Switzerland 2014

Since the plans changed and we had left Germany through Luxemburg and into France next was Switzerland.

A break and a leg stretcher along the channel running on the French / German border:

And there is talk about people overpacking (like we did) and brought everything but the kitchen sink, this guy had the sink with him, this was in France near the border to Switzerland:

Sticker that we paid the road tax for Switzerland:

Since this was poorly planned we purchased a “motorcycle” map at the gas station to get an overview of the country and started following some of the scenic routes suggested:

On section was marked as off-road but we went ahead and getting up out of this valley I really struggled for traction on the motard setup I was running, had it been wet I don’t think I would have made it:

Was a little rough tank panniers on my dads bike came undone:

Needed money since the “sleazy” place we stayed at the first night did not accept card:

The following day we had some rain but continued on smaller roads:

We wondered how they cultivated the steep hill and found this special tractor working a hill:

Tried getting a panorama shoot overlooking Panoramastrasse:

Had a break after coming down over Panoramastrasse:

We passed Brunigpass and Sustenpass, pictures below from Susten:

And some serious machines for handling the snow during the winter:

The night was spent in Andermatt, meet a nice couple there from “down under” Australia that were on a rented motorcycle that gave us some pointer on were to go:

The following day we started with Gotthard but weather was bad on the north side, going up was raining some and I had big trouble with fog on the visor, turned out the dual anti fog shield was not sealing properly, maybe lost its shape some over the years (time for a new helmet soon), this Norwegian guy an a rented big stopped for a few words:

The south side was clearer and we went down, turned around and back up:

Oberalp next and then some transportation over to Splugen going into Italy looking back down on the Swiss side:

Border crossing into Italy:

Going down into Italy was really tight turns and nice and it started to heat up some also so rain gear was removed but needed to be put back on after going up Maloja, we looked at some of the walking paths and stopped by one since a friend of our is talking about walking in Switzerland, I was tired after going that far up:

Night was spent in St Moritz.

Schedule for the following day was Berdina, Stelvio, Umbrail and Ofen.

Quite a lot of snow at the top of Stelvio that just opened the other day:

While going down Stelvio:

Some sandwich for lunch in Trafoi were we turned around and went back up Stelvio:

Going down Umbrail Lars was stung by a bee, luckily he has no allergy and just got a red patch on his neck cause of it:

During Ofenpass we stopped a little to see some logging going on sending the logs down the hill by cable:

We did Fluela also and I drove up to some building there for a closer look:

We did some searching for a place to stay, not here but the view was good:

Followed some sign saying “Gasthaus” and though we would find something but gave up after a while:

Ended up here in Schiers:

A huge schnitzel for dinner:

Next morning before heading for Germany again we check out the Salginatobelbrucke (a bridge built back in 1930 to the nearby village of Schuders):

If a full 90 meters high:

Took some smaller road, through Liechtenstein when heading out wasn’t that impressive back in Switzerland there is beauty all around:

Even if it was a red day they had a huge police check on one of the road, we got plenty of warnings from fellow bikers so no speeding was done at least but they did not like my rear tire, the officer was very polite and kept trying to measure several times like he would find some depth and finally just said “its zero” and that ended me a ticket =(

Cant complain that much they could probably have found more to ticket me for had they wanted, they wanted paperwork for the bikes and all and on my dads bike with the open Akra mufflers they wanted certificate on them to but my dad on his poor english just kept saying “it was like this when buying” and they gave up on it =)

As long as I kept the recite I would not get another ticket in Switzerland during that day at least.

We made it into Germany and night was spent just north of Stuttgart.

The following day I was able to get a new tire mounted but the tire shop said I might have trouble in Germany running different brands front and back so we will see if I run into the law here also before leaving in a few days:

Have some video recording also that I will try to do something with when I get back home.