From the Alps to the Pyrenees

We arrived home to Rizlern and to another special dinner prepared by Sabine a Kaese (cheese) Spaetzle! She even put on her dirndl dress for us.

We took in one of the local chair lifts and an amazing Austrian traditional lunch. Daniel’s schnitzel was as big as his head. He had borrowed Michel’s bike to ride back down the mountain, while the rest of us walked cross country on the ski hills.

 

 

We packed up to leave early and in brisk but clear weather. Thank SO much to Michael and Sabine for EVERYTHING!!!! We hope to see you guys again next year.

The plan today was to meet up with a fellow rider who has been following our blog. Tragoutt is also from Austria, but on the other side of the mountain. This is only about 10 km as the crow flies, but takes almost 2 hours to drive around. We planned to meet at the top of the Furkapass at Charly’s kiosk.

 

 

 

We had a coffee and Charly kindly gave us stickers for the pass!

 

Tragoutt took us on a tour south into Austria and Switzerland. We did make a swing thru Liechtenstein for a photo op and sticker purchase.

From here we went west along a very deep lake Walensee and had a traditional lunch overlooking it.

 

 

We continued thru the countryside and finally up the Klausenstrasse pass. This is another stunning hairpin pass thru the mountains.

 

 

 

This is where we got these great shots of Tragoutt and he turned back towards home several hours away. We wish him luck in his adventures in North and South America next year!

We had almost 200 km to go to Brig and it was 5 pm.

By the time we got to the Passo della Novena it was dark and pouring. The last ten minutes to the summit were pretty scary since it was dark, pouring, 1.5 degrees and on hairpins. It got better on the descent and warmed to 8 degrees. We still had 40 km to go along the valley to Brig. We had booked a hotel or we never would have driven in these dangerous conditions….lesson learned….again.

Today we are going to visit our friends Franck and Laurence near Lyon. We had met them in Urubici Brazil earlier this year.

Heading out from Brig it was drizzling, but this did not last long and by Chamonix/Mont Blanc it was sunnyish.

 

 

We kept to the small mountain roads to Albertville and then with the pouring rain we opted for the dreaded toll road for the last 100 km. This cost 14 dollars, but saved us over an hour in heavy rain and got us to their house only 30 min later than expected. They welcomed us to their country house and tucked out bikes in the garage for a few days.