Road trip in Alps

The focus of this year's road trip in the Alps is to discover a bit more of the Swiss Alps. We thus embarked the day before on the night train with our motorbikes securily attached in Vienna direction Feldkirch, next to the Lake Constance (Bodensee), at the border between Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, on the Austrian side. We start a day later than anticipated because we could not manage to secure two tickets for the desired day. Monday will do though and we decided to go for a 4-bed cabin instead of individual mini-cabins in the new night trains. I don't remember if I booked these tickets before or after my experience with the mini-cabin I had coming back from Hanover in my trip in Germany this year, but it was a good idea, I slept much better even though I was excited to see mountains for the next 10 or so days. Upon entering our room for the night, we discovered the door handle was broken. Nothing pliers from a Swiss army knife couldn't handle though. Having bought myself a new helmet a few weeks prior, with a new intercom, my road trip companion also invested in what I thought would be a compatible intercom (mine being a Nolan intercom but done by Sena and his a Sena). This was a pain point in the previous road trip and our occasional week-end drives, requiring us to either stop the engines, remove the helmets or shout to communicate. After spending 30min with our helmets on in the train trying to get everything to work, it seems that maybe this will work (spoilers, it didn't).
We disembark early in the morning in Feldkirch, with good weather although a bit cold.
After securing our luggage on the bikes and filling our water bottles, we hop on the bikes and start our trip. The original plan for this day was to enter Switzerland by the Eastern border with Austria, through Martina, Switzerland. We would have driven the Silvretta high Alpine road which I tried to look up as little as possible but was really promising in terms of landscapes. An hour driving South-East from Feldkirch and upon entering the tunnel before Partenen, we are greeted by signs telling us the pass was closed. After taking some time to check what's possible, it turns out that an incident happened the day before and they had decided to close the road indefinitely. We eventually decide to head back to Felkirch and enter Switzerland from there. We end up "losing" about 2 hours with this attempt to go on the Silvretta high Alpine road, not the best sign on the first hours of the first day. Our crossing into Switzerland actually makes us go through Liechtenstein first, another country added to our "drove there" list. We decide to take a lunch break at Grüenbödeli Grill Restaurant on the side of the road a few kilometers before Davos, where we are painfully reminded that Switzerland is not on the cheaper side when it comes to food (it was good though).

After our nice burger break, we go around the Albula Alps, through the Flüela pass. The sporadic rain wets us as quickly as the sun and wind dries it out.

The sky quickly starts to darken menacingly just before we take the road to the Albula pass. Looking at what's ahead, we decide to take a break and hope the rain clouds dissipate in the next few minutes. That is a good idea since it pours rain for about 20 minutes while we find shelter below the roof of a trashbin shack next to the road. After taking a photo break for what I believe to be the Piz Ela of the Albula Alps, we finish our day at Camping Islas in Filisur where we'll be staying for the night.

All mornings during this trip will be some sort of the same: waking up with the tents and bikes wet from the morning dew, starting to pack, drying tents under the morning sun while preparing and then eating breakfast which is mostly the same every day, oatmeal and tea. While we cannot say the same for evenings, morning weather was always pleasant, albeit fresh most of the time, greeting us with some landscape to look at.
We leave the Albula mountain range towards the Lepontine Alps where Chilchalphorn waits for us.

The road leads us around the Adula Alps, part of the Lepontine Alps where we stop at the San Bernardino pass. The Moesola lake gifts us a magnificent view on Piz Uccello and other mountains I unfortunately couldn't identify.

We constantly monitor the weather forecast, which changes a lot over a period of 10 to 30 minutes, to avoid being caught in pouring rain. It paid off yesterday before going to the Albula pass and it's something that will be part of our daily routine. Today we do a pitstop in Castione to buy groceries for lunch and dinner with the usual struggle of finding some free room in our luggage to stash them. The rain doesn't seem to be wetting the road ahead anymore, so we hop on our bikes in the direction of Interlaken. After about two hours, we stop at a parking lot in the middle of nowhere to admire the impressive 360° view. A few minutes later, 10 to 15 trucks of the Swiss army full of armed personnel join our bikes. Quite the surprise. Pizzo del Sole and Pizzo Colombe stand proud, soft light shining at different spots with the wind blowing the few clouds around. It truly felt like time was going slower for a moment. We wait for the menacing clouds and the weather forecast to give us the green light and continue our daily driving.

A few hours later and through Lukmanier, Oberalp and Susten passes, we stop at Camping Gadmen for the night. Today was a long day and we take a small break before putting up our tents. We power through the laziness and setup the tents just in time for the rain to pour for half an hour. Good timing! The sky clears while we eat our pizzas on the restaurant's balcony and we enjoy the sunset before calling it a day. Alas, I forgot to restart my GPS in the middle of the day, so the daily trace is incomplete and I couldn't find the mountains in the pictures while writing this post, too many in the area and no close match.

Today's goal is simple: finding a camping spot in Lauterbrunnen or maybe even Stechelberg to be as close as possible to the beginning of the first big hike we have planned. This year, we don't really plan where we are going to sleep the next day, we drive and during lunch break or in the middle of the afternoon we vaguely search for camping spots a few hours away. This also means we don't book in advance, we just show up and hope there's room for two tents. This area being pretty popular, we don't want to push our luck and decide to arrive in Stechelberg before Rütti camping's front desk open, early in the afternoon. We arrive about 30min in advance and there's already someone in the queue with their camping car. A few cars also arrive in the next minutes. We fortunately manage to get some spot (without shade) for two nights. We are finished putting up our tents when it's only 3pm. We decide to go on a hike of a few hours to get a taste of what's ahead of us for tomorrow's 6-7 hours hike.
The scenery is incredible, with snowy mountains and waterfalls, surrounded by the forest during what will end up being a 5-hour hike (13.3km, +-900m).
On our way up we meet a few cows and snap a couple pictures of them from afar. Another cow (or more likely a bull) doesn't seem to think the distance separating us from our subjects is appropriate and starts galloping down-hill towards us. We don't need to be told twice Madam or Sir, our apologies, off we go.

Today's the big day, we are going on our first serious hike of the trip. We start by walking to Lengwald where the cable car to Gimmelwald starts. It takes us a few minutes to find the ticket booth and then hurry to catch the cable car that's about to leave. The signage is somewhat confusing but after running around we manage to find the correct cable car whose operator was fortunately waiting for us.
We arrive in Gimmelwald in the clouds, with little visibility. After a few minutes, we are now in dense fog which isn't that much of an improvement. We go down for about half an hour and then start the steep ascent which will be split in two sections of an hour each. The ascent is demanding and not very rewarding for now. Even though the clouds and fog are dissipating, we are mostly in the forest on the side of the mountain. It is however most welcome as the few tens of minutes during which we don't have trees providing shade are even more tiring.
Having learnt from yesterday that cows may not really like us being around them, we take notice of this new group with a few calves. They often take a peak and move around, but the terrain outside of the paths is less adapted to us humans, so we do some detour and hope we don't have to run if we end up bothering them for some reason. We take care of making as little sound as possible, avoiding dry twigs or rocks when moss or grass is available. We probably end up looking more suspicious doing so.
The valley and surrounding mountains are still in the clouds, robing us from what I am sure would be a breath-taking view. We reach the bottom of the optional Tanzbödeli viewpoint. The ascent looks steep and in dense fog. We decide to go up anyway, hoping the time it takes us to reach the top will allow the fog to dissipate or at least being above it.

With wind jackets on, allowing us to not feel cold (though gloves were needed), Tanzbödeli welcomes us with a view on nothing but what could be Spitzhorn, as can be seen in the first video. The wind is cold and always present, the clouds moving fast. Putting together all the glimpses of the surroundings between clouds I can picture in their mind how majestic the panoramic view would be. We end up spending two hours there, trying to capture this beautiful landscape both on our cameras and in our brains. The cold eventually gets the better of us and we decide to head back to the camping ground. 9 hours and almost 15km (+1100m, -1600m) later, we end the day with a traditional Rösti at the restaurant in Stechelberg, exhausted but with memories that will stick.

The next day starts like the previous day, with the surrouding mountains in fog.
Today's our last day in Switzerland as we now head to Italy. On our way, we drive through the Grimsel pass after driving past the Grimsel Hospiz hotel and the two nearby Spitallamm dams, and the Nufenen pass.
We struggle to find somewhere to eat and end up going for a kebap in Biasca in the middle of the afternoon. Today's a hot day and it probably isn't the best idea to eat something warm and heavy on the stomach, but this was the best option.
We take a long break before going back on the road. The saddle is buttocks' free two hours later when we reach our camping, Campeggio al Parco d'Oro, which just changed owners. The camping ground and young owners are lovely. It's among the cheapest in that area and quiet with a relaxing mood, even with kids around (or maybe they are well-behaved kids).

Yesterday, we took the last turn before the border but today, we cross the border to Italy.
Today is very hot as we drive along the Lugano and Como lakes, our elevation not exceeding 400m in the first 2 and half hours. We once again struggle to decide where to eat and end up at a Japanese/sushi restaurant in Morbegno. The AC in the restaurant really is helpful getting our body temperature to lower a bit.
We reach the San Marco pass on our way to San Pellegrino Terme, then the Zambla pass.
There doesn't seem to be many options for camping where we are going. We end up agreeing on two options that are on the road. We pass the first one without noticing and have to do a u-turn to get back to it... with an enormous front gate that is closed and a big sign attached to the fence telling it's for sale. Looking at the dark clouds ahead of us if we continue to our next option 30 minutes away, my friend gathers the courage I don't have to ring the intercom and to our surprise it's open and accepting guests.
We enter the premises, park our bikes next to skinny (very likely stray) cats in front of the big building and wait a bit. Nobody comes to us, so we try to guess where the front desk is and we decide to go ask at the restaurant since two people are sitting next to the entrance door.
Despite being called an International camping with many big flags floating by the entrance, it is difficult to find someone speaking a few words of English. We are also getting a bit concerned by seeing absolutely no tent or even grass whatsoever, only old camping cars that probably haven't moved in decades.
We're shown a slab of concrete which obviously won't do for setting up a tent and after complaining we are shown another slab, but this time next to a mix of gravel, grass and moss. We visit the amenities and the whole thing has an eerie and off vibe to it. I don't feel safe but my friend convinces me it's okay for a night. We barely have the time to put our tents up and discuss what the dinner options are that it starts pouring rain. Good thing we didn't continue on the road, we otherwise would have been completely soaked.
We decide too late on asking if the restaurant in the camping still serves at that time (a bit before 9pm). Driving under these conditions makes no sense, so we're left to cook on our portable camping stove despite the lack of motivation, taking shelter under the 50cm of roof from an uninhabited camping car next to us. The rain calms down a few times but not for long. The night will be long with the rainy storm. Around 2 to 3am, a helicopter with a strong projector scans the mountains nearby, probably looking for someone caught by the storm and stranded.

I wake up tired but the sun is shining, so we are able to dry our tents and bikes. It's more than halfway through the trip, so we take the time to clean the chains and re-apply grease.
We continue going East, towards Vienna, but still through Italy. We stop at a pizzeria in the touristic Ponte di Legno. We escape the rain by not much all day long.
Tonight's stay is at Eden camping in Falcade. We are recommended to dine at the restaurant of the Albergio Alpino hotel where we eat good and for cheap. On the way back to the camping, we take a few pictures at dusk.
I rest for a few minutes in my tent, and it's enough for the storm to come say hello. It seems particularly angry today as it will pour rain for about 3 hours before I can go out brush my teeth and prepare for the night. Exiting the tent is an adventure, being surrounded by puddles. I manage to make it in time before the next downpour happens. The night is cold and I don't sleep too well, too worried I might wake up my feet in the water.

Yesterday, I took too long to put the water-resistant cover on my tank bag and my lenses, camera and external battery pack are covered by a thin veil of humidity. The battery pack refuses to charge. The sun slowly gets out and we let our stuff dry as much as it can, which isn't as much as we would like to. The clouds are present though not menacing.
But, I'm excited. Because today is the day we drive through a pass I did by myself 2 years back. I couldn't stop because it started to rain and eventually hail and there was nowhere to take shelter. However cloudy and covered it was, even considering I actually couldn't see anything, there was something about this place. Something that was screaming "come back and I'll take your breath away". I felt it then, and I only had a glimpse at pictures taken there by other people and knew I was right, I had to come back.
We buy breakfast from the bakery in Falcade and restock food for the next meals we may have to cook on the stove (like oatmeal for breakfast). The scenery being gorgeous, we take our time eating before heading back on the road.

I am a bit nervous about potentially having the same weather this year at the Passo Giau than two years prior. It's a tiny bit cold and the rain has wet the road a bit already, but we make it to the pass all right. Although the curse that's followed us ever since the beginning of this trip continues: the mountain peaks are all in the clouds.
I don't regret insisting on coming back based on that feeling I had two years ago, it truly is breath-taking even with the few clouds trying to ruin the view. My friend is quick to say that "see we've made it without rain"... too quick. Having removed the gloves to take pictures, the cold bites our fingers and we decide to leave the pass. As retribution for claiming victory over the weather too early, we encounter proper downpour that forces us to stop, already drenched, to try and save the last few dry patches on our trousers and put rain pants on.
We say goodbye to the magnificent Dolomites and Italy, and cross the border to Austria. We decide to spend two nights in Camping Lienzer Dolomiten in Tassenbach to dry our clothes and rest a bit. We've just put the bike on the side-stand that rain drops make their appearance. We put up the tents quickly, make dinner and go to bed.

It's been the coldest night, waking up around 8am, the tents covered in dew and the Internet thermometer says between 5 and 9°C. Sleeping in pants with t-shirts, fleece and socks in my 20°C-rated sleeping bag didn't make it a comfortable-enough night.
I must admit I lied, today is not rest day. Today is our last hike of the trip, so we take the bus to Kartitsch where we'll begin. We meet the nicest lady with many life stories to share. We part ways because it's already a quarter past eleven and we really need to get going if we want to be back before the last bus leaves for Tassenbach.

Unlike yesterday evening, today is a relatively sunny and warm day.
We take a short break mid-way up to admire the view and take a few pictures of the two wooden houses. It is then that my wide lens starts acting up and locks up my camera. Above 16mm, everything is fine, between 12 and 16mm it doesn't cooperate. Consequences of my failing to protect it from humidity in the last few days on the tank bag? A few months after, it works as often as it doesn't and reading up online hints at there being a defect in the lens that costs as much fixing as buying a new lens. Oh well.
We take our lunch break at the top of our hike where we can admire a 360° view with a lot of Austrian landscape but also a bit of the Italian side. The lady we met in the morning highly recommended us to go to the rocky peak with the cross you can see in one of the pictures, to have a better view on the Italian side, her favorite. However, we knew before starting it was too late for us this time. Another time maybe!
Despite the sun shining, the wind was making it not that enjoyable and we had to take cover a bit below the peak to eat and try stop being cold. However, we counted ourselves lucky after looking from afar at the few mountains and valleys being rained on.
The Lienz Dolomites greets us in the distance.
Tonight is a cold night once again. Tomorrow, a long day waits for us.

Our plan is to drive two well known high alpine roads in Austria today: Grossglockner Hochalpenstraße, the highest road in Austria, and Nockalmstraße. We had planned to drive the former during our road trip in 2022 but the weather made it impossible so we had to adjust our plans. Yesterday, the road was closed to motorcycles due to the cold and snow, so we wake up not knowing whether today will be possible. Looking at the various webcams, we see snow on the side of the road and heavy fog on some. But the website tells us it's open and the weather forecast hints at bettering later in the morning so we decide it's green light!
We stop at the toll booth to cover up, the cold creeping in already. Only half way up, even with winter gloves, and my fingers are already numb. We take a small break before entering a tunnel where the display says it's currently -2.9°C. Ah. No picture as proof, because there's no chance I'm taking my gloves off for this.
We arrive at the top where a big parking lot offers us some room outside. It's less cold than at the tunnel, but barely above zero and hoping off the saddle, I'm shivering for a few minutes. But here we are, on the highest road in Austria looking at the highest mountain in Austria (3798m) and the longest glacier in Austria (Pasterze, 8.4km). Or rather, the base of the highest mountain because the curse goes on, the peaks are still in the clouds. We don't stay for long as snow is starting to fall and the shivers can only help warm up so much.

We now head to Nockalmstrasse via the Autobahn where it's much warmer. The road is twisty though the landscape cannot match what we saw this very morning. We take a few photo breaks knowing this is our last real driving day "far" from Vienna. Tonight, we'll stay at a friend's near Klagenfurt but we still have to drive about two hours.
Going down Nockalmstrasse, I eventually get tired of waiting behind cars doing 30kph in a 70 zone and make the absolute idiotic spontaneous decision to overpass two cars in consecutive turns. At some point, the brain understands the mistake but alas it's too late and I do the mistake of looking where I do not want to go. I end up going straight to a ditch, narrowly avoiding the cemented end of a channel by the side of the road and a wooden post. There's seemingly not enough space for my bike and the side luggage attached on both sides to go in the interval, but somehow I manage to stop helped by a young tree, still on the bike, with the side of the mountain keeping my bike almost straight.
We get the bike out of the ditch and check everything. Only the lugagge seems to have suffered some damage. After giving a bit of time for the adreline to wear off, we slowly start the last leg of the day, the brain trying to find anything unusual in the bike behavior or my body.
In the end, nobody was hurt, so I'll take that and hope I'm not stupid enough to repeat the same mistake.