Hey all, been back to Europe this time with my other half as we normally do 2 weeks on our own. Fairly similar to last year, Hull to Rotterdam ferry, down into Germany, stayed in Marburg, then Ingolstadt then onto Grizzly's Motorrad Hotel in Austria for 4 nights.
Weather was horrendous most of the way to Hull, it rained pretty much all day once we arrived in the Netherlands and also the following down down to Ingolstadt. I decided this year to keep almost completely off toll and motorway roads as we have made the mistake of doing too many miles to get from A to B and ending up motorway blasting to get to the good stuff. I'm glad I did though as the 2 days it rained constantly across Germany we actually really enjoyed it despite the sometimes biblical rain/standing water.
Bike was absolutely disgusting though by the time we got to Grizzly's, some of the country roads had almost rivers of water running across them which was splashing up onto my boots.
We got to Grizzly's and almost like clockwork the sun came, what a bloody lovely place it is, the staff are amazing and the B99 nearby is a cracking road to ride up towards Radstadt and also heading south.
We headed up to the Eagles Nest while we were there. not cheap but I'm glad I went!
Did a short day one of the days as the weather looked bad in the afternoon but we still managed to get caught in it and there was a kilometre of a mountain pass road that was literally just softly compacted gravel which was "fun" to ride over in the pouring rain. Then we did the Grosglocker another day, wasn't quite as nice as last year due to the clouds but still great ride up there.
After we left Grizzly's we headed towards Schruns in Austria for a night, passing through Italy briefly which was 33 degrees and the traffic was horrific, so a mistake on my part for planning. On the way to Schruns we did the Silvretta Pass, what a road!
We then went to Fribourg for 1 night, we were going to stay near Interlaken again but the cost of the hotel we stayed in last time has gone up from £157 to £750 for a night! We managed to get in the Oberalpass, Furka and Grimsel on the way, although it absolutely chucked it down on the Grimsel at the Belvedere Hotel cafe stop then dried up all within half an hour.
After that we spent 3 days heading across France avoiding motorways to stay with my other halves brother at his house near Pontivy and then we came home last night via St Malo. 2700 miles covered all in all.
Low points were getting stopped in Austria on our last day there, Police had a radar gun on the exit of a tunnel hidden behind a sloped wall, I'd gone into the tunnel and honestly hadn't paid enough attention to the fact that for this tunnel it dropped from 80km/h to 60km/h, the van in front of me didn't slow down either so I just kinda followed him, as soon as we got out the tunnel they pulled me in, but let the van go which was odd. 20km/h over the limit, 35Euro fine on the spot, fair do's speeding is speeding, bit of a sneaking place to be position and it wasn't in a built up area, but hey ho, it is what it is, I should have been paying more attention.
The next day in Switzerland I thought I had better keep an eye on my speed especially as I'd heard the Swiss fines are excruciating, anyway, came down the Grimsel Pass to find the Police waiting at the side and pulled me in, even my missus said "you can't have been speeding we've been taking it dead easy". The lovely chap advised me that they had colleagues up on the mountain pretty much hiding in the trees with cameras and that I was caught overtaking a slower car at 92km/h in an 80km/h. He did comment I was only briefly over the limit as the car was going quite slow but for my 12km/h indiscretion he relieved me of 160CHF ((£146) and told me they had been fining Brits all day, some to the tune over >1000CHF so I just paid up and went on my way.
Regardless it was a great trip despite more rain than we've ever seen on one of our August tours.
Weather was horrendous most of the way to Hull, it rained pretty much all day once we arrived in the Netherlands and also the following down down to Ingolstadt. I decided this year to keep almost completely off toll and motorway roads as we have made the mistake of doing too many miles to get from A to B and ending up motorway blasting to get to the good stuff. I'm glad I did though as the 2 days it rained constantly across Germany we actually really enjoyed it despite the sometimes biblical rain/standing water.
Bike was absolutely disgusting though by the time we got to Grizzly's, some of the country roads had almost rivers of water running across them which was splashing up onto my boots.
We got to Grizzly's and almost like clockwork the sun came, what a bloody lovely place it is, the staff are amazing and the B99 nearby is a cracking road to ride up towards Radstadt and also heading south.
We headed up to the Eagles Nest while we were there. not cheap but I'm glad I went!
Did a short day one of the days as the weather looked bad in the afternoon but we still managed to get caught in it and there was a kilometre of a mountain pass road that was literally just softly compacted gravel which was "fun" to ride over in the pouring rain. Then we did the Grosglocker another day, wasn't quite as nice as last year due to the clouds but still great ride up there.
After we left Grizzly's we headed towards Schruns in Austria for a night, passing through Italy briefly which was 33 degrees and the traffic was horrific, so a mistake on my part for planning. On the way to Schruns we did the Silvretta Pass, what a road!
We then went to Fribourg for 1 night, we were going to stay near Interlaken again but the cost of the hotel we stayed in last time has gone up from £157 to £750 for a night! We managed to get in the Oberalpass, Furka and Grimsel on the way, although it absolutely chucked it down on the Grimsel at the Belvedere Hotel cafe stop then dried up all within half an hour.
After that we spent 3 days heading across France avoiding motorways to stay with my other halves brother at his house near Pontivy and then we came home last night via St Malo. 2700 miles covered all in all.
Low points were getting stopped in Austria on our last day there, Police had a radar gun on the exit of a tunnel hidden behind a sloped wall, I'd gone into the tunnel and honestly hadn't paid enough attention to the fact that for this tunnel it dropped from 80km/h to 60km/h, the van in front of me didn't slow down either so I just kinda followed him, as soon as we got out the tunnel they pulled me in, but let the van go which was odd. 20km/h over the limit, 35Euro fine on the spot, fair do's speeding is speeding, bit of a sneaking place to be position and it wasn't in a built up area, but hey ho, it is what it is, I should have been paying more attention.
The next day in Switzerland I thought I had better keep an eye on my speed especially as I'd heard the Swiss fines are excruciating, anyway, came down the Grimsel Pass to find the Police waiting at the side and pulled me in, even my missus said "you can't have been speeding we've been taking it dead easy". The lovely chap advised me that they had colleagues up on the mountain pretty much hiding in the trees with cameras and that I was caught overtaking a slower car at 92km/h in an 80km/h. He did comment I was only briefly over the limit as the car was going quite slow but for my 12km/h indiscretion he relieved me of 160CHF ((£146) and told me they had been fining Brits all day, some to the tune over >1000CHF so I just paid up and went on my way.
Regardless it was a great trip despite more rain than we've ever seen on one of our August tours.
Cost me 80NZ$ I seem to remember.
