GLME goodbyes at breakfast and reloading of the bike after a week. Traffic heavy to Innsbruck and then overwhelming the Brenner Pass route, I used the old road but the motorway was mostly a car park. Still many kilometres of filtering bashing car queues down the valley of the river Adige, I was in a pack of four bikes hunting roadspace to our mutual benefit. Brenner (1370 m.) has memories for me from my hitchiking trip round Europe immediately after graduation, I was stuck for a lift for many hours there but when the lift finally arrived, it was a fantastic ride all the way down to Firenze.

Read more: Brenner−Garda−Saluzzo

Last day at Imst but brilliant blue skies after the overnight mist cleared. Riding directly to the Silvretta-Hochalpenstraße but over the Danube-Rhine watershed at the Arlberg Pass (1793 m.), which is a busy trunk route so not much fun. Then up the hairpins to the Silvretta Pass from the west side. The pass at 2037 m. is a view of glaciers over a lake behind a large dam. Some rowers from Britain were unloading serious gym equipment from a couple of vans: they’re there for training at altitude.

Read more: Arlberg Pass and Silvretta Hochalpenstraße

The multi-frontier Tour 7 of the GLME Summercamp. From Imst in Austria, through Switzerland and then back to Austria over the Reschen Pass (1507 m.) to Italy for a coffee pause on the shores of the Reschensee, where they speak German and Italian.
The Italian route to the Passo dello Stelvio is famous and notorious for its 49 numbered hairpin bends. It’s a challenge which attracts motorcyclists in huge number plus sports cars and cyclists. The gradients are steep and the hairpin turns tight plus it’s a marathon because of the sheer number of turns.
Our two groups paused the col, 2757 m., for lunch watching the traffic chaos gradually building as the traffic increased.

Read more: Passo dello Stelvio - 2757 m.

Only a morning to play on this mythic road before the coaches and caravans arrived and blocked any fun. Not to mention the speed cameras. But the Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße remains a fantastic road to ride: just do it! Lots of bikers and bikes at the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe: view of the Grossglockner glacier and the Großglockner peak (3798 m.) as the weather closed in slightly. My photo is a bit of a Bruegel with all the groups doing things in the scene, also look how far back the glacier has receded: that’s global warming.

Read more: Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße