Alps 2011: 4 Riders, 3 Countries, 2 Factories, 1 MotoGP Race

[kendenton]

Alps 2011

Peter, Frank, Dave and Me

Introduction

I think it's fair to say that from the moment I first turned a wheel onto Passo Sella in 2009 I've been planning this return trip. That experience, shared with my friend Jim (trflyboy on STN) was, by an overwhelming margin, the most amazing time I've spent on two wheels. It took 2 years to make it happen, but on June 11th I was back on an airplane headed for Europe.

But let's back up a little.

First up was putting together a crew of riders to join us. Long story short, in the end there would be four us going. Myself, plus Dave (nearlyseventy), Peter (gasguage) and Frank (Skee). Unfortunately Jim was unable to join me this time around.

Next was figuring out where to go. I knew the Dolomites would be in the mix again - I think I could spend the rest of my riding days there and never be bored. Last trip we spent some time riding the passes in the Swiss Alps around the town of Andermatt, and while they were spectacular neither Jim nor I felt the need to go back and redo them. That left about half the trip open for new places.

Looking into bike rental options, our riding areas got narrowed down to a few obvious choices. We could fly to Zurich again and rent from Moto Mader, but that would pretty much mean repeating the 2009 trip almost exactly, which we didn't want to do. The other locations with major rental bike options were Milan and Munich. Bikes from Milan were pricier, and would mean our first time on the bikes would be escaping Milan surrounded by crazy spirited Italian drivers. That left Munich, which would work out fine. There were several rental outfits to choose from, prices were pretty good, and it's a city I've always wanted to visit (I come from German ancestry).

Using Munich as our base meant we had a few new riding areas to choose from to add to the Dolomites section - western Austria, the Black Forest area of Germany, a return to Stelvio and Gavia just to name a few. After an untold amount of e-mail exchanges and Skype sessions, a plan was made. We'd head out from Munich to the Berchtesgaden area of Bavaria, head over Grosglockner to the Dolomites, then Gavia and Stelvio on the way back to Munich.

We chose to rent from an outfit in Landshut, just north of Munich, called Moto Maier. They had good prices, offered a large selection of bikes, and Hermann was great to deal with over e-mail. Dave, Peter and I would be picking bikes up on Thursday the 16th since we had more vacation time to burn, and Frank would get his on Friday and meet us at our hotel.

This trip was going to cost a bit more than the last one, as airfare prices never came down this year for peak travel to Europe. I had started tracking prices in the fall of 2010, and they went from around $1,000 to $1,500 by Christmas and never came down. This was particularly troubling to me since at the end of the biking section of the trip my wife and son were flying out to meet me to spend an additional 2 weeks in Europe. In 2009 I paid $645 for my flight from PHL to ZRH, so I had budgeted around $2,400 for the three of us. Now I was looking at $4,500! I would have to do something about that.

 

[kendenton]

6/11, Flight to Munich

(Not much motorcycle content for a few days, be patient)

The thought of spending over $4,000 on airfare for my family made me look into the world of frequent flier miles, something I've never really considered before. I'm by no means a frequent flier, so I didn't yet belong to any airline FF programs. I did a lot of research, and found that there were several very generous credit card offers out there that gave a lot of FF miles for signing up. My credit score is thankfully very good, so I applied for a couple of cards and starting accumulating the miles.

I was suprised at how easy it was to rack up the miles just for filling out a credit app (and taking just a small credit score hit for the app). It became something of an addiction a hobby, and before I knew it I had some very healthy FF accounts on several airlines. How healthy? Enough to fly business class (Envoy) to Europe for (practically) free and barely make a dent in the balance. I eventually booked a flight on US Airways in Envoy class, Philadelphia to Munich with a stopover in Frankfurt. The transatlantic flight would be on an Airbus A330, which offered a very nice bonus - US Airways used to offer a First Class section on that aircraft, with row 1 being fully lie-flat seats (regular Envoy/business have healthy reclines but still slope). US has since dropped First Class but they kept the lie-flat seats. They used to charge a premium above business class for those Row 1 seats, but starting this year they became available at no additional charge. I was excited to see seat 1G available when I booked my flight - score! I've never flown "in front of the curtain" before, and this gave me something else to look forward to on this trip.

If anyone wants to know more about FF miles, drop me an e-mail or PM and I'd be glad to give you more info.

Dave and Peter would be leaving on Tuesday evening for a Wednesday arrival in Munich, and Frank would be arriving on Friday. I had originally planned to leave Wednesday as well, but I decided I wanted to spend more than one day in Muncih so I moved my departure up to Saturday. That would give me about 3 1/2 days to explore Munich before picking up the rental bike.

I arrived at the airport about 4 hours before departure. One of the nice bonuses of flying transatlantic Envoy is access to the Envoy Lounge with free food and drinks, and I wanted to be able to enjoy that experience before my departure. The check-in agent offered to bump me to an earlier direct flight, still in Envoy, but I would lose my row 1 sleeper. I passed. The agent made sure I knew where the lounge was and sent me on my way. With barely anyone in security I was in the terminal about 10 minutes after stepping out of the car.

As my usual pre-flight time at the airport is spent elbowing my way to the bar at Chickie and Pete's, then hanging out with the huddled masses near the gate, it's safe to say I was blown away by the lounge.

The stairway to heaven (aka Envoy Lounge)





Envoy Lounge, about as crowded as it got

Beer selection



Enjoying a gin and tonic, with mozzarella and tomato salad.

I tipped the bartender $3 when I got my first free drink, which I thought pretty fair. Returning for my second drink, the guy in front of me tossed her a $20 - making me feel like a skinflint. Then she pointed out that drinks were complimentary, and he took back his $20 and walked away with his drink. I was back to feeling pretty good.

I ventured out just once to get some crab fries at Chickie & Pete's and after waiting 10 minutes got a bucket of cold soggy fries. Sigh.

Eventually it was time to head down to the gate for boarding, so I reluctantly said goodbye to my oasis of calm and headed downstairs into the maelstrom of the terminal. I was one of the first to board, and for the first time ever got to make a left after entering the plane. I made my way past the "regular" Envoy section, and another wall, and found my seat in the row 1 mini cabin. Oh man, I could get used to this.

The aisle seat was my home for the night. Don't hate me - it was free.



Dinner/breakfast menu

Immediately after taking my seat a flight attendant came over to take my drink order. My request for a Gin and Tonic confused her - she paused for a moment, then asked "that's gin with tonic water, yes?". "Yes".

I had no seatmate until just before the doors closed, so I was hopeful I would get to keep the empty seat for the flight (or maybe get to sit next to some late-arriving celeb). Eventually the seat was taken by the mother of a family of 6, all travelling in Envoy. She was a little bummed to be by herself "away from the Griswolds". My dreams of chatting up Angie Harmon were dashed.

I passed on dinner since a) I had eaten pretty well in the lounge, and b) nothing on the menu sounded good to my (unfortunately) finicky palate. I did enjoy the Passion Fruit Mousse desert though.

My Passion Fruit Mousse



Settling in for the flight. My son and I could have played soccer in the area between my seat and the bulkhead.

Watched some TV episodes and a couple movies ("Moon" was excellent) on the iPad, and tried in vain to get some sleep. I don't know what made me think I would be able to, I've never been successful before. There was a little turbulence a few hours into the flight, but nothing bad. I tossed and turned during the lights-out portion of the flight trying to will myself to sleep, but it wasn't meant to be. Soon enough morning was breaking outside and we prepared for our landing in Frankfurt.

 

 

[yotes65]

I'm kind of torn between looking forward to reading this RR to dreading reading this. I totally enjoyed the 2009 Alps Trip Report and expect this one to top it... which will also must likely make me cry. Some Day... that's all I can say, Some Day I will have the pleasure of actually going to the Alps to experience all of its grandeur for myself instead of reading what others have experienced on two wheels.



More, more, more..... now!

[viffergyrl]

 

[veefer800canuck]

Ssh, I can't hear Ken over the noise of all that crunching popcorn!



;-)

[Rincewind]

Great start, Ken.    

[Mastros2]

Great start, Ken.    

 

[JamminJere]

I'm in for the long haul...



JJ

[Cablebandit]

I predict snow on the mountains around here before we see the end of this one.  

[kendenton]

6/12, Arriving in Munich

(couple days until Motorcycling content)

Germany!

Got through Frankfurt passport control without being asked a single question. I had a few hours before my Lufthansa flight to Munich, so I made my way to one of Lufthansa's business-class lounges to kill some time.

Much more crowded than the Envoy Lounge



Mmm, free pretzels...

I was disappointed to see that my Droid 2 Global phone couldn't find any service. I bought an hour of wi-fi and used the iPad to do some research, and turns out I should have contacted Verizon before I left the country so they could enable the phone for use overseas. My bad for thinking a phone with "Global" in the name would just work.

The lounge was too hot to spend a lot of time in, so I wandered the terminal a bit and eventually made my way to the gate for my next flight. At this point the lack of sleep was starting to hit me, and I may have nodded off once or twice for a few minutes. Not good when you're by yourself in the airport.

On boarding the plane, I was disappointed not to see any real "business class" in the cabin. Turns out on Lufthansa's intra-country flights, business class is a normal economy seat with the middle seat in the row not used for seating. So same narrow seat, crappy legroom, etc. Just the benefit of having an open seat between me and the guy in the aisle (apparently it only takes one flight in business class to spoil you). Oh well, at least the flight is less than an hour.

Not what I envision when I think "Business Class"



Somewhere over Germany

Landed in Munich about 2:30pm (8:30am EST), and was delighted to see my bag already waiting for me. Followed signs for the S-Bahn trains, and came out of the terminal into a delightful covered outdoor plaza with a cafe and biergarten. This was a very nice "Welcome to Europe" moment, as I don't think anyone exiting an airport in the northeast US encounters anything other than chaos, taxis, highways, etc.

Yup, this is Munich

Plaza between terminals and where the trains are



Smokey Joe's cafe in the plaza. In the shade trees on the left is the Airbrau biergarten.

Taking the train to my hotel near Rosenheimerplatz didn't go so well. I knew the location of the hotel, I knew which stop to get off at, and I knew to take either the S1 or S8 from the airport. So far so good. Got on the S8, and paid attention to the route map and saw the stops were matching up, so I relaxed, confident that I had conquered my first "I dont' understand German but I'll figure it out" challenge. Eventually the train stopped at Ostbahnhof, the stop before mine, and we sat there for a bit. Some announcements (all in German) were made, and some folks got off and some stayed. I assumed we were waiting for another train to clear the tracks, or something similar. After a bit we got moving again, but we didn't make any stops for a long while. We were creaking along above ground, with central Munich nowhere in sight. Another 30 minutes go by, and the train stops in Pasing, which is way on the other side of Munich. I asked the conductor for Rosenheimerplatz, and all I got back was "bus".

Turns out the whole central S-Bahn corridor was closed that weekend, from just before my stop to the other side of the city. In Ostbahnhof I was maybe a couple blocks from the hotel, now I found myself with an hour-long city bus ride to add to my long train detour. The bus was SRO, packed with unruly kids and uncaring parents, hot as blazes, stopped every block, and I was exhausted. Just shy of four hours after landing I finally got to the hotel.

In line for the bus

The Holiday Inn City Center was excellent, and the room gods were smiling on me and I got the largest room in the hotel, a suite actually. No wi-fi, but a very comfortable bed and a great view of the city. I tried to grab a little sleep, but now I was too excited about being in the city. Spent $30 on a phone call to Verizon and got my Droid working again before heading out on foot to see Munich.

Living Room at the Holiday Inn



No windows in the bedroom, but a very comfortable bed



View from the room. The 3 towers on the left are near Marienplatz, the center of Munich

It was an easy walk to Marienplatz, and I spent the next few hours wandering around and taking in the sights of Marienplatz and the surrounding historic buildings and plazas. I also enjoyed a couple liters of beer, something I've really been looking forward to on this trip. I had kinda sorta planned on visiting all the biergartens in the city, or at least one from each brewery, but that was going to be a bigger challenge than I thought.

I will not take the easy food option



New Town Hall in Marienplatz. Even prettier in person.



My first german beer, a half-liter of Hacker-Pschorr Helles. Excellent.



I'm thinking this was some sort of bachelor party. These guys were loud and drinking a lot, but obviously having a good time. They would toast every pretty girl that walked by (of which there were plenty).



This was the guest of honor of the group above. Nice pants.



He played a mean Beethoven's 5th



Another guy out with his friends (note the signed shirts on him and gold-pants-guy)



Orlandostrasse, looking back towards the Hofbrauhaus. The "Gelateria Garda" on the right had fantastic gelato.



No visit to Munich is complete without a visit to the Hofbrauhaus



Pretty lively inside, but too hot and crowded for me



The biergarten in the back was much more my style



A tasty liter of Dunkel (dark) beer

By about 10pm I couldn't fend off sleep any longer.  I made my way back to the hotel, set an alarm for 7am, and passed out.

[Skee]

That about says it....

O yeah, & This thread is worthless without LOTS & LOTS more pics.  

[RBEmerson]

  Prosit und schreib weiter!  

[kendenton]

  Prosit und schreib weiter! 

wie Sie es wünschen!

[kendenton]

6/13, Munich

(Motorcycling content tomorrow! I'm going to keep the narrative brief for the next few sections - I'll eventually post the longer versions on my website)

Not sure what happened to my 7am alarm, but I woke up at 11:30 instead. Barely enough time to shower and check out of the hotel. I had found a great deal on a hotel near the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), so I needed to move myself over there before exploring more of Munich.

My home for the next 3 nights (or so I thought), the 1st Hotel Creatif Elefant



Oh boy that's a tiny room. With no a/c.

Walked from the hotel down the main pedestrian strip (Neuhauser Strasse) to Marienplatz. Weather was perfect, I was well rested, it was shaping up to be a great day.



Inside the Frauenkirche, my first European cathedral. Yowza these things are big.



Pretty serious organ





The Antiquarium in the 500-year old Residenz, former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs (mostly the Wittelsbach family)



Cool perspective painting on the ceiling, only works if you stand in the exact center of the room



A recurring theme in Munich's buildings was "Here's what it looked like before 1945..."



Nice new brickwork, but not nearly as grand as it once was



The Emperor's Hall, at one time converted into private apartment for King Max I Joseph. Nice digs.



The baroque Ancestral Gallery



This view probably hasn't changed much in the last couple hundred years



Theatinerkirche near Odeansplatz



Statues outside Theatinerkirche



Inside Theatinerkirche



Delicious Augistiner Helles



I was disappointed to find that Munich isn't nearly the car mecca that Zurich is. After 2 days this was the first interesting car I found.



The first Ferrari of the trip



Hey, is that Sean Connery?



This guy was outside the Residenz, just about shouting about the history of the ruling family "if anyone knew the secrets of who killed so-and-so...". I first thought he was a nut like you'd find outside a momument in DC, but turns out he's a really enthusiastic leader of a Mike's Bikes Tour. I would have definitely enjoyed him as a tour guide.



His tour group. Next time around I think I'll give it a try.



Another shot of the Hofbrauhaus



Menu from Hard Rock Cafe opposite the Hofbrauhaus. 14.75 Euro was about $21.50 when I was there. That's a pricey burger.  I passed.

About 10pm I made my way back to my one-small-step-above-hostel hotel room where I fully expected I would collapse and get a good night's sleep. Unfortunately the lack of a/c and tiny confines of the room conspired against me. The only way to get any air in the room was to open the window, which didn't help much but did let all the noise from the busy street in. I watched some TV, read, listened to music, counted sheep, every trick I could think of, but no use. By 6am I gave up trying to get any sleep and got ready to go out for the day.

[veefer800canuck]

Earplugs. Don't leave home without them!

Good read, love the architecture! Wish I could go!

[kendenton]

Earplugs. Don't leave home without them!

Good read, love the architecture! Wish I could go!

Tried that, and while it blocked out the noise the heat (and jet lag) is what kept me awake.  Love them on the plane though.

[Ketch]

Great Pics and Narrative..Cant wait for the rest..

On Aug 18th I too fly to Munich to start a 10 day adventure riding the alps in Germany, Austria and Italy...Cant wait!    
I am flying Delta and using my skymiles to pay for the ticket.

[R Doug]

[CanadianBird]

Where are the roads

[nnjhawk02]

More please

Great stuff Ken

Prost