After a rainy night I break camp early and am on the road before 8. I ride up through Warth to the Hochtannbergpass at 1676 m and starting from 1300 m elevation not much, but my legs still hurt today. Perhaps they can feel the end is nigh.
Down and along the Bregenzer Ach river I continue swiftly, until I encounter the Almabtrieb, the traditional bringing down of the cows from the high meadows. In almost every village there’s a group of 50-100 cows barring the way now and shitting on the road like crazy. This slows my progress significantly.
When I finally pass the last hill and look over the Rhine valley and Lake Constance, I realise than I’m done with this trip. As cross the Rhine once again, it starts raining and a thunderstorm is approaching. I flee into the first train station in Switzerland, cutting the last part along the lake short. It would have been too flat anyway. During a stopover in Kreuzlingen I have lunch by the shore of Lake Constance. Then I continue by train over the Black Forest and down to Freiburg.
It’s always hard to summarise such a trip. Some parts were hard, some were cold, many were beautiful and most had too meny cars and motorcycles. I travelled through five countries, had to take a break because of a broken tooth and went back on the road. I missed some of the highest passes, but rode many iconic ones. I ate lots of cheese and saw the beauty of the alps from the road. The cobblestone switchbacks of the Gotthard were only matched by the raw number of the Stilfser Joch’s over 40 curves. Overall I rode roughly 1200 km with 28000 m elevation in 12 days. And you know the road goes ever on an on …
