On the Road Again!

From the same Truprint folder but a day or two later.  From the Grossglockner, the plan was to do the Pordoi loop in the Dolomites and then finish at a youth hostel just across the border in Switzerland in  Santa Maria Val Müstair, after completing the Stelvio and Umbrail passes. In the end we ended up way short. After the Pordoi loop of passes in sunshine it began to rain. Heavily. Torrential! We stopped at a wellness hotel . Expensive but I couldn't ride any further that day. In fact Claire went in whilst I was sitting at the top of the drive in the pouring rain.  She had a beer whilst they booked us in.  They didn't bat an eyelid that there were two sodden bikers outside.  Looking on booking.com now and this hotel is £290 a night! So it was the next day that we arrived on the Stelvio. Dry and warm when the sun bothered to show up. Claire taking in the brief weak sunshine! Me front and centre.... bratwursts for lunch! ...

The entire trip has been like the search for shangri-la; the sunshine is just the other side of the mountain, when you get there it's.... Well you know! Today it was sunny straight off. On the road from Merano it was dire. Traffic and lots of it. Being a weekend it turned out to be the last weekend of the school holidays for Swiss and German kids, and they were making their way home Claire and Baloo in Bormio Once on the road up to the Stelvio through Prato it was better. There were a few twats about who seemed to enjoy cutting up other bikes as well as the cars. Sadly the two that cut across me as I was halfway around a tight turn were on 1200 GS's. So they were faster than me, but at the end of the day they were arseholes no matter what they rode. Stelvio Umbrail After a wurst and a beer and a bit of sheltering from a shower, we set off taking in the Umbrail and into Switzerland. I was enjoying the almost deserted 8 miles to Santa Maria until after 2 miles of smooth tarmac it...