Sunday 24 June - Olching to Zams, Austria
A short ride to Zams. The weather was overcast but warm.
A great view from the Hotel
A large dinner - much larger than I thought it would be
That schnitzel took some eating, almost didn't manage to finish it off
. I had an early night to be ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a big day....
Monday 26 June - Bucket List Day. This is what the trip all came down to, riding Stelvio Pass. The days route was to head to Trafoi, as recommended by zebulon, and ride up Stelvio Pass. From there I would head to head to Santa Maria and then across Switzerland to Konolfingen. As inmate from Advrider.com has sent me a PM and invited me to stay with him if I was going his way. It turned out I was, so I took him up on the offer.
However, the day didn't go as planned. The weather forecast had been rain. Thankfully the day dawned clear, anice blue sky with no clouds and no wind. My spirits lifted. The Mistress played up though. I headed to Trafoi only to discover the GPS was taking me elsewhere. For some reason it was having real problems with the route I had keyed in. So it was backs to basics. Load in one way point at a time!
O got to Trafoi and then switched on my GoPro. I recorded the entire trip up. But as I later discovered the GoPro stops at 3.2 GB file size and then starts a new file. I have, now that I am home, managed in YouTube to stitch the two videos together.
Once I got to the top of Stelvio I headed down the other ride thinking I was heading for Santa Maria. I knew something was wrong when I got to Bormio
. Oh well nothing for it I'll just head back up again
. This time I hit the right turnoff and headed to Santa Maria.
A little further on I had my first introduction to a car train. This was a completely new experience for me. A bit of fun too. Then some long tunnels. I rode through more tunnels in Switzerland than the rest of the trip put together.
As the day progressed the temperature into the high 30's. By mid afternoon it was obvious I still had a long way to go so I gave in and paid a small fortune for an annual vignette so I could ride the motorways, a vignette that I would only use for the afternoon. Yeah the Swiss - they know how to suck money out of you
.
I eventually got to Peter's place, where we went for a swim in a local river to cool off and freshen up. It was really nice meeting him face to face and their hospitality was awesome. The international riding community is great.
Some pictures of the day.
A perfect start to the day
The alps coming into view
Stelvio Pass
And here's me thinking I am heading to Santa Maria