My first motorcycle trip in Europe (June 2009 - Part 7 Brenner - Jaufen Pass)

(continued from part 6 )

We're only a couple of km South of Austria on Italian soil and here on the left you see the church of Maria Hilf:

It's a no brainer you need those metal nets here:

What you saw in the background above is the first buildings of Gossensass. Or Colle Isarco if you prefer Italian. Reading the history of this area you can easily understand why everything looks Austrian in an Italian way here.

That's the local church of Parish of the Immaculate Conception:

It also hosts the local cemetery but I guess we have other things to see first. Here's a couple of shots from this little town as we drive through:

We are riding the SS12 under the bridge of the A22 toll road leaving Gossensass behind:

The local valley is such a beauty:

Rosskopf is the local ski resort and you can see here the cable car that takes you up to the mountain:

If you prefer Italian you may call it Monte Cavallo.

Vipiteno is the name of the town here and you can also see its canal in the next image:

Quite picturesque sky over this cute place, much better than the one we had yesterday:

Makes such a nice background for this beautiful mountain:

This gives an idea about the local architecture:

Riding this flat part of the valley on such a beautiful day is an absolute joy:

The sun makes its way through the clouds like a laser but I prefer to be blinded by its light than miss it like I did in the previous days:

I have a hard time keeping my eyes on the road with all this beauty around - look at this house up there:

Hotel Saxl (still beautiful and still open):

 

For the religions ones it also has that little chapel in the next corner:

 As I found out 15 years later (today) it's got a painting from 1797!

We continue South on SS12 since the route feels so pleasant and we don't have strict plans anyway:

A few km later this tunnel offers the following psychedelic shot:

Soon after the tunnel we make a stop to see what we'll do next:

Funny how the same spot looks 15 years later (thanks to Google):

The mountains stay as beautiful though:

So we head back North intending to do one of the Alpine passes around. No complains for redundancy in this heaven:

Especially on a heavenly day like this:

We take the SS44 and start climbing up the mountain heading for Jaufen Pass:

Or Passo Giovo if Italian sounds better to you. The view is already stunning in any case on every corner:

A red light's traffic jam allows for more shots on this beautiful spot:

Calice runs for "smallest village in the world":

What can I say about this route, see and judge for yourselves:

After all this beauty we finally make it to Jaufen Pass at the local church:

It's much colder up here of course but who can complain with views like these:

No surprise that this place is a biker's magnet:

It's actually a magnet for every person with some taste regardless if they're motorists or tree huggers:

As we ride up to the very top of the pass we get a nice overview of the serpentine road that leads up to here:

Time to stop:

"Been there done that" shots:

And this boys 'n girls was my first Alpine pass ever above 2000m. Back in the day I couldn't imagine that years later I'd lose count of how many I've done at similar or higher elevation. Stay in tune though cause the trip is not over.

See you in part 8!