A full day today. Mountains, snow, tunnels, sightseeing, and more in Switzerland.

Sunday 5/5/13

Werner rolled up at about nine and he and I set off for a little ride around Luzern and the stunning mountains that surround it.

As we rode through Luzern it was picture perfect and looked like the scenes you see in fairy tale books. The lake is a stunning turquoise green blue colour. There are not many photos today because the sky was a bit hazy so didn't lend itself to producing good photos, and we were having so much fun riding that we didn't stop often anyway.

Our first stop was for coffee at a regular motorcycle stop.

Coffee stop. Mountains like this surround the lake.

 Sweet Yammy 650.

Six cylinder Horex. I've never seen one of these in the flesh before.

The ride so far was pretty interesting. The road ran around the edge of the lake and there were lots of interesting things that caught my eye. During the day we saw five Ferraris, four new Mustangs together, some hot rods, and a few old Chevs and Fords. We saw scuba divers, then half an hour later skiers and snow boarders. There was a Wiemaraner puppy, a couple of standard poodles, and goats that were half black and half white. The front was black and the back white, with a vertical line straight round the middle, like these guys... 

 Photo from http://animalphotos.info/a/

And I'm sure I saw Hansel and Gretel on the side of the road at one point.

After a coffee the fun started. Werner took me up into the mountains and before I knew it we were carving perfect roads above the snow line. 

We were having a lot of fun and riding through a tunnel or two when I saw Werner enter a tunnel in front of me and his brake light came on and he wobbled around a bit. The tunnels are usually wet inside and my immediate thought was "Ice", but that wasn't the case. The tunnel was pitch black and Werner had a dark visor on. He couldn't see anything. I entered the tunnel and it was as black as the inside of a black cow at midnight. I couldn't see a bloody thing. I hit the high beam and it helped a bit, but every time a car came the other way I had to dip the lights and ride blind again. It was very, very scary.

We stopped in the snow at the top of the 2,046 metre high Oberalp Pass.

Not a bad place for a ride break.

There is still a little bit of snow around.

On the way down the other side of the mountain we made another stop by a large dam. There wasn't a lot of water in it but what water was there was frozen.

Ice skating anyone.

Mountains and snow everywhere.

We got to the bottom of the mountain then Werner found another pass that was open, and it was even higher. I think it was the Gotthard Pass. We charged up there and down the other side which put us in the right place to take the Gotthard Tunnel back into Luzern. The tunnel is seventeen kilometres long and in the centre section it was thirty five degrees. 

It was funny, being out riding in ten or twelve degrees and feeling fine, then riding through the tunnel at thirty five degrees. When we exited the tunnel into twelve degrees again it felt freezing cold.

Werner's ride for the day. Take a look at the seventeen inch, super wide alloy rims with sticky road tyres.

He can ride it too.

We stopped for fuel, then a cold drink a bit further down the road before heading home. Back home after a coffee Werner drove us into Luzern for a sight seeing tour of town. 

 Luzern's Chapel Bridge. Built in about 1,333.

Pretty good for it's age.

Bridge art Swiss style.

Strange looking ducks.

Luzern is a perfect Swiss village.

Take a look...

Ornate building decorations.

There were white swans everywhere.

Werner told us about a traditional Swiss snack. A veal sausage with tomato sauce and mustard, accompanied by a beer and some bread. "Would you like to try one?" he said

It was very yummy.

Werner and I enjoyed them.

Luzern really is the stuff fairy tales are made of.

Back home over a few beers Werner said if we liked he would take us for a short ride tomorrow so Suzanne can see some of the hills and a little of the country side. 

Cool.