Edelweiss Ducati Tour Part 3: Passes

To most motorcyclists, the twisties are the best type of riding. Passes are a special and riding the Alps is about riding passes. Passes are special as they combine challenging roads, beautiful scenery, slow moving traffic and often dangerous drop-offs. But they are amazing fun. They are to motorcyclists what honey is to bears. And this tour includes a number of the best Alpine passes.

Day two's ride started by taking us through some picturesque Alpine foothills and valleys on to through to Lichtenstein and then on to Switzerland. It was very hot and with Switzerland's 80 kph general speed limit it looked to me like today was not going to be as good as yesterday.

We made our way through Lichtenstein capital city, Vaduz, and on to the beautiful Walensee lake (which is back in Switzerland) for lunch. (Point E on the Map.) 

Switzerland is an expensive place. My garden salad lunch was CHF19.50 ~ AU$24. It would have been about $12 inMelbourne. Petrol works out to AU$2.17 a litre!  

After lunch the fun began. The first pass was Klausenpass. The road rises through a valley and then several switchbacks take you up to a high vantage point with a spectacular view. There was quite a bit of traffic on this pass so a moderate riding style was needed....

and the road surface was pretty crap!!

There always seems to be a cafe or kiosk at or near the top of the pass where everyone stops to marvel at the view and share the moment, as we did. The exhilaration of the ride and the cooler temperature in the mountains had us set off again with renewed enthusiasm on to....

 Sustenpass....

Not all that challenging, but a great ride. Somewhere along that road someone has a pig sty. peeuw, the disgusting stench wafted up-hill for probably 8-10 k's. Ahhh, the joys of motorcycling!

And then it was on to Grimsel Pass.

And finally Kurka Pass; the biggest and the best of the day.

Lots and lots of bikes, and your mettle is properly tested. There were no police around and I just followed the locals example, hitting 150 kph at certain points! Brilliant!!!. 

The official Day 2 route is 230km. Does not sound like that much but with the traffic and with about 40% of the distance within 50 kph zones, it took us from 9am till about 4.30 pm. Marko the guide, suggested we do a little additional loop to take in the three passes above. Seeing as we had such keen riders, so in all it turned not a 320 km day. We arrived at out hotel in Andermatt at 7.30 pm, shagged out but exhilarated.