My first motorcycle trip in Europe (June 2009 - Part 3 Innsbruck - Gießenbach)

(continued from part 2) 

Gotta admit that the hotel's breakfast is well worth it. Jams can hardly taste any better. With some calories gained back from yesterday's exhaustion I'm ready to walk around Innsbruck once again:

Sweet old house isn't it?

If I looked moody above blame it on the weather:

It's actually worse than yesterday's but makes an impressive scenery with all these clouds surrounding the city:

However, I can't just stay in the city and not ride around even though it's obvious it's gonna rain any time soon. My partner in crime is eager to follow so we hit the road heading North, intending to just ride up to Munich and "whatever comes our way".

That's how the road looks like as we've left the urban web behind:

As you can see the peaks are well covered in thick white clouds. In the absence of gps and maps I make a stop to cross check my notes:

My partner/photographer comes from Czech with a spoonful of Finland so I hope that's OK for her but to me it looks like riding around the mountains of NW Greece on a mild winter day, though it's near the end of June:

Of course I don't complain. I have impressive scenery around and someone to take pictures while I can just ride on the 177:

In case someone might wonder how come this oldschool round mirror on a (then) brand new bike, this is a mod I made to adapt the mirrors of my previous bike, an XTZ750. I wanted to keep something from that bike which I had for 7 years plus they offer better view. And the original ones were far from attractive anyway.

Weather is gloomy, scenery is great and I have someone to capture it while I see it for my first time:

Some interesting rock formations:

Meanwhile, the sky is smoking:

Haven't seen a house for a while:

No houses up there:

This next image reminds me that I still have this helmet:

I bought 2 helmets after this and yes it reflects the camera girl.

I wish we had as many noise reducing walls like this as Italy Austria and Germany does:

We keep heading North and unsurprisingly the weather doesn't get any better:

The only improvement is that sometimes it's less dark than others:

Everlasting heavy clouds:

Some bright green on this junction (if only I knew where that was):

Only to continue North under some more thick clouds:

Always on the 177, at Auland we pass by this house with that cute umbrella guy outside:

How many clouds can you handle?

You see that fog coming? Yep, there it is:

The rest of the bikers we meet on the way are already wearing their rain gear:

I trust my waterproof jacket so far while the girl behind me and the camera has nothing to trust except her Nordic DNA🙂

The peaks on our right hand as we head North are just above 2000m but they're lost in the clouds:

A metal net is necessary to reduce the obvious landslide risk:

Contrary to the mountainous right side on our left is the valley where Seefeld is:

Both sides miss the sun today:

I wonder what's that "playcastle" on that green sign:

Well, 15 years later I find out that it refers to this. You can see a tiny bit of it in the next couple of images on the right:

We continue North on the 177 enjoying the smoking peaks around:

We reach a flat area at Gießenbach surrounded by Alps just a couple of turns before the German border - quite a contrast between the flat grass and the steep slopes around:

See you in part 4 😉