Europe 2017
After some planning, a little luck, and a lot of help... I was able to pull of this dream vacation to Europe: One week with my wife and dad on motorcycles in the Alps, followed by one week with just my wife hitting up some must-see cities. Like most of my writings, I'm low on time but have excess pictures, so I'm not entirely sure how this 'story' will play out. Between my two cameras and my wife's, we came home with over 600 shots. I've narrowed that down by a third... but that's still a ton! My dad has something like an hour of video; perhaps some day that will end up on here too, but not today! Moving on....
Part One - Motorcycling the Alps in Europe
Normally I'm a bargain hunting, make-it-work kinda guy. The kinda guy that you wouldn't expect to sign up for an organized and guided group motorcycle tour. For a couple reasons (a large one being the language barrier), that's exactly what we signed up for this trip. We went with Edelweiss Tours, and chose the High Alpine Tour. They offer a ton of options; this one we chose focuses on twisty mountain roads, covers 5 countries, and provides a support van to haul our luggage and help with any issues.
On paper, the mileage per day was very short. Hell, the entire week was only about 950 miles, which isn't too much more than my personal 'longest single day on a bike' record of 850. That being said, Edelweiss knows what they're doing! This ride had nearly the perfect amount of riding every single day. It was chock full of absolutely amazing roads, perfectly planned picture stops, postcard worthy lunch stops, and beautiful hotels. Absolutely no amount of internet route planning could have come up with the type of riding Edelweiss provided. This is there home turf, and they know it well. Then the fact that we aren't trying to navigate, simply following the leader, allowed us to focus completely on the road and scenery; which made the ride exceptionally more enjoyable. Add to all that, Dieter in the Van; he would beat us to the hotel every night and have our rooms arranged, with our luggage inside! We would just show up, get a key card, and go upstairs. Also in the van, tires and parts in case anyone had an issue, and even a spare motorcycle! Edelweiss Tours provided us with a spare motorcycle in case anyone needed to switch out. They provide one hell of a service.
Alright back to the timeline:
We flew in to Munich Germany on a red-eye flight a day early so we could hit the town. A good time was had by all.... but we might have over estimated our free time... and perhaps have been screwed by the weekend train schedule being inadequate... and we ended up just maybe being an hour late to the very first meeting with the riding group. You know, that real important meeting where everyone introduces themselves, meets the ride leaders, goes over the routes and rules, etc... oops. First impressions!
On paper, the mileage per day was very short. Hell, the entire week was only about 950 miles, which isn't too much more than my personal 'longest single day on a bike' record of 850. That being said, Edelweiss knows what they're doing! This ride had nearly the perfect amount of riding every single day. It was chock full of absolutely amazing roads, perfectly planned picture stops, postcard worthy lunch stops, and beautiful hotels. Absolutely no amount of internet route planning could have come up with the type of riding Edelweiss provided. This is there home turf, and they know it well. Then the fact that we aren't trying to navigate, simply following the leader, allowed us to focus completely on the road and scenery; which made the ride exceptionally more enjoyable. Add to all that, Dieter in the Van; he would beat us to the hotel every night and have our rooms arranged, with our luggage inside! We would just show up, get a key card, and go upstairs. Also in the van, tires and parts in case anyone had an issue, and even a spare motorcycle! Edelweiss Tours provided us with a spare motorcycle in case anyone needed to switch out. They provide one hell of a service.
Alright back to the timeline:
We flew in to Munich Germany on a red-eye flight a day early so we could hit the town. A good time was had by all.... but we might have over estimated our free time... and perhaps have been screwed by the weekend train schedule being inadequate... and we ended up just maybe being an hour late to the very first meeting with the riding group. You know, that real important meeting where everyone introduces themselves, meets the ride leaders, goes over the routes and rules, etc... oops. First impressions!
We had a fairly large group; 13 bikes, 16 people, plus two guides on motorcycles and one guide in a van. Most were from the USA; several from Texas (which at the start of our trip was currently being slammed by a record breaking hurricane!) a couple from New Zealand, and a few from Canada. Our guide Wim was from Belgium, while Claudia and Dieter were from the Munich area. The guides all spoke amazing English, as well as numerous other languages. They were all three great people; down to earth, enjoyable, funny, and fast! I honestly couldn't imagine better guides.
Dinner was generally a pre-arranged 3 or 4 course feast at our hotels. The guides and restaurants were all exceptionally helpful getting Alicia gluten free meals. I can honestly say, through the entire Edelweiss arranged portion of this trip, special food for Alicia was never once difficult or disappointing.
Dinner was generally a pre-arranged 3 or 4 course feast at our hotels. The guides and restaurants were all exceptionally helpful getting Alicia gluten free meals. I can honestly say, through the entire Edelweiss arranged portion of this trip, special food for Alicia was never once difficult or disappointing.
Riding Day One! We were introduced to our bikes the night before, but this was when things got real! Meet at 8:30 after a huge complimentary breakfast to discuss the day.
Unfortunately, the previous night saw 5 new inches of snow settle on our very first mountain pass of the trip, and the government wasn't allowing vehicles to cross without snow chains. A bit disappointing, but nothing was going to bring us down this day; there will be much to see!
We had a nice variety of bikes to choose from for the ride. I chose the Honda Africa Twin. From what I'd read, it is a brand new interpretation of the KTM 990 I owned; medium-large size and power. Capable of anything on and off-pavement; a good do anything bike. My dad originally wanted a Triumph Tiger 800; slightly smaller than my Honda, but still a mid-sized, do-everything bike. The Triumph wasn't available, so he settled on a Ducati Multistrata 1200. A bike made in Italy, specifically for racing through these mountains in comfort. We traded bikes for one day of the tour to get a feel for the others. Edelweiss has partnered with several brands including Touratech to outfit each bike. They all come with side and top boxes for luggage, crash bars, and various other accessories.
Unfortunately, the previous night saw 5 new inches of snow settle on our very first mountain pass of the trip, and the government wasn't allowing vehicles to cross without snow chains. A bit disappointing, but nothing was going to bring us down this day; there will be much to see!
We had a nice variety of bikes to choose from for the ride. I chose the Honda Africa Twin. From what I'd read, it is a brand new interpretation of the KTM 990 I owned; medium-large size and power. Capable of anything on and off-pavement; a good do anything bike. My dad originally wanted a Triumph Tiger 800; slightly smaller than my Honda, but still a mid-sized, do-everything bike. The Triumph wasn't available, so he settled on a Ducati Multistrata 1200. A bike made in Italy, specifically for racing through these mountains in comfort. We traded bikes for one day of the tour to get a feel for the others. Edelweiss has partnered with several brands including Touratech to outfit each bike. They all come with side and top boxes for luggage, crash bars, and various other accessories.
The new Honda Africa Twin proved to be an amazingly competent bike. After choosing the bike but before riding it, I second guess my choice heavily. I was worried it wouldn't be idea for riding with a passenger, and I didn't want to suffer with squatting suspension or inadequate brakes on these roads.
Upon receiving the bike, I adjusted the seat into the 'low' position, and cranked up the rear pre-load to the max. Within the first few hours on it I was at home. It was comfortable for both Alicia and I. The brakes were extremely strong. The engine and transmission worked seemlessly, and SMOOTH... like, baby butt smooth, like perhaps the smoothest engine I've ever felt under a bike. The suspension seemed perfectly fine for our riding. I used all the power it had frequently; a fair amount of WOT... perhaps a little dabbling with the rev limiter on occasion... It was a perfectly adequate amount. Not too much, but never disappointing. I had to ride a bit harder than many others in our group. Most were on BMW 1200's (so about 20% more engine size to begin with) and most were riding solo. We kept up just fine, but I did tend to use substantially more fuel. In case you haven't read between the lines yet: I loved this bike. Absolutely loved it. It was perfect for us on this ride, and it's a great bike in general. There are a couple negatives from the factory: Tubed tires and a chain final drive are two features I was excited to eliminate with my last bike purchase. And a couple annoyances like the windshield was a little higher than I'd like, and this bikes heated grips were not working. Overall though... great bike! |
The Ducati took me a few hours to get a feel for. Everything was (expectedly) a bit different. I'll save the 'beating around the bush' here and jump to the conclusion that we didn't love this bike. Alicia was too short for it, and was stuck between reaching the backrest or reaching the pegs (the side boxes were in the way of where her legs wanted to be), so she was uncomfortable and awkward. The riding position for me was a bit more cramped than the upright adventure bikes I'm used to. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I played with the electronic suspension settings, but could never get it perfect for us (2-up with some small luggage); the rear felt bouncy even on the highest settings. The transmission had a bad habit of finding false neutrals; occasionally it was annoying... more than once it was in a hair-pin where being in a real gear was kinda-sorta a requirement. The brakes were just fine! (Yay positives!) And the engine was a beast. A... BEAST! I played with it in Touring mode and Sport mode; both putting out 160 horsepower. I tried to get there... I wanted to feel all 160 horsepower on a bike. Unfortunately I got very close to redline... but I couldn't hold on to it long enough to see those shift lights flash. Due to both the ridiculous warp speed the alps were passing around me, but more so, because of Alicia literally screaming bloody murder into my ears hanging on for dear life.
I'd play with this bike again any time. Preferable solo... on twisty mountain roads or a race track... but it's not a bike I need to own. |
What the heck were we talking about? Riding day one! I loved my bike almost immediately, and we had a great day! Like I said, we had to skip one mountain pass... but even our detour was had snow covered mountains. It was a hell of an introduction to the Alps! Our stop for the evening even had a surprise concert outside our hotel room. We rode from Erding Germany (suburb of Munich) to Lienz Austria via Wasserburg and Felbertauerntunnel.
Day two brought absolutely perfect weather, the likes of which would stick around for the rest of the trip! More amazing roads and views all day long. Lienz Austria to Klobenstein Italy (suburb of Bolzano) via the Dolomites. We crossed several mountain passes including Passo Falzarego, Passo Valparola and Grödnerjoch. We were getting a feel for how small and tight some of these mountain roads could be; single lane roads and single digit speed hairpin curves were not uncommon at all. How cool! Lunch was provided by Edelweiss on top of a mountain pass. Dieter our van guide setup an amazing picnic for all of us, including gluten free bread options for Alicia. Amazing.
Day three we stuck around Bolzano Italy playing in the mountains around the city. It was still a hell of a riding day even though we didn't go too far. We ended early so we could head into town (via gondola!) and walk around. We found a restaurant with gluten free pasta; Alicia was in heaven.
Day Four... a BIG day! The day we would ride Stelvio Pass. The most impressive road you see if you google search "Curvy Road" or "Mountain Pass" or any other similar phrase. Our tour guides were a little nervous... most of our riders were a little nervous... some of our riders were a lot nervous! I've ridden a lot of mountains in my (mega-lucky) life... but this was different. This was the most technical and difficult riding I've ever experienced, and the stakes were quite high. Stelvio is mostly 2 lane, but has a serious amount of traffic. Several other passes were mostly single lane, and with just about no room for error, you have to be prepared for anything around the next blind hair-pin corner. That being said, our average pace was generally... spirited. More spirited than most of us were used to! But this isn't riding like the Tail Of The Dragon, or out in the Rockys; this was very different. Extremely enjoyable and rewarding, but hard riding!
Anywho... The riding was amazing again this day. We stopped at the medieval town of Glurns before hitting Stelvio Pass right in the middle of the day, and stopped at the top of the pass for a hotdog at the world famous Bruno's.
The group split up and hit numerous more mountain passes on our way to our hotel in Pontresina Switzerland, where our gracious guides had a mountain of beer waiting to congratulate the whole group on one hell of a riding day. The day ended in the hotel bar with dad playing the bar piano. All was good in the world.
Anywho... The riding was amazing again this day. We stopped at the medieval town of Glurns before hitting Stelvio Pass right in the middle of the day, and stopped at the top of the pass for a hotdog at the world famous Bruno's.
The group split up and hit numerous more mountain passes on our way to our hotel in Pontresina Switzerland, where our gracious guides had a mountain of beer waiting to congratulate the whole group on one hell of a riding day. The day ended in the hotel bar with dad playing the bar piano. All was good in the world.
Day 5: Switzerland, through Lichtenstein, ending in Warth Austria. Lichtenstein was technically our 5th country of the trip, and although it was simply one big city full of traffic and banks... at least we passed through 5 countries! Half a dozen more mountain passes this day... the first one was fogged in, but the rest were amazing. Great stuff! We landed at a great hotel with a great bar!
Most memorable part about Day 5? This was my Ducati Day (me evil laughing... Alicia quietly whimpering in the background).
Most memorable part about Day 5? This was my Ducati Day (me evil laughing... Alicia quietly whimpering in the background).
Day 6 brought us back to Erding Germany. The riding was still great, but the highlights of this day were three castles, including Neuschwanstein, which inspired the Disney castle. Towards the end of the day we did our single stretch on the German Autobahn. It was a short and simple stretch, but it let us enjoy a bit of no-speed-limit zone for those wanting to check that off their bucket list. Our maximum cruising speed was about 105 mph; the bike and I felt perfectly comfortable there... but I didn't need to push anything to break any records. Some highway, some city, and some country roads later, and we all pull into our hotel to finalize the trip.
In the end, there was some rejoicing, some joyful screaming, and deafening sighs of relief. We [ALL] did it! Without real issue or incident! We saw amazing things that 99.99% of people don't get to enjoy... and we did it on top of amazing motorcycles, in amazing weather, led by amazing tour guides. We all made friends and memories that will last a lifetime. What an amazing trip. I am not worthy!
Edelweiss Tours has a blog for every tour. Click Here for our trip... and also see the video below made by Dieter, one of our great guides.
Part Two - Europe After the Ride
The first half of our trip was so well executed by Edelweiss... we struggled for a couple days getting into a groove traveling on our own thereafter. We almost missed a couple trains and a plane... but we got better! Step one was renting a car and driving to see family in Heppenheim. The rental process took forever, and we hit some nasty traffic on the way, but it was autobahn... so when we weren't in stop-n-go traffic, I could cruise comfortably at 80-90 mph. We arrived a few hours later than expected, but enjoyed a great meal and some fun catching up. Unfortunately, Alicia and I had to leave early the next day... which was at exactly the time many folks were arriving to spend the day with us. In hindsight... we would have loved to have stuck around another day to spend time with these great people.
Alicia and I raced off to grab a high speed train to Paris. The maximum cruising speed was 200 mph, which was pretty freaking cool!
In Paris we did the Parisian things: Ate crepes, visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Arch, The Louve, and everything else you can see by walking... A LOT. Alicia got a bit huffy-puffy because I may have made her walk too much... I think we crossed the 15 mile mark (my phone read 40,000 steps that day... a new record!). Our Apartment was nothing special, but it worked just fine for us. Unfortunately it was 6 stories up in a building without an elevator... but it's all good.
Paris wasn't our favorite. It's an absolutely huge city... at least it felt that way after a week in the tiniest of beautiful mountain towns. It reminded me of NYC... in the feel and smell of it; replace the New York icons with the Paris icons and it's the same. Fun Fact, this is the third Eiffel tower I've visited in my life (after the one at Kings Island, and the one in Las Vegas)! I should note, we didn't go into any museums while we were there... so if that's what you're into, you may enjoy Paris more. As far as a major bucket list town... we got to go, and we enjoyed it, and we don't need to go back!
Alicia and I raced off to grab a high speed train to Paris. The maximum cruising speed was 200 mph, which was pretty freaking cool!
In Paris we did the Parisian things: Ate crepes, visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Arch, The Louve, and everything else you can see by walking... A LOT. Alicia got a bit huffy-puffy because I may have made her walk too much... I think we crossed the 15 mile mark (my phone read 40,000 steps that day... a new record!). Our Apartment was nothing special, but it worked just fine for us. Unfortunately it was 6 stories up in a building without an elevator... but it's all good.
Paris wasn't our favorite. It's an absolutely huge city... at least it felt that way after a week in the tiniest of beautiful mountain towns. It reminded me of NYC... in the feel and smell of it; replace the New York icons with the Paris icons and it's the same. Fun Fact, this is the third Eiffel tower I've visited in my life (after the one at Kings Island, and the one in Las Vegas)! I should note, we didn't go into any museums while we were there... so if that's what you're into, you may enjoy Paris more. As far as a major bucket list town... we got to go, and we enjoyed it, and we don't need to go back!
After Paris, we jumped on a plane to Genoa Italy (I'll skip the part about how difficult it was getting to the airport in morning rush-hours!), and then hopped on a train to Riomaggiore Italy, in the Cinque Terre. Our apartment here was top notch, and had a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The area is famous for it's hiking paths... but we weren't quite prepared for what they consider an easy trail. The main walking path that connects the 5 towns of the Cinque Terre was closed due to landslide, so we took a path that loops up the hillside to an overlook above the town and back down. Only 2 miles! Well 2 miles on a mountain means 2 miles of climbing or descending... and it was a bit rougher a path than I expected. I think Alicia's fitness tracker said something like 150 flights of stairs for that day... she wasn't pleased. Then we went and had the worst food of the trip... My 'mixed fried fish' plate was staring back at me... and her gluten free pizza looked and tasted like it came out of some discount frozen foods store. Bummer... but you can't win them all.
The towns and area were freaking beautiful! Unfortunately they exist purely for tourism anymore... so they are packed with tourists and tourist stuff. If hiking is your thing... this would be a great area to spend some time!
The towns and area were freaking beautiful! Unfortunately they exist purely for tourism anymore... so they are packed with tourists and tourist stuff. If hiking is your thing... this would be a great area to spend some time!
From Riomaggiore we took a train through Italy to Florence. The train passed through Carrara, where we could see the mountain sized quarries digging up beautiful Italian marble! Cool as heck! In Florence we stayed in another beautiful apartment. We had an incredibly enjoyable walk around the town... and not wanting to screw up again like the previous night... I researched our dinner options ahead of time! I found Ciro & Sons, who reportedly won the previous World Championship for Gluten Free Pizza. The food was amazing, and the city was beautiful.
From Florence, we took a high speed train to Rome. Our final apartment was, once again, beautiful! We had a great dinner at Mama Eat, an extremely gluten-free friendly restaurant (and delicious for us normal folks too!), and walked the town for an entire day. We saw everything that was highlighted on our map, and ended the day with special Friday Happy Hour Passes to the Vatican. The city wasn't as spread out as Paris, and I enjoyed the ruins much more. The Vatican (technically our 7th country of the trip!) had an amazing collection in the museum; from ancient relics up to 7600 years old, to art I never thought I'd see in person.
And then a simple 20 hour day and we were home! Nothing to it! (Uh huh...)
It was an amazing trip; a trip none of us will soon forget. Everything was just awesome. Like I've said (and like I'll continue to preach) Edelweiss put on an amazing tour for us... and I'm so thankful we choose to go that route. Mega-huge giant thanks to my dad... it was his dream all along... he did all the leg work, and we just went along for the ride. [Eternally grateful!]
Every day we saw things that are in calendars, and post cards, and computer backgrounds. Every day we met great people. Every day we had the time of our lives.
It was an amazing trip; a trip none of us will soon forget. Everything was just awesome. Like I've said (and like I'll continue to preach) Edelweiss put on an amazing tour for us... and I'm so thankful we choose to go that route. Mega-huge giant thanks to my dad... it was his dream all along... he did all the leg work, and we just went along for the ride. [Eternally grateful!]
Every day we saw things that are in calendars, and post cards, and computer backgrounds. Every day we met great people. Every day we had the time of our lives.