The Alps are a wonderful place to explore and they cover several countries. I focus on Switzerland, the country of my birth, here.

You have many options: You can go hiking at countless places, just chill in one of the many beautiful small Alpine cities / villages like Andermatt, Interlaken, Altdorf, Lugano, Lucerne, etc. or you can get a motorbike / car and explore the Alpine passes. (With an Alpine pass I mean the passage over or near a mountain top connecting two valleys.)

As a proud owner of a BMW motorbike I chose the first option and want to give you some impressions of what you can expect to see during an outstanding nice weather period as September 2012 in Switzerland.

If you're the speedy type you can do 5 alpine passes a day, but I rather recommend you to do less and split your adventure up into two or three days.

I've chosen to to do 3 passes a day in central Switzerland. There are some more in the eastern and western part of the country and some more connecting Switzerland to Italy.

On the first day I did the Furka – Grimsel – Susten route.

Bigger view

On the second day I did the Gotthard – Lukmanier – Oberalp route.

Bigger view

Both of them are circle routes, where the start and end point is at the same place.

And here is the picture and video story

At the end of the summer season - with some luck - you can see beautifully adorned cows coming down form the Alpine meadows, where they spent their summer. This happens mostly in September. If you don't want to rely on luck visit the Swiss tourism site and search for cows or contact them and ask.

This is the view down on Andermatt seen from the Furka pass. I have to stop every time to enjoy this view.

This is on top of the Furka pass. A bit sad, as the hotel in this building is already closed for decades. No-one makes night stops anymore at a pass. But you can get coffee and pastry there. A bit further along the road you can have a look at a glacier from its inside.

If the weather is right the Alps are such a nice place! I always get a feeling of freedom and euphoria!

The Alpine creek has this special colour because it mostly contains the melt water of glaciers at that time of the year.

On the way down from the Grimsel pass you see these two dam lakes full of melt water. What an awesome sight!

And here is one of the dams seen from below. It better doesn't burst, when you make that photo. But don't worry: It's Swiss quality, so not going to burst any time soon. :-)

This is all the same road down from Susten pass towards Wassen down in the valley.

You should make a picture as a proof, you've been at the most famous pass of Switzerland. It may be the most famous, but certainly not the most beautiful, as the next picture proves.

Well, somewhere that electricity has to go through to connect the grid between North- and South-Western Europe.

Another beautiful dam lake at the Lukmanier pass.

When to go: The passes are usually open from Mid May to end of September. In the rest of the time they are covered by up to three metres of snow.

How to get there: You really need to rent a car or motorbike (maybe you can share a car with other people?) Public transportation is available, but you can't stop inbetween unless you like to wait for three hours or wish to walk along the road. You can basically start from any point in Switzerland, that offers rental cars or rental motorbikes.

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