Another Italian Job (Dolomites) part one

Mark H

Formerly known as Easyrider5258 (Mark)
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Been looking forward to getting continental again and this tour has been long awaited, plan is Eurotunnel out, 2 nights down via Charleville - Mezieres and then a Black Forest hotel, Innsbruck, Brenner pass and into the Dolomites for a 7 night stay in Arabba near Cortina, return via Innsbruck again to Ulm, than to Hotel Huellen near Nurburgring a favorite with many on here, then into Belgium for 4 nights for the Sanicole Airshow and home;

So rolled into Dover and got on a earlier train, good start:D

I'm off to the Dolomites :) by Mark Handley, on Flickr

A quick 200 mile blast to Charleville - Mezieres for the the first overnighter at Hotel Le Pelican, all good, very secure garage and a good steak house across the road, Breakfast was quality and set you up for the day

Hotel Le Pelican, Charleville-Mézières by Mark Handley, on Flickr

Hotel Le Pelican, Charleville-Mézières Garage by Mark Handley, on Flickr

Day two was to ride the B500 through the Black Forest so the sat nav was set to pick up the B500 south of Baden-Baden ride the road and find a hotel about 5ish
Route to Baden - Baden was uneventful but good, the roads on the continent are so good, I dont think I saw a single pothole! a few speed cameras about but no tickets have landed on my doormat yet, Sat Nav (Nav6) was good at pinging up warnings.

I rode most of the B500 and it was very good, well worth doing if your B500 virgin like me, saw no police :thumb2

I was heading for Freiburg but got as far as Waldkirch and asked the sat nav for accommodation, it came up with this place; mileage today was about 300

http://www.blaesistueble.de/ hotel Landgasthof Bläsi-Stüble

Black Forest Hotel by Mark Handley, on Flickr

It has a lift which is handy for me, I've brought inner bags and only one is used for overnighters so easy to get up to room

Hotel was great, I had a suite and Balcony, evening meal and breakfast was great, cost about £70 all in, very happy with that

Black forest hotel starter, nice meal by Mark Handley, on Flickr



Black forest hotel Breakfast by Mark Handley, on Flickr


Black forest hotel by Mark Handley, on Flickr







To be continued .......................... :D

I won't include shots of my 4 days at the Sanicole Airshow at the end of this tour on this thread but if you want to see them you can find them here; (I'm still adding to them)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/albums/72157710872575852




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Looking good, and nice pics - keep them coming.

Interesting that you are finding hotels via the satnav, I never thought of doing that. I generally pre-plan my stops and pre-book my hotels via booking.com, either well ahead when planning the trip, or sometimes will leave parts of a trip more open and just book the next hotel the evening before while on the road. It is obviously less spontaneous and less flexible doing this rather than just finding somewhere when you have had enough riding for the day, but it does allow me to shop around for good value places with good feedback, and check in advance that they have secure parking. I might try your approach next time though, but will look for hotels via the booking.com app on my phone, as I often get 10-15% discounts now as a long term user.
 
Thanks for your comments Fred,

I only found one hotel on the Sat Nav on the whole trip for one night, everything else was pre booked and the one I found was quickly checked out and reviews, location, price ect was compared with 2 or 3 alternatives offered on my smartphone via booking.com, the whole process just took a few minutes.

Being September there was no problem with finding a hotel with availability, In July / August it may be different.
 
Another Italian Job (Dolomites) part two

So after a good breakfast at hotel Landgasthof Bläsi-Stüble I set off for the final leg to the Dolomites, this was going to be a 360 mile day via Lake Constance, I was not using pre planned routes on my journey, preferring to look at routes before on my laptop I brought along using Kurviger (Recommended) the night before and loading waypoints onto the sat nav

Rest Stop Lake Constance by Mark Handley, on Flickr

The location was Zisterzienser Priorat Kloster Birnau a Baroque pilgrimage church featuring a monastery shop & lake views, and a cafe, just found by accident really signed directly off the route, only after taking photos inside I noticed the "Strictly no photography" sign ;)

Rest Stop Lake Constance by Mark Handley, on Flickr

Lake Constance Church by Mark Handley, on Flickr

Lake Constance by Mark Handley, on Flickr

Friedrichshafen on the shore of lake Constance was a little busy but not to bad, heard it can be a nightmare in July / August, plowing on towards Innsbruck noticed the alps rising went through a series of tunnels one of which I had to pay for (10 Euro?) weather been dry and sunny every day so far.
Innsbruck came and went viewed from the autoroute and onto the Brenner Pass another 10 Euro, lot of roadworks on the pass and queuing traffic stunning views to look at though! entered Italy and a short hop to Arabba in the Dolomites for the next 7 nights.

Hotel Garni Bellavista by Mark Handley, on Flickr

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48694573592/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Hotel Garni Bellavista"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48694573592_d574f39bc3_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Hotel Garni Bellavista"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hotel Garni Bellavista dont do evening meals they are taken directly across the road in Hotel Olympia I had all my evening meals there and every one was great, working out about 25 euros on average for a 3 course with coffee and one beer occasionally.

Hotel Olympia is on the biker group hotels as this short but cheesy video shows http://www.apres-bike.it/cms/ you can see my hotel across the road, lots of bikes coming and going all week

Having settled in the rest of the week was spent on day drips around the Dolomites, Septembers great to visit, traffic is light and plenty of bikes about.
After all the good weather unfortunately two days of heavy rain/ snow on the tops commenced, I did get out and wet on one day with a nice lunch beside Lago Di Alleghe (Lake) but one day was a write off:mad:

In better weather I took the ski lift up to Porta Vescovo from Arabba, nearly 9000ft up and views were amazing

A few photos of the week follow (you can see them all here; https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/albums/72157710873462972/with/48815348366/ )

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48745430872/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Corvara Dolomites"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48745430872_37cdca5df3_c.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="Corvara Dolomites"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48815810037/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="long view from the top"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48815810037_7b28e2e410_c.jpg" width="800" height="552" alt="long view from the top"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48751640766/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="DSC_6513"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48751640766_1380960fb4_c.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="DSC_6513"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48751907081/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="A hard path"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48751907081_99d6ac73da_c.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="A hard path"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48819040251/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Lago Di Alleghe"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48819040251_38682064d1_c.jpg" width="800" height="520" alt="Lago Di Alleghe"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
The last bit

All to quickly the week was over and time to set off homewards via the Airshow in Belgium left Arabba via Brenner pass again (Less traffic this time) Innsbruck then skirted Garmisch and headed towards Ulm for first overnighter

Ulm is famous for its church steeple which is the highest in the world, The RAF tried to correct this with a 300 Lancaster bombing raid in December 1944 with the loss of 2 aircraft, Ulm was pretty much flattened but the church steeple survived!

Near to Ulm the Gigant Glider Messerschmitt 323 was developed and produced

My overnight hotel was just 5 mile north of Ulm just on the autoroute with fuel and eateries on site;

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48813377403/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Hotel Seligweiler"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48813377403_354ddf071b_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Hotel Seligweiler"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Trolley to move your stuff from room to bike makes life easier;

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48722888373/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Loading with a handy trolley"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48722888373_077597a3f9_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Loading with a handy trolley"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Met a nice Scottish couple in the hotel great evening meal with them, they are on UKGSERS and in the BMW Club thanks for your company!

Food and accommodation all good at https://www.hotel-seligweiler-ulm.de/

Next a 250 mile mostly autoroute to the well recommended Hotel Huellen in the Nurburgring area

https://www.hotelhuellen.de/index.php/de/

Hotel Huellen didn't disappoint, warm welcome, great food and room and amazing garage;

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48723401702/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Hotel Huellen"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48723401702_83cf83a2c1_c.jpg" width="800" height="576" alt="Hotel Huellen"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48723403937/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Hotel Huellen Garage"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48723403937_d3c6598c5f_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Hotel Huellen Garage"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Ate most of it before remembering to take photo ... Delicious! :D

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48723226416/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Dinner at Hotel Huellen Delicious!"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48723226416_aa949c24c6_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="Dinner at Hotel Huellen Delicious!"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Nice report :thumb

I’m impressed you got a train from Dover! :D

We stayed at Hotel Olympia about 6 years ago, as it was the only one open, due to the time of year we went (May), so we had the place (bar! :friday) to ourselves, apart from a couple from Germany!
 
Checked out of Hotel Huellen for a shortish run into Belgium for a 4 nighter at https://www.de-watermolen.com/en/ a nice hotel, big rooms English on tv, good food, booked well in advance but not cheap, (probably because all hotels booked solid for Airshow)


<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48723404687/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Hotel Watermelon base for Sanicole Airshow for 4 nights"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48723404687_4908886110_c.jpg" width="800" height="532" alt="Hotel Watermelon base for Sanicole Airshow for 4 nights"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



This was to be my base for my visit to the the Sanicole Airshow and also a visit to the military base at Kleine-Brogel lots of photos of this here;

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/albums/72157710872575852 about halfway through editing these so more to be added.

Monday the 16th dawned bright and sunny, checked out of Hotel Watermolen for a short hop to Dunkirk to catch my DFDS ferry, got there early and got a earlier boat, fish and chip lunch and home by 4pm, it's all over :tears

The bike was flawless, 2000 mile and didn't miss a beat very powerful exciting ride especially for a few minutes on some unrestricted German Autobahn where I obtained warp factor 9 :thumb

I did notice at the Ulm hotel somebody had lost a balance weight off their wheel, then spotted the corresponding clean patch on mine :blast

A bit of glue and all's well, (Did think about calling BMW recovery :D)

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/48746786426/in/album-72157710873462972/" title="Just back home"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48746786426_ff0913edaa_c.jpg" width="800" height="628" alt="Just back home"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Nice report! We stayed in Arabba with Wapping during our Olympics Avoidance Tour in 2012. Great town to use as a base for exploring the area.
 
Brilliant pics, and some great locations that I missed on my trip - so will obviously have to go back! I also took a picture of the Corvara sign, but didn't think to park my bike in front of it - good idea and lovely bike!
 
Glad you had a good trip Mark .Your report made an interesting read along with your great photos.

:beerjug:
 
Fab pics Mark a friend on fb has just been to the alps on his bike and his pics were great too. We really must make the effort to get there
Thanks for the rr you've sown some seeds

Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk
 
Great RR.

Thanks for putting it up.

Hopefully Ill be up for a RT trip myself in the spring.

Great photos on the link too.

Happy memories of that airshow, your pic of the P51 is fab
 


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