Euro Tour to Muggellooooo....

[C-J]

The rest of this week

We had 2 days off in a villa my family owns. So spent most of the time lazing around doing bugger all, which was really nice. yesterday we took a little run upto Castelaine and did a bit of the Route Napolean... Great road !

Today we've taken the motrway blast all the way across from Frejus to Florence. The section from Nice across to Genoa, was hard work, with loads of tunnels, and some nice tight bends, considering its a motorway. At least it helped stop the tyres squaring off too much. Stopped for lunch in a little town, and managed to find a lovely restaurant in the port..

The number of bikes on the motorway steadily increased as we headed through Italy.. Its going to be packed at Mugello by the looks of things. We arrived at our hotel for the weekend, and realised the reports of it being down a dirt track were not to be underestimated !!.. its going to be fun trying to get back out agian in the morning. But for now we are looking over Florence, and life is good...

Bring on the GP qualifying tomorrow !!!

Oh and here's a few random photos from the last couple of days... Thought some of you might like the photoshoot we had by the pool

 

[PapaLazarou]

Went on a camping holiday here about 25 years ago and remember visiting the Pont Du Gard... At that time you could walk along the top of it! Looks like the health and safety gestapo have put a stop to that now

Lovely part of the world. Thanks for the RR...

 

[teejay]

ooooooooooo wish I was there, got to wait until september, great write up and pics and get ready for the next couple of days as they are going to be nuts!!!!!!

engines revved on the limit, beer, wine and scooters, the more you can get on them and ride around the circuit seems to be the aim of the game, Donnington 'elf & safety it is not!!!!

Enjoy

Teejay

 

[Ash]

some cracking new pictures

 

[C-J]

Not much of a ride report today as we've been over to Mugello for the qualifiers... Was a stinking hot day, but thankfully we got to Scarperia on the back roads so didnt hit much traffic. Getting to the track was a nightmare as the officials kept trying to get us to park in the town.. Bugger that, so we found a back road in and ended up parking on a hill to the south overlooking the track.. later we realised we could have kept on going round the outside of the track, and parked closer to the grandstand where we have seats (cracking view I must add, right opposite the start finish line !)...

Anyway here's a few shots of the action today... Will hopefully get some better one's tomorrow... And we were gutted to learn that Rossi had his accident just as we were arriving... I was wondering why the Yamaha garage only had one section open just before the warm up, then they showed the crash on the big screen....

And just for the lads here's some of the scenery around the track

Hopefully I'll get some more tomorrow for you....

 

[Gundog]

Brill.....

i especially like the one of Ella at the pool....

 

[bubbles]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....liking this a LOT

 

[C-J]

Race Day

Well what a day.. Absolutely shattered now.. the atmosphere was fantastic and we managed to get on track after the GP... not with my bike though Was murder getting out of the track.. Thought I was going to burn the clutch out and cook the engine, however we made it.. Ended up with a 30 mile detour around the hills to try and avoid the worst of the traffic in Scarperia... So not much to write... Just some more photos from today....

Oh and of course the obligatory scenery around the track again....

Back to normal ride report stuff tomorrow... We're heading up to Merano just outside the swiss border...

 

[Gundog]

Fantastic......we are very jealous..

 

[harry]

Great report & pics

Nice to see Danny got the wasp out of his mouth, at last.

 

[Ash]

Fantastic......we are very jealous..

we iz

 

[C-J]

Monday 7th June

Well it was time to leave the base we'd had in Italy for the last few days. If you ever want somewhere nice to stay, and you don't mind riding down a

quarter mile really steep gravel rutted path, then try this place called Tenuta Lonciano. Its a really lovely place and run by the gayest italian I've

ever met... Its worth the awful driveway, with its views over Florence...

We headed north and back up to Mugello. Because of all the traffic and the heat the previous 2 days we didn't get chance to get the classic views at the

entrance to the racetrack. And besides, the roads up there were great aswell !!

We kept heading north through the hills towards Bologna and eventually stopped for a coffee at a roadside cafe on top of a hill... lots of bikes were

there, from all from all different nationalities. There was even a group of Americans who'd rented various beemers from a company called Eidelweis. We

had a chat to them, and also met a couple from down sarf... Or that there London as some people know it... The one's to watch though were the crazy

Italin riders who were putting on a show for us...

We'd taken a bit to much time on the lanes, so we hit the motorways, and the heat.. it went up near the mid thrities and the sun was beating down, but

we had to get up near the border.. We avoided Bolgna, Modena and Verona, but the took a little detour down to Lake Garda... We were both suffering from

the heat and the humidity.. Didn't get a very good view across the lake because it was so hazy... Bit annoying..

We headed back to the motorway and up to Merano where we were staying for the night. Got dirty looks off the owner of the hotel when we asked for food,

so stuck our lids on and went into town and found a lovely restaurant in the centre of town... Tomorrow we are off into the Alps...

 

[C-J]

Tuesday 8th June

So today we're off to do our first section of the Alps.. We head off west towards the Stelvio... The signs arent looking promising as we get near it..

i'm determined to find out.. Head through Stelvio village... Signs are sayign its closed.. Lots of bikes coming the other way waving at us to turn

round... Make it up the first 3 hairpins... Then more signs.. Common sense kicks in (Ella) and we turn round.. Gutted...

So here's what i think of the Stelvio... Gonna have to leave it till next time...

We head up the next road to Santa Maria and have a coffe break as I long for the Stelvio.. the snack they had on offer cheered me up...

and we were soon off again heading towards Davos over the Ofenpass. As we headed up the passes the air got colder and more and more snow appeared...

Stopped for some photos of the lansdscape and I was gutted that there was no snow lying on the ground next to us....

Turned a few corners and it magicall appeared !! So of course I had to go and try sledging.. Thats what waterproof gear is made for isn't it !.. And we

took a few more photos of us whizzing round the snow...

We had some food in Davos and then headed along the Valley towards Andermatt.. We were looking to stay around Flims, however didnt spot anything

obviously nice from the road... carried on a bit further and I saw a village up on the hill side, so went for it.. up a few nasty hairpins and we find a

hotel at the end of a ski run.. Right nice place which seemed a bargain, until the morning when i found out the price was per person, not for the pair

of us !! Oh well.. It was a lovely place and we got to talk to the locals....

 

[Mr K]

Superb stuff!

 

[Morticia]

Fantastic pictures, keep them coming please...

Morticia

 

[Gundog]

Crackin....

Are ya home now ?

 

[C-J]

Crackin....

Are ya home now ?

Yup.......

 

[C-J]

Wednesday 9th June

Note: got home this evening so catching up on the report and a bit tired so not a lot to say !!

We continued west along the valley and then up and over the Oberalp pass before dropping down into Andermatt....

Then it was onto the highlight of the Alps for me... The Furka and Grimsel passes..... Couldn't quite believe what we'd come across with scenery here, and looking back on it now those roads are crazy !... Will definitely visit them again..

Looking back at the Furka

Looking up the south side of the Grimsel.

At the top of Grimsel

Looking north from Grimsel

the drop down from the Grimsel went on forever, and the temperature must have risen 20 degrees between the top and the bottom.. Also the wind went a bit crazy as we got near the bottom, where we stopped for a bite to eat..

The remainder of the day was a mission to get out of Switzerland into Germany without touching a motorway.. We hadn't bought the motorway tax, so had to head through the town's in heat approaching mid thirties... not at all pleasant. Getting through Luzern was not an experience I ever want again.. We crossed the border at Koblenz, and headed straight onto the B500, where we soon found a hotel for the night.

 

[C-J]

Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th June

Today we found some great roads... Firstly the B500 heading up hrough the black forest.. Some great sweeping roads intermingled with tight twisties.. The last 20 miles heading into Baden Baden is highly recommended... We nearly went back to do it again it was that good, but time was pressing on and we had to head north...

We hit the motorways for a while then peeled off and headed through Morback and Bitberg, before heading across towards Luxembourg where we found a biker friendly hostel just before the border....

Friday was a run to the coast, but we put in a couple more countries, heading in and out of Luxembourg and taking lunch in Givet in France, back into Belgium up to Mons, where we got on the final bit of motorway for the day up to Calais...

And the final Saturday was very exciting... Motorway all the way from Folkstone to Preston... boring but we got home at a reasonable time...

 

[C-J]

So to summarize..... !

According to the Satnav we've ridden 3300 miles...

We've been through the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxemburg and Belgium...

The only mechanical breakdown we've had was a crashbung coming loose, fixed by a Polish Frenchman !!

We only had one day where we got properly wet... The rest going down we're pretty good.. Coming back has been over 30 degrees each day.. not so much fun !

I've learnt that waterproof Sidi boots are fantastic at keepign your feet dry in the rain however they are not so good at getting rid of sweat in the heat.. . Every night this week they have been outside of our room, on a window ledge !... They are now in the freezer which i hope will fix them..

The GS has consumed about 3/4 a litre of oil (I couldnt tell you what sort of chip fat its been run on....)..

I've worried far too much about my tyres wearing out... there's about half a mill now to the wear markers on the rear tyre, and they are pretty squared after the last few days motorway stretches.. However the Roadsmarts have never let go, and I've had about 5000 miles out of them..

I would have preferred to have some clip on butty boxes rather than soft luggage, which is a bit of a ballache to rig up every morning..

We'd planned around 300 miles riding each day, and although we've achieved this, its been just a little bit too much.. We've had to put in quite a bit of motorway in order to keep up this distance each day, and sometimes that distracted from the enjoyment of the trip..

Italy is full of feckin mental drivers...

BMW car drivers are definitely the biggest cocks going.. (though we knew that already)...

The standard GS screen is rubbish and I've suffered from quite a bit of buffeting, knackering out my shoulders...

But we've done it.. a huge feckin ride round quite a lot of Europe.. no accidents, nothing broke... A great time was had... And I'm going back to get the Stelvio at some point... I will not be beaten !