is an architectural as well as historical masterpiece and target of thousands of pilgrims every year. When you are lucky you even get to see a real bear! Do you know the story behind it?

The theme for today was "A day in the Dolomites" - and what a day it was! Things did not start so well first thing - Kyle decided to join another group as they left from the hotel, and then the garage door jammed and we could not leave. Anyway, Kyle eventually returned to the fold, the door was fixed and we eventually got underway. It was sunny but cool as we left and made outr way down into Bolzano and then we started to head back up on the other side of the valley. Small roads winding through the forest only being held up towards the end by a rather large crane, so we stopped off to take a look at the Kaserer Bild Kapelle. From there we continued and wound our way down and along the valley until we reached the beautiful clear waters of the Karersee, where we stopped for some photos and a quick coffee. It's a glorious sunny day and the temperature is starting to creep up as we make our way to Vigo di Fassa where we branch off towards the San Pellegrino pass. Up and over we go - next stop Passo Fedaia. Not much traffic and we can have some real fun on the twisties here before we stop for a quick lunch by the dam and lake Fedaia whilst admiring the views over the Marmolada. From there we pass through Canazei on our way back towards the Karersee before we turn off and head up the Niger Pass where we stop for the last photos of the day. We continue down and then turn off sharply to head down a steep and super narrow gully that brings us down to the Valley floor - who finds there roads?!?!?!?! From there we have a quick final blast back up the Collalbo and our hotel. It has been another awesome riding day and there are big grins all around as we sip a cold beer on the terrace......

Last but not least. After our wonderful restday in Collalbo our way leads us back to where everything started a week ago: Hotel Eden in Seefeld. Of course we don´t take the fastest way, but the most beautiful which eads us over three passes. We start of with Passo di Pennes, a motocyclists dream with winding roads, great views and yet little traffic. After a little photo shooting up on the top we continue our journey to Passo di Monte Giovo. Up on the top you´ll find the "Edelweiss Hütte" a great bikers stop with majestic cake architecture

Ehm, Brent.. where was the passo sign again?

Group picture time

You call it a cow corner

One last group picture.
This is where it all started