BootsnAll Travel Blogs

just completed my first biking trip on the continent: I had just packed in a job and was looking for somewhere to take my mind of it – a guy I know was already booked for a trip over to the Italian alps (Dolomites) with people he knew, so I tagged along.

We (Tuckerhauser<John>,Colin and me) sailed on the overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, arriving at 9am (ish) disembarked and headed for the closest garage for fuel…………….after being breathalysed within the port! (seems to be standard now for vehicles leaving the overnighter) After getting lost in the ‘Dam (even tho 2 of the 3 bikes were fitted with GPS!!!) we headed south thru Germany on the autobahns. Wasnt too bad a trip DESPITE a humongous thunderstorm on the way – oh and we lost Colin at one point and only caught up with him again – after a few texts – to stay overnight in Karlsbad near Karls Ruhe.

We stayed in the “Gruner Baum” hotel, which wasnt a bad place …it sold cold beer (tho I did get stung on the neck by a pretty unfriendly wasp) and had a nice coffe shop nearby where we got cappuccino’s and banana splits (hey, we’re on holiday…and Colin started it!)

next morning we set off again and headed down into Switzerland where after some heavy traffic we stopped in a coffee shop….for Cappuccino…served by a nice friendly fraulien…which was nice. A fairly tedious section of motorway later and we were in Italy !! …where we met the other 5 guys (Brian, Paul, John, Willy and Dave) in a nice hotel in Brunico. We stayed here for 2 nights so that we could explore the local roads and not have to carry our bags with us (not as easy on a sports bike as it is on a BMW GS)

a few lush roads around Cortina (no the place, not the car) and my first real ‘passes’ later and we were thru Bolzano into Bormio where we overnighted at a home for the elderly (hotel Internatiozionale) We had a wander around the town that night and ate free snacks served on an oversize cricket bat(!) and drank cheap beers as the barmaid forgot how many we all had!!! We also tried a route upto the Witches cafe (or summat) on the Austrian border – great single track road controlled by traffic lights.
Next morning was the STELVIO pass – perhaps the best biking or driving road in the world?……..well, it was FAB….we headed up the ‘easy’ way which meant tight hairpins at first gradually opening in to lightly wider and faster corners – REAL good stuff and then reached the top of the pass where you get the photos seen in all the motoring press. it really is a fab ride. the view is incredible. the ride down is pretty hairy with VERY tight hairpins and BIG drop-offs if you get it wrong!!!…be careful of the buses: they do 3 point turns to get around some of the corners! (if you go there, check out the house halfway up the mountain on the right – just above the tree line as you go down….who the hell lives there!!!???) Eventually, we stopped at the town at the bottom for ….cappuccino …and then rode on aiming for Andermatt

at this point it kinda went all wrong, as Tucker ran out of fuel on a german autobahn. 3 of us stopped and I headed off to fill up with fuel and find a siphon tube to fill Tuckers bike with….that was the easy part! Willy (1 of the 3 who stopped) told me to head off along a road to get back along the autobahn – sadly for me, that road went over the mountains and was nowhere NEAR an autobahn, so after riding 55km and getting directions 3 times AND getting caught in a thunderstorm, I returned to where I started and took the autobahn back past Tucker then did a ‘U’ turn on the autobahn to meet up with him. After filling up with petrol (again) We then had to head over the mountains to Andermatt to meet the other guys…..however we got hit with the thunderstorm again – it was TORRENTIAL over the pass, but althought we got soaked and rode DEAD slow, it wasnt as bad as it could have been…I guess…it wa almost (ALMOST) funny!

The hotel we stopped at in Andermatt, was a bit odd – nice from outside, but looked like it last got decorated just before the war….the Crimean was, that is!….it also had two doors to the rooms – a normal door, which opened straight onto another door!?…no idea what that is all about!

In the morning we filled up with petrol and I borrowed a spanner from a guy in a garage to adjust the bike chain (poorly adjusted by me before we left ) Then we headed down a cobble road pass before climbing another pass to some amazing views. the roads here are a proper ‘fest, with the Furka, Sustens, Grimsell and San Gottardo passes all linking up around Andermatt – you could play here for days……which is what John and I did as the other guys headed back for England and left us in Interlaken

We stayed in two separate hotels between the 8 of us as I couldnt afford the expensive one the older guys stayed at, so John and I stayed at the Minerva which was pretty cheap – but wasnt en-suite – HEY! we’re bikers and not supposed to shower anyhoo!!!!! the next day was the departure day for the others, so John and I rode over to Lauterbrunnen (valley of the waterfalls) which was LUSH! incredibly beautiful place – then we retruned to the hotel, changed into something more comfortable and took a train thru the valley and then thru the Eiger mountain (literally) to Jungfraujoch – ‘top of Europe’ at 3571m (11760ft) where we walked out onto the glacier -and got caught in a snowstorm!!! kewl! a pot noodle (odd) and coffee later and we headed back down to town…….course this being August 1st, it was Swiss national day so we were treated to street entertainers and a mahoosive fireworks display on the ‘park’ in the centre of Interlaken! …a great day all around.

Sadly, the trip took a turn for the worst the next day: we were riding aorund the Furka /Sustens passes again having a great time, when I decided to have a bit of a traffic light grand prix from a railway crossing – in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain just before the Furka pass……..I got pretty fast – I know this cos the nice policeman at the end of the road took me to one side to let me know just how fast I was going!!! ……he seemd a nice chap, so I donated a MAHOOSIVE amount into the Swiss Police Ball fund…………..

Anyways, next day and we decided to head back towards home – after riding to the valley of waterfalls again and Grindelwald for photos of the eiger (beautiful day) then we headed north on little scenic roads into Germany. we chose well (thank you Obi Wan) and included roads thru Todtmoos up to Schuslsee (sp?) where I had a mahoosive coffee and then followed signs up thru the Black Forest looking for a hotel…….however we saw Hansel and Grettels B&B in the woods so stopped there – lovely old lady (bent double so it would be easier to milk the coos) gave us room in her place and we got on smashing despite her not speaking any english and my german being learnt a couple of years ago (what?) at school. That night we headed off for a walk thru the trees into the middle of nowhere- we thought – until we happened upon some tennis courts and then a hotel – OK so it wasnt RIGHT in the wilds. A fillet steak later and we headed back to the B&B to sleep. Next morning we breakfasted on teh standard cheese, bread, ham and jam with lashings of coffee, then said auf Wiedersehen and headed north again, via Baden Baden (so good they named it twice) and into more lush roads to Luxembourg……

I dont like Luxembourg police.

We got lost looking for a perticklier road, then happened upon it – tho it was partly barriered off…we couldnt understand the signs and there were other cars in front so we slowly rode up the road…to be met by 4 cops, 2 of whom had credit card machines and dutifully took €75 of us for the pleasure of being lost (not just us, there were germans, belgians, dutch and french caught too!) departing a little lighter in the wallet, we stayed at the beautiful little town of Vianden, staying in a smashing hotel in a steep cobbled street right below the chateau. We had a couple of beers here, a meal, a fab shower and booked cheap ferry tickets for Dover from Calais for the Wednesday (today was Monday)

In the morning, we took a real nice ride up the side of the river and then across into Belgium to Champion and Dinante (stopping at Bastogne to take photos of a Sherman tank) after cappuccino (it would be rude not to) we headed onto motorways to get to Ypres where we planned to stay our last night on the continent.

Arriving at Ypres in double quick time, we took some photos of a WW1 memorial march and the Mennim gate then booked ourselves into a B&B for the night. Returning to the town, we attended the 8pm Last Post and then had beers and a meal in the town square – Ypres was a pretty happening place that night – we thought it would be quite morose with all its history, but it seems to have the blend of not forgetting but not dwelling, just about right, I reckon.

Next morning we headed North to the coast and then West to Calais. letting a couple of old guys sit on our bikes for photos at the ferry queue. Sadly that was the end of the nice bit of the trip – the ride back thru England was CRAP!!! diabolical driving (watching a Volvo driver actually try to ram another car off the road on the A14. Still we got home safely…which was nice

In summary: there are some AMAZING roads in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy and Austria….Hartside doesnt even come close