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Kilometers - 200
Passes - Albulapass (7559 ft), Oberalppass (6706 ft)
Zuoz, Switzerland is a beautiful town and we did a bit of wandering before headed off for the day. Brian decided to take a separate route from David and Paige, so he left a little earlier after we managed to coax cash out of the ATM (or in German, GeldAutomat). We had lunch at Tiefencastel in the train station diner. Paige noticed the waitress speaking a romantic language with several of the locals but she spoke German with us. Upon reading the placemat we realized we were really in the heart of the Romanch region of Switzerland. The placemat showed several examples of how to say different things in German and then in Romanch. Paige asked for a clean placemat to take as a souvenir and the woman gladly obliged. We were glad to get a taste of that culture since there are only about 10,000 Romanch speakers in Switzerland, but it is one of the four national languages.
Brian's day was much more entertaining. He rode about 300 km and arrived before Paige and David in Andermatt. His adventures included nearly running out of gas on a remote mountain pass in Italy and coasting down most of the Splugenpass. [Brian to insert full account here :-)]
Brian writes: As I left the highway on my way to the Splugen pass, I was getting low on gas and assumed I would see a gas station long the way. I had to go through several small towns near the bottom of the hill on the way up the pass, and NONE of them had gas stations. So on fumes I climbed up to the top of the Pass. At this point, I really had NO gas left, and I was pretty worried, since these passes are pretty desolate and I really didn't want to walk 15 km to some town and then walk back with gas. So at the top of the Splugen I shut off the motorcycle, put it in neutral, and coasted all the way down the other side. At the bottom, I started the motorcycle up again and had to go through a 5 km long tunnel to get gas immediately on the other side. Inside the tunnel I thought for sure I was in trouble, but somehow I made it through and got gas. I think I was burning pure air at the end.
Paige poses with the town bear in Zuoz. Shortly afterward we were on the road headed toward the Albulapass, when we were stopped behind a long line of cars also stopped going into La Punt. We should have ridden to the front of the line, because there was a "Cow Parade" in progress, and once the line of traffic got moving again we had to ride through *piles* of cow shit on the road when we headed through La Punt!
Near the top of Albulapass. Unfortunately, the souvenier kiosk was not open so David didn't get a sticker or pin to prove we were here.
Looking down on the river valley we followed for most of the ride.
Why we were glad for gallery tunnels that we saw in all the countries we visited. Imagine winter with snow!
Paige hoping not to get mowed over by a tractor while taking pictures in the driveway of a local farm. Prior to this we were following a very small road through the forest. Now we were following this main road along the river all the way to Andermatt.
David isn't taking any chances on randomly appearing tractors. He's standing on the grass.
We're somewhere in the Romanch area of Switzerland. We stopped in Disentis-Muster for an ice cream cone and watched a couple of construction guys build a building wall with a remote controlled crane. Here we're stopped just as the road up to the Oberalppass starts to get interesting. We're headed up to those snow-capped mountains you can see over David's right shoulder in the center of the picture.
Going up the Oberalppass (literally, "over Alps" pass). Cows liked to graze in the area defined by the hairpins.
I'm not sure if this is a glacier or just remaining snow-pack at the top of the Oberalppass. You can see what looks like a frozen-over little late out there, as well as the clouds that are billowing up from Andermatt and dissipating just at they reach this altitude.
Top of the Oberalppass from a little farther back. You can see Paige by her pink-striped Conspicuity Vest (TM) standing on the deck of the restaurant chatting with Paul and Linda Schock. We would have stayed and spent more time chatting, but Andermatt is just on the other side of the pass and Paige has some birthday shopping to do!
One of the (amusing) "glitches" in the tour was the number of birthday cakes that were ordered for David's birthday. He got a cake in Andermatt that Rob had arranged. Then in Interlaken, the hotel was prepared with another cake, so Rob chose to celebrate the birthday of the youngest member of our tour, Loren Trefethen, who had turned 16 in March. Then in Imst there was yet another birthday cake. That one was a complete surprise to all of us, including Rob, so the birthday song had a pregnant pause when we came to the line "happy birthday dear " It was a yummy Austrian chocolate cake, so we were happy with the mix-up :-)
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