Final Day 6 - Warth to Ismaning

On our last riding day we were not lucky in terms of weather any more. We had rain more or less all the way from Warth to Ismaning. All the same, the ride started out well and one last time we rode the curves and corners in the mountains, before we made it to Neuschwanstein.

We had a nice little coffee-break, before we headed up to Marienbrücke, the amazing bridge across the canyon next to the castle. It was pouring with rain, but the view was still extraordinary. After our little hike we continued towards Staffelsee, where the lunch was planned. Unfortunately, on the way there we encountered our first problems on the tour, a dying engine and even an accident, that could have ended much worse than it did.

Lunch made up for some of the problems though, and thinking that these kinds of niggles better arrive on the last day than on the first, the whole group (called as of now "Team Resilient"), made it back to Ismaning safely. At our farewell dinner we got the chance to celebrate Amy's and Randy's 5-year wedding anniversary and the group split after sadly saying goodbye - what a great tour it was!

Neuschwanstein-castle

The group up on Marienbrücke

Daryll bearing the stamp of a beautiful walk through a moist forrest.

A delicious lunch at the restaurant Alpenblick at Staffelsee

Congratulations on the anniversary! And how better to celebrate... Than with some sparkling bubbles! Cheers you guys!

And so High Alpine Tour came to an end, after a wonderful trip through the most beautiful and hidden corners of the Alps. Time to say goodbye... With a kiss! See you on another Edelweiss tour!

Day 5 - Pontresina to Warth

We had a pretty cold morning in Pontresina, but the clouds were clearing up soon after leaving the hotel.

The ride took both groups to Albulapass, where we had superb views on the way up. After a coffee-stop in Davos, team Australia went up to Flüelapass, which presented itself at its best, whilst team USA proceeded towards the picnic-spot. Wim had prepared a delicious meal for us and we managed to eat in the dry.

Luckily, the Americans left a lot over for team Australia, so that everybody could ride on to Vaduz/Liechtenstein well-fed.

The afternoon-ride into the Bregenzerwald and across the Hochtannbergpass to our hotel was beautiful again. Although the sky was getting darker and darker, everybody made it to the hotel just about dry.

The amazing morning-ride up to Albulapass.

Team Australia

Flüela was well worth a detour: Peter, Daryll, Justin (front), Les, Shane, Helen, Wayne and Ashley.

Here's where lunch was today:

And this is what it got to look like:

In the afternoon, we enjoyed the ride over Hochtannbergpass.

And turns out that a leading German motorcycle magazine went to that exact same corner just a couple of weeks ago:

At the end of this second to last day, temperatures seem to be going down a bit:

DAY 4 - Klobenstein to Pontresina

Once again, we are lucky - the sun is shining for a long and exciting riding day.

Both riding groups headed for Stelvio, the mother of all mountain passes. Everybody coped with the 1278 switchbacks just fine!

The afternoon ride led us to Passo Gavia, yet another beautiful and challenging road, before we got just a little wet upon arriving to Pontresina.

Jim, Randy, Amy & Bill at the coffee-break.

Are K1600 GTL's allowed to go up Stelvio?

Marty and Phyllis on their R1200GS

Wow!

Team USA on Passo Gavia.

While all that was going on, "big momma", as we call the van carrying all the luggage around, got to see some nice scenery too:

And it would never have been a true vintage Edelweiss day (even if it got a little cold in the end), without a well deserved beer in the evening. Cheers guys!

DAY 3 - rest day Klobenstein

On our rest day everybody decided to go for the same option: a half-day-ride to Mendelpass and Ultental and some leisure-time in the afternoon. Everybody? - no, Amy and Randy did not come with either of the groups, but went to Fonzaso by themselves to visit family.

Tourguide Oliver drew the shortest straw today and had to stay in that beautiful hotel in Klobenstein (the poor man....), so team Australia went with Albert, and Wim went on his first ride with team USA.  Either way: what a gorgeous day for a ride on the bike!

Team USA had a great lunch in Lana!

The Australians waiting for lunch in Lana, too. Not even 5 miles away from each other, and we didn't find out until we exchanged pictures in the evening.

Weather was great again, we filled up after a short but brilliant ride.

Did Helen enjoy?

In the evening everybody went down to Bozen to see the city and to have a nice Italian dinner. Although this time, we got to try out some rather different means of transport...

Laubengasse

cathedral

Obstplatz - the fruit market

In the cloister of the Franciscan convent

Great food!

DAY 2 - Lienz to Klobenstein

That morning in Lienz, after morning briefing started with a piano concerto (not kidding), tourguide Albert was explaining something about (we think) riding a bike...:

Actually, what else would you do on a wonderful sunny day like this one:

Well, you could go for a picknick, is what tourguide Oliver suggested. So we took his advice, and found him somewhere on a mountain! And it has to be said: our Oliver seems to have an eye for landscapes:

While team USA was taking a nice group picture...

... Team Australia had a coffee stop and got talking about how they caught a huge fish the other day:

And after a very nice and challenging afternoon ride through the Dolomites, everyone made it safely (but not everyone completely dry... See that sky?) to beautiful Klobenstein.

Klobenstein being our rest day hotel, briefing was done in the evening at dinner. Tourguide Oliver had - so it seems - also caught a fish...

DAY 1 - Ismaning to Lienz

What a beautiful sunny start it was to this High Alpine Tour leaving Ismaning this morning. So in traditional Edelweiss-style, tourguides Albert, Wim and Oliver said: let's do the morning briefing outside!

Just a few hours later, the tour was well and truly getting up to steam, and after a couple of long German "umleitungs", we had a first little photostop at the beautiful historic town of Wasserberg:

And about 30 minutes later, our group arrived at the morning coffee stop in Prien am Chiemsee. Seems that there, "getting up to steam" has a totally different meaning:

Onwards to lunch it went, and team Ozzie (as we call the Australian mini-group on this tour), had a stop at Sankt Ullrich am Pillersee. The little lake was looking as gorgeous as ever:

... But as it often happens, the advertising for some of the side animations was a bit better than the actual thing:

Time to move on then, to a place that hardly needs any advertising or marketing: the first proper biking highlight of our High Alpine Tour: Grossglockner Alpenstrasse. One of the highest and most famous pass roads of them all, and a great first day warmup for all the other crazy roads we will ride on this tour. It all starts with a bit of toll to be paid:

But that toll is well worth it once you get to see the views on the top at Edelweiss-spitze, at just about 2500m above sea level:

None of our true bikers had had enough though, so tourguides Oliver and Wim took team USA and team Ozzie up to an even more remote place on the Grossglockner: Frans Joseph's Höhe, right next to the glacier. Or, better said, what is left of the glacier after decades of climate change... Quite an impressive sight it was:

From all the way up there, it was only a short (but steep) ride down to Lienz, our first overnight stop in the little Austrian town. And in case we were wondering where we had ended up, just before dinner, an Austrian marching band came right by our dinner room balcony:

We couldn't have wished for a more typical end to a fabulous first riding day. Up next tomorrow: Southern Tyrol and the Dolomites! And something tells us that there may be a few surprises along the way... Watch this space!