Tag: hiking

Wk 11 – Switzerland

Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th June

Mon 3rd June – Samedan – 120k

1 Pass – Maloja Pass 1815m

We’re in no hurry this morning as we have our included breakfast before taking our leave from Mandello del Lario and meander up Lake Como’s eastern shoreline to Varenna where we catch the vehicular ferry to Menaggio on the western shore. Here, all relaxation comes to an abrupt halt as we join the helter-skelter of traffic travelling this singular road, there being no by-passing freeway on this side of the lake.

Before us are raised the Swiss Alps as we head north for Chiavenna with its Romanic Ponte sul Mera beside which we had morning tea, with strudel, followed by a walk-around.

Kissing Rocks or Sasc Taca

Sasc Taca

are just short of Palazzo Castelmur, an early 18th century castle which is now a museum and accessed via its low 6 arched 1897 bridge.

Castelmur Castle

There is only 1 pass trying to bar our way today. Passo del Maloja is a short sharp climb to 1815mtrs.

Maloja Pass

And so to Samedan which is just up the road from St Moritz with all its glitz.

Tues 4th – Samedan Loop – 75k

1.9 Passes – Passo del Bernina 2328m, Albulapass 2312m

Bernina Pass is just down the road and it’s a very popular run for motorcycles, pushbikes and sporty automobiles.

But first we stop at Val Bernina and take the cable car up to Diavolezza, 2958m, where we can see all the highest peaks of the Eastern Alps, including the Piz Bernina, and the Pers Glacier. There are some spectacular views from up here.

We stop at Bernina Pass and have a brew before doing a U-turn back down the mountain.

Looking east from Bernina Pass – Stelvio Pass is out there somewhere.

I know that Albulapass is closed, but we see how close we can get before being turned around.

We get to within 3klms from the top, which is still a fair ways to go.

We head back down and have lunch at La Punt-Chamues.

And finish the day with a visit to St Moritz where a coffee is A$10, so we went without. Actually, we’ve found everything is incredibly expensive in Switzerland, at least compared to what we’re used to.

Leihbibliothek St. Moritz

And a couple of pics from Samedan where we’re staying.

Thur 6th – Chur – 185k

2 Passes – Julierpass 2284m, Passo del San Bernardino 2066m

It is a glorious day as we take our leave of Samedan and retrace our steps through St Moritz and Silvaplana towards Julierpass.

Looking back over Silvaplana.

Julierpass

Lai da Marmorera

Lake Marmorera earthen wall.

Looking up this long valley towards Albula/Alvra

We took a left at Albula/Alvra and a long return loop to San Bernardino Pass. I hadn’t realized that we’d actually traversed this pass in 2022.

The 6.6klm San Bernardino Tunnel goes directly underneath this.

We found our 3rd floor apartment in Chur (pronounced ‘Kir’ for we Aussies) and then found that all parking in Kir is A$50 a night 😦 Motorbikes are free of course.

Fr 7th – Glacier Express – Chur 2 Andermatt

The Glacier Express is a tourist-oriented train service running between St Moritz and Zermatt and access to the Matterhorn.

I pinched this pic off Wikipedia.

We did a round trip from Chur to Andermatt.

The headwaters of the Rhine River

And looking down on the the Rhine Gorge – in 2022 we travelled the road to the south of the Gorge affording these incredible views.

Oberalp Pass

Trying to ignore all the bikers laughing behind us.

Spring meadow flowers

Looking down on Andermatt

This should be us!!

And it really is this green.

Lai da Curnera

The Glacier Express is very popular, and very expensive.

Sat 8th – Chur SE Loop – 150k

2 Passes – Fluelapass 2384m, Wolfgangpass 1632m,

Another Loop drive, that should be a ride.

Leaving Chur with Haldensteiner Calanda and Felsberger Calanda in the background. Both of them over 2700m.

And behind me. Boys doing what boys do best!??

Onto Fluelapass which was very white.

Looking south from Fluelapass

Then heading back north from Fluelapass

We stopped here and a had a brew and some lunch.

Another Grand Tour Foto-Spot.

These trees literally hanging onto the side of the cliff.

We continued on over Wolfgang Pass which isn’t anything to write home about.

And more classical Swiss scenery like this.
I can appreciate that many will get bored with so many of these pics showing very much the same things. But the point is that we come from Australia where absolutely nothing looks anything like this. Where pretty much everything is a varying shade of brown, even the green, and everything is flat, the tallest mountain being Mount Kosciuszko at 2228m, and the roads are totally rubbish – especially in Victoria. So you see it’s all a novelty for we few, we fortunate few, from the Land Down Under.
Enough of that.

Sun 9th – Andermatt – 180k

2 Passes – St. Luzisteig Pass 715m, Klausenpass 1948m

It’s a cloudy and damp day as we pays our 3 nights A$150 parking (yes, seriously) and take our leave of Chur.
Our first stop was St. Luzisteig Pass, which of itself was nothing significant apart from the fact that the Swiss maintain a military presence there with guard posted.

These sheep being the biggest threat to their security I’d think. Norma thought they were cute anyway.

We came this way so we could sneak through the SW corner of Liechtenstein, just so we could say we’d been there.

Gutenberg Castle

It took us all of 10 minutes to drive through Liechtenstein including the time it took to take these pics.

We stopped alongside Walensee

Walensee – that’s a man made tunnel over there, goodness knows what for because there’s no road or rail leading to or from it that I could ascertain.

More Swiss countryside.

To Klausenpass where it was very cold and swarming with moto riders – lucky ducks. We stopped for a brew and lunch of fresh rolls with banana.

We chased the Klausenstrasse Rte17 with more of that eye opening scenery

To Rte2 and then it was south on the freeway to Andermatt where we’ll spend 4 nights.

And that’s all for this week folks. Hope you enjoy it.
See you next week from Chamonix and Mont Blanc in France.

Wk 10 – Bolzano to Mandello

Monday 27th May to Sunday 2nd June

Mon 27th – Bolzano Nth Loop – 155k

3 Passes – Penser Joch 2211m, Sterzinger Jaufenjoch 1998m, Passo di Monte Giovo 2094m.

It’s a beautiful day as we brave our way through the morning school drop-off, except in Europe they don’t clutter the road with their badly driven SUVs, but they escort their kids to school on their ‘all over the road’ pushbikes.

We eventually got out of town and had a roadside peak at the mid 13th century Castel Roncolo and it’s smaller sibling Castello Reid.

Castello Reid

Castel Roncolo

We then followed the SS508 north. It gets really pretty along here as we climbed towards Penser Joch or Passo Pennes.

At the top of the Pass we ran into a bunch of guys on their tiny noisy 50cc two stroke motorbikes. They straggled in in 1 and 2s from the northern side of the pass and their reactions showed it had been quite a feat for their little smokers, which is understandable as the pass is 2211m
There were about 15 of them. Just a couple of pics.

We headed down.

This region is known as either Northern Italy or South Tyrol, but what ever you call it, it’s definitely Austrian in architecture. EVERY house looks like this or a slight variation on the same theme. It was originally Austrian but was annexed by Italy following WW1.

We drove around Vipiteno Sterzing looking for a car park. It must have been market day because there were more cars than parks. Plenty of motorbike parks mind you! We kept going and turned south west towards home.

First stop was Jaufen Pass, the lower part of Passo di Monte Giovo.

Where we stopped amidst a number of those smug motorbike riders. We had coffee and delicious apple strudel – as you do.

This picture is where we indulged in coffee and cake. But the significance of it is the big doll/manikin of a Marmot or large ground squirrel (left), which live up in these high passes – we did see a couple scampering around as we descended from Penser Joch.
This lone establishment not only sold scrumptious delights but also Marmot Ointment, a proclaimed miracle working Marmot extraction, better known as snake oil. We left it on the shelf and headed south and down, down down.

These two guys on their ancient tractors, holding up traffic and sponsored by a prominent finance company. I know this because the pic I took of the rear tractor’s trailer had a QR Code that triggered said sponsor’s web page on my phone. Technology hey!

A line of dawdling Harleys. They sound good though.

We stopped beside this thaw laden stream for a brew and lunch.

Before dropping into Merano where we found a place to park our limousine.

The heavens opened as we headed back to Balzano, but we’d had a good day, and we were dry.

Tues 28th May – Bolzano

These corner bay windows are a very common feature on city buildings in this area.

Mussolini’s Bolzano Victory Monument

13th century Maretsch Castle

Bolzano Cathedral

City Hall and Monument dedicated to King Laurin Denkmal

Wed 29th – Bolzano to Bormio – 205k

4 Passes – Passo della Mendola 1363m, Forcella di Brez 1398m, Passo del Tonale 1883m, Passo dell’Aprica 1176m

After buying a new pair of shoes, it was a bit of jungle escaping from Bolzano only to find the push bike riders had gotten out of bed way earlier than us as we climbed to Mendel Pass – there were dozens of them.

Ascending Mendel Pass

Going down the other side.
We’ve seen vast amounts of these crops in this greater region. I suspect they’re apples or stone fruit trees

Forcella di Brez was next on list of Passes for the day. It was a disappointment, so we joined the main road and headed west. We stopped for a brew and some lunch outside of Dimaro

Before climbing to Passo del Tonale which had some spectacular views.

Military Memorial Passo del Tonale where the remains of 847 Italian fallen soldiers are collected in the shrine, fifty of which are unknown.

Across the road from the Memorial

Going down

The intention had been to cross the Passo di Gavia which is one of the ‘must do’ passes in the region. It was closed. I’d tried to time our visit to this area so as to be able to cross these famous passes, but it seems my timing is out for this year, because they’re usually open by now.
Passo di Foppa was also closed so we had to take the long way around, adding 60k to the day, via Passo dell’Aprica which is nothing significant.

We found our pleasant apartment in Bormio.

Thur 30th – Bormio NE Loop – 85k

3 Passes – Passo Torri di Fraele 1930m, Foscagno Pass 2291m, Passo Eira 2208m.

We were to do Stelvio Pass, at 2757m, today. But it’s closed, and will be for quite a while by all accounts. Which is very disappointing for all the bikers and push bikers in town, and one Panda driver, who’d all hoped to enjoy the famous hairpins. The live cameras tell the story.

So we headed West for the day. First port of call was Torri di Fraele, or Fraele Towers which are 14th century signal towers.
And it’s an impressive climb, or would have been if we’d been able to see where we were going for the cloud cover. But this is what it should look like from the top looking down.

Torri di Fraele – from Wikipedia

Google Maps

16 hairpins

And believe me, they are sharp. My pics

And the sun came out, just for this at the top of Torri di Fraele

We descended as we’d ascended

and continued to Foscagno Pass and Passo Eira where we had some lunch.

Foscagno Pass

Passo Eira

It was very quiet in terms of traffic, which was odd because it was the only way into the region from the north. We retraced our steps to Bormio.

Fri 31st – Bormio to Mandello del Lario – 170k

1 Pass – Passo Agueglio 1167m

It was bucketing down as we exited Bormio heading for Lake Como. There were a number of bikers leaving town as well and I felt their pain because not only hadn’t they been able to enjoy the amazing passes in the area but they were getting seriously cold and wet for the pleasure.

It rained all the way to Lake Como, then stopped.

We dropped into the tiny village of Coreano Plinio

Arche degli Andriani

We took a slight detour by way of Passo Agueglio which is really just a (narrow) loop off the main road, but an enjoyable drive. With some nice views down to Lake Como.

It was 3pm when we pulled up at Mamma Ciccia’s apartments and rooms, and found that the Moto Guzzi Museum was open so we went and had a look – again. I’m a bit of a Moto Guzzi fan and have owned 4 of them over the years, having taken 2 of them to Europe, in 2016 and 2019. Maybe I should have brought one this time 😦

We’d visited the museum in 2016, when we were riding a Moto Guzzi Stelvio.

We were so much older then –

We’re younger than that now 😉

The original 1919 Moto Guzzi

Moto Guzzi factory circa 1958 – output 36,500 units a year.

The latest Moto Guzzi Stelvio.

And as I sit here typing this, this little beauty is right in front of me.

And any visit to Mandello wouldn’t be complete without saying “Gidday mate” to Carlo Guzzi, one of the three founders of the Moto Guzzi marque.

Sat 1st June – Lake Como

Today’s looking pretty good so we catch the ferry to Como via Bellagio.

Mandello del Lario

Looking north on Lake Como. We’ll be up in them thar hills next week.

Bellagio

Bellagio

Bellagio was wall to wall tourists, doing what tourists do best

And then it was the next ferry to Como, which was pretty much continuous views of the homes of the rich and famous, or even not so famous I guess. But we’d all like to own one of these.

Como was wall to ceiling with tourists. We wandered for an hour.

Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta. 1369 to 1770. That’s a long time.

Torre di San Vitale

Porta Torre Como

Chiesa di Santa Cecilia

There’s a lot to see in Como, but we didn’t have the time. As it was we’d (I’d) misinterpreted the ferry time table so we missed our connecting ferry from Bellagio back to Mandello. So we continued onto Varenna and caught a train back to Mandello.

From Monday we’re in Switzerland. See you week.

Wk 9 – Lake Garda to the Dolomites

Monday 20th to Sunday 26th May

Mon 20th – Lake Garda

Today we did a ferry trip around the northern end of Lake Garda. It’s a popular thing to do. First stop; Malcesine to Limone Sul Garda where we spent an hour.

Before catching the next ferry to Riva del Garda.

We spent a leisurely couple of hours in Riva del Garda – it’s a pleasant place.

In the late afternoon we did it all in reverse back to Malcesine and took a long walk around the waterfront.

This is nice

Tues 21st – Malcesine & Castle

Today was miserable.
We took a look at Castello Scaligero di Malcesine, which, with its 13th-century fortifications and even older medieval tower, is Malcesine’s most prominent landmark.

Wed 22nd May – Cortina d’Ampezzo – 260k

1 Pass – Passo Tre Croci 1809m

Today we literally head for the hills.
But before we left Malcesine, and because the sun was shining, we caught the early Malcesine to Mont Baldo Cable Car, which took us 1760m above Lake Garda to some magnificent alpine views.

The traffic wasn’t too bad as we headed north, but the bikes were overtaking us in multiples – we ignored them.
Our first pic stop was Castel Toblino on Lago di Toblino.

We popped into Forte di Cadine. It was built in 1860 as part of the first group of permanent Austrian fortifications, with the purpose to block enemy access to Trento. There’s not much happening there nowadays.

We pushed on to Trento where Google Maps found us a convenient car park so we could wander around town. There was much activity happening in preparation for some economic festival.
We had Subway for lunch – the first one we’ve seen on this journey. Can’t beat a nice Subway.

We’d planned to stop for a look at Feltre, but it was bucketing down so we kept going and passed a few of those cheeky motorbike riders frantically pulling on wets. We laughed out loud as we sprayed on by in our Fiat 500 Panda Hybrid with heating and comfortable seats and window wipers slapping time.

By now we were climbing. I’ve no idea where this is but it’s just short of our only pass for the day, Passo De Troci at 1809mtrs.
We were now back on track to our original plan and it felt good, even if we weren’t enjoying the never ending bends and sweepers as we’d like to have been. Except when it’s raining; then we’re just total hypocrites.

You’d have to think this bridge is slowly being engulfed with limestone runoff with the snow thaw.

15 minutes after crossing Passo De Troci, we were in Cortina d’Ampezzo where we’ll prop for four nights.
Our ridiculously expensive budget priced accommodation did give us some pleasant views.

Now, before I continue, I must warn you that from now on there’s going to be lots of pics of lots of mountains, lots of snow, lots of rocks etc etc. I make no excuses for this tiresome practise because it’s why this trip is happening in the first place. And I do say that the actual experience far surpasses the amateur photography shown.
My high end photographic equipment consists of a 2018 Samsung Galaxy S9+, which primary function is to run TomTom Go Navigation. Why such an old phone? It’s complicated but there is a sound reason – PM me if you want to know any more.

Thurs 23rd May – Cortina SE Loop – 95klm

3 Passes – Passo Cibiana 1530m, Forcella Staulanza 1766m, Passo di Giau 2236m

Today was our first of 9 planned Loop days from various stays. From Cortina we did 2 of them. The intention had been to do as many of the alpine passes as we could, and experience them by motorbike. After this first loop we certainly know what we’ll be missing out on, but we’ll make the most of it in our dry, warm, comfortable, economical, gutless, safe automobile.

Todays pic fest.

Fri 24th May – Cortina SW Loop – 120klm

4 Passes – Passo di Giau 2236m, Passo di Fedaia 2057m, Passo Pordoi 2239m, Passo di Falzarego 2105m

We stopped here at the convergence of two valleys for a brew and late lunch on pilfered from breakfast hard boiled eggs, bread rolls and cake, just short of Passo di Falzarego. We watched a cold front come over as we retreated to our make-believe motorbike and drove the final 20klm home – in 2c and snow (ROFL)

And today is Friday, so snow or sunshine, it’s ice cream day – ask Norma.

Sun 26th May – Bolzano – 130k

7 passes – Passo Falzarego 2105m, Valparola Pass 2168m, Gardena Pass 2136m, Sela de Culac 2020m, Passo Sella 2218m, Karerpass 1745m, Nigerpass 1688m.

We woke to glorious sunshine today, and it was certainly an amazing day to be on the road for our final taste of the fabulous Dolomites. The views just kept on coming, the corners never ended, the push bike riders looked exhausted as usual, and the motorbikes were too numerous to count.

It really has been fabulous to experience the famous Dolomites over the last few days. The weather hasn’t always been kind, but the experience hasn’t disappointed.
So now we’re in Bolzano for 3 nights, then Bormio for 2 nights (alas, it appears the Gavia, Umbrail and Stelvio Passes are closed) then it’s Mandello Del Lario for 3 nights.
See you next week.