Saturday 28th May – Martin, Pete & I ride off from Barnzell with wet weather gear on as it looks like the drizzle has set in. Call in at BMW dealer in Degendorf to get my front tyre changes over and have a cup of coffee while checking out his new bike range. Ride on to join the autobahn and push along at 120-130kph – it's occasionally wet but mostly cold. You go to overtake and can see a black BMW about 600 metres back in the middle lane – you pull out and within seconds he's on your tail, you pull in quickly after overtaking and he flashes by at 200+kph.
Arrive at Lindau as the sun starts to come out and find our way to the island section. Hotel rooms are in short supply so Martin & I share at one while Pete is just up the road. Lindau is a beautiful spot and across the water you can see Austria & Switzerland while standing in Germany. We have a couple of beers in a beer garden near the waterfront and then walk around part of the waterfront.
Lindau waterfront
Paul & Pete - Lindau
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Pete shows his skill with the camera - perfect lineup
Sunday 29th May – Leave Lindau & head for Locarno. We have to buy jumper leads for Pete's bike as his battery is dying. In the first 40 minutes we pass through 4 countries – Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein and then Switzerland.
I get an introduction to riding alpine mountain passes and am a bit shell shocked – the first pass has everything you don't need – narrow road, multiple hairpin bends, steep fall away on one side, often no guard rail and every sports biker in Switzerland flying up & down the pass. There will be much of the same through today. The compensation is that Switzerland is mind blowingly beautiful – just try not to look down while cornering through that switchback! Martin & I put all we can into getting the line right on the corners, trying not to cross the centreline into the oncoming traffic.
We enter Italy and then back into the little southeast pocket of Switzerland that Locarno lies in. Arrive around 7.00pm, find hotel and get some dinner. Locarno is situated on the water at Lake Maggiore – our hotel is on the waterfront but our rooms face the railway station behind.
Monday 30th May – Locarno to Lecco in Italy, near Lake Como.
Fun descent on poorish Italian alpine roads in the early afternoon, we have lunch at little Italian family restaurant on the descent. Hot final hour through traffic in Como.
A struggle to find a hotel – Pete & I set off on foot and eventually find reasonable hotel on riverfront.
Tuesday 31st May – Pete leads us out of Lecco and his passion for secondary roads leads us to a winding goat track that winds through remote Italian villages for about 50km. We travel at about 20kph
hoping not to meet oncoming traffic as there's barely room to pass.
Climb & descend over two alpine passes (Bernina Pass & Fluelapass) which fortunately are wider & have fewer hairpins than previous passes. Arrive in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos around 4.00pm. Pete leaves us to ride back to work in Germany and Martin and I look for hotel. Martin did time as medical student in Davos and we find the hospital he worked in – the quarters he lived in are being demolished to build some upmarket apartments.
Wednesday 1st May – Davos - as it's summer we are the only people staying in our hotel. We decide to have a day off the bikes and check out the town before we make plans for travel over the next few days.
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