Silz

Edelweiss Hotel provided a very delicious and hearty breakfast spread. Once fuelled with goodness and caffeine, we headed out on the last day of our motorcycle tour through the Alps around Austria.

We thought it’d be nice to head further south to the end of the Pitz valley and capture a glimpse of the Kaunertal glacier. Unfortunately, not even a kilometre away we encountered a toll booth and decided to head north instead!

We zipped along a fair segment of the roads we had covered the day before, including the Hatntennjoch pass, but in reverse this time. The vistas were just as fantastic a second time, and it was nice to experience the full 360 view of the area. We pulled over briefly for some photos, and put some space between us and some slower moving motorists.

We left the Lectal (Lech valley) at Stanzbach, and headed east into the Nameloser Tal, boasting more spectacular scenery and views, very peaceful and quiet too. Eventually we had a minor descent into the Rotlechtal that had a well-developed ski area around Berwang.

Once back at the main highway we regrouped and realized the next section of the trip would be ending soon, so A added on an additional loop just south of where we were to return the motorbikes. Our path eventually lead us off the main road back onto the small side roads, and eventually through Fernpass. As we approached the turnoff to Fernpass we noticed the eastbound traffic was backed up as far as we could see. Not sure what was causing the massive traffic congestion, but it was backed up all the way into the pass. Our lane came to a stop a couple of times, but that was due to on-coming motorists doing a u-turn from their lane. Fernpass was pretty, but not as epic as other passes we traversed, or as leisurely with all the congestion...

We did eventually come upon the more touristy part of the pass where hikers and bikers alike were enjoying the trails, and lots of campers getting settled. We got a glimpse of (Schloß) Fernstein Castle, built in the 11th century, and further developed in the 12th century.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Fernstein

Turning east once again, though the Oberinntal, we noticed another hilltop castle, Burg Klamm (https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Klamm).

We passed Mötz and continued south, meandered our way over the Silzer Sattel pass. This added section of switch-backs and views made up for lethargic (traffic congestion) Fernpass. We passed a number of locals harvesting and cleaning up the dead fall from the earlier wind storm. Even then you could see whole slopes denuded of trees as we descended the steep gulley.

We finally reached the end of the trip by early afternoon, and began to strip the bikes of belongings, and repack our luggage. We called a local taxi, suggested by Edelweiss Bikes, and caught the regional train from Mötz to Innsbruck. Innsbruck has two stations... so we may have briefly got off at the first one 🤣, and hopped on to the next train to get to the correct station.

Not wanting to venture too far with all our luggage we settled on a piecemeal dinner at MPRES grocery store, in the train station. Talk about interesting people watching, akin to what your might see at Walmart...

Once we finished enjoying our beers, salad and half of a BBQ'd chicken, we made our way up to the platform and boarded our Nightjet train to Hannover, and on to Bremen, Germany for our next adventure.Read more