The 2006km tour in 2006
This is about the fantastic tour that I did last week from 7th until 10th September... In Geneva there was a public holiday on Thursday, therefore I decided to take Friday off to do an extensive motorbike tour through the Alps to drive from Geneva to Südtirol through the Swiss mountains..
I managed to convince Erich to join me - so off we went on Thursday morning and only came back late on Sunday night ....
At the end I discovered a funny detail ... when we came back totally exhausted we had done 2006 km ... in 2006 ... and this in 4 days through almost all mountain streets ...
Now to the tour ...
DAY 1:
The first day took us from Geneva through whole Swizerland and the cantons of Vaud, Wallis, Ticino, Uri and Graubuenden to my beloved home country Südtirol (South tyrol). The ride was fantastic ... we crossed 10 different Alpine passes (see below in the tour details the individual passes with its height) ... with fantastic mountains and glaciers ... that's why I feel so at home in Switzerland ...
The start at Erich's place at 8:20 in the morning
The highlight was surely the last pass - the Stilfserjoch, where we climbed 2758m - the second highest Pass in the Alps (we will do the highest one, the Col d'Iseran on our way back ;-) On one side of the pass you have 36 so called Kehren/tornanti (don't know what they are called in English, kind of U-turn curves) and on the other side you have 48. If you have a motorbike....you know the fun ;-) (Check it out at www.stilfserjoch.it). From the Stilfserjoch you have a great view of the Ortler glacier(3905m) and the highest moutain gr
oup in Südtirol with about 30 summits over 3500. You see the glacier in the picture below in the background. It was pretty cold up there
and we had been escaping the rain for the last couple of hours ... plus ít started to get dark and both our bikes were on reserve petrol ... So we decided to stop in one of the first villages down in the valley to stay over night ... we found a Hotel in Glurns ... Glurns is one of the smallest cities in the Alps - cool are the completele preserved city walls from the 13th century.DAY 2:
On day 2 we started around 10pm from Glurns and did a little de-tour back to Switzerland through the M
ustair valley to take the Ofenpass and then returned via Austria to Italy across the Reschenpass. We stopped along the Reschensee, which is a lake, or better a water supply dam with a very interesting history. What looks like a photomontage in the picture on the left is actually the remainder of the church of the town of Altgraun - a town which was flooded to use the lake as water supply for electricity production. The flooding was the result of a reckless project of Montecatini, a chemical company (which was later integrated into Edison). The project, originally a fascisct pre-war project, was executed in 1950 - 163 houses were destroyed and 523 hectare of land flooded.The next stop took us to Meran, second biggest city in Südtirol (www.meraninfo.it). The remaining of the day was riding along further passes and at the end of the day we drove to Brixen, my home and natal town and the most beautyful place in the world ;-) (www.brixen.org).
DAY 3:
On the 3rd way my brother and Marco joined us for a truly amazing tour through the fantastic and impressive Dolomites, doing 8 passes. According to Reinhold Messner, the first man who climbed all summits higher than 8000m in the world - the Dolomites are the most beautyful mountains in the world.
So I will not write a lot, but let the pictures below talk ;-) The Dolomites are not only fantastic for motorbiking, but also for climbing, hiking and especially skiing in the winter. Simply check it out here ... www.dolomiten.net.
On the left is the mountain Schlern and above is the Rosengarten, two very well known mountains in the Dolomites.
Marco, Erich and my brother Giorgio in front of the Rosengarten (on the left).
Me and my bike in front the Sella on the Pordoijoch (on the right).
DAY 4:
Day 4 was our day to get back to Geneva - we started at 8am in the morning and it ended in a 15 hour tour the force with a couple of hour stops due to heavy thunderstorms. We decided not to take the way back through Switzerland - but go through Northern Italy (Como, Varese, Torino, Susa) and via France to take the highest pass in the Alps, t
he Col d'Iseran with 2770m. This pass (and the picture on the lefft ;-)) was really worth the whole effort - it is a must for every motorbiker - I even almost killed a marmot, that crossed my way.
After the Col d'Iseran and 100km before Geneva we got into heavy rain and thunderstorms. We had to stop twice as we were right in the middle of lightings and thunder - so we waited until the worst was over. In Annecy I even learned my bike can swim, as we were driving through a flooded street and riding through it the water was even splashing above my head.
TOUR DETAILS.
1. day
Start: Geneva
via Brig, Nufenenpass (2480m), Gotthardpass (2108m), Andermatt, Oberalppass (2044m), Chur, Lenzerheidepass (1549m), Julierpass (2284m), St. Moritz, Berninapass (2328m), Forcola di Livigno (2315m), Livigno, Passo d’Eira (2208m), Passo di Foscagno (2291m), Stilfserjoch (2258m)
Destination: Glurns
2. day
Start: Glurns
via Val Mustair, Ofenpass (2149m), Martina, Franzenshoehe, Reschenpass (1504m), Meran, Gampenpass (1512m), Fondo, Mendelpass (1363m), Bozen
Destination: Brixen
3. day
Start: Brixen
via: Waidbruck, Seis, Voels, Tiers, Nigerpass (1688m), Karerpass (1745m), Vigo di Fassa, Moena, Passo S. Pellegrino (1918m), Falcae, Cencenighe, Alleghe, Passo di Fedaia (2047m), Pordoijoch (2239m), Arabba, Passo di Falzarego (2106m), Passo di Valparola (2192m), Badia, St. Martin, Wuerzjoch (2004m), Luesen
Destination: Brixen
4. day
Start: Brixen
via: Brixen, Mezzocorona, Passo del Tonale (1884m), Sondrio, Como, Varese, Torino, Susa, Col d'Iseran (2770m), Val d'Isere, Albertville, Annecy
Destination: Geneva
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