Motorcycle Trip 2017 (Switzerland and Italy)

Today we went on 2 different rides.  The first ride left at 9:15 with 6 of 9 bikes.  Alan, Martin, and Patrick (and Alex) decided not to do the morning ride.  As we headed north from our hotel, the city is in the valley with mountains on both sides.  It is obviously the right weather to grow many crops including grapes, fruits trees of various types, corn (sweet corn I am assuming), strawberries, potatoes, cabbage and others.  On some of the grapevines and some of the fruit trees, you could see the produce developing but not nearly ripe yet.  One interesting thing was there are no wineries in the area.  Either the grapes are for eating or must be shipped somewhere else for processing into wine. The ride continued until 12:00.  We went over several passes and also did several more high valley roads.  Some of the roads were only one lane wide.  You had to be careful if even 2 motorcycles met going in opposite directions.  Needless ...

This morning we left Corvara and headed towards our new hotel for the next 2 nights which is on the shore of Lago di Garda (Lake Garda) in the city of Riva del Garda.  The lake is the largest in Italy and is over 32 miles long, has an average depth of 446 feet and a maximum depth of 1,135 feet; a little bigger than most Minnesota lakes!  We are staying on the north end of the lake.  Much of the lake is very narrow with mountains on both sides which makes the wind conditions on this end of the lake great for sailing and wind surfing. This hotel is in a much more urban setting than we have stayed at before on this trip as this is a very popular vacation spot for people in Italy.  Below are a few photos I took shortly after we arrived during a short stroll along the beach.  As you can see in a couple of the photos, there were some black clouds in the area and thunder could be heard not too far in the distance so I kept my stroll short.  The first photo is t...

Early in our ride today, Charlie and I received Performance Awards (speeding tickets) from the Polizia (Italian Police) - here is what happened.  We had just completed our first pass and we were driving through some small village.  Charlie was leading, I was next, and then there were a couple of bikes from another group that had working their way through our group as they were able.  We were just about out of town and Charlie and I passed a couple of cars before starting the next pass.  Unfortunately, there were 2 Polizia on motorcycles parked to the side of the road and when they saw us pass, they quickly went in the middle of the road and waved us (Charlie, myself, and 1 bike from the other group) over to the side of the road- busted.  The officer didn't know a lot of English but he could get enough out to get his message through to us.  We had to show them our driver's license and we both have International Driving Permits as well.  They also wante...

Before our ride today, I took a couple photos from near our hotel to show you what it is like in the Dolomite area of Italy.  From what I have seen so far, it is different than Switzerland and Austria because here the mountains are rock formations that go almost straight up.  This means there isn't much for hills around them so you can get really close to the mountain itself.  In other places, even when you are in the mountains, it seems like they are in the distance.  See for yourself. The weather today was a mix of clouds and some light rain with a few rays of sun from time to time.  It did slow down our speeds over a couple of the passes but nothing we were not prepared for.  We did 5 or 6 more passes today including Sella (2,240 meters), Falzarego (2,105 meters) and Giau (2,236 meters).  Here are a couple of interesting items from the day (beyond just the riding and views!) We stopped in a town that is known for their metal worki...

This was such a great day I don't know where to start and I am sure I will forget some things. First, when I looked at Facebook this morning, I see my niece (Michelle Rettig) posted a picture of herself beside a statue of a Swiss cow in New Glarus, Wisconsin, where she and her husband Rod are on a very long pedal bike ride!  Coincidentally, I was in Glarus yesterday on my "bike" ride and that is the area where we saw the ranch with many Swiss cows on the road.  How cool is that for both of us! The weather today was bright sunshine with only very few clouds all day.  It made the views today very beautiful.  I will post a few pictures but I can tell you, they don't do the mountain justice but at least you can see just a fraction of what I did today. We went across several mountain passes today includes Silveretta which is 2,032 meters and has 34 hairpin corners, Timmelsjoch (2,509 meters = 8,231 ft.), Jaufenpass (2,094 meters) and Penserjoch (2,211 me...

This morning started out wet.  We left the hotel at 9:00AM and everyone had their rain gear on.  It was a light rain so not a major issue but it did slow us down at the start of the day.  We stopped at the bottom of our first pass to determine if everyone wanted to attempt going over the pass; there was a very low cloud base and we didn't know what to expect as we headed up the pass.  Everyone wanted to go ahead so we did.  Below is a photo of statue that was in the town at the base of the pass.  Not sure who it is as I have not yet tried to translate the text that was on the base of the statue.  (Update: Saint Gallus - Patron Saint of Wassen – Thanks Keith!) NOTE: I tried to upload pictures and the internet is really slow so I have to limit number of pictures today. Once we made the top of the pass and started going down the other side, the weather was very different with very few clouds and the rain stopped - yeah!  The second pas...

I was up before breakfast so I went for a quick walk around our hotel area.  Here are some of the photos.  I don't have any details about the castle. As expected, the ride today was mostly about people getting comfortable with their bikes, the roads, and the traffic.  Everyone seems to be adjusting fine.  We went over Schallenbrerg Pass (3,800 feet - not very high) as our first official pass.  Only me, Charlie (the leader) and Charlie's friend have ridden in the Alps before.  Many were impressed with the last loop we did.  It was fun, but I know it will get much better.  The weather was overcast and cloudy for much of the day as you will see in the photos. The last photo is of the restaurant we had lunch at.  It had this impressive string of bells hanging on it.  I saw similar bells on a few other buildings as well.  Tomorrow we are heading to Austria.  The forecast is looking a little wet ...