Last Updated on September 30, 2026 by freebuffalo

The idea was to go over some alpine mountains passes and also visit some of the European microstates. 

I started my trip in Munich and within a day I was on the alpine mountains. I went along a valley to climb the first pass in Austria, Arlberg pass at 1793m. It had only been four days into the ride and so I was struggling on the summit day. On the other side was the first microstate, Liechtenstein. Apart from the customs border police, there was no difference, it felt like Switzerland or Austria. 

From there I headed to Zurich for a brief respite followed by a mountain pass stage. For about four days, I was doing pass per day starting with the legendary Gotthard pass. The weather held on all three days and the passes were magnificent as expected, except that snow was missing on a lot of these places due to the recent heat wave. 

On the fourth pass, I had strong rain, got soaked and arrived in the tourist Grindelwald, where unfortunately due to the weather, the postcard scenery was obscured by the clouds. From here I was cruising along some lakes and hills to visit Craig from my white family. 

Craig and I rode for together over the subsequent two days. The weather forecast changed dramatically for the better and we had the best sunny days on the Grand St Bernard pass. On the Italian side of the pass, I said goodbye to Craig and moved forward to Turin. 

Route (1075km): Munich – Wallberg campsite (57km) – Karwendel campsite (43) – Innsbruck (50) – Imst (55) – Pettneu (43) – Vaduz (83) – Obstalden (43) – Zurich (72). – Brunnen (62) – Hospental (55) – Bedretto (32) – Oberwald Forest campsite (36) – Innertkirchen (42) – Grindelwald (32) – Bern (73) – Avenches (38) – Obre (57) – Martigny (car) – Bourg St Pierre (32) – Etroubles (31) – Quincineto (73) – Turin (66)