Well, I'll start off by saying that this is VERY belated and I actually went in July 2007
We went with World of BMW, with the group being affiliated to Rainbow BMW, with owners Shaun and Lorna Thomas being our Tour Leaders (not that we needed it and only saw them in the Bar at night
)
We sailed from Hull to Zeebrugge on one of the only warm and/or dry days of the whole 10 fecking days
Armed escort onto the ferry.................that's a new one
Nice Sunset on board, but it lied about the future weather propects
Spurn Point on the edge of the Humber Estuary
Disembarking @ Zeebrugge, I encountered a stroke of luck....................... (I was travelling alone, but in a group, so to speak) when I pulled into that Total Garage, just after the docks and 2-3 other GS riders had done the same, whilst the others had split for the motorway. 2 of the riders, Colin and Richard - I had met some months earlier at a mutual GS'ers funeral, but didn't really know them and there was another couple, Andrew and his wife Jane. We struck up a converstion about routes and soon decided to ride as a quartet...............
Bingo - I had metaphorically 'pulled' and this quartet set the theme for the rest of the trip and we all got on famously and our friendships are still as strong 3 years later
Lunchstop in the Belgian Ardennes
High in the Ardennes
First night was at Metz....................a very wet Metz, in a typical non descript chain hotel, like Mercure - a theme for BMW tours (at the end of a hard, but enjoyable day's ride, in open countryside - why the feck you would want to enter a busy city @ evening rush-hour to stay in a faceless concrete business class hotel, is beyond me - but hey-ho, I wasn't organiser)....................but we dined out in style in Metz in a very good local bar
Next day dawned in Metz......... wetter than the previous day
We cut across the Rhine towars Baden-Baden to ride the famous 500 again, through the north of the Black Forest................sadly it was rain ruined
It was a marathon of endurance and tested the Goretex to the very extreme - suffice to say it worked
Arrival in Reutlingen was @ rush hour again and another business class concrete facade of a hotel, curiously located in a pedestrian area of the city........fecking whoopee - just the job for a motorcycle tour - a pedestrianised fecking hotel
Still a warm welcome awaited in the room and the Sauna was hot
Next day was dry
and we cut across Germany, via the HochAlpenstrasse towards Fussen - a gem of a road and picked up the motorway towards the Fern Pass, where we cut off @ Bad Kreckelmoos and I led our group into Garmisch (via the backdoor), taking in the scenic twisty roads, around Am Plansee and the Linderhof Palace
Ww arrived in a very busy Garmisch on the Friday at around 4.30pm and drew a blank on finding the hotel (this turned out to be a good one - typically Bavarian and a real gem) - with GPS meltdown and our small group getting split up.................I decided to head up to the BMW Motorrad days showground for a look-see
Corporate Welcome
Droopy Bavarian Tourist Board Welcome
Parking Space with a view
We all re-grouped once we had found the hotel and settled into our rooms - had tea out in Garmisch town, before going up to the many Beerhalls at the BMW event and we all got thoroughly pissed, once we had worked out the payment token system for beer and plastic glasses................very bizarre
Hotel Views
Next day dawned warm and sunny...................however we were very cloudy and foggy, due to the excesses of the previous evening
After a hearty breakfast we wandered up to see the BMW show................here's some of the sights
HPN anyone?
The show was really good and is worth doing, I've usually been every couple of years....................I used to go the BMW Club Europa events in the 90's when it was hosted by the resident BMW importer and enthusiasts in a different country each year.
They were good,like a big BMW biker's rally although not as corporately perfect as the Motorrad Days...............they were more intimate and we went to some great countries, but the BMW machine took it over after the Millenium and sanitised it
As night followed day........................more beer was drunk in the beerhalls on the Saturday night
and some
Sunday came around............and it was a day of pass bashing
Heading south out of Garmisch towards Innsbruck - the famous passes of the Timmelsjoch and Stelvio beckoned
..................old acquaintances were to be renewed, yet again
Timmelsjoch first
Coffee stop, just below Obergurgl
Timmeljochs views
After Austria...................it had to be lunch in Italy, didn't it
We stopped in a small italian village, just above Merano...........
Italy?.................got to be Lasange - proper stuff
Confusion............Black Forest Gateau for pud
Suitably replete..........................we could tackle the Stelvio
Did I mention, we had had a bit of rain
Yours truly
None of the textbook pics of the Stelvio, i'm afraid....................been there too many times
However we did do a pass, halfway down the other side (Bormio Side) which I hadn't done before - the Passo del'Umbrail which was much more fun than the Stelvio
We cut back briefly into Switzerland, before heading back towards Nauders/Landeck and onto St Anton, where the Hotel Post was our chosen hotel - comfy but the food was 'tres cher'
Next day it was raining, again(theme here) and we decided to head over the Fluela pass towards Davos in worsening weather
Arriving @ Davos, the weather was really crap and instead of any more pass bashing we decided to motorway it to Basel (our overnight stopover) via Zurich.
Luckily we bought a very expensive afternoon's motorway pass (£20), because on entry to Basel we were stopped in a Police check - my first time ever in Swissland - seemed like a cheap afternoon
GPS's were loaded for the pre-booked Hotel Dorint in the city centre, but in true GPS tradition it took us here
Surely some mistake..............................for a World of BMW Tour
A fairly uneventful ride ensued up through France for a final night on a hotel in an industrial estate near the beautiful city of Reims...............pity we had a McDonalds for a neighbour, rather than a view of the splendid Reims Cathedral.....................epic poor choice of hotel World of BMW
On the last day we headed up towards Brugge and stopped off in the city square before boarding the ferry, for coffee and a few prezzies
All in all a good trip in the main, I would recommend the BMW official trip for a relative newcomer to foreign touring..................however I preferred my previous visit in 2005, that I organised myself with Judge for a better choice of hotel location
We went with World of BMW, with the group being affiliated to Rainbow BMW, with owners Shaun and Lorna Thomas being our Tour Leaders (not that we needed it and only saw them in the Bar at night
)We sailed from Hull to Zeebrugge on one of the only warm and/or dry days of the whole 10 fecking days
Armed escort onto the ferry.................that's a new one
Nice Sunset on board, but it lied about the future weather propects
Spurn Point on the edge of the Humber Estuary
Disembarking @ Zeebrugge, I encountered a stroke of luck....................... (I was travelling alone, but in a group, so to speak) when I pulled into that Total Garage, just after the docks and 2-3 other GS riders had done the same, whilst the others had split for the motorway. 2 of the riders, Colin and Richard - I had met some months earlier at a mutual GS'ers funeral, but didn't really know them and there was another couple, Andrew and his wife Jane. We struck up a converstion about routes and soon decided to ride as a quartet...............
Bingo - I had metaphorically 'pulled' and this quartet set the theme for the rest of the trip and we all got on famously and our friendships are still as strong 3 years later
Lunchstop in the Belgian Ardennes
High in the Ardennes
First night was at Metz....................a very wet Metz, in a typical non descript chain hotel, like Mercure - a theme for BMW tours (at the end of a hard, but enjoyable day's ride, in open countryside - why the feck you would want to enter a busy city @ evening rush-hour to stay in a faceless concrete business class hotel, is beyond me - but hey-ho, I wasn't organiser)....................but we dined out in style in Metz in a very good local bar
Next day dawned in Metz......... wetter than the previous day
We cut across the Rhine towars Baden-Baden to ride the famous 500 again, through the north of the Black Forest................sadly it was rain ruined
It was a marathon of endurance and tested the Goretex to the very extreme - suffice to say it worked
Arrival in Reutlingen was @ rush hour again and another business class concrete facade of a hotel, curiously located in a pedestrian area of the city........fecking whoopee - just the job for a motorcycle tour - a pedestrianised fecking hotel
Still a warm welcome awaited in the room and the Sauna was hot
Next day was dry
and we cut across Germany, via the HochAlpenstrasse towards Fussen - a gem of a road and picked up the motorway towards the Fern Pass, where we cut off @ Bad Kreckelmoos and I led our group into Garmisch (via the backdoor), taking in the scenic twisty roads, around Am Plansee and the Linderhof Palace
Ww arrived in a very busy Garmisch on the Friday at around 4.30pm and drew a blank on finding the hotel (this turned out to be a good one - typically Bavarian and a real gem) - with GPS meltdown and our small group getting split up.................I decided to head up to the BMW Motorrad days showground for a look-see
Corporate Welcome
Droopy Bavarian Tourist Board Welcome
Parking Space with a view
We all re-grouped once we had found the hotel and settled into our rooms - had tea out in Garmisch town, before going up to the many Beerhalls at the BMW event and we all got thoroughly pissed, once we had worked out the payment token system for beer and plastic glasses................very bizarre
Hotel Views
Next day dawned warm and sunny...................however we were very cloudy and foggy, due to the excesses of the previous evening
After a hearty breakfast we wandered up to see the BMW show................here's some of the sights
HPN anyone?
The show was really good and is worth doing, I've usually been every couple of years....................I used to go the BMW Club Europa events in the 90's when it was hosted by the resident BMW importer and enthusiasts in a different country each year.
They were good,like a big BMW biker's rally although not as corporately perfect as the Motorrad Days...............they were more intimate and we went to some great countries, but the BMW machine took it over after the Millenium and sanitised it
As night followed day........................more beer was drunk in the beerhalls on the Saturday night
and someSunday came around............and it was a day of pass bashing
Heading south out of Garmisch towards Innsbruck - the famous passes of the Timmelsjoch and Stelvio beckoned
..................old acquaintances were to be renewed, yet againTimmelsjoch first
Coffee stop, just below Obergurgl
Timmeljochs views
After Austria...................it had to be lunch in Italy, didn't it
We stopped in a small italian village, just above Merano...........
Italy?.................got to be Lasange - proper stuff
Confusion
............Black Forest Gateau for pud
Suitably replete..........................we could tackle the Stelvio
Did I mention, we had had a bit of rain
Yours truly
None of the textbook pics of the Stelvio, i'm afraid....................been there too many times
However we did do a pass, halfway down the other side (Bormio Side) which I hadn't done before - the Passo del'Umbrail which was much more fun than the Stelvio
We cut back briefly into Switzerland, before heading back towards Nauders/Landeck and onto St Anton, where the Hotel Post was our chosen hotel - comfy but the food was 'tres cher'
Next day it was raining, again
(theme here) and we decided to head over the Fluela pass towards Davos in worsening weather
Arriving @ Davos, the weather was really crap and instead of any more pass bashing we decided to motorway it to Basel (our overnight stopover) via Zurich.
Luckily we bought a very expensive afternoon's motorway pass (£20), because on entry to Basel we were stopped in a Police check - my first time ever in Swissland - seemed like a cheap afternoon
GPS's were loaded for the pre-booked Hotel Dorint in the city centre, but in true GPS tradition it took us here
Surely some mistake..............................for a World of BMW Tour
A fairly uneventful ride ensued up through France for a final night on a hotel in an industrial estate near the beautiful city of Reims...............pity we had a McDonalds for a neighbour
, rather than a view of the splendid Reims Cathedral.....................epic poor choice of hotel World of BMWOn the last day we headed up towards Brugge and stopped off in the city square before boarding the ferry, for coffee and a few prezzies
All in all a good trip in the main, I would recommend the BMW official trip for a relative newcomer to foreign touring..................however I preferred my previous visit in 2005, that I organised myself with Judge for a better choice of hotel location
