Another 8.30 start today (wed) with a few miles of motorway riding through those big long tunnels while listening to the boxer 'thrumming' along nicely. At the Aoasta Valley we turned off up to the Grand St Bernard pass for the second time where we will pick up the Furka and then the Susten passes. The morning started a little overcast but soon brightened up nice. Very cool to begin with and as we climbed the Grand St Bernard the temperature dropped as low as 10 degrees, I had to close the zips on my jacket.
The pass starts with a huge zig zag switch back of road laid out in front of you as seen in the photo below, it traverses you up the mountain quickly with hairpin after hairpin to begin with and gets faster and faster with longer and longer straights.
The pass I was really looking forward to today was the Furka, famous for the Aston Martin DB5 chase scene in the film Goldfinger where Bonds enemy goes spinning over the edge. It does not disappoint and I have to admit I had the Shirley Bassey theme tune to that very film playing in my helmet as I rode up at one point.
I met Steve at the summit and rode up on my own as I went to fill up with petrol first. at the start of the run up to it we had agreed to have lunch here and found a nice hotel on the way down overlooking the pass that did a great spring roll salad. On the other side of the summit the road is as it appears in the film and amazingly there is just single wide spaced bollards on the edge of the road, no real deterrent or barrier from certain death if you ended up misjudging and riding over the edge and into the steep valley below! I saw huge placards up with a picture of a bike cartwheeling down the valley as a warning to ride safe..no kidding!! I managed to film the descent with the GoPro on my helmet. Will post footage on here later when back home.
Near the top of the Furka. I think this Hotel appears in the film too.
After the Furka we headed through Andermatt and to the Susten pass. Really like this one, could be my favourite (hmm) Fast ride up the mountain and very pretty scenery. Quite a few classic cars and sports cars out today, i remember us following a very nice white E-Type Jag.
We caught up with John and Paul on the way up and l passed them after a few miles, managed to film them behind me with the go pro rear facing attached to the right pannier.
Riding these passes is so much fun, can't wait until tomorrow now where we ride 5 of the big passes in turn including the Furka again and it's neighbour the Grimsel.
After riding the Susten we took the road down through Interlaken and Innertkirchen in the most beautiful Swiss valley to Meringen and the very modern Hotel Victoria staying 2 nights.
After checking in and drinking our usual beer ritual, myself and Steve had a quick look around Meringen. It's famous for Sherlock Holmes and the Reichenbach falls which is where he met his death at the hands of Moriarty. We hope to take a look at the falls tomorrow if possible .
We joined Steve our tour leader, John, Paul, Ian and Nadia for a Chinese meal where a Sushi buffet was served. Not sure about Sushi myself so went for the chicken and rice dish instead. Looking forward to tomorrow's 5 pass loop back to Meringen.
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