When we woke up in Switzerland, we were greeted with sunny skies and mild temperatures for the first time in close to a week. After breakfast, we had our morning briefing before the ride and our guides reminded us about how draconian the Swiss are about their speed limits. Hidden speed cameras everywhere and fines starting at 30 Euros for just 1KM over the posted limit. If you are foolish enough to do 60KPH over a posted limit, you get jail time and a fine that is calculated based on a percentage of your annual income… yikes!
All of that primed me for constant anxiety about how fast I was going while we toured through the Swiss countryside. Heading east out of Schaffhausen, we skirted along lake Bodensee, the largest lake in central Europe. There were charming little towns dotted along the shore with pear orchards and gardens, and we made a brief stop in one to stretch our legs. There was a cute little church that I snapped some photos of before we set out again.
At this point, we turned southward toward the Alps with Santis being our lunchtime destination. The road that climbed up toward Santis was amazing, surrounded by lush greenery and snow capped mountains in the distance. Upon arrival at Santis, we noticed a gondola that we would eventually take up to the 2526 meter summit. The views from the gondola and top of Santis were breathtaking, allowing us to see far along the range of the Alps. We enjoyed a hearty lunch and shared thoughts of the day's ride thus far before descending the gondola and going back down the amazing road we came up earlier.
Continuing along sinuous roads toward Lichtenstein, we still had phenomenal weather. This was a nice change from the gray days prior, and let us soak up all the amazing views through the Swiss countryside. We pulled off at a vista point, and our guide pointed out that we were looking over almost the entirety of Liechtenstein, a tiny principality nestled in a valley between Switzerland and Austria.
Almost as quickly as we had entered Lichtenstein, we were passing into Österreich (Austria). There was a fair bit of traffic to get through in Feldkirch, but once past the busy little city we found ourselves on the Furkajoch. This tiny one-lane road reminded me of the tighter forest roads back home (like Figueroa mountain), only surrounded by dark forest with trees everywhere and thankfully smooth pavement. Eventually, we emerged from the dark forest and found ourselves climbing higher up the mountainside with snow on either side of the road. The air took on a chill as we reached the summit of the pass and stopped at a small cafe called Zum Charley.
I ordered a hot chocolate and donned a thermal top to wear under my jacket since we were now going to be spending the rest of the day at altitude. Little did I know how much this would pay off in the near future.
We left the coffee shop and continued eastward, drinking in the incredible views of the Austrian Alps and the snakelike curves of our mountain road. We eventually arrived at a small town called Damüls where we hit an unexpected snag. We were greeted by a construction worker who told our guide that they had just started paving this section of road and that it would be impassible until the next day. Had we arrived only 15 minutes sooner, we could have passed through and had 33KM of riding to our destination.
With no other choice, we had to detour and go around to get to Warth, where our hotel was located. This added another 50 KM to our ride, which complicated matters for a couple of riders who just had low fuel warnings appear on their instrument clusters. We descended south, finally making it to Bludenz, where we filled up. Our friend Dennis snapped a photo of his gauges that said he had 3 KM of fuel remaining as we all breathed a sigh of relief after fill-up.
The sun was now setting as we continued east through the valley, and the temperature started dropping quickly. Just past Stuben, we turned north and began climbing again. The Ducati we had been riding was a wonderful bike, but it definitely does not enjoy going slow and struggled to creep along in 1st gear just above idle following a truck up the grade. On the plus side, the heated grips were keeping my hands from going numb in the cold. The dash said the air temperature had dropped to 5 degrees C.
A full moon began to rise above the mountains as we pushed along in the darkness, finally reaching our hotel around 8:15pm. The other half of the tour had made it through before the road closed and clearly had been enjoying drinks at the hotel bar prior to our arrival.
After dinner, a much needed shower and quickly crashed for the night. What an amazing day!
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