After my clusterfuck in India there were too many months when I finally I got back on the bike again, the first 500 m felt really weird and then I was back.
A couple of badly cooked bats or pangolins or maybe a stew of both stopped all plans for ventures out into our wonderful world.
Lock downs in every country and closed borders and the Swedes due to a different approach were the pariahs of society.
Social distancing and very frequent washing of hands got it under control in Europe travel bans were lifted and even Swedes could travel-
I asked my friend Stefan if he was game and he was, the plan is to ride some Swiss passes, drink some beer and have fun, but even the best laid plans may be thwarted, by rain and being high up in the Alps when its raining is a waste of time, well sacrifice some beer to the weather gods as to please them, good German beer should please any God.
on motorway, boring but quick and the next day down to Donsbach where I have the pleasure to have some very good friends who were happy to have us as house guests for two nights, some eating and some drinking and some some sightseeing soon polished off the day.
The next day we went south for a while and then some shoddy programming of the sat nav found us way out of the way, but the riding was good so it did not really matter, hotels we hard to find not the hotels as such but ones with rooms to rent were a rare as hens teeth.
The next day we checked and double checked the goal of today which would be Freiburg, not further from Switzerland than you can spit a rat.
Good but slow riding, it takes forever with hamlets being very close together, almost 10 hrs to do 300 and some km.
Crossing some mountain ranges in Alsace was the high of the day and its now beer oclock and I like being punctual.
As the weather forecast for the weekend in Switzerland promised rain, so we remained in Alsace and did some very nice rides in this region, good views and a very crappy lunch, but yet again you cant get it all even if you want.
Then down to Mulhouse for some sleep and a so so hotel and a crummy Thai wannabe dinner and some fermented grape juice and it was shuteye time
Not wanting to pay for the motorway pass made some interesting detours via Germany onto some local Swiss roads, with more speed limits than cars, it took, not forever but it seemed so, finally after 10 hrs we arrived at our goal, Andermatt,
1500 m or so up in the mist laden sky made it cold outside, so we dined at the hotel and got a good nights sleep.
We did Furka pass made fame in the Bond film, Goldfinger with hotel Belvedere in all its splendour in front our very eyes, unfortunately no Sean Connery.
A quick over priced lunch and then we crossed over the Oberalp pass and ended up in Davos after some more excellent riding
Truly a day to remember , the only drag is that no picture will ever make justice to the breathtaking landscape.
Davos was a horrifying experience for my wallet, we take turns, sort of, to pay for things and it was my turn.
Bright and bushy tailed we left for Austria and Grossglockner and some other sundry Austrian delights and ended up in Mittelsitter in a 74 year of hotel with some 50 cm wide floor boards and a nice landlady who haggled with herself, nice
Im as always interested in ornithology, I enjoy a nice bird as much as any aficionado of birds, notable drop in Switzerland, dreary looking with a dull plumage, things picked up in Austria.
Anyway after too much food and wine we had an early breakfast and set off with moderate speed to Grossglockner, moderate speed is safer than some of the lunies whove got motorbikes and think that every trip is a race., No wonder that accidents happen when they overtake in hidden corners and expect people to move to make way for them.
As for me I kept to the right side of the road and so far so good, no broken bones, but then again the fat lady has not sung yet.
