Today was another day spent in the Swiss Alps. We crossed over the Alps 9 times today using various passes... The views were beautiful and the roads were anywhere from great to challenging... In one valley we stopped at a 500 year old house that was once inhabited by a local witch. Today it just serves good coffee...
Along the routes we visited three James Bond sites... The exact spot were he stopped and spied on Goldfinger, the very same gas station that he filled up his Aston Martin, and the very same highway were he used his remote spinner to shred the tires on the Bond girl's Mustang. Talk about Bond over load! I am feeling more and more like Bond every day..
The mountain passes are loaded with sports cars, thousands of motorcycles, and the most buff people I have ever seen riding bicycles over these passes!!
It is amazing what a country can do when it spends it's resources on infrastructure rather than wars.. The winters her are obviously harsh here yet most of the roads were smoother than any race track I have been on. In general the country is immaculately clean and well maintained.. The people are very hard working, educated, and industrious. They are smart to attend to their country and stay out of wars...
Some of the passes are sheer cliffs with very narrow roads with no guard rails so you definitely do NOT want to look down!!
Our motorcycles are generally very good touring bikes and reasonable on twisty roads but some of these passes are nothing more than 100 yards of gentle turns that end in a 180 degree 10 mph U turn. Very exhausting with big heavy bikes. We were due to ride to our friends home town tonight but around 3pm we realized we were totally exhausted!! Ten days of riding, jet lag, extreme heat, and hard riding had taken it toll. We could go no further so we did the sensible thing. We got a great room in a quaint hotel right on a lake, checked in and spent the afternoon relaxing and drinking wine. Don't you think we did the smart thing? Really this comes from years of motorcycling experience, a man has to know when it is time for wine!
Tomorrow we will have an easy day. Our friends home and restoration business is about an hour from here so we will have a relaxing morning and be there in time for lunch. Then in the afternoon we will ride onto to Germany which in only about another hour. Depending how we feel we will ride towards Mad Ludwigs Castle and get a visit in there the following AM.
Our hotel has a fine outside restaurant on the patio overlooking the lake where we had a delightful dinner. The weather is perfect now! Mid 70s during the day and warm late into the evening. This is so far north that it does not get dark until close to 10pm..
Now it is time for one more glass of wine and then a good nights sleep.. Jason
Looking cool in Switzerland in front of a 500 year old witches house that now serves coffee. Seems like a reasonable thing to do with a haunted house?
James Bond's gas stating in Goldfinger..
Looking down from the road where James Bond spied on Goldfinger. It is hard to see it here but there is a perfect little village down there and a rail road going through the valley. Everything is so PERFECT that both Duane and I commented it did not look real, more like a model train set!
The name is Bond, James Bond..
That little ribbon of road going down the face of the mountain is the road we just came down!
Time for a lunch stop... motorcyclist EVERYWHERE..
A water stop in Interlakin, Switzerland... A beautiful tourist town..
Some more American "Culture" coming to Europe... :(
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