Alps part one

Wow, it's been a week since I've been back. Not really a whole lot of downtime since. Bring the bike back, birthday party, guests for a couple of days after, help my sister with her new house, put together pictures, work on videos... I thought this was supposed to be relaxing? I thought I would get some reading done this summer. I have yet to even crack a book this past month. Guess I'm not bored.
One of my recurring thoughts during this trip was, WTF did I not do this sooner? It just never occurred to me. What a bonehead. My advice to everyone - DO IT. It's obviously awesome on a bike, but even on four wheels it's pretty cool - you just get stuck behind the buses that I get to pass. Fly into Munich, rent whatever and go. You're about an hour from the Alps at that point.
Every part was an adventure. A new city/town/village/collection of houses every night. A new type of abode every night. Figuring out the day's route after breakfast every day. Awesome roads, scary roads. Awesome views. Cool towns. Friendly, amusing people. Good food. Riding in below freezing to high summer temps, sometimes within hours. Everyone welcomes motorcyclists. Hotels & restaurants have little stickers that say 'bikers welcome'. Hotels almost invariably offer up a garage for free. No one bats an eye when you waltz in disheveled with all your gear. It's not without risk. There are lots, LOTS of signs on the side of the road, admonishing people to 'not forget your head', that ask 'are you faster than death', and a few others. I don't know what the Swiss ones said, because the print was so small, you were guaranteed to crash if you tried to read it. I think I rode pretty sane, kept the speed reasonable (yes, I know that word is open to interpretation), didn't pull any lunatic passes and rode within my limits. Arguably, just being on some of those roads at all could be considered suicidal, but by the time I noticed that it was usually too late (not to mention physically impossible) to turn around.
It was fun to feel my riding skills getting sharper, to feel the comfort level increase, to ride the bike harder as time went on. It was neat to have my experiences surpassed almost every day. From tunnels, to heights, to temperatures, to views. It was interesting to learn the different personalities of all the passes.
It wasn't lonely, it was solitary. Doubly so because of how empty the roads were, by and large. Very cool. Tough to explain. That might be something that's lost in a car. I like exploring cities by myself as well. Walk wherever I want (as fast as I want :).  Don't much like eating out by myself tho. Oh well.
Anyway, I put together a photo album and started uploading/editing videos:

Italy May 2014

There are more videos to be done, but here's the first batch:

Monte Zoncolan up
Monte Zoncolan down
Gründnerjoch down
Sellajoch up
Sellajoch down