July 2016 – Larry and Norma's Motorcycle Blog

Day 13 – Kirchberg in Tirol to Radstadt, Austria

Today was a day of mountain crags in a never ending procession as we skirted the Austrian Alps in perfect sunshine.

156klms of this:

Our BandB for the night is on the side of a seriously steep hillside. I’m not too shabby on a bike and the Stelvio loved the road that basically goes straight up, but Norma’s suggestion that she walk the 3klm down in the morning seemed a smart move to both of us.

This is taken from our balcony and the slope goes straight down from the house in the foreground to a decent sized town directly below which you can’t see.

156klms for a day of sheer beauty.

Day 12 – Fussen, Germany to Kirchberg in Tirol, Austria

Yesterday 29th July. Friday. We left Fussen earlyish and headed up into the hills. And magnificent hills / mountains they are too. With the most amazing lakes and rivers flowing through them. This is Lake Plansee not too far from Fussen. We stopped for breakfast and could have stayed all day.

Brewed up a coffee, ate 2 fruits, yoghurt and muesli, and counted the endless procession of bikes going past. This was a very special thing for both of us. We felt we were doing what the dream had been. And it just got better.

Not that another of Mad Ludwig’s Castles was high on the agenda but it just so happened to be on the route. This is Linderhof Palace and believe me it’s out in the middle of nowhere. It must have been something to access this area back in the day. And all so he could have private recitals by Wagner. Gotta be keen, and more that slightly crazy, but you have to hand it to the guy he was was real artist when it came to castle design. Impeccable in every detail. Magnificent. We didn’t go inside.

So on we rode following some wonderful waterways through ever steepening hills. The pictures in no way give credit to the scenery and ‘if only we could stop and get that one’. If you want to do the photo thing through these areas you need to be riding a pushbike and not a heavily laden MotoGuzzi Stelvio. We missed far more than we took and even then the light was always in the wrong place.

Stopped for lunch on rolls, ham, cheese and those little stuffed pepper things, sat down and watched this unfold in front of us. From WAY UP on the crag in the first pic.

Onto our digs for the night at Kirchberg in Tirol.

215klms for the day and loved every minute of it.

Days 10 & 11 – Fussen Germany

Yesterday 27th July was a Wednesday I think. We had a hearty breakfast and paid the bill at our B&B which had been very nice.

Filled up with fuel and proceeded to ride through mile upon mile of classic German countryside. It never seems to change, and it never ever loses its appeal. We stopped at Lake Konstantine or Bodensee.

And on through more of this

To this little bakery on a side road that was flat out. Morning tea was the usual, but with good coffee this time.

We bought some rolls, cheese, ham and the most delicious bocconcini ever and rode on through this.

Before stopping at a roadside bench seat to eat our lunch overlooking this.

I’d set TomTom Mobile Go for my Android to an ‘Alternative Route’ and then I’d selected even more remote roads so we were way off the main roads and with very little traffic.

Scenery like these

And so onto Fussen. 215k for the day. Arrived at our hotel and had a siesta as is becoming the norm 🙂

Fussen is only 5k north of the Austrian border. Read about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCssen

It’s not a large place with only some 15,000 population but its main attraction apart from the fantastic scenery and winter snow fields, is that it’s the home of the quintessential castle to beat all castles in this day of pintrest and social media. Mad Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein Castle from which Disney took his famous image.

OK it’s pretty obvious I never took that one, but I did take these on our battle through the tourist traffic.

We visited the falls outside of town as well. Less tourists.

So right now we’re sitting at a little outside cafe in Fussen, Norma’s reading a Kindle Old Romantic novel and I’m enduring weak coffee 🙂 Beautiful buildings tho.

Day 8 – Randegge, Day 9 – Lighten Up

An early breakfast of carbs

Then on the road heading East over the Rhine River ands into Germany again.

First stop was Freiburg where we took a couple of hours and wrang Australia and spoke to the kids and grand kids. Also spoke to my Mum, it was the 9th anniversary of the death of my Dad. He and Mum had travelled a lot of the roads we were travelling in their trips around Europe in converted vans back in the 70s and 80s.

And so into the Black Forest and it’s famed roads. They would have been ok if it wasn’t for the cars, trucks, vans and bicycles. Stopped at Titisee for a break as had about 5 thousand other people.

It’s against the law to park on the footpath in these parts. Norma used her charms to dissuade the gentleman with the camera and official uniform and manner. Not that he could figure what to do with a bike with Australian personal plates.

We rode on through some wonderful countryside and villages.

Into Switzerland where everything is expensive. We visited the Rhinefalls where we paid for parking and bought the obligatory coffee and cake plus icecreams. A$45 later 🙂

From Switzerland back into Germany and our overnight hotel in Randegge. This was a traditional German hotel. 215klms for the day.

Today it was time to make some decisions regarding the gear we were carrying. The idea had been to camp as much as we could with the purpose of meeting different people and enjoying the outdoor scenery.

It was a good idea but required a lot of gear to do it properly which in turn meant a lot of extra weight. When the bike was moving this wasn’t a problem but when stationary it was obvious the bike was very top heavy and unstable and possibly an accident waiting to happen albeit at very slow speed.

So today we decided we’d try and get everything we needed into the two panniers with the topbox storing some minor cooking gear etc. The tankbag would continue to store the electronics etc.

This is what 21kg of camping and other gear looks like. We also shed 6kgs of clothes so we could get get rid of the dry bags on top of the panniers. So 27kgs all up.

Took it to the post office and shipped it back to Rotterdam to where our bike crate is stored. So now it’s AirBnB, Booking.com, BandBs and Zimmer Frei / Pensions. At least we won’t have to sleep on those little air mattresses 🙂

After that we rode into Schaffhausen, Switzerland for a coffee and to have a look around.

Hey Harrison the Spiderman is just for you.

Day 6 – to Colmar, Day 7 – LayDay in Colmar

Yesterday was overcast and threatening rain but we couldn’t let that bother us. Besides which our expensive Luxembourg room’s air con wasn’t working. Mentioned it to the staff but the response was ‘we’ve got your money and we don’t give a rip’ – isn’t that what a shrug of the shoulders in French means. They’d also promised secure parking on booking.com but they were all taken by the staff, so I parked anyway – SHRUG!

Anyway, now I’ve got that off my chest, I can say the breakfast was magnificent.

So we packed the bike with it’s ton and a half of luggage

The mounting procedure is supposed to go like this; bike on side stand with engine stopped and in gear, Norma clambers on and slides back onto her throne for the day, then I slide my leg over and mount, pull the bike off the side stand, find neutral and start and we head off into the unknown.

Yesterday morning I omitted to engage a gear and the fully laden beast fell over onto it’s side while I was getting aboard! Very undignified with no injuries. Topbox and right hand pannier removed we did our gym session for the day and lifted something like 300kgs onto the side stand again – told you it was heavy :). Lesson to self.

So without any recriminations we set off again. It was Saturday morning and I kid you not France doesn’t wake up until 10:30am on Saturday. But the do have nuclear power stations

Looking for coffee we found this in this one horse town. Is it me or do Europeans need a lesson in making coffee? Where’s Susy Doumit when you need her 🙂

And so on down the road only to stop and put on our wets and with 100klms to go we took to the motorways and tunnels through the ranges. Ever worked out how to figure out how to pay and how much to pay for the tunnel toll? Yeah, it’s fun in French but we weren’t the only ones.

The motorway just stopped for roadworks, barriers up it’s time to knock off and that would have been Friday. So there were the tourists, we who are following our GPSs, going around in circles everywhere. Except us of course, I knew which way was South East, so we rode the final 60klms through some absolutely delightful countryside. Vineyards again, kilometers of them, as far as we could see.

Came across this place. Ordered coffee. She brings out cake. Norma’s reaction was priceless. Nothing demure about my girl when it comes to French cake 🙂 To her credit it had been a long day with some interesting interludes.

So after 260klms we came to Colmar and our B&B – different that’s for sure.

Day 7 – Tourists in Colmar

Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colmar 🙂

Multiple pics will have to surfice.

Day 4 – Cochem Layday, and Day 5 – Luxembourg

Day 4 was Thursday I think, and Norma’s journal informs me it was the 21st July. Anyway somewhere around then.

Day 4 was a Layday, so we wandered into the town of Cochem which is so typically traditional German. I mean I know we’re in Germany but this is like being transported back 100 years, apart from the tourists. Tourists are so annoying, they’re everywhere and mostly old with cameras and in big groups, pointing and taking photos while their guides try and hustle them along so they, the guides, can pick up their next group of tourists.

Tourists, they’re everywhere. But I can understand why. Cochem certainly is pretty and traditional and quaint and NOT to be missed if you’re a tourist. Which, of course, is why we’re there 🙂

I mentioned our camp ground in a previous post. Here are some pics of our outlook. Picture postcard apart from the trains that travel in a never ending procession on the dual track across the river. And there are just about as many barges and tourist cruise vessels and some of those are really big.

We then took one of those many trains that travel like clockwork to Koblenz. Following the Moselle River as it snakes up the narrow valley. Koblenz is quite a decent sized place so we wandered around and had some lunch and found a Maccas to update the Blog from yesterday or the day before, depending on which tense it should be. My son Bronson would be able to tell me.

There’s a Spider Man in there somewhere. That’s for Dylan and Ethan and Harrison from Gran 🙂

So that was our layday.

Onto Luxembourg

Day 5 and it’s rained last night so the tent is damp as we depitch it. It’s also overcast and cloud down to below the hill tops. On the road by 7.30 to travel up the Moselle River valley through some absolutely lovely villages and scenery and endless vineyards. Seriously, non stop for 110klms on either side of the valley interspersed with these amazing villages that don’t seem to have changed in 100 years. The same 100 years as previously mentioned.

DCIM100GOPRO

The ducks with protected chicks are for Joelle, Dylan, Ethan, Georgia and Harrison – from Gran 🙂

Came across the bridge under construction. It’s huge and was just below the cloud line when we first saw it. This was taken from a roadside market place a little later.

So to Luxembourg. we did the tourist thing. Hop on Hop off bus tour which was mostly about the EU. Now I know this comment is going to upset the Non Brexit amongst us but there’s just something that’s not kosher about this. I thought Brussels was supposed to be where the EU sits. Well there’s a whole city here in Luxembourg that is devoted to massive and ornate buildings (I took no photos) where 10s of thousands of bureaucrats beaver away at whatever it is that bureaucrats beaver away at, mainly nothing. Yeah yeah, I know I’m old and come from the other side of the world, but I got the impression this is just one massive tail shaking an ever emancipating dog. Luxembourg has 526,000 people in it and yet is supposed to be the richest country in Europe, how does that work? Anyway enough on that.

Cochem to Luxembourg 181klms

Day 3 – Opglabbeek, Belgium to Cochem, Germany

Up and away early in a vain attempt to beat the heat.

Out of Belgium and back into Holland, back into Belgium and then into Germany. Not that we knew when and/or where because there’s no signs or anything. Certainly no machine gun wielding guards.

Taking the back roads and those less travelled we happened upon the largest American Cemetery from WW2 in Belgium. 7992 GIs are buried in this immaculate war memorial cemetery. It’s hard to describe the honour felt for an entire generation that gave their lives that we, the next generation, might only know freedom. The same goes for our own ANZACs, young men and women of incredible courage and vision who travelled to the other side of the world to die in a war that had to be won.

No journey through this part of the world is complete without a visit here:

The world famous Nurburgring in Germany. We parked the Stelvio next to the rest of the WannaBees and had a look around. We didn’t see any Transit vans.

And so onto our layday at Cochem through some fantastic scenery with summer harvests in full force. I’d taken a heap of video with the GoPro with the plan being to ‘capture’ the better scenes, but I’d forgotten to check storage left and it deleted it all once the card was full and started again – Gotta fix that. This is our first experience at what we’d call a Caravan Park in Germany. What can I say but “Big 4 where are you?” 🙂 Seriously?

More to follow tomorrow which may be yesterday or the day before or after, who knows because the internet is non existent in this part of Germany. I’m doing this at a MacDonalds in Koblenz where we’ve come for a day trip via train along the Mosel River. It’s the only stable WiFi I’ve found. Don’t talk to me about Mobile Data, thanks Vodafone for the $5 promise 😦

Day 2 – Vianen, Holland to Opglabbeek, Belgium

Breakfast with our delightful AirBnB hostess and we were on the road.

Along the dike walls again with pleasant views either side.

The sheep are “Oh how sweet, take a photo for the Grandkids” Poor things had been severely fly blown.

On to Teo Lamers in Nijmegen to get a refund for a part I’d bought off eBay which ended up being the wrong part. Wils was extremely helpful and gave us the grand tour. He’s expecting 40 Guzzisti in from Australia in the coming weeks – 2 container loads of Guzzis. All heading for the 95th birthday party of the Moto Guzzi motorcycle.

South towards Belgium with a stop for lunch in this little village called Grave. Rolls, ham cheese and tomato. Yeah! With a coffee chaser in the local pub.

The day was turning into a scorcher and by the time we arrived at our AirBnB in Opglabbeek it was 32c. They don’t do AirCon in these parts so we went and did an extended shop at the local supermarket – took us a long time to by tomorrow’s breakfast.

Day 1 – On The Road At Last

Today we were picked up by Robert who was the shipping agent for the bike. He drove us 50klms to where his small company had the bike stored. He has also stored the crate for the duration of our journey. We were blown away with his willingness to help and all at no extra cost to us. Maybe we’d already paid for it but I doubt it because the shipping was a very good price already.

It took me a couple of hours to fit everything back onto the bike and pack all of our gear but finally at 1pm we were on the road. With Norma in my intercom I got used to the right hand side of the road riding pretty quick.

First thing to do was to get fuel. 5klms up the road. Only problem is that I found we only had 4klms of fuel on board. Coasted for 500mtrs and pushed it the rest of the way. In 28c that was a good workout 🙂

Fueled up at twice the Aussie price and on the road with TomTom Mobile Go leading the way. I’d selected avoid motorways and tolls so we travelled some absolutely lovely countryside and through some typical Dutch villages, narrow roads, bikes again, little cars and ‘look at that’, ‘how quaint is that’ etc.

No motorways meant some ferries because believe me there’s waterways everywhere so we did 2 ferry crossings.

And where there’s water in Holland there’s windmills right. Well we’ve got to see some of those, so we did.

It’s quite fascinating to ride the dikes that keep the country from drowning. The work that has gone into controlling water in this country is phenomenal. Consider this; when we landed at Amsterdam International the inflight display showed we were 6mtrs below sea level. So keep your finger in that dike young man.

So here we are at our AirBnB in Vianen for the night. Only 127klms today but quite slow a lot of the time.

Tomorrow it’s into Belgium

Tourists In The Netherlands

We’re currently in Rotterdam and pick up our bike today. Woohoo.
We spent Friday and most of Saturday in Amsterdam. What about that place – people and bikes and canal boats and tourists and bikes and narrow streets and old buildings and bikes and people and did I mention bikes, everywhere.

And what about those bikes, it seems to me that the Dutch designed a replica of a post WW1 British bike and built 20 million of them and that’s it, no new bikes ever since 😀

Saturday late to today in Rotterdam. What a contrast. Wide streets, modern buildings, some great architecture, few tourists and less people, still lots of bikes tho.

We did a Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus/Boat tour of both cities. Loved the water ways.