To Lake Como

What a day... beautiful, exhausting, borderline. We started from Nauders, went up the Norberthöhe to Martina and entered Switzerland there. Then on to the Flüela Pass, which we already knew, so the anticipation was great!

 But the enjoyment was massively diminished by a cycling marathon that went up and down the pass. So a narrow road, various construction sites with one-sided lane narrowing, hairpin bends. Cars, motorcycles and incredible numbers of bicycles. Everyone overtakes everyone else, wherever and whenever they can, there is pushing, overtaking on two lanes, and yet progress is only at a snail's pace 🙄. 

At some point we reach the top and going downhill is much more relaxed. 

In Davos Dorf, we take a lunch break in a very nice café. Davos Dorf is quite ugly, but the small mountain villages we usually drive through are picturesque with very narrow streets, original and somehow unreal with all the through traffic. 

The weather gets worse again, we have to put on our rain suits, but luckily not for long, because after driving through a several kilometers long, ice-cold tunnel, the sun is shining at us again.

After a short confusion of the navigation systems, we finally find the access road to the Splügen Pass, via the Viamala and Thusis. The Viamala and the following valley are breathtakingly beautiful. It makes you dizzy when you look down into this depth!

Then we go up to Splügen, the ascent has some narrow hairpin bends, but there is not much traffic and it can be easily cycled up. At the top, there is an (unmanned) border crossing into Italy. The first hairpin bends and curves towards Lake Como are still easy, but then the navigation system only shows a pink tangle...

The hairpin bends are so tight that we can only manage to maneuver the heavy metal around with great effort. Then there are repeatedly unlit tunnels with potholes all over the road. The descent is super steep and demands all our concentration and strength. 

When we reach the first villages again and the traffic increases significantly, there are still many narrow hairpin bends to overcome.

 It gets noticeably warmer, at the lake it is over 30 degrees. Our hotel is nice and family-run. We enjoy the typical Lombard cuisine and fall into bed completely exhausted.