A fantastic days riding in not so fantastic conditions. This blog will be short and sweet because I need a long and good night’s sleep.

The man has ridden a filly for over 450 kms through appalling weather and over some of Europe’s most iconic mountain passes – and loved every minute of it.

Really cold, temperatures down to 1C over the Grimsell Pass at 2145m high where we had snow falling on us we crested the summit. Do not forget this is meant to be summer. Followed shortly thereafter by the Furka at 2155m, the Oberalp at 2200m and then topped by the Julia pass near St. Moritz at 2250m. All freezing cold and covered in fog and rain. Not what was ordered, but the challenge of less than perfect conditions always makes it great riding. Nothing like taming your mistress on a really wet ride.

Throughout the day, all of it in Switzerland, I cannot help but marvel at the physical beauty of this small Alpine country, in its own way more beautiful than Norway last year. Not the over powering knock out of the fjords and the sea and lakes of Norway but the orderly beauty of the pastures and villages perched on the slopes of the mountains, the villages hundreds of years old. The chocolate box buildings and a country in which everything, but everything works properly.

One is also constantly reminded that this is a law abiding population and no one drives faster than the speed limit. In fact I rode through the very village, just before the Julia pass where I was ticketed 35 years ago for exceeding the then speed limit by 2 km/h and had to pay on the spot. Nothing has changed. The village is the same. The speed limit is the same and the policeman is also the same. No doubt however, the fine has kept pace with inflation.

So why déjà vu?

Because I have been coming to this country for over 50 years, the first time with my parents when I was 9 years old and regularly ever since then. In fact our ride today ended in Celerina, just outside St. Moritz. We rode into town past the ski slopes and lifts on which my sister Susan and I learnt to ski in 1964. The T bar and button lift on which Susan failed to let go and went over the ice wall at the end are still there, as is the Cresta Palace Hotel where we stayed with our parents. In those days I did not have to pay any bills. It was a great deal as I have now come to realise.

Children are created in a brief moment of passion and a dangling debit is created simultaneously, only you have no idea at the time. Pay back, if ever takes decades.

Interestingly enough as I remarked last night, this country is prospering. Building everywhere and huge upgrades to the roads and infrastructure. People everywhere particularly when compared with France, which is ossifying by comparison. TV in the hotel is a perfect example. In Metz on Sunday night, a good hotel. French TV only with not one international channel. Of course if you are in France why would you need or want anything else.

At both Swiss hotels, in Celerina and in Bien Biele, a full range of every international channel you could wish for. In Switzerland all the small villages have a Café or restaurant which is open and keen to do business. In France there were no places to even get a coffee in the rural areas. They are all closed.

Tomorrow we ride into Italy, the Italian Tyrol and Bolzano. Once part of Austria, it is an area that is still confused as to whether it is German or Italian. One area in which there is no confusion is the food, which is great and therefore must be Italian.

My great friend, Georg “Foul Mouth” Tymcowitz of Lear fame and renowned for the saying when that when skiing if you fall , “when the powder is deep and steep you have no friends”  and then promptly falling and begging me to help him get out. Which I might add I did not do, is driving from Munich to have dinner with us.

He has booked at what he assures me is the best mountain restaurant in the area. I thought that two years ago when we skied together nearby, that we ate at the best mountain restaurant in the area. It was fantastic and not the same place. So in true Italian fashion there are two best restaurants. So this must therefore be exceptional.

Then we ride back to my happy hunting grounds in Davos, where DB and I have skied almost very year for the past 35 years. I have never been there in summer and look forward to seeing it. We have two nights there, an opportunity needed in every big bike trip to regroup and re-organise one’s self. Granny and I will probably not do the day out ride but will use the opportunity to take the funicular up the mountain and then walk for a few hours in the mountains and eat at one of the areas “best” mountain restaurants.

So sport fans and blog followers, from the heart of the Graubunden, Good night, Good luck and good bye.