Lord you can take me now!!!
Today was one of the longest, most beautiful and challenging days I have ever had on a motorcycle. I am quite exhausted right now so I will do my best to keep this brief.
I am writing this from the Hotel Aurora in the small mountain village of Andermatt, Switzerland in the heart of the Alps. We left Heidelberg about 10:30am after having some difficulty with my motorcycle seat. Once fixed we headed south down the Autobahn towards Baden Baden. The Autobahn was a bit scarier today. People just fly down that road at incredible speeds. Dad and I were averaging about 120KPH (about 80mph) and cars would quite literally pass us like we were standing still. And not just one car… 14 go by us at once all doing 110-120mph, and then cut in right in front of us. The wind was also blowing hard which did not help.
We got off the autobahn in the town of Buhl and went right up the mountains into the Black Forest. Halfway up we entered the clouds but by the time we crested the ridge, the sun popped out and it was very similar to riding the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped for a cola and a dried sausage (German jerky) at a small Gasthaus and the women working there were very helpful with my terrible German.
The Black Forest is spectacular. The big difference between it and the forests of the East Coast of the US is that it seems almost entirely made up of fir trees. It is so dark on the ground when you look into the woods I can understand why it is called the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). It is also clearly well managed. You can see lots of tree stumps next to firs that are at least 30-40 years old so you know there is selective cutting happening which is probably how they avoid devastating fires in such a dense wood. In the 150K or so we rode thru the forest we saw 3 Olympic ski jumps and at least 8-10 little ski hills. We’re talking one run cut into a mountain with a Poma or t-bar up the side. No lifts. Winter sports are clearly in the blood over here.
We rode thru tons of little mountain towns, (Wolfach, Titisee) each with that distinctive alpine architecture. Just the sort of place you imagine cuckoo clocks being made. It is also exactly how Hollywood makes out the German countryside whenever you watch WWII movies. I kept waiting to come over a ridge and see a battalion of Nazi tanks sitting in a field. It was somewhat surreal.
We crossed into Switzerland over the Rhine in the town of Tiengen and my first impression was that Switzerland is extremely industrial. From the time we crossed the border to the time we got past Luzern (about 80k) we never really saw countryside. We hit Luzern at rush hour and were stopped dead in traffic. For the first time in the day we had rain and we weren’t going anywhere. A guy in a Benz pulled up next to us and gave hand signals to split lanes. Dad just shook his head “no” and indicated it was not wide enough. About a minute later, a guy on a motorcycle goes right past us on the dotted line and Dad, without even saying anything to me just follows. I was very hesitant at first but went for it. We rode for at least 2 or 3 miles splitting the lanes and with the exception of one or two cars, people we actually getting out our way and giving us room to go by. It’s simply amazing the courtesy with which people drive over here. It was however exhausting. Our bikes are heavy, especially when driving slowly and we could not of been doing 10mph and it required our complete attention. After a bit we gave up and got into traffic and waited but shortly after it broke up and we were moving again. After going thru a 5 mile tunnel we were officially in the Alps. The mountains were socked in with clouds so there was not a lot to see. We went over one pass to get to Andermatt and it was straight up a mountain in pea soup fog around hairpin turns. It was much scarier than splitting lanes. I am thankful there was no one in front or behind us.
Arrived at the hotel, had dinner, Skyped home and here we are. What a day!!! Hopefully the weather will break while were here, but Andermatt looks kind of like a nice, non-trashy Swiss Gatlinburg so I can think of worse places to be stuck in.
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