Devall Travels

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! ...

After a day in Lake Como taking in the sights and eating and drinking we are back on the road Today would have been the Passes day. A whole day of taking in the high passes around southern Switzerland. http://devalltravel.blogspot.com/2019/12/rt20-day-12.html Except of course ...

Once we had "bagged" the passes and arrived in Fribourg we have one and a half days to get home to collect Reggie from his holiday. The non-toll exit from Switzerland is a bit convoluted getting into France around a few lakes. Once across the border. The route runs up through Belfort towards Belgium.  The last night is near Namur. It's a long day on the road but it will enable us a shorter journey to the coast and the Shuttle or ferry home. Namur to the coast is around 150 miles so if we are away early enough we should get a lunchtime shuttle and be in good time to collect the dog. The kennel closes at 5pm so we need to be hurry  to get Reggie home.

The reshuffle means that the shorter route through Switzerland means that the motorway vignette won't be needed. I'll have to see though.  To take in the passes will be a reversed S through the mountains. There are so many passes and too few days to fit them all in. This route (above) takes in the Nufenenpass (2 above). This is the highest paved pass in Switzerland.

It's fatal. Planning and then seeing another "must see" or "must visit" place on a website or in this case, a book. Once I turned to trip 1 and 2 in the Andermatt area and saw even more passes I haven't bagged previously. I had to include the Susten Pass in my route. This may mean that the 40CHF vignette becomes an option or more like a necessity.  I know the purists will scoff at the thought of using the motorway for any part of a journey. Even though it's in the car and not the bike I can still hear them. Yep. Ignore the knobheads. So this looks like a four pass session. In MyRouteApp I have changed Part One to two bits. The first part as far as Airolo from Como will tolls turned to on. The second part will go non-toll through the passes: St Gotthard  - 2106m Furka  - 2429m Grimsel  - 2164m Susten  - 2260m On the map and in the book they all look like a lot of hairpin bends .. Fun. With 7 months to go bef...

So the options seem to be between: A long day in the "saddle" as it were arriving later than usual at the hotel in Lenzkirch in the Black Forest Cutting Lenzkirch for a shorter day and booking a hotel further south Reverting to Plan A and miss out the Furka and Grimsel passes Cut one day from Como and have a stop in Switzerland nearer the passes! Buy the bloody motorway vignette In the end after checking hotel booking sites options 2 to 4 seemed to fade away.   Switzerland is more expensive than I want to pay for hotels.  After coming this far missing out the passes simply isn't on. Como to the passes is only 81 miles. So it looks like it will be the long day. I haven't ruled out the vignette for the motorways though.   I'll make an alternative Day 10 in MyRouteApp to see how that pans out. It adds expense but with Option 2 looking like £50 a night more for a hotel with the same level of comfort, inclusive breakfast and free parking as L...

Planning continues. Recently there was "discussion" on a biking Facebook page about planning a trip to France.  The original poster was merely asking whether it was wiser to plan ahead for a visit in August 2020.  Once the observer had discounted all the "I wouldn't go to France" posts, then the "just go" posts it seemed from the sensible brigade, planning was a little over 75% of the responses. I tend to over plan. Especially in peak holiday/vacation periods. I have "been there done it" when it comes to parking up and trying hotel or B&B's to get a room for the night. It becomes the driving force to the afternoon. Gotta get to Xxxxx to get a room! The worst was arriving in Seville, it was mid-afternoon. The temperature was over 40°C. We tried several hotels and received the "no room at the inn" signs. It was mid-August.  We were hot and fed up. We ended up in a four star hotel that had air-conditioning an...