27-07-13, 11:55 PM
In May we did:
Friday: Finished work at lunchtime, rode Derby to Canterbury, stayed over night in Travel lodge. Pub.
Saturday: Ferry to Calais, ride to Luxembourg (beautiful). Highly recommended as an overnight stop if your in the area, nice city, German style bars, cheap drink and petrol. Stayed Hilton.
Sunday: Ride south through Germany, bit of a play on auto ban (135mph!) and through Black Forrest region (beautiful, great fast roads) and in to Switzerland (stunningly beautiful). Stayed Zurich Best Western.
Monday: Ride across Switzerland (did I say it's beautiful?), up and over the alps, 2100m climb, snowy at the top, then drop down via a hardcore pass in torrential rain in to North Western Italy. Stayed near Milan.
Tuesday: Ride West to East across Northern Italy around Lake Como and through a 30km tunnel! Through Dolomite Italian Alp region. Stayed in a fantastic and friendly hotel in Trento (best AND cheapest of the trip).
Wednesday: Headed North via Bolzano, up and over Alps once more, via a snowy pass, dropping down in to Austria (beautiful), then on to Stuttgart in Germany.
Thursday: Back to Luxembourg, more booze.
Friday: Back to Calais, Ferry, then carry on home to Derby (about 550miles in one go!)
This was a first European tour, and we learned a lot.
Firstly, we certainly did too many miles in too short a time. 2,200 miles in eight days. I'm accustomed to high millage, and for the most part I enjoyed the riding tremendously despite minor discomfort, but there were times when it was painful.
But then again the route did give me a fantastic perspective on Western Europe as a whole which I didn't have before despite having visited many of these places by air travel.
We knew certain key areas which we'd targeted were going to be scenic with great roads, but I was genuinely surprised that perhaps 80% of our (fairly carefully planned) route led us through stunningly beautiful scenery with often thrilling roads - even those parts we had considered just motorway miles necessary to get where we were going surprised us.
Having seen so much on the first trip, I have a better perspective on where I'd like to revisit on a second. The areas that really stand out are Luxembourg, the Black Forest region of Germany, Switzerland and North Eastern Italy (dolomites). These were all stunningly beautiful with amazing roads - I'm also very much in to the rugged twisting beauty of the mountain road and these fit the bill perfectly.
Bear in mind that you can't really ride through the Alps, naturally the roads are passes and as such tend to be focused on getting from one side to another. And so if Alps are your thing then you really need to be thinking in terms of criss-crossing them from one country to another. But there are may great passes on which to do that - lookup the Stelvio pass if you fancy one of the more challenging ones!
In terms of cost, we had budgeted £1000 and came in a little under. I don't think that's bad for such an adventure!
We did hotels because not everyone in the group was comfortable camping, and a minimum of 4 star because one person in particular has too much money and is kinda stuck up. :rolleyes That was about £50/night for accommodation - you can get the Hilton for that in most of these places if you book a couple of months in advance, although personally I prefer somewhere with a bit more character. But The main reason for choosing the big hotels was parking security, we took a long chain and chained all four bikes together each night.
If I were to do it again I'd consider mixing in a bit of camping to reduce costs, with pit stops at hotels to freshen up. But it all depends on what suits the group as a whole.
I think I spent about £260 on petrol. Certainly less than 300. Being on a budget it all went on the credit card, which made it easy to total up and work out some figures. Incidentally if my calculations are correct it worked out at 72mpg, but I haven't mentioned that before because it sounded too good to be true! I spent the least, the group consisting of a FZS 600, FZ 800, some sort of Honda 1000 and ZZR 1400.
Spending money was minimal because we were knackered at the end of the day. I'd like to think next time I'll have more energy for a few drinks and a nice meal in the evening, but these trips are more about the days then the evenings, and if you've tired yourself out then I tend to view that as a good sign.
I wrote more than expected, but could carry on, there's so much to say. You mentioned you might invite others along? If once you've done your research you decide you'd like to do that then I may well be keen, but would have to let you know nearer the time, subject to holiday, funds etc of course. If you fancy a shorter tour meanwhile then hit me up any time - I nearly got in touch after you posted about your Welsh tour but couldn't get away from work that week. Same goes to anyone, I'm always up for an adventure.
Have a great time, and enjoy planning it, it's part of the fun
Andy
Friday: Finished work at lunchtime, rode Derby to Canterbury, stayed over night in Travel lodge. Pub.
Saturday: Ferry to Calais, ride to Luxembourg (beautiful). Highly recommended as an overnight stop if your in the area, nice city, German style bars, cheap drink and petrol. Stayed Hilton.
Sunday: Ride south through Germany, bit of a play on auto ban (135mph!) and through Black Forrest region (beautiful, great fast roads) and in to Switzerland (stunningly beautiful). Stayed Zurich Best Western.
Monday: Ride across Switzerland (did I say it's beautiful?), up and over the alps, 2100m climb, snowy at the top, then drop down via a hardcore pass in torrential rain in to North Western Italy. Stayed near Milan.
Tuesday: Ride West to East across Northern Italy around Lake Como and through a 30km tunnel! Through Dolomite Italian Alp region. Stayed in a fantastic and friendly hotel in Trento (best AND cheapest of the trip).
Wednesday: Headed North via Bolzano, up and over Alps once more, via a snowy pass, dropping down in to Austria (beautiful), then on to Stuttgart in Germany.
Thursday: Back to Luxembourg, more booze.
Friday: Back to Calais, Ferry, then carry on home to Derby (about 550miles in one go!)
This was a first European tour, and we learned a lot.
Firstly, we certainly did too many miles in too short a time. 2,200 miles in eight days. I'm accustomed to high millage, and for the most part I enjoyed the riding tremendously despite minor discomfort, but there were times when it was painful.
But then again the route did give me a fantastic perspective on Western Europe as a whole which I didn't have before despite having visited many of these places by air travel.
We knew certain key areas which we'd targeted were going to be scenic with great roads, but I was genuinely surprised that perhaps 80% of our (fairly carefully planned) route led us through stunningly beautiful scenery with often thrilling roads - even those parts we had considered just motorway miles necessary to get where we were going surprised us.
Having seen so much on the first trip, I have a better perspective on where I'd like to revisit on a second. The areas that really stand out are Luxembourg, the Black Forest region of Germany, Switzerland and North Eastern Italy (dolomites). These were all stunningly beautiful with amazing roads - I'm also very much in to the rugged twisting beauty of the mountain road and these fit the bill perfectly.
Bear in mind that you can't really ride through the Alps, naturally the roads are passes and as such tend to be focused on getting from one side to another. And so if Alps are your thing then you really need to be thinking in terms of criss-crossing them from one country to another. But there are may great passes on which to do that - lookup the Stelvio pass if you fancy one of the more challenging ones!
In terms of cost, we had budgeted £1000 and came in a little under. I don't think that's bad for such an adventure!
We did hotels because not everyone in the group was comfortable camping, and a minimum of 4 star because one person in particular has too much money and is kinda stuck up. :rolleyes That was about £50/night for accommodation - you can get the Hilton for that in most of these places if you book a couple of months in advance, although personally I prefer somewhere with a bit more character. But The main reason for choosing the big hotels was parking security, we took a long chain and chained all four bikes together each night.
If I were to do it again I'd consider mixing in a bit of camping to reduce costs, with pit stops at hotels to freshen up. But it all depends on what suits the group as a whole.
I think I spent about £260 on petrol. Certainly less than 300. Being on a budget it all went on the credit card, which made it easy to total up and work out some figures. Incidentally if my calculations are correct it worked out at 72mpg, but I haven't mentioned that before because it sounded too good to be true! I spent the least, the group consisting of a FZS 600, FZ 800, some sort of Honda 1000 and ZZR 1400.
Spending money was minimal because we were knackered at the end of the day. I'd like to think next time I'll have more energy for a few drinks and a nice meal in the evening, but these trips are more about the days then the evenings, and if you've tired yourself out then I tend to view that as a good sign.
I wrote more than expected, but could carry on, there's so much to say. You mentioned you might invite others along? If once you've done your research you decide you'd like to do that then I may well be keen, but would have to let you know nearer the time, subject to holiday, funds etc of course. If you fancy a shorter tour meanwhile then hit me up any time - I nearly got in touch after you posted about your Welsh tour but couldn't get away from work that week. Same goes to anyone, I'm always up for an adventure.
Have a great time, and enjoy planning it, it's part of the fun
Andy