Paddys go on Tour August 2018

Hatcho

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Well, by the time we head off it'll have been about a year in the planning. Nowt too extreme for some of you lot, but for me this is an epic trip - 14 days riding around central Europe taking in as much of the sights, sounds and tarmac as I can muster. I've been to France and Spain before but this will be my first 2-wheeled foray into the land of Biersteiners, Lederhosen, Frauleins and Bratwurst. Countries we will visit are Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia. Highlights planned are Black Forest, many Italian alpine passes (all the usual suspects), Dolomites, Lake Bled, Grossglockner, just being in new places on the bike with peeps I like to spend my time with.

Eight peeps on six bikes, myself and one other chap have our fairer halves along for the spin (that's the end of the Frauleins for me! :p). Our bikes are transported to Memmingen mid-August with Overlanders, an Irish crowd who specialise in bike transport to central europe, Spain, Greece and further afield. We then follow over on a Ryanair flight, pick up the bikes near the airport and away we go. No big spin across UK and Europe, and the bikes are right where we want them when we arrive. With a group this size finding accommodation on the fly isn't really an option, so hotels have been pre-booked and routes determined after plenty of research and Google-tronics.

Not really looking for advice or tips - mostly this thread is for bragging purposes! :p Most on here will think 'been there, done that' but fuck it, just writing it all down gets me buzzing with excitement! This trip is what I think about most nights as I fall asleep. Shit like this makes ye feel like a kid at Christmas, and that's a hard one to beat.

Anyways, enough of the shite talk...so what's the plan? Think I'll do this one post for each day of the trip...
 
Day 1 - Memmingen to Forbach - 282km approx

We arrive into Memmingen in the evening time on Day 0 (coz there's no biking), so after collecting the bikes we stay at a hotel in town making sure the Deutscher Bier is still top notch. ;)

Next morning we set off west to a town called Forbach near the northern end of the B500 (routemaps attached). I know it's cliche and there's many a better road nearby, but fuckit, the B500 is on my bucket list. The route to Forbach is mostly just a cross country run, but I managed to find some (hopefully) highlights along the way like the twisty scenic ride along the Danube on the L277 between Sigmaringen and Tuttlingen. About halfway along, Schramberg has three museums: classic cars, diesel engines, and model trains (gonna be hard to choose which one!). There's a wolf and bear park just past Oberwolfach - handy for disposing of anyone whose annoying me on the first day. Last stop before Forbach is the Schwarzenbach-Talsperre a nice scenic reservoir and popular bike meet spot (or so I'm told).

Day 1 is mostly about getting settled in, taking it easy and grinning like a loon-bird because right now, yer riding yer bike in Germany and everyone back home, isn't. :) We've all toured together before and with the exception of myself, we're all pretty sound folk (I'm a moany-arsed bollix mostly) so it should be good craic both on and off the bike. :thumb2

Images below are in reverse order - top pic is Day 1 part 2, bottom is Day 1 part 1
 

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Sounds cool. Looking forward to pics & updates.

Me & Crunch off to Spain, Portugal & France in September. Using Overlanders to take our bikes to Malaga.
 
Day 2 - Forbach to Ittendorf - 300km approx

B500 time! I know, I know, it's overpoliced, overpopulated and over rated. Don't give a damn, we're doing it. You can congratulate me on my regrets later. There's no real special destination on Day 2 - well, we'll stop to check out the cuckoo clocks in Triberg, but mostly we're just breaking the trip towards the Alpine passes in two by stopping in Ittendorf. Some helpful peeps on here advised staying off the B31 alongside the Bodensee. Hopefully that'll save us from several hours of betty swollicks while stuck in overheated German holiday traffic that yer not even allowed filter through. Sehr heiss unternutzen is not a good thing on the bike and is best avoided at all costs. God, I wish my German wasn't so good, my fluency will surely embarrass the others in the group. :p
 

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Buddy on a flight to Memmingen tomorrow and the rest of us are meeting him in Bilbao next Friday.

Can't wait.
Overlanders to Bilbao and home from Malaga.

Sent from a U11
 
Day 3 - Ittendorf to Trafoi - 287km approx

First bit of day two is some motorway - ugh, how grim is that. But it means we get to the decent tarmac that bit quicker. Once we get to Bludenz, we peel off and head for the Silvretta Pass. Awesome. After the Silvretta Pass, we head for Landeck and then turn south to ride the SS40 along the Rechensee and all the way to the Tannenheim nature and style hotel just outside Trafoi. What a name! Nature and Style - it's gotta be the canine genitalia of hotels! Reason we're stopping here is so we can get onto the Stelvio before all the plebs fill it with their campervans, bicycles, coaches etc. Of course, every single biker within 100 miles will be thinking the same thing so it'll all go pear-shaped anyway. God loves a tryer though...

Pics are arseways again, no idea why. Probably God getting his revenge after I voted Yes in the abortion referendum recently, what a dick. You can decide if I mean him or me...:thumb2
 

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Sounds cool. Looking forward to pics & updates.

Me & Crunch off to Spain, Portugal & France in September. Using Overlanders to take our bikes to Malaga.

Nice one - have done some off-roading with Redtread down Malaga way - lovely part of the world. Look forward to the ride report.

Buddy on a flight to Memmingen tomorrow and the rest of us are meeting him in Bilbao next Friday.

Can't wait.
Overlanders to Bilbao and home from Malaga.

Sent from a U11

Lucky git, I still have two and a half months to wait. Chances are I'll even have this pre-ride report written and half of UKGSer bored up to their eyeballs! Enjoy the trip my good man, and don't buy too much shiney new kit along the way! :thumb
 
Nice one - have done some off-roading with Redtread down Malaga way - lovely part of the world. Look forward to the ride report.



Lucky git, I still have two and a half months to wait. Chances are I'll even have this pre-ride report written and half of UKGSer bored up to their eyeballs! Enjoy the trip my good man, and don't buy too much shiney new kit along the way! :thumb
Have my eye on a well cared for OnePlus 5T.........

Sent from a U11
 
Ye bored yet? I know I would be...

Day 4 - Trafoi to Trento - 205km approx

So, onto the Stelvio as early as we can (might just kip on the bike in all my gear). Hopefully the weather is kind to us and the mist, drizzle and fog helps remind us of the home we so yearn for. Nothing like some homely yearning to bring a tear to an Irish eye. Get them home and they're cursing the place after 5 minutes. No pleasing some folk I tell ya.

Then it's onto the Gavia pass, lots of steep drop offs with no barriers (another chance to off anyone who's annoying me). I hear it's nice and narrow with some blind corners and dodgy surface - be just like riding the bike back home so. I think our local councils have pothole competitions - hard to decide who's the winner, fuckers are all world-class competitors by now. See...told ya, I'm not even back home yet and I'm moaning about the place.

A few more twisties heading south on the SS239 through Madonna Di Campiglio and then it's due east to Trento (much easier to spell). Got good ice cream too, what more could ye want? :)



Stelvio was still closed when I did up the maps in Google - that's why the actual pass isn't included in the route below, just in case you were thinking we planned to hike the Stelvio on foot. Only one route pic - at least it came out in the right order this time!
 

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Day 5 - Rest day in Trento

No biking today - unless yer one of those 'I have to bike every day on the trip' kind of knobs. Me, I'll be eating ice cream, eyeballing the Italian young wans and getting the face slapped off me by herself for it. Think I'll pre- apply the painkiller cream to reduce the stinging. Otherwise I'll have to face dive the ice cream and that'd be a fierce waste of tasty calories. Believe me, I know far too much about tasty calories. That's the real reason new kit was bought before the trip..nowt to do with hot weather or better venting like I pretended! :rolleyes:

Trento's meant to be pretty nice. If not, I'll have to listen to moaning from the lads and ladies that I haven't offed so far, and the next opportunity to pop some clogs could be some time away...might have to brush up on my ninja assassin skills as well as my ropey Italian. YouTube should be able to sort me out....
 
Time for bed. More boring shite tomorrow I promise. Hopefully during work, that way I'm also getting paid for it! :p
 
And we're back...

Day 6 - Trento to Sottoguda - 190km approx

This should be a good one. Passes, passes and more passes, mixed in with corners, corners and more corners. Champion! Word is the Dolomites are 'zupa fantastisch' as the German's like to say (fluent I tell ya!). Fresh from our day of ice cream beer and pizza, we're back on the bikes and heading northeastwards. I've been told the SS612 out of Trento towards Cavalese is a cracker of a road and one not to be missed. First its the Passo di Lavaze and the Passo di Costalunga and after Canazei, the more famous Passo Sella, Passo di Gardena and then we take the long way round to Sottuguda. Pretty sure we'll be crying out for a straight bit of road as we wind up the day's riding! I've kept the mileage lower as I'm pretty sure our average speed will be low and there'll be plenty of stopping to enjoy the views (aka taking an epic selfie to piss off everyone at home). No point in rushing through the really spectacular parts of the trip.
 

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Day 7 - Sottoguda to Sonnenalpe Nassfeld - 200km approx

Have to admit, not much of a clue about this one. Just tried to pick out some nice roads that gradually lead us towards Slovenia. We head over the Giau Pass on the way to Cortina d'Ampezzo as I thought it looked nice in some online photos, and because it has a savage vowel to consonant ratio in its name. After Cortina I've mostly played it by ear - so this part of the journey is still subject to change. We may end taking a more northerly route along the likes of the SP123. But no matter which way we choose, it's pretty much bound to be great, so I'm not overly fussed. Life's too short for that kinda stress!

The town of Sonnenalpe Nassfeld is on the Austrian side of the border, our hotel is actually on the Italian side. From what I can tell, there's a pizzaria and they serve beer. All the boxes ticked! :) There's even a lake close by so I can show the Italians how to skinny dip whilst also evading the fervent clutches of the furious border guards. Wish me luck.
 

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That's a pretty exemplary route. Giau's probably my favourite Dolomite pass and then you hit Tre Croce and Sella Ciampigotto, which are excellent - really great ride.

I don't know if you're soliciting feedback/suggestions for alternatives or if your routes are set in stone. If you want an alternative you could consider heading from Ciampigotto to Monte Zoncolan - a really scenic ride but more single-track roads than the route you have, so while it doesn't add much in terms of distance it adds a bit more in terms of time. And for some riders it wouldn't be a better route - tighter roads, more hairpins, etc... Your route's already really good and is probably more pillion friendly than clambering over Zoncolan!
 
That's a pretty exemplary route. Giau's probably my favourite Dolomite pass and then you hit Tre Croce and Sella Ciampigotto, which are excellent - really great ride.

I don't know if you're soliciting feedback/suggestions for alternatives or if your routes are set in stone. If you want an alternative you could consider heading from Ciampigotto to Monte Zoncolan - a really scenic ride but more single-track roads than the route you have, so while it doesn't add much in terms of distance it adds a bit more in terms of time. And for some riders it wouldn't be a better route - tighter roads, more hairpins, etc... Your route's already really good and is probably more pillion friendly than clambering over Zoncolan!

Hey Simon, thanks for that - always open to advice and suggestions - so tis much appreciated! :thumb2 I'll pop the route into the sat nav and discuss it with the group the night before we leave Sottoguda. Great to hear that the route so far is pretty good. Not having been before, I'm relying on trawling various forums for tips and also walking roads using Google Street view. Just being on tour will be awesome, but getting to find good roads and scenery simply adds more icing to the cake! :) Thanks again, Seán.

Edit: The more I look at the route you suggested, the more I like it! Love getting off the beaten track a bit and seeing the smaller corners of the world. Single track shouldn't be too much of an issue - our average speed will be pretty slow anyways with a group of 6 bikes. Riders are all pretty experienced too - only concern is the one chap riding a S1000RR. :rolleyes:
 
Sean, one thing I'd recommend in the Dolomites is Passo Pordoi between Canazei & Arabba. Definitely worth doing.

And when you get into Slovenia I'm sure Vrsic pass is on your radar but make sure you get up to Mangart
 
Roll on August for updates on your trip.
Ride safe..
 
I look forward to seeing your report on the roads and the accommodation.

I am just back from France and Germany and might borrow your route for my next year's trip.

Take it easy and enjoy.
 
Roll on August for updates on your trip.
Ride safe..

Cheers Ash! Yeah, August just can't come quick enough! :cool:

I look forward to seeing your report on the roads and the accommodation.

I am just back from France and Germany and might borrow your route for my next year's trip.

Take it easy and enjoy.

I'm hoping to jot down info on roads, accommodation etc. every evening - hopefully it'll be of use to someone wanting to do a similar trip. :thumb2
 
Sean, one thing I'd recommend in the Dolomites is Passo Pordoi between Canazei & Arabba. Definitely worth doing.

And when you get into Slovenia I'm sure Vrsic pass is on your radar but make sure you get up to Mangart

Yeah, I've been trying to figure out how to fit in the Pordoi Pass on our route. Simplest option is to head south on the SS244 from Corvara, take the Pordoi Pass from Arraba and then follow the SS641 to Sottoguda. That route comes in just under 195kms which is comfortably doable even with a gentle average speed. And it means we get to see all the four passes that loop around Piz Boè.

Walking back over to the drawing board as I type! Thanks for the tip Jochen. :thumb2
 


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