After a well deserved rest day, it is time to tackle a few more passes before the tour comes to an end at Edelweiss HQ in Mieming: Penser Joch, Jaufenpass and as a final higlight Timmelsjoch. Weather forecast was for a dry part in the morning and drenching rain in the Inn valley.

Warming up the tyres as we took the scenic bypass road around Bozen across the Ritten plateau, temperatures dropped as we approached Penser Joch. A message from Uwe in the Van from Timmelsjoch promised 8°C. But first we descended towards the Eisack valley and warmer air.

We enjoyed coffee (and Strudel - at least Dieter did...) at the Edelweiss Hütte at Jaufenpass, then followed the road to Passeier and lunch at the famous Sandwirt inn, the birthplace of Tirol's national hero Andreas Hofer. A lot about this man was learned by part of the group in the adjacent museum.

Then it was time to tackle Passo Rombo or Timmelsjoch with a great motorcycle museum waiting at the top. Then a leisurely ride down Ötz valley and back to Mieming. Cold beer awaited the group at the garage in Mieming, were in a surprise appearance, Werner Wachter, founder of Edelweiss Bike Travel shared a few stories from 40 years of motorcycle tours.

Thus another tour came to an end - time went much too fast, as always. Great roads, beautiful scenery, good food and drinks and last but not least - mostly - dry weather makes you forget time.

Today, some of our Tour Members took the chance to go on a nice little ride into the Dolomites. We headed from Bozen to the east and did 4 passes before lunch.

In the afternoon we added 2 more, which makes this the Day of 6 Passes. We had great weather, perfect road conditions and nearly no traffic. Motorcycle Heaven

Today we started at about 1.600 m above sealevel in Madonna di Campiglio and circled the Brenta mountain range. Heading along Lago Molveno to San Romedio we had some adventure on a very local part of the road. San Romedio itself, which was first built in the year 1000 a.d. and enriched with further buildings up to the 19th century, welcomed us with the bear, who lives there waiting for us and a service which was held at the very moment we arrived.

After some wrong turns, we all found the picknick place right below San Romedio and had our lunch in a beautiful spot next to a creek.

In the afternoon we took the Passo Mendola and visited the Penegal on top, where we had a stunning view over the whole Etsch-Valley. After some original italian ice cream we arrived in our hotel in Bolzano to relax for the rest of the day.

Todays ride took us along Lake Lugano and Lake Como into the Ada valley. Small side roads kept us away from traffic and enabled us to enjoy the scenery of villages clinging to the mountains, vineyards and fields. After the narrow, twisty roads of yesterday it was mostly gentle sweeping roads today.

Passo Aprica was the first callenge, followed by an ascent to Passo Gavia after lunch. As we could not ride this pass on the first day due to current roadworks on the northern ascent, part of the group rode the southern ramp to the top and added another pass to their list.

After this challenge Passo Tonale was a welcome change despite more traffic.

To end another great riding day, 20km of curves took us to the hotel at Madonna.

This day startet with a train ride down from car (and motorcycle)-free Zermatt to Täsch, where our bikes waited for us to start the day. We went over the first pass, the Simplon-Pass right in the morning, where we had a great look at the stone eagle, which shall remind us, that sometimes, we have to fight for our freedom.

From the Eagle we went over the Italian border heading for Lago Maggiore. In Italy we took our first real Italian road. Narrow and curvy, but nevertheless traffic in both directions and so much fun to ride.

Our lunch right at the Lago Maggiore was typical Italian. Pasta and Pizza. After crossing the lake with the ferry, we went over our second pass today, which was Passo San Antonio. A whole lot of fun riding these small roads until we reached Lugano, where we stay at the Continental for this night.

That is as near as we got to the Matterhorn.
No streets for Motorbikes up there.

An early start to reach the ferry across Lake Lucerne. Clouds cover the sky, but the roads are dry - perfect conditions for another great riding day. The half hour cruise across the lake enabled everybody to take in the gorgeous landscape.

Three more passes were to be "conquered" today. Starting easy with Brünig, continueing with Susten and finally Furka.

In between a picnic just below cloudbase at Göscheneralp. And all with just about 10 drops of rain.

After a smooth ride down the Rhone valley a final ascent got the group to Zermatt at the base of the famous Matterhorn.

Clouds cover parts of the sky over Pontresina after some rain in the evening and a cool night. But some blue spots provide hope for another beautiful day on the road, as the group assembles in front of the hotel.

At the end of the day, everybody had arrived dry at the hotel just in time to witness a deluge that brought out a double rainbow. No treasure was found, but it was taken as a good omen for the next day.

The first day of our tour started off in Mieming with great weather, blue sky and perfect road conditions. Leaving the busy Inn valley below we arrived at Gacher Blick to enjoy the view. Then back down again along twisty roads and up again to the famous Reschenpass with the Reschen Lake at the top.

A coffee stop at Glurns prepared everybody for the ascent to the 2nd highest paved pass road in the Alps: Stelvio - so famous, that even cars and motorcycles are named after it.

Bruno provided his famous "Würschtl" for lunch before we tried to master another legend, Passo di Gavia. However it was closed due to a lanndslide so we had to take the short route to Pontresina via Livigno. The hospice at  the last pass of the day, Paso del Bernina, provided shelter to put on our rain gear for the last 15km to our hotel in Pontresina. Everybody's gear proofed to be suiteable to keep its owner dry.