After yesterday’s bonkers day…I had planned a relatively easy day today!!
As so it looks….
But it ended up not being quite as easy it looks!
Lovely start to the day….with a short climb up to ANother pass!
And down to Livigno town itself. There was a big bike race on….and hundreds of cyclists everywhere! So good to see!!
Livigno is host to all the boarding events at next year’s Milan Winter Olympics. And you’ve seen it here first…construction ongoing of the half-pipe!!
We had a quick stop in town to pick up duty free cigarettes (…well normal price without the 25% VAT!)..before cycling around the long lake (a hydro lake)…
There must have been a full 8km of galleries!
And so to the dam itself……
…..where we were to meet a bike bus to take us through a tiny tunnel to Switzerland! Gladly really…you are not permitted to cycle through this ‘private’ tunnel, built by the dam people, so you have to take the bike bus!
The issue however was that the tunnel had been closed for three hours until just before we got there…to allow the bike race to use it!!!
And so the queues were horrendous! And no-one – bike buses included – were going anywhere very quickly!
Indeed…we had to wait two hours in the blazing sun before a ‘regular’ bus came by and agreed to allow us on!
…through the tunnel…
…and now we were properly in Switzerland!
It was a short descent before we stopped for coffee and a sausage!!
The sausage was fine…the coffee revolting…as if they had forgotten the coffee bit!
Funny sign in the toilet….!!!
It was a nice flowing descent thereafter…
….and a wobble along a river…..(there was music festival on…with lots of river bathing!)
….before the climbing started again!
Our muscles were tired from yesterday’s effort…so it was not easy!!
Sadly though….it is likely that this is our last big climb of the year!!
I knew there was a small lake at the top….and had entertained ideas of a swim….until I saw the icey snow!! Haha
From the Fluela Pass…it was a lovely ride down…..
….all he way to Davos…our overnight stop. I had sort of hoped to avoid staying in Switzerland…so expensive!! But it was really too far! So…we bit the bullet!!
I had of course heard of Davos. Not as one of Switzerland’s biggest ski resorts…but for the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of global political and corporate leaders.
There was a real irony there!!
No economy possible here!!
We each had a burger! NZ$50.00 each.
And with beers the bill was over $250.00!!
Phew!
Credit though…it was one of the very best of burgers…and the beer was Pilsener Urquell from Czech republic…which went down a storm!
They have a habit of painting poems(?) on houses here. I like it! This is a brand new house/guest house next to our hotel
This (Google-) translates as “Always conquer passion. This will only bring you gain, contentment, health, wealth and a cheerful soul”.
There you go then!!
Switzerland! A wonderfully clean green neutral friendly peaceful country….but where you have to do military service, whereafter most men keep their automatic guns at home…where all houses are built with a nuclear bunker underneath and…I just learned this….where all mountain passes, tunnels, bridges etc providing access to the country…are all fully primed with explosives…so they can close the country at a moment’s notice!!
