bretzelitos

Yesterday, I have taken a good dose of pass road driving by crossing over nine different ones in the Alps.

From Munich, I have taken A95 to join Garmisch-Partenkirchen, continuing on to Mittenwald and Seefeld, the latter already in Austria. The first one was the decent of Zirler Berg towards the Inn valley. By driving through Kematen, I joined the Kuhtai pass that took me for the first time above 2000m altitude.

After the descent, I followed the Oetz valley up to Obergurgl where the Timmelsjoch pass road begins. This is one of the most spectacular ones in the Alps and not easy to drive with its narrow roads, tunnels and turns. The summit lays at 2500m+ (a fee of EUR 16 applies) and presents the overpass to Italy. The descent towards the Passeier valley was rather slow and difficult as many not so used-to tourists blocked off local traffic by doing 20 kmh instead of possible 50 – 60 at allowed 50 – 80. And… they did not move into turnouts either. So I was able to play with Bretzelmobil a bit and use its 350Nm torque for some overtaking maneuvers. I love it!

While it was windy at the 2500m top at 20 degrees, Meran at 300 meters altitude had no wind and 37 degrees. So I decided not to stop here and to continue to the next one – Passo Stelvio. In German, it’s called Stilftser Joch. It is the third highest pass road in the alps that sports completely paved roads – up to 2760m altitude. 49 turns upwards and 39 downwards are the ultimate enjoyment of driving in the Alps – at least for me. After a short pause to take some photos, I continues towards Livigno, a tax free area of Italy via Passo Foscagno and Passo d’Eira, both at around 2200 meters altitude. For sure, Bretzelmobil was filled up for 81.1 cents per litre, profiting very well from this tax excemption. Towards my place to stay over night, I had to take three more pass roads. These are Forcola di Livigno (2315m), Passo del Bernino (2330m) and Albula pass as 2315m. Bernino and Albula are also very interesting for me as Swiss railroad lines run parallel to the roads – over architectural interesting bridge and tunnel constructions.

I have taken a hotel reservation in Bergun, just 15 km down from the Albula pass summit, still at 1400m altitude.

The sound of a mountain thunderstorm let me drift off  to sleep easily after this 9.5 hours drive over 480km. Absolutely great!