D-Day +13: From Berikon to Vorarlberg

Time had passed and now it was time to leave Switzerland behind.

Zürichsee (1st stop)

The same view without a polarization filter

I also did a bit bigger mistake with the driving and turned a bit too soon before Neu St. Johann. But since the road was nice to drive, I did not bother to check out navigator but hoped that the road would have led me to road I had planned. Finally I made my 2nd stop (in Hemberg?), had a coffee and checked up the route in the navi. I could have continued on that route but I would then have missed the road (leading to Schwägalb) which I definitely wanted to drive so I decided to turn back. But since both roads were nice to drive there was no really harm done.

4th stop (after Neu St. Johann

Near Säntis (?)

I realized I had no pics of cows in Switzerland

I also made a short stop in Appenzell and walked around the city. It was getting a bit dark so I didn't even bother to take pictures. As this was the 2nd visit to the city, I did only short walk around it and left. Some more driving and I was already on a hill looking at Vorarlberg. When I got to Koblach, there was already a little BBQ-party starting up and Frau J & Herr F had kindly obtained few Kellerbier's which was nice after a hard drive.

Famous Austrian delicacy

A picture to sum up the day

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D-Day +12: Back to Berikon

It was time to leave the holiday house behind and head back to Berikon. Luckily this time the Sun was shining and there was no rush.

A panorama from near the restaurant

Apart from gas we made only one stop to a restaurant (the 1st stop in the map) in Schallenberg which was a popular meeting place for motorists. If you ever happen to come around, better stop at this place and have some of their excellent "Erdbeerkuchen".

Same view (but sometimes the polarization filter does magic)

The beginning of the trip was really nice to drive with a lot of curves but apart from that there was nothing special to see (or maybe I just had seen too many awesome passes already!).

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D-Day +11: The Italian part

Yet another rainy day. But since we did not want to waste a day by sitting indoors we took the car instead and went for a drive in the Italian part of the Switzerland.

We made only one longer stop for coffee in a restaurant.We drove through four passes: Grimsel, Furka, Gotthard and Susten (thanks Michelle). Only the pictures in wikipedia are worth to see, mine do no credit those these places!

As you see the weather was quite crappy so most of the pictures are taken from inside the (awesome cabrio) car. I tried taking few pictures outside but the lens was quite quickly full of rain drops. Sadly there are only few pictures of this trip since it was definitely one of greatest route I've seen. I hope to return to it some day and drive it around with a motorcycle when the Sun is shining.

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D-Day +10: The French part

The forecast did not promise good weather for this day but since it wasn't raining, we decided to make a shorter tour. This time we drove west towards lake Geneva.

2nd stop: somewhere in Château-D'Oex

We made the next stop in Gruyères to visit La Maison du Gruyère. They have demonstrations in how to make cheese but seems we missed that so instead we went to the restaurant to eat. Of course here I had to try fondue which was really good (but I felt full for a long long time...). At this point it started to rain a bit but since it looked that it's going to rain for long, we decided to jump on the bike regardless of the rain.

The landscapes were again pretty awesome, only the rain ruined the end of the trip a bit. Later in the evening the Sun was shining again. Here are some pictures from nearby the holiday house (in Höfen).

The rest of the day was just pure relaxing... :)

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D-Day +9: From Berikon to Thun (via Luzern)

A brand new day and after resting a bit it was time to go on. This time the destination was a little village called Höfen near Thun. During this day it was sunny which gave a bit more motivation to drive after spending the last night driving in the rain.

The first stop for the trip was Luzern:

Kapellbrücke

Kapellbrücke and Wasserturm

This bridge must be the most well known sight in Luzern. I actually didn't know this before the visit but now later on I've actually seen a picture of it many times (e.g. a screenshot of Gran Turismo 5).

Some building with fancy paintings

After some walking in the city + coffee it was time to go forward. After Luzern there were series of lakes on the way and the landscapes were really breathtaking. Sadly I didn't have that many pictures from that area.

Taken during the 2nd stop

3rd stop

After some pretty awesome curvy roads & lakes we finally reached Thun. It was getting dark & late so we also went to to eat something. There was also somekind of a festival going on so a lot of people were outside.

A ferris wheel in Thun

After that there was just a short trip left to Höfen and a warm bed. This day was definitely one highlight of the trip!

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D-Day +8: From Heidelberg to Berikon (via Freiburg)

Even though day before I had much fun, it was again time to load up the bike and start the journey towards Switzerland. Quick tank fill up... well, was supposed to be until some Italian came to ask some questions about Finland. Then off to autobahn again!

... and it started to rain and I had to stop to a gas station. I waited for a while to the rain to stop. In the end I got tired of rain so when the worst was over I just put over my rain stuff and started driving. Luckily it didn't rain that much after that and later I had to make a new stop to take the rain gear off.

Finally I arrived in Freiburg and after some time of being lost I managed to find a place for the bike.

It was raining lightly all the time but since it started to get late, I had no other choice than to pack up and continue my ride. This is the part where Garmin did some really interesting decisions and took me through the southern Schwartzwald instead of the autobahns. At some point I found myself in the middle of a forest in a road where two cars could hardly pass without cell reception, no visible lights visible, gas running low and the navigator running out of battery. Nevertheless the Garmin found me the closest gas station and eventually took me to the destination. So again one lesson learned: always plan the route first with a paper map or with Google maps.

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The end was already pretty interesting!

D-Day +7: Heidelberg

Now it was time to leave dear old G-stadt behind and start the journey to south. The route wasn't actually that special: first to A7 and then to A5. With more time I might have driven through smaller roads but this time I decided to take the autobahn.

Since Mr.T was so nice to order a navigator for me, this time it was really much easier to navigate. Also with the U-RAM -mount we were able to attach it pretty nicely.

Zumo 220 mounted on Viffer

I made one stop during the whole trip and otherwise it went quite nicely. Just before Heidelberg there was one accident where some driver managed to make the nose of his/hers BMW a bit shorter. Luckily that didn't slow me down that much and I was in Heidelberg early enough.

Testing out Mr.T's fish-eye

Next we drove to the Heidelberg Castle.

The city from the Castle

Someone took a big jump

Me, Klára and Max

After this we headed down to the city to grab something to eat. We found ourselves in one very nice-looking traditional restaurant (and inside of a barrel).

The food was really excellent and cheap! Also got to taste some local beer again...

The perspective was in order

After eating we went for a walk in the city and also bought more local products...

At this point it started to get a bit late so we left the city center to try the local products... Excellent day all in all!

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