Sincere thanks...

Joybringer

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...to everyone who took part and made this a very memorable trip. This was my kind of tour :cool:

It was a pleasure riding (and drinking :)) with you all, and it's a shame that a few had to leave for home and an early bath, or other destinations. (I still haven't heard from Team Croatia...:eek:)

I really can't think of a bad day's riding - even the thunderstorm and golf-ball hailstones at the top of the pass didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits.

The lovely Samantha provided some much-needed eye-candy, and Magdelena's magic fingers helped ease the rigours of pass-riding in a nice 55 minute session :D

The hotels were excellent - comfortable and reasonably priced and some excellent food. However, if I see veal again, I may have to have a violent outburst :rolleyes: Perhaps the German Cock Hotel could be bettered in terms of value and leering Mein Host, but overall, I thought we did quite well...:thumb

As always, it's the people that maketh the trip, and I'm very pleased to have met some new friends and ridden again with some old ones. I hope to do the same again another day...

Be careful out there :aidan
 
Mark, my sincere thanks for all your hard work in putting this trip together you have set the bar very high indeed :clap :bow :clap :bow

As Mark has said it's the company as well as the destination that makes a trip so memorable and enjoyable so thanks to all who took part for making it one to remember, it was great to ride, drink and talk shite with you all :beerjug: :D
 
Mark, my sincere thanks for all your hard work in putting this trip together you have set the bar very high indeed :clap :bow :clap :bow

As Mark has said it's the company as well as the destination that makes a trip so memorable and enjoyable so thanks to all who took part for making it one to remember, it was great to ride, drink and talk shite with you all :beerjug: :D

seconded, couldn't put it better myself! well done mark!:thumb2
 
yes mark all thanks to your self for pre planing and booking :clap:clap:clap

and a wonderful tour so much so i,m thinking of it again this time with a working sat nav, :mad:

and i would also like to thank every one on the trip for their great company , and beer swilling, :beer:and banter :blagblah

memorable nights in the beer tent , in hotel christiano, i wish i was in dixie :friday who ever she is,

hope team croatia turn up soon with some trip photos, :D
 
Glad to hear that you all had a good trip :thumb2:thumb2

Just 1 or 2 questions though ,
Did you stick to the daily routes ??
Were the routes pretty accurate or did you find a few new dogging spots ?? :D:D
How was the daily mileage ?? Easy , average or long days in the saddle ??
Only asking as I'm off in 2 weeks following Mark's routes :clap:clap:clap

Thanks in advance, Jok :thumb2
 
Glad to hear that you all had a good trip :thumb2:thumb2

Just 1 or 2 questions though ,
Did you stick to the daily routes ??
Were the routes pretty accurate or did you find a few new dogging spots ?? :D:D
How was the daily mileage ?? Easy , average or long days in the saddle ??
Only asking as I'm off in 2 weeks following Mark's routes :clap:clap:clap

Thanks in advance, Jok :thumb2

Yes.

Very accurate although some GPS units interpreted the routes slightly differently-possibly according to the users personal settings and preferences/avoids etc.

A mix, some easy days with plenty of opportunities for coffee stops and photo opportunities, some harder days but no absolute killers but there may be days when you'll long for a straight road.........:D

You'll have a ball, Mark did a great job :thumb2
 
Yes.

Very accurate although some GPS units interpreted the routes slightly differently-possibly according to the users personal settings and preferences/avoids etc.

A mix, some easy days with plenty of opportunities for coffee stops and photo opportunities, some harder days but no absolute killers but there may be days when you'll long for a straight road.........:D

You'll have a ball, Mark did a great job :thumb2

Magic !!! thanks for that :thumb2:thumb2 .
The only route I plan to miss will be the Touratec day as I'm more of a Pooratec type :augie:augie . I'm gonna try and tie in a visit to the Rhine falls with the Hassenhorn coaster if that's possible .
Thanks once again :beerjug::beerjug:
 
Magic !!! thanks for that :thumb2:thumb2 .
The only route I plan to miss will be the Touratec day as I'm more of a Pooratec type :augie:augie . I'm gonna try and tie in a visit to the Rhine falls with the Hassenhorn coaster if that's possible .
Thanks once again :beerjug::beerjug:

You can easily tag the Rhine Falls onto the end of the Fluela/Albula loop and spend 1 night in Tuttlingen, giving you an extra day to find an interesting route to Hassenhorn and then stay near there a night before heading across the Rhine to Cernay to pick up Mark's excellent route along the Routes des Cretes in the Vosges to Kayersberg.
 
You can easily tag the Rhine Falls onto the end of the Fluela/Albula loop and spend 1 night in Tuttlingen, giving you an extra day to find an interesting route to Hassenhorn and then stay near there a night before heading across the Rhine to Cernay to pick up Mark's excellent route along the Routes des Cretes in the Vosges to Kayersberg.

:beerjug: cheers wessie , that msounds like a plan :thumb2:thumb2
 
How was the daily mileage ?? Easy , average or long days in the saddle ??

mileage not that big on paper, but they are largely very twisty and technical, so covering distance is not that easy.
all days bar the excursions* were day long for me, and i didn't really stop to take photos.

hard to fault really. all routes massively enjoyable, and all got us to the hotels at exactly beer o clock :beerjug:

*actually, one of the excursions was a days affair too now i come to think of it.
 
mileage not that big on paper, but they are largely very twisty and technical, so covering distance is not that easy.
all days bar the excursions* were day long for me, and i didn't really stop to take photos.

hard to fault really. all routes massively enjoyable, and all got us to the hotels at exactly beer o clock :beerjug:

*actually, one of the excursions was a days affair too now i come to think of it.

so , we're talking 8-10 hr days ?? or longer :eek::eek:
 
um, i'd say we (me and mrs) kicked off about 9:30 mostly and got in about 4:00 or 5:00 with an hour for lunch. mostly riding on our own, so not a great many stops.

so not that long, but my point was that i did not consider it easy cruising. i thought it was quite hard work. that is not a criticism BTW, far from it :)
 
so , we're talking 8-10 hr days ?? or longer :eek::eek:

you shouldn't have any 10 hour days and the only people who had 8 hour days were those who stopped for lengthy lunches, took detours to see stuff or got lost in a fog of Garmin misinformation and/or technostupidity.

there are plenty of opportunities to reduce the time if you think a particular day is too much or the weather is poor e.g. I've done the Timmelsjoch numerous times so, after lunch with another rider at the Zugspitze viewpoint on the Fernpass we decided to take the quicker/shorter route over the Brenner pass (not autobahn) into Italy from Austria. We had 10 minutes of rain, the others had some interesting climactic conditions to contend with at 2500m above sea level.

Just take paper maps or an electronic device such as an ipad/netook with you, look at Mark's route and have a contingency if you get pushed for time or you want to ride around inclement weather. Most of the routes will have parallel main roads where km can be knocked off in short order should the need arise. You are on holiday so adapt the routes to suit your preferences.
 
As has already been said, some days are hard work purely because of the twistiness factor, and a couple of 'getting there' routes (especially Belgium, for me) were a bit tedious (and I'd probably change next time).

9am starts would probably mean a 5-6pm finish, and some days 3pm, even with a coffee stop etc.

However, I can't think of a bad day (for me) where there wasn't either an enormous amount of fun (aka Joey Dunlop) or enormous views to witness.

Possibly only one not-quite-up-to-par hotel (Tuttlingen) - but of course that's very subjective. The food and beer were good, but being next to the equivalent of a busy 'A' road meant it was a little noisy at times.

The company helped the entire trip, but even as a soloist, I really think you'll like it :)

I'm still trying to find time to do a ride report - maybe over this weekend :)
 


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