Hubbard Motorcycle Adventures

Yes, the biggest doozy of the lot had to be Stelvio Pass which is a very Italian pass - i.e.  lots of flair and passion!  The day starts well .......... Wet!  A light rain but rain never the less. On goes the wet weather gear. Don't you think it somewhat flatters me? I could be an Italian fashion statement! Particularly as we are going to Italy today.    Plans will have to be flexible today because of the weather forecast. . Nevertheless  we start by going over a pass named, very oddly, after a sewing machine. No , it was not the Singer Pass  or even worse the Suzuki pass  but rather the Bernina pass.  The temp drops to 10 degrees as we go over the pass. But the rain stops, the road becomes dry and the corners become beautiful to ride.   Then again we are at the Italian border. Diana looks inside the " control booth" The officer sitting there appears to be sound asleep. It was deemed a wise move not to take a photo of him!    We then then turn  right and head up towards t

Yes it was - all day  We start the day by starting up the Oberalpass. . The road started climbing over the pass within 50 metres of the hotel. The engine of the bike had not even warmed up properly and we were climbing rapidly. It was one of the gentler passes and one can tell it is going to be this because a cog railway also goes over the pass. We actually went over this pass  seven years ago in the Scenic train called the Glacier express that went  from Zermatt in the west to St Moritz in the east of Switzerland.      Then it was up a more secondary road and over the steeper Passo del Lucamagno. "That sounds somewhat Italian" you might well say. Here all the road signs were in Italian including a big welcome sign. But something does not compute here. I stop for petrol and find it is charged in Swiss Francs. We ask the nice girl at the coffee shop. "The border with Italy is 40 km down the road" she explains. " But this area is the Italian speaking part of Swit

The next three days are going to be "pass hopping" over the high mountain passes of Austria, Switzerland and Italy. We plan to go overt about 12 "seriously big and demanding" passes. And the weather forecast is three days of absolute sunny weather. Bring it on !  But first we have to head a little east  of Salzburg. So it is a three hour motorway jaunt to a town near the Swiss border called Landeck. We say goodbye to motorways and hello to Bavarian alpine architecture     Immediately we are what seems a totally different country. I think we are in Switzerland. The map tells me clearly we are still in Austria. We see all the characteristics of Switzerland , men  hand sything grass on steep steel slopes. Absolute neatness everywhere.    I think it must be against the law in Austria to have unstacked wood. I never saw a "pile" of wood anywhere. I am sure they must have wood stacking competitions and in Switzerland at least the grand champion being eligible to