Hinweisschild zur Route des Grandes Alpes

To the Route des Grandes Alpes – with a difference

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The Route des Grandes Alpes from Thonon-les-Bains on Lake Geneva to Menton in southern is part of the catalog of what a touring biker should have done at least once in their life. They say…
You can use the approach from the north as a route to your destination and follow the German A96 to Bregenz – Feldkirch. Across , past the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc to the center of the French Alps to Flumet.

Distance: 470 kilometers
Riding time: Depends on you
Route and GPX download: kurv.gr/WOT9E

Day 1 – from Bregenz to Brig

As I’m not in a hurry, I set off from Bregenz in , , and end up somewhere behind Brig in the Swiss canton of Valais. I still don’t know exactly where I spent the night because I wasn’t using GPS logging at the time. This feature has only been available in Kurviger since May 2019, but read for yourself……..

Bregenz – Feldkirch

Km 44 – SS 2

If you are coming from and want to avoid all highway tolls, leave the A96 at the Lindau exit. Then turn left after the first traffic circle onto the Bodensee-Uferstraße towards Bregenz. However, this is only recommended if, like me, you want to cover the 473 km to Flumet in 2 days. You also have to enjoy watching the pedestrians at every traffic light and crosswalk. And you shouldn’t be bothered by the fact that there is someone at the front of every traffic light who can’t believe that after 10 minutes of red there is actually 10 seconds of green. And it shouldn’t bother you at all that there is virtually no section between Bregenz and Feldkirch where you can actually drive at the 80 km/h speed limit that is otherwise permitted on country roads in Austria. Vorarlberg is pure nannyland. You just have to know that.
Nevertheless, driving through Bregenz outside the vacation periods or very early in the morning can be nice. The Pfänder on the left, Lake Constance on the right, the Swiss Alps in front of me – it really is a feast for the eyes. So then … I’m going via Bregenz!

Alternative highway?

When I finally reach Feldkirch, already quite annoyed by the stop-and-go, I am rewarded with a view of centuries-old half-timbered buildings in and around the old town, through which the traffic squeezes towards the border. So I bob along at 30 to 60 km/h. At the same time, my impatience increases and I make a firm resolution: Next time I’ll take the 10-day vignette for EUR 5.30, which today would have sped me up by a factor of 10 through the Pfänder Tunnel near Hörbranz almost to the border with Liechtenstein.

Principality of Liechtenstein

60 km – SS 4

After Feldkirch, there is surprisingly little traffic. The border to the Principality of Liechtenstein is barely guarded and I quickly reach Vaduz. It takes three minutes to drive through the town center and it feels like the village street back home. The castle of Prince Adam the Second towers above the town. I almost break my vertebrae when I try to take a quick look at the building while driving, it’s so steep here. On the left, a quick glance at the skyline of the art museum and the Liechtenstein Bank and the capital city spook is over. I continue via Triesen to the southern border.

It flashes

Km 67- SS 5

Schwupp…. there’s a flash. A quick glance at the speedometer says 85, so you’re allowed to drive 80 here…. Can’t be.
Four weeks later I get the notice: 3km/h too fast, 40 EUR.
I paid it, I want to ride my bike in Schwyz again, right? I could have driven on the highway in Switzerland for a year for that money, because a Swiss highway sticker costs just as much.

Maienfeld

77 km – SS 8

In Balzers, turn left towards St. Luzisteig. The first alpine feeling comes with tentative climbs and bends. And you are already in Switzerland, in the extreme north-eastern corner of the canton of Graubünden. It starts in style with a gun and shooting range that is tidier than my living room. Including a complete village for practising house-to-house combat. A toy landscape!

Everyone who was a child in my generation knows the Heidi books and the animated films. And when you pass through Maienfeld, the Heidi village, time seems to have stood still here too. I squeeze the Integra through narrow streets, now traffic-calmed. Motor vehicles are rather unwelcome, it seems.

Landquart – Chur

96 km – SS 9

I continue via Landquart to Chur. I look enviously at the highway running parallel, because it will leave the capital of Graubünden to the left, while I will soon be torturing myself through the city’s perpetual traffic jam. But somewhere you have to earn the EUR 36.50 that the Swiss highway vignette would cost. Fortunately, I didn’t know at the time that I would have to pay exactly this amount in four weeks’ time…..
Graubünden is the only canton in Switzerland with 3 official languages: Schwyzerdütsch, Rhaeto-Romanic and Italian. The names of the road signs and place name signs along the route will be correspondingly mixed.

Rhine Valley – Oberalp Pass

183 km – SS 14

After Chur, the road becomes what one imagines high alpine valleys to be like: The road becomes more winding, the mountains are really high and later on you can already see the tree lines. I cycle upstream along the Rhine to Reichenau-Tamins, where the great European river splits into its two founding branches, the Vorderrhein and the Hinterrhein.
Normally I would now follow the B19 towards Flims and Laax. But there is an attractive side route via Bonaduz to Ilanz. Kurviger tells me on my smartphone. You should take the detour because it’s not a detour and because the many nice restaurants and cafés on the roadside, and especially the bakeries, almost compel you to stop for your first snack.

Driving is now really fun. The Integra purrs contentedly because it is allowed to accelerate out of bends without us constantly being in danger of exceeding the maximum permitted 80 km/h on country roads. At the same time, the panorama changes at every corner. It is breathtaking.
And so I bubble along in pleasure mode for the next 40 km to Sedrun. The seemingly endless valley floor of the Vorderrhein comes to an end here, because the Gotthard massif stands in the way. It forms the water catchment area of the Rhine. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that the wild stream that rushes down the valley to the left of the road from Disentis will one day become one of the largest rivers on the continent.

The ascent gets steeper and steeper. The first hairpin bends beckon, not a tree to be seen and the riding pleasure is joined by that pinch of adrenaline that leads to the exact state of mind that got you hooked decades ago. And one that is completely drug-free. All too soon, I’m on the first 2000-metre pass of the tour, the Oberalp Pass.

Midday nap

There is plenty of space on the Oberalp Pass. There’s even a train station here!
To the right of the road is a dirt track, which widens a few hundred meters further on into parking spaces for motorhomes.
A waterfall rushes down the wall. Because the water is the freshest you can imagine, I first empty my canisters and fill them up with this delicacy. Then I open my suitcase and have a hearty lunch. I’m already a little tired, because on top of the 170 km from Bregenz, there’s another 150 km to drive.
So what could be better than inflating the air mattress and taking a nap in the glorious sunshine? I doze off immediately and after what feels like 5 minutes with my eyes closed, I wake up again 2 hours later. Alpine air!

Andermatt – Uri – Gotthard

208 km – SS 16

After this unplanned long stop, I take the Integra past the Oberalpsee lake and descend steeply into the basin of the Urseren valley with Andermatt.
You have a truly breathtaking eagle’s-eye view of the town along the entire route. But because the serpentines are more like a giant slalom, the riding is quite demanding.
In Hospental, I could simply take the first exit at the traffic circle: Via the Furka road and the pass of the same name. But I’m not in a hurry. I’d rather drive over the highest Swiss road pass: The Nufenen (2478 m).

There are 2 alternatives to the Gotthard Pass: The old road from 1977 over the top of the pass or the very old road from 1830.
With a touring enduro, preferably with long front suspension forks, the old road with its many bends is certainly no problem, although it is still partly paved. However, the full fairing of the Integra groans and rattles so pitifully on cobblestones that I prefer to postpone this to the upper Italian back roads, where I can’t avoid it anyway. The good road is not very challenging because it is well maintained, but the view makes up for it.

Bedretto curve

Km 213 – SS 17

The real highlight of the Gotthard is not the top of the pass. It is the Bedretto bend 6 km further on the descent to Airolo.
Drivers tend not to notice this very well-built hairpin bend, which is set far above the Bedretto valley floor on high pillars, because the crash barriers are so high. But with the motorcycle….. my face! I have to stop there every time. See for yourself:

Airolo – Nufenen

Km 247 – SS 18

But the fun is not over yet. We descend to Airolo in relatively fast serpentines. At the bottom of the valley, the Integra and I head towards Nufenen and then turn into the Bedretto valley, which we were able to admire from above 15 minutes ago. We pass Fontana and the magnificent waterfall. In just under three quarters of an hour, I would be at the top of the Nufenen Pass. I still have no idea what I and my bike will encounter before then…

Encounter of the third kind

The road climbs rapidly. The landscape freezes more and more in stone. In the upper hairpin bends up to the top of the Nufenen Pass, you don’t really go fast and there is not a vehicle to be seen for miles around. I am completely alone with myself in the barren, waterless landscape, lost in a wide-awake delirium that is difficult to explain. A hairpin bend further down, I notice a few goats, but who keeps goats here? And suddenly he’s standing in front of me on the road:
A huge ibex!

I stop the bike and the engine abruptly and put my helmet visor up.
The ibex stares at me and I stare at it. It is fully grown and looks frightening with its huge horns. For a second, I have the feeling that we’ve met before. But Mr Ibex doesn’t seem to recognize me, so I prefer not to ask. Nevertheless, at some point I can’t stand the silence any longer and speak to him, something like: Hello, nice to meet you here, and in the back of my mind images like: What happens if he puts his horns down and attacks me on my horse….
He doesn’t do that. He just looks at me impassively, a king of rocks and stones.

After what feels like an eternity, a car comes crawling up the hairpin bends from below, and the animal turns proudly and majestically into the almost vertical wall in view of the expected crowd and disappears down to its “goats”.
Shortly afterwards, I’m standing at the top of the pass between the peaks of the Swiss Alps, slowly coming back to reality.

For me, this meeting is absolutely wonderful, and that’s what I’ve associated with the Nufenen ever since.

Brig – Ticino

300 km – SS 19

The descent from the Nufenen leads steeply downhill to Ulrichen in the Valais and into the Rhône valley, where I turn left onto the Furka road.
By now it’s relatively late. It’s time for me to look around for a campsite.
But do you know this? The more hours you have on the gas, the more difficult it becomes to stop. Either you see the sign too late, or the campsite is too close to the road, or, or, or. Even refueling becomes a problem. And so the hours go by until I realize that it’s already getting dark.
But now it’s time! The narrow valley floor with its closely spaced steep slopes is easy to see, so it’s not really a place for wild camping. What’s more, you would have to step onto the incredibly well-kept lawn. Unforgivable in this country, which is tidy down to the last detail. I quickly decide to leave my curvy route and turn right, up into the steep meadows.

In the canopy of stars

At a hairpin bend, a narrow tarred path leads into steep hay meadows and somewhere there is a flat area for the motorcycle, wide enough to turn around and for me to lie down, but too small for the tent.
So I put my sleeping bag on, the motorcycle tarpaulin over me …

….and then I experience the spectacle of the stars and the Milky Way, without the smog of light that the narrow valley almost completely shields. Unforgettable.
I haven’t slept much, admittedly. It’s unbelievable how many sounds there are in nature when it’s completely quiet. And how exposed you feel when you’re used to existing behind thick walls and a roof over your head. Or without the reassuring legality of a camping site as a place to rest.
In the morning, as the stars slowly fade, the snow-covered peak of the Matterhorn stands white and red on the horizon.

And suddenly I realize that the luxury of a hostel doesn’t necessarily have to mean wealth, and that I’d rather travel like this in the future.

Day 2 – from Brig to Flumet

The second day of this tour will be much shorter. It leads from Brig in the canton of Valais past the Matterhorn over the border with France to Flumet, my personal starting point on the Route des Grandes Alpes.

Martigny – Col de La Forclaz – Vallorcine – Col des Montets

Km 416 – SS 31

I’m on my feet relatively quickly in the early morning. The little I needed for my overnight camp is quickly stowed away, and soon Brig is behind me. At Gamsen, the A9 begins, which I’m not allowed to use because I don’t have a vignette, and disturbs the high alpine character of the Rhône valley floor. The valley widens a little as I progress, but the towering mountain giants to the left and right are still an incredible spectacle in their chunky, ice-cold splendor. They are some of the highest in the Alps, and it would be a sin to want to travel to the south of France any other way than here.
Very quickly I reach Martigny, where the Rhône and the highway turn right towards Lake Geneva, while I direct the Integra from 432m above sea level up to the left to the Col de la Forclaz at 1527m.

After a short photo break, we continue across the Swiss border into France. There are no checks at this border either. There is hardly any traffic and Vallorcine in the French region of is reached very quickly. The municipality lies at an altitude of 1200m, just 300m below the Forclaz, so there is no steep descent. The following pass at the Col des Montets is also not that much higher at 1461 m, which is why the Integra is allowed to bubble along comfortably and I can look less at the road and more at the surroundings.

Chamonix-Mont-Blanc – Flumet

474 km – Special stage finish

Then it suddenly gets busy and we suddenly find ourselves in a mix of luxury sports cars, high-end boutiques and lots of people. It’s like being in a big city and I have to be very careful not to run anyone over. We are in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. What made this place an Olympic town becomes clear when you tilt your head back at least 90°. It really takes your breath away how Mont Blanc rises almost vertically into the sky above the town center, white and implacable. You can’t photograph it. At least, I haven’t managed to capture anything close to it. Go here, you have to see it! But it has to be cloud-free, like today. If there’s even the slightest cloud in the sky, it’s on the mountain.

The stretch to Passy can be safely forgotten. Highway, noise, traffic, to which I am of course also contributing at the moment, no question. But it’s always the others who are bad, so…. Turn left towards Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and via Megève down to Flumet.

And there it is: the first sign pointing us to the Route des Grandes Alpes!