Friday July 9, 2004

part 1/3

First thing in the morning, without even morning coffee, we are at BMW Chur.



  
This is the NEW brake line. The red line points to where the old one was cut, letting brake fluid drip all over the right side of the engine... Now, I'll have to figure out a way to clean that, and I bet it will be quite hard, because the brake fluid has been fried on the engine, after all these days... Oh, the guys fixed it at CHF 160, labor and brake fluid included, and was quite a relief from the projected CHF 200 that we were told the day before!

Something good happened while we waited for the bike to get fixed. The mechanic told us to drive 2-3 blocks down the road to a nearby cafe, but we wouldn't leave. However, as I said, we hadn't had morning coffee yet, so we went to the next gas station. In Greek/German/English I managed to make them understand I wanted two cups of coffee. Then, a man working at the front came to me, speaking english, and asked where was I from. I answered Griechenland. Then he says: Wait a second! He runs to the back of the store, and comes out furiously waving a GREEK football shirt with Number 7 on the chest and Hellas written in the back! Needless to say, I was astounded!

  
We had our coffee at the usual "bar", the rear of the Miata, and left Chur quite quickly that morning, at around 10.30am, heading south to Lenzerheide and in the general direction of St. Moritz. The night before, there fell fresh snow on the nearby mountaintops...

  

  
Right after Lenzerheide, we climbed up Julierpass, which, even though is not that high at 2236m, however was the COLDEST part of our trip. I cannot say with certainty, but I'm afraid it was just 1 or 2*C above ZERO! That much freezing!

  
Needless to say, we stopped there for a few seconds, only. Took a pic or two of the pass sign, and a couple of shots at the edelweiss pots that were for sale, and headed south as fast as we could!

The south sides of Julierpass were a lot warmer, as we were closer to St. Moritz.
Back to the start of the trip

St Moritz, Berninapass, Bormio...