1st Eurotrip - any tips? Dunkirk to Swiss Alps and back - 7 days

But this is serious advice - particularly after you have stopped for fuel, coffee, or to admire the view. Riders sometimes die when they forget....

Almost met my end after a stop admiring the view in Spain last year, pulled away, came round the corner to a "WTF" moment of a car on my side of the road....or so I thought, til I realised, possibly the scariest moment I've ever had on a bike.
 
(i find switzerland pretty weird. Nobody speeds, there's no litter, no graffiti, no washing on a line, no chewing gum on the pavement, it's ....... weird! The child catcher is constantly lurking ......!)

Now that made me laugh, but is all true :D
 
Biggest tip is to avoid Switzerland. Go France, Italy, Germany. Surprisingly there seems to be less fascists in the other three, much more friendly countries.
 
If my first trip I would :
Buy myself a copy of.
John Hermanns "Motorcycling journeys through the Alps and beyond"

Get down to Baden Baden on day one.
Day two, B500 to bag that one and onward down to Andermatt

Get yourself to nice campsite
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g198795-c3-zff29-Andermatt_Canton_of_Uri_Swiss_Alps-Hotels.html

Open above said book at relevant section over a nice bottle of wine and roughly decide on next days route .

Or as been said if you are all Sat Nav savvy load in pre planned gpx routes from Ride magazine/ Rashers trips /wikiloc etc

Dont try and do and see to much, theres always other years.

Take the tips on "driving on the right seriously " its suprising how easy it is to occassionaly lapse on that one even after years of driving & riding in Europe.

Enjoy
 
Personally, I’d sacrifice the first and last day to motorways to give more time in the Alps. OR, forget the Alps and spend the week riding on more entertaining roads in the Ardennes, Vosges or Black Forest.

If you really want to see the Swiss Alps, you could do worse than heading for Andermatt. There is a campsite there. (I imagine wild camping is a capital offence in Switzerland!). You can leave the tent pitched for two or three nights, saving the ballache of making and breaking camp every bloody day, and there are fantastic circular routes taking in some proper high passes. Furka, Grimsel, Nufenen, Oberalp, St. Bernard all in that area. But altitude means it might snow at any time of the year. Do be prepared.

Other advice: don’t take any tools or spares you don’t know how to use at the side of the road. Breakdown insurance is relatively cheap and worth if for the peace of mind even though you probably won’t need it.

If you’re passing Lake Annecy, can you keep an eye out for the gloves that fell from my luggage back in 2007.
 
Try not to plan too much and enjoy the trip as it unfolds... :thumb2

The Archies app, as someone mentioned, is great for finding a last minute place to camp. Either that or head up a fire road and find somewhere quiet in a forest or summat. Quite a few cheap trucker pads on the main roads if the weather is shit. Though better to avoid the female company in those places I would suggest :D
 
(i find switzerland pretty weird. Nobody speeds, there's no litter, no graffiti, no washing on a line, no chewing gum on the pavement, it's ....... weird! The child catcher is constantly lurking ......!)

Switzerland may appear weird BUT the female arm of the Child Catchers Guild are alive and well and hiding in plain sight in Austria as members of the Pinzgauer Trachtenfrauen, still get the shivers after seeing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

P.S They get even scarier when they are drunk
 

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OP, as many of the correspondents are suggesting:

A. That you take the motorways (at least a decent chunk of the way) to get from Dunkirk to Switzerland and back again, and/ or:

B. That you maybe do not go to Switzerland at all

What’s your take on it so far?

What’s your driving motivation towards choosing Switzerland?

How long do you think it will take you to do the 600 miles between Dunkirk and, say, Andermatt if you avoid motorways, toll roads and minor roads?

Just out of passing interest, at what time of day do you roll off the ferry at Dunkirk and at what time do you need to roll back onto it? I think bods might assume you have a full day available to you on day one and on the last day. That won’t be the case if you can only get going at 14:00 on your first day of seven and need to be rolling on to the ferry again at 07:30 on your last day.
 
As slightly strange as Switzerland is and staggeringly expensive compared to surrounding countries the Andermatt area/passes are in my opinion the best in the Alps for scenery and views also the condition of the passes compared to the likes of the Stelvio are ten times better, the biggest down side to Andermatt is the 1960s decor in their hotels while charging you twice as much as Italy
 
Try not to plan too much and enjoy the trip as it unfolds... :thumb2

This one.

Use the sat nav to get you out of trouble. Otherwise it’s a distraction.
We might was well take a bus tour than following a pre planned robot route.
It’s not called Boot Camp (sorry) Base Camp for nothing.
 
OP, as many of the correspondents are suggesting:

A. That you take the motorways (at least a decent chunk of the way) to get from Dunkirk to Switzerland and back again, and/ or:

B. That you maybe do not go to Switzerland at all

What’s your take on it so far?

What’s your driving motivation towards choosing Switzerland?

How long do you think it will take you to do the 600 miles between Dunkirk and, say, Andermatt if you avoid motorways, toll roads and minor roads?

Just out of passing interest, at what time of day do you roll off the ferry at Dunkirk and at what time do you need to roll back onto it? I think bods might assume you have a full day available to you on day one and on the last day. That won’t be the case if you can only get going at 14:00 on your first day of seven and need to be rolling on to the ferry again at 07:30 on your last day.

I'll probably try to stay off the motorways on the way down to Switzerland, I imagine a day or two to get there. I'm not really intending to gun it down there, I just got rid of the sports bike to get the GS and my days of "ride it like you stole it" are hopefully behind me now.

My motivation to go to Switzerland is purely on stories I've heard and awesome video's I've seen. That's it really.

I arrive in Dunkirk at 9am and get back on the ferry a week later at 10am.

I still intend to camp and have downloaded the app Archies, as per the recommendation on this thread. (Thanks)

I'll only gun it on the motorway if I take too long on the return journey and need to make up some time. If I miss the ferry then I'll just have to get another one ;) I don't have any commitments waiting for me until a few days after I get back.

Best,
Rob
 
As you have booked the 10am return ferry on your seventh day have a good read of post 23 again.
Realistically only plan three full days riding the mountain passes in Switzerland
Day one can be filled on the Fig eight loop that is Gottard/Nufenen / Grimsel/Furka/Susten and in reverse
Cant help with more loop rides as only arrive Andermatt via Oberalp from Livigno to ride above before heading back home.
 
As you have booked the 10am return ferry on your seventh day have a good read of post 23 again.
Realistically only plan three full days riding the mountain passes in Switzerland
Day one can be filled on the Fig eight loop that is Gottard/Nufenen / Grimsel/Furka/Susten and in reverse
Cant help with more loop rides as only arrive Andermatt via Oberalp from Livigno to ride above before heading back home.

There's a good, and cheap, place I've stayed at a few times - Livigno.
 
Never quite understood the obsession with dashing to the Alps. Riding past other regions with as good, and uncrowned, unpoliced, roads seems daft.

I do, if you live in the UK, want to ride in the Alps and have limited time / funds to do so.

As time has passed by and we have ridden more and more Alpine passes, many several times now we have started to take longer to get there and back, this year we rode through the Morvan National park, passed two cars in 2 1/2 hours, effectively had roads to rival the best the UK has to offer all to ourselves. We then went along some more hilly back roads all the way past St Etienne, and then rode through Vallon Pont d'Arc and around Gorge du Verdon before actually getting to the Alps, 4 days instead of what would of been 2 in the past.

But given just a week to ride in the Alps taking 4 days to get there is not helpful.

As for speeds / speeding etc. the reality is the roads are empty, we did not see any Plod on the way down and only a couple of (well signed) speed cameras, once on the twisty roads you can have fun without going at warp factor nine (but maybe a bit over 50 here and there)

We can always beat the Google / Garmin / Tom Tom times in good weather, but if the weather is bad, a pass is closed, a crash has blocked the road etc then my slick planning can get trashed PDQ, so I always have a plan b (or the research for plan a has given me enough knowledge to successfully deviate from it if required)

This year we seemed to manage 37 - 40mph average (moving average - excluding coffee / lunch / fuel stops) across rural France and around 30mph on Alpine passes (a mixed bag of major passes and narrower lesser travelled ones)
 
My tip is divide whatever time google maps tells you by 2 or be disheartened by your lack of progress.

Leave enough time to actually see the country side you are riding through.

Most other stuff can be found here https://www.louis.eu/fuer-die-motorradreise
 
I have a good practical tip ... :)

Take a cheap pocket knife like an opinel. Go and buy some sort of an easy to carry coffee brew kit. (that'll be a thread in itself!).


In the morning, when you get gas at the local supermarche, buy yourself a packed lunch. Fresh bread, sausage, cheese, choccy bar, water to boil for coffee etc etc.

One of the great joys of travelling as you are (no plan ... just drift ... ), is seeing the perfect lunch spot at the side of the road and just doing it. No parking in the centre ville, worrying about the security of your kit, coming off route for an hour trying to find lunch etc etc.

Lunch time pic-nic with fresh bread, and fresh coffee. Perfect. :beerjug:







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Best advice you will get. Plus drive on the right. After every stop say “right,right,right”. A lot of people have come a cropper after a stop.
 


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