Sport-Touring.Net

Introduction

I think it's fair to say that from the moment I first turned a wheel onto Passo Sella in 2009 (https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,40861.0.html) 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 (http://www.moto-mader.ch/mader_content/home.php), 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 (http://motowelt.de/honda/startseite_honda.htm). 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.

 

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.





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.



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.



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.

 

 

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!

:popcorn:

 :popcorn:

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

:popcorn:

;-)

Great start, Ken.     :beerchug:

 :D

I'm in for the long haul...

:)

JJ

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

6/12, Arriving in Munich

(couple days until Motorcycling content)



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.



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.



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.





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 (http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2011-06-11%20Alps/06-13/Alps2011_2011-06-13_12-58-39.jpg) 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.



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.



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.



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.

:chili: :beerchug: :banana: :popcorn: :wings:

That about says it....

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

 :beerchug: Prosit und schreib weiter!  

wie Sie es wünschen!

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 (http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/))

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.



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.

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.

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!    :burnout:
I am flying Delta and using my skymiles to pay for the ticket.

:popcorn:

Where are the roads :headscratch:

More please

Great stuff Ken

Prost

Cant wait for the rest.  I've only been to Munic in the winter for skiing, nice to see it all sunny.

Excellent - subscribed.

Looking forward to the next parts as well.

great so far, cant wait for the rest :thumbsup:

06/14 - Part 1, BMW Welt and Museum

(I have no notes from the next 2 days, so going from memory here)

This turned out to be a very tough day, as I had gotten zero sleep the night before. Combine that with jet lag, and another sleepless night just 2 days ago, and I was lurching around like a zombie extra from "Shawn of the Dead" for portions of the day. There were lots of reasonably priced food vendors at the main train station, so I shuffled over there to get a croissant and a soda (Mezzo Mix (http://www.mezzomix.de/), a Coca-Cola/Fanta concoction that my son and I love from EPCOT's "sodas of the world" pavilion). To get to the BMW Museum I would have to take a combination of trains, the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. Fortunately the S-Bahn construction that derailed me on Sunday was all completed, so it was a painless 15 minutes or so of travel.



The BMW Welt combines a showroom, exhibition center, customer delivery center, restaurants and meeting facilities into one giant "BMW Experience" facility. I wasn't really too interested in the Welt, but it opened an hour before the museum so I had to kill some time there. I also walked over to get a view of the nearby Olympic stadium area, but there wasn't much to see from my side of the bridge.



There wasn't a factory tour available in English until later in the afternoon, so I had to make do with just touring the museum. Cost was 12 Euro and it was self-guided, go at your own pace. I spent about an hour going through it and felt it was pretty impressive. Focus was 80% autos, 20% motorcycles I'd guess.



To get back to the train station I crossed the bridge and went through the Welt again. A lot more people in it now, and I noticed there were a bunch of folks gathered together in the middle, and several employees standing by the stairs. Not sure what was going on, I decided to hang around for a little while. I was glad I did, as it turned out to be one of the highlights of the day. After just a few minutes a rider on a BMW G450x rode out into the middle of the floor and started riding around. Then he headed for the stairs.









 

Keep it coming - I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys did on Wed & Thurs  :lol:

06/14 - Part 2, Munich

(I have no notes from the next 2 days, so going from memory here)

By this time my lack of sleep was really putting a hurting on me. My brain was "foggy", I was feeling really cranky, I'm pretty sure I was muttering to myself, basically I was beginning to lose it. Things would get worse before they got better.

Took the U-Bahn/S-Bahn back to the Hauptbahnhof, and noticed that I was starving when I got off the train. I was in no mood to try some unknown food as my insides were quite "delicate" from the jet-lag and no sleep, so I broke down and got some chicken strips at Burger King. Unfortunately, they were completely nasty, didn't taste at all like I expected, and I could only get down 2 of them. This didn't help my mood any.

I had enjoyed The Residenz so much I decided to take a tram out to the Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace of the Bavarian ruling family. My all-day 9 euro train ticket was good on all trains, busses and trams in the central area of the city, so that was handy. The short (15 minute?) tram ride lets you off right on the edge of the grounds of the palace - unfortunately the palace is a good mile or so walk from that edge. Schloss Nymphenburg is very impressive from the outside as you approach, so my hopes were high for an equally impressive tour. I paid my 11.50 Euro for a combination ticket and headed into the palace. 10 minutes later I was back outside, having fully experienced all 8 rooms that were open for viewing. What a rip-off. I wandered the admittedly impressive grounds for a while, and toured the Museum of Carriages (the Marstallmuseum) which was surprisingly interesting.



Made the longs walk back to the tram station, got some ice cream and rode back to the main train station. The ice cream gave me a much-needed energy infusion, so I decided to keep on touring the city. I was very concerned with being able to sleep that night, so my plan was to basically exhaust myself to give my body no choice. I was also avoiding any caffeine or alcohol to make it even easier. I have to say it was hard to spend a day in Munich and not have any beer :-(

Next up was a trip out to the Theresienwiese, the fairgrounds used for Oktoberfest. Besides just wanting to see the area, I wanted to check out the Bavaria Statue, an 18.5 meter high and made of bronze. I took a longer-than-needed journey on the trains to get there after misreading the map, but eventually found my way there. Not sure what I was expecting, but the fairgrounds were basically just a huge empty swath of concrete. I could see the Bavaria statue in the distance, so I made my way across the deserted fairgrounds. The statue and surrounding hall of fame were pretty interesting, but I passed on the climb up the inside of the statue. I think the price was 5 euro, but I was feeling burned by the Nymphenburg experience and also wasn't sure I really had the energy to make the climb. Next time...



A long walk back to the Hauptbahnhof led me past the Hacker-Pschorr biergarten. I really wanted to sample their beer, but instead just sampled their men's room. When I got to the train station I was really starving and wanted to eat something substantial. I discovered, not surprisingly I suppose, that a little food would clear the fog and set me straight for an hour or two. I didn't want to attempt any more German versions of American fast food, and just the thought of my usual standby of pizza made my stomach flip, so I took a chance and ordered some grilled sausages from a take-away in the train station. Those of you who know me, or have at least read my trip reports, know that I'm unfortunately a picky eater. I wish I wasn't, but after 45 years it's a very hard habit to break. I'm fine with hot dogs, but I've never really had many sausages so I was pretty wary. Lucky for me the sausages were absolutely delicious! It was just a few euro for 4 links of Nuremberg Sausage on a nice crispy roll. Feeling refreshed, and having plenty of time before attempting to sleep, I took the train back to Marienplatz.



I wanted to increase my chances of a good night's sleep, so I visited a drugstore and asked about a sleep aid. The woman came back with 2 choices, one herbal, and one she said "this one, how do you say, make habit?". I chose the herbal, not wanting to come back from a European vacation an accidental junkie. I couldn't put it off any longer, so I went back to my tiny hotel room around 9pm.

Tomorrow 2 of the other guys on this trip would be arriving, and the next day we were due to pick up the bikes and start riding. I was very concerned that my lack of sleep was going to screw up tomorrow's group day, and even more concerned that if this continued there would be no way I'd be riding a motorcycle over mountain passes. All this weighed on my mind as I lay in the even-hotter-tonight room and tried to sleep. And tried. And tried.

By midnight, after 3 hours of tossing and turning, I was pretty close to a full-blown panic attack. Sleep was nowhere to be found, the room was closing in on me, and I felt like I was really beginning to lose control. Lack of sleep can do some strange things to you. I called my wife who basically "talked me down", and she encouraged me to get out of there and go get a different hotel room. Happy to have a plan, I quickly went on the web and found a room at the Holiday Inn I stayed at earlier, packed up and dropped my key off at the front desk. I think I told him I was leaving for good, I can't really be sure. I wasn't thrilled about the 2 pre-paid nights I was losing, but money can be replaced.  Spent about $30 on a taxi from the train station to the Holiday Inn, and mentioned repeatedly at the check-in counter that I needed a room with a working air conditioner. I'm pretty sure they thought I was a bit crazy, and truth be told I probably was.

By 1am I had the new room down to a pretty cold temperature, and was delighted to be able to pull a blanket over me. I set my alarm and requested a wake-up call, as well as texting one of the guys arriving tomorrow advising him of my whereabouts in case slept through all the alarms.

06/15, Dave and Peter Arrive

(I have no notes from today, so going from memory here)

(Tomorrow there will be some actual motorcycle riding!)

Sleep! Glorious sleep. I've had better nights, I kept waking up every hour or so, but I did actually manage to sleep. I can't tell you how good it felt to be out from under that pressure. I will never again take sleep for granted.

Unfortunately the Holiday Inn didn't have any rooms available that night, so I had to find another hotel room for my last night in Munich. Dave and Peter were booked at the NH Muenchen Deutscher Kaiser, right around the corner from my old sweat-box, so it made sense to move myself over there. Made a reservation online (at nearly 3x what the sweat-box cost) and took the short train ride over there. Once again I impressed upon the front desk my need for a room with working a/c, and was given a room on the 6th floor. I declined the offer "maybe you would like internet in your room?" for 25 euros and went upstairs. I had a minor moment when I couldn't get the a/c to blow cold air, and after a quick trip back downstairs I learned you have to set the dial on the sun, not on the snowflake, to get cold air. The sun, because it's sunny outside, so you might want cold air. Um, OK.



Dave and Peter showed up in the lobby right on time. They both had had some concerns regarding their flights; Dave was flying Air Transat that only flew to Munich once per week and had limited options if there was a problem, and Peter was flying Air Canada whose customer service employees had just gone on strike. Fortunately there were no problems and Peter even managed to get an hour's sleep on the flight. The guys got checked in, cleaned up, and we set out for downtown.

I took them around to all the best sights I'd seen while I was here, and we had a good lunch at a cafe right in Marienplatz. Having had such success with my sausage experiment the day before, I ordered another variety this time, mit brezel. It was great to see friends again, and share laughs over a beer. I felt like the trip was really getting started now.



After taking in all the regular places, including another tour of The Residenz, we took the U-Bahn up to the Englischer Garden. This was on my to-do list for Munich, but didn't get a chance to visit yet. It's one of the largest urban public parks in the world, and features a fantastic (and huge at 7,000 seats) biergarten located at the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower). This turned out to be a completely delightful place to hang out and have a beer, with lots of shaded benches and a variety of food options.



After a while we walked south through the park towards the city in search of the surfers. Yes, surfers. Even though Munich does not boast any oceanfront, or big sandy beaches, it has a thriving surfer community. We basically followed the river and the sound of the surf and were soon rewarded to an almost surreal scene, folks in wetsuits surfing in the middle of the city just a few feet away from a busy street.



By the time we had finished our dinner and beers at the Hofbrauhaus it was around 9pm, and the guys couldn't keep their eyes open. Back to the hotel, and requested an early wake-up call to start the big day tomorrow. My room was about 17 degree celsius, and sleep came mercifully quickly.

Hahahahaha!  :lol: Great pictures, and Airplane quotes, gonna be an epic RR

I added a couple surfing videos to the last posting

06/16 - Part 1, Landshut to Bad Reichenhall

Fortunately I had a second night of pretty good sleep, pretty impressive since I was very excited about picking up the bikes and beginning the motorcycling part of this vacation. The three of us met down at the lobby of the hotel, grabbed a quick breakfast to go in the train station, and boarded the train for the 40 minute ride to Landshut. The dealership was only a few blocks from the station in Landshut, but dragging our luggage through the town made it seem much farther. The dealership was kind of in a back alley, making it a little tricky to find, but once we walked into the courtyard we were delighted to see our bikes lined up and ready to go.





One of the reasons for going with Moto Maier was the large variety of rental bikes available. I had gone the BMW route last time with a too-big-for-the-Alps R1200RT, so I was eager to try something different. My main criteria, other than the bike being "right-sized" for the twisty mountain roads, was that it be a bike that is not available in the US. Between dealer demos and events like Americade I've demo'd almost every bike that interests me, so this was an opportunity to sample some forbidden fruit.

I wound up choosing a Yamaha TDM900. I liked the idea of a twin with upright ergos (similar to my Multistrada), and the TDM fit the bill nicely. Dave normally rides a BMW R1150RT and was also eager to try something smaller, but even more interested in trying something with more power. The new Honda CBF1000F was his first choice. Peter's daily ride is a BMW K1200GT, which is pretty similar to the Yamaha FJR1300 he chose to rent. I think one of his concerns was knowing what the hard bags would hold - all of the rental bikes had triple hard cases, but only the Yamaha's were factory and thus a known quantity. Frank's Honda Varadero was also waiting outside, though he wasn't due to pick it up until tomorrow.

One of the things we went back and forth with pre-trip was figuring out GPS options and heated gear hook-ups. Herman had Zumo 660 units for rent at 60 euro for the week, but then how would I get all the routes and waypoints on it? If I bring my Streetpilot 2720 how woud I get it mounted and powered? Should we ask Herman to wire the bikes for the heated gear or do it ourselves? This was an easy choice for me, as I didn't want to rely on someone saying that would do it. I get burned by that on an Eagle Rider Harley rental once and it soured me on "oh yes, we can do that for you". My concern about my Garmin 2720 was magnified by the fact that it required power to run as there is no battery. If I couldn't get it wired up for some reason I'd be in trouble.

Another option presented itself when Jim offered to lend me his Zumo 550 for the trip. Since it can run on batteries (for a short time) that was a better option so I took him up on it. I upgraded it with the latest 2011 Europe maps, transferred all my routes and waypoints to it, and packed it (and the mounting kit) in my suitcase. While getting the TDM900 packed up, I was delighted to see that Jim's Zumo 550 snapped right into the 660 mount on the bike. Powered right up and was ready to go - woohoo! I threw my Gerbings battery lead in the sidecase to be installed later - didn't really want to start pulling the rental bike apart at the dealership.

I had packed a little lighter for this trip than the last one, and still found myself with tons of space in the hard luggage. I could have done it without the top case if needed, though I prefer using one.

For the 2009 trip Jim and I brought all our gear over - boots, pants, jacket, helmet, gloves, taking up most of a pretty big suitcase. For this trip we chose to rent our gear from Herman (except Frank that is, he is wisely dubious as to the availability of gear his size). The cost was 50 euro for the whole outfit which seemed like a reasonable price to not have to lug my own gear over there. Dave and Peter benefitted even more from this as they would be continuing their vacation after returning the bikes and would need to haul their gear to Rome and Paris.

Herman took us to the stockroom in the back of the dealership and went about getting gear that fit us. Jackets and pants were pretty easy, Dave got a nice Dainese textile jacket and Peter and I got Held textiles, but boots and helmets were a little trickier to find good-fitting items. After a few helmets that didn't work, Herman cracked open some boxes of brand-new Caberg flip-ups in our sizes (we had requested modulars) and we were set. I also got a brand-new pair of boots (which took a couple days to break in to be honest). Overall we were very impressed with Herman's operation.

Bikes loaded, gear on, bluetooth communicators linked, GPS programmed, paperwork signed, we were finally ready to roll. Herman snapped some shots of us, some with our camera, some with his, gave us cards with his private number, and we pulled out of the lot...and promptly got lost. Just a little bit lost, but still not an auspicious beginning. Within 2 blocks of the dealership the Zumo had us turning onto a bicycle path. Hmm, that won't do. Turned around and took another crack at it. Eventually we found our way out of the bustling town of Landshut and onto the open road.



Our goal for the day was pretty straightforward - take a mostly direct route from Landshut to the hotel in Bad Reichenhall about 90 miles away. The short ride should give us time to get a feel for the bikes, and when we got to the hotel we could make any adjustments/installations and maybe go for a loop in the surounding area.

I took an immediate liking to the TDM. Very comfortable riding position, more power than my Multi 620, and a nice engine sound to boot. We stuck to route 299, which would take us about 2/3 the way to the hotel, and after an hour or so stopped for lunch. There were only a few tables on the patio outside the restaurant, and we had to wait a bit to get one out of the sun. We placed an order as best we could to a waitress that only spoke German (more sausages for me, please), and started enjoying that "hey, I'm motorcycling in Europe!' feeling. It was only after lunch that we got into trouble. It was such a nice day, and we were all feeling good with the bikes, that a plan was hatched to take a more backroad way to the hotel. Problem was I had only programmed the direct route, and like an idiot did not have a paper map of the area. You should see what I brought for the other sections of the trip - laminated, annotated maps and route sheets, a Michelin map of Italy, the works. But of course nothing for Germany.



Needless to say, our plan of "we'll just head in the general direction" didn't go well for long. We couldn't really find any interesting roads, and the estimated arrival time on the GPS just kept getting later and later. We decided to ditch our meandering plan and set a direct course for Bad Reichenhall. Unfortunately that didn't work out too well either. We ran into some construction that had the road the GPS insisting we take closed off. It's interesting the way the Germans mark that sort of thing - you come to a roundabout, and there will be the normal sign for what towns are down the next road, but one of them will be crossed off. We didn't decode that until going 4 or 5 miles down the road (man, we have this place to ourselves) and coming to the bridge that was out. No choice but to double back and try some other road. It was during this back-and-forth and rerouting that my frustration with the Zumo began. I don't know if it's just the way the Zumo works, or maybe it was the mapset, but the unit took forever to notice it was off-route and decide to recalculate. Recalculation was very speedy, but the delay before it got around to doing it was doing us in. Combine that with it's tendancy to announce turns at the very last minute, and it became very irritating. You'd ride along, it would change from "turn in 0.5km" to "make right now!", you'd miss the turn, and for the next 30 seconds (maybe more) you'd roll along waiting for it to notice you didn't make the turn. By which time you've passed the other 2 streets that could have gotten you back on track.

Eventually the Zumo's routing left us no choices other than "Take A94 East". A94, of course, meant the Autobahn. I hadn't really considered taking the Autobahn at this point on the trip, having only been riding a new bike in a new country for a couple hours. We stopped for a little roadside chat and I advised Dave and Peter about Autobahn ettiquite.

• Don't tailgate
• Stay in the right unless making a pass
• When checking your mirrors before moving into the left lane for a pass, look as far back as Berlin. If you see a car, don't move

   
With a combination of trepidation and excitement all of us merged onto the Autobahn for the first time and immediately saw the fabled sign on the right shoulder - the white circle with diagonal slashes, aka "No Speed Limit". Traffic was thankfully very light, and we mostly cruised about 80-90 in the right lane except to make a short pass of slower vehicles. Our Autobahn segment was short, maybe 5 or 8 miles, so we were just getting acclimated to it when it was time to exit. Just as I was thinking "OK, that was nothing too special" two Audis flew by us in the left lane, doing I would say at least 140mph. We were doing 60 or 70, getting ready to exit, and they passed us literally like we were standing still. Fun.



It wasn't too long before we got to another crossed-off town, another road closure, and this time the Zumo redeemed itself. A mile or so after detouring down a side road, it suggested we make a right onto this small road that led into the woods. OK, why not? As the road got smaller and smaller, my smile got bigger and bigger. By the time we were in the thick of the forest the road was no wider than one small car. What a hoot! I wish I had stopped to get a picture, but I was too "in the moment". The forest segment was (too) short, and opened up into some farm area before depositing us just on the other side of the road construction. Nice!

We had a short water break, as it was getting pretty hot. Peter's Caberg helmet was bothering him, so I swapped him my Shoei to see if it would help. We both liked our new helmets so much we kept them for the rest of the trip.

06/16 - Part 2, Bad Reichenhall

(I apologize for the lack of "bikes on road" pictures so far.  I assure you that will improve soon  :thumbsup:)

The Hotel Almrousch (http://www.almrausch-bgl.de/) in Bad Reichenhall was a great choice. It was located on a quiet side street (though you could hardly call Bad Reichenall a bustling metroplis), had some room for bike parking directly in front of the door, and had spacious rooms with balconies overlooking the mountains. Check-in was good for a few laughs, as the woman at the counter did her best to inject some English words into her conversation with us. At one point she tried enlisting Peter's help in translating her German to us - funny, since she had no reason to think he spoke German (which he doesn't). Passports were handed over, documents signed, and we were given keys to our rooms - keys on very heavy red tassle keychains. Obviously they did not expect you to take your keys with you when you left the hotel.



After getting settled in our plans for an evening ride were scuttled when a storm system moved in. We didn't know how long it was going to last, so decided instead to check out the town and get some dinner. None of us had packed normal raincoats, so we used what he had on hand. My fashionably black Tour Master rain jacket wasn't too conspicuous (which I suppose makes it a crappy bike rain jacket), but Peter's hi-viz Froggs Toggs certainly get some looks in town. The pedestrian zone was pretty empty as we walked into town. Once the rain started again we took refuge in a small Italian restaurant at the edge of the main piazza (or platz, I suppose, since we're still in Germany, but piazza sounds so much nicer). After dinner we continued walking down to St. Zeno Church, which dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. We also passed some sections of remaining wall that dates back to the same timeframe, as Bad Reichenhall was once a walled city.

Dinners were delicious all around, and we topped it off with some great gelato from the window outside the restaurant. Tomorrow would be our first full day of riding and the last of the four musketeers would be joining us later in the day. We got back to the hotel just as the rain started up again, and this time it came down with a vengeance. The driving rain was accompanied by strong winds, so much so that a large sign was ripped off the side of the hotel. Hopefully tomorrow would bring better weather.

06/17 - Part 1, Berchtesgaden and the Eagle's Nest

The only "tourist attraction" I wanted to visit during our riding days was The Eagle's Nest in nearby Berchtesgaden, and we planned that for today. We spent some of the morning wiring the bikes for heated gear, and had a nice buffet breakfast in the hotel (included in the room cost). The weather was looking so-so when we headed out.



There weren't a lot of road choices to get there, so we stuck with the direct route on 20 which actually turned out to be pretty nice. Most of it was just pleasant country road, but there was one section close to Hallthurm that provided the first serious curves of the trip. We had a little navigational trouble at the rounabout in Berchtesgaden (c'mon Zumo, recalculate!) but the town wasn't so big you could get lost in it. The Zumo also started showing screens for "Device not supported" and "USB Cable connected to wrong port" which didn't help with my navigation efforts. We hadn't decided whether to go with a guided tour or just wing it ourselves, so we walked on over to the tourist information building to get some more info. The extremely distracting young lady I spoke to (in a very low-cut dirndl) swayed us to not bother with the 60 euro per person guided tour and just ride there ourselves. She did give us a good road map of the area, and pointed out that the direct road to the Eagle's Nest was closed and we would have to take the longer detour over curvier roads. Oh darn :-)

A brief background on the Eagle's Nest, or Kehlsteinhaus, is probably in order. This small chalet-style building was built in 13 months using slave labor on a subpeak of the Hoher Goll known as the Kehlstein, and was intended as a 50th birthday present to Adolf Hitler. The Nazis used the area around Berchtesgaden and Obersalzburg as a sort of retreat, with many high-ranking officials having summer houses there. If you've ever watched a program about WWII, you've seen footage of Hitler at the Berghof, his summer home overlooking the mountains. Not surprisingly this area became a target for allied bombing toward the end of the war. Whatever buildings used by the Third Reich that weren't bombed were destroyed when the Allies occupied the area and over the following several years - nobody wanted the structures to become neo-Nazi shrines or tourist attractions. About the only remaining building is the Eagle's Nest, which was spared destruction at the local government's insistence. Interestingly, Hitler only visited the Eagle's Nest about 5 times.

I wanted to visit the Eagle's Nest because it would be my first big WWII historical site. I'm in no way a fan of Hitler and the Nazis, but the importance of the history and what happened in the region is undeniable.



The detour road up to the Eagle's Nest were for the most part a lot of fun, even if they were a little wet. To get to the Eagle's Nest you have to park at a tour center, then buy a ticket for the bus that will take you to the top of the private road. We paid for parking, and then in searching for a bathroom came went downhill and discovered the museum. Paying for our tickets, we were advised that there were no English signs in the museum, but we could pay more for a headset that would provide some narration. We passed on those, thinking we wouldn't be in the small museum for long. In hindsight, at least one of us should have sprung for the headset as the museum, while small, was packed with interesting displays that none of us could really decipher. It didn't take long for the cumulative effect of hundreds of Nazi exhibits to take hold and after 30 minutes or so I just wanted to sit down and look out a window at the mountains. Monumentally depressing. Before leaving the museum we toured the remains of some underground bunkers, and that was fascinating as well as being chilling.



We left the museum and got our bus tickets, which all have assigned times. After a quick snack our bus was ready to leave. The 20 minute bus ride up the mountain is on a curvy private road, which on a clear day boasts some magnificent vistas. On this day, however, once we got above a certain elevation all we were greeted with was white clouds/mist. You could just about see the edge of the roadway and then...nothing. Certainly not an ideal day to visit a mountain-top retreat for the sweeping views, but sometimes you just have to deal with what you have.

When you exit the bus at the end of the road, the journey is still not over. First order of business is choosing your departure time for the bus ride back down the mountain. They advised 2 hours for a good visit, but based on the visibility we figured an hour or so would be more than enough time. A pair of enormous doors open into 400-foot long tunnel, at the end of which is a brass elevator that takes you 407 feet up into the Eagle's Nest itself. If we thought the view on the bus ride was obscured, that was nothing compared to the visibility outside the Eagle's Nest. We did a short walk higher up the mountain, where we could literally hardly see our feet in front of us. We wandered around a bit, both inside and out, before grabbing a table in the circular great hall for some snacks.

06/17 - Part 2, Frank Arrives and the Burgerbrau

The weather had improved dramatically, but our run back down was hampered by a Porsche Panamera who insisted on braking for every turn or bend in the road. No way did this driver deserve a Porsche (even an ugly bloated 4-door one). We still had a few hours to kill before meeting up with Frank back at the hotel, so we layed out a quick run around nearby roads. Our first gas stop of the trip was painless, though a little irregular in that you pumped first and went inside to pay. In the US that would never work.

We had a great run on 305, which started out as a fast country road with great views. After a few miles of scenery-watching cruising, the road tries to kill you with a 10-mph uphill hairpin that is not particularly well marked. Beginning at that hairpin the road completely changes character, with lots of hairpins and tight turns to enjoy. We passed the scene of a bike accident that tempered our enthusiasm a bit. There were a few emergency vehicles and personnel on the road, and a KTM RC8 in a ditch on the roadside that actually didn't look too bad. Just past that, however, was what I can only describe as "some kind of Kawasaki" that was completely destroyed. I hope it turned out OK for the rider, but from the looks of the bike I doubt it did.

We turned south near the town of Schneizlreuth, and passed into Austria for the first time (Welcome to Osterreich). We rode through some tunnels and the road got less and less interesting and more and more busy. I had intended to break off this road onto L251around Unken, but never saw an opportunity to turn. When we got near Lofer we stopped to discuss our options. We could either backtrack to Schneizlreuth and take 21 to Bad Reichenhall, or try to make a big loop to the west around St. Johann in Tirol. As tempting as the long route was, we figured it would be good to get back to the hotel and meet up with Frank, and perhaps do more riding as a quartet.

Heading back to the 305 intersection we passed the "Welcome to Germania" sign, and had a good run on 21, although with heavier traffic than ideal. Highlight of the return trip was a BMW 6-series passing us in the twisties. We were down a reasonably brisk 90kmh in a 60kmh zone, but this guy obviously had someplace to be, blind curves be damned.



Frank was a welcome sight as we rode down the street towards the hotel, shooting pictures of us as we arrived. We chatted for just a little while about his trip down, and asked whether he wanted to go ride or call it a day. Frank was having none of that, and voted that we get out and ride - impressive given that he had just arrived in Germany having flown overnight and picked up the bike straight from the airport. I put together a quick loop that would take us through Berchtesgaden again, and, for the first time, the four us rode out together.

I'm pretty sure we took 21 back down to 305, although it could have been the smaller 2021. We had a great-paced run on 305 accompanied by perfect late afternoon light. The four of us were doing well as a riding group, which wasn't too surprising as we've all ridden with each other at one time or another over the years. Konigsee (Lake Konig) was just past Berchtesgaden, so I steered up toward that thinking it would be a pretty vista for a quick stop. Turns out it's a big tourist destination, and we had to pay to park in a giant lot (missed the cheaper bike parking ticket machine though). The area was filled with kitschy shops selling postcards, lederhosen, etc, and the shops all led down the hill to the boat dock and the only tiny piece of the lake you could see without taking a boat ride, all of which were done for the day. We took some pictures, decided not to have dinner at what would certainly be an overpriced and underwhelming tourist trap cafe, and made a beeline back to Bad Reichenhall.





20 on the return trip was fun again. There was a quick "moment" when some camper van pulled out of a parking lot right in front of me, but I was able to zip around him in the oncoming lane. I was riding point at this time, so I was continually checking my mirrors to keep track of the guys. When we got to the really twisty part of 20 I watched Peter on the FJR have a "moment" as well. Turns out the FJR can't manage quite the lean angle his KGT can, and he started scraping big time on one of the hairpins. I had just checked my mirrors and saw him drifting wider and wider before reeling it back in. Thankfully there was no opposing traffic.

Got changed back at the hotel, and made our way on foot through the town to the Burgerbrau. We had initially tried to book rooms here early on, but rooms sold out while we were discussing it. There was an all-you-can-eat BBQ going on outside, but there were no available tables. We reluctantly found a table in the deserted inside dining room, but our hangdog faces must have made an impression on the guy seating us - a few minutes later he came to our table and motioned us to follow him outside. "Macht schnell!" he kept saying as we practically jogged along with him outside. He pointed us to a newly-empty table and we gratefully plopped ourselves down. The smell of the BBQ was tantalizing, and the atmosphere was enhanced by the small band playing outside. This was a night where it all came together - perfect weather, great food, good music, and most of all good company. We wasted no time filling (and refilling) our plates wth freshly-grilled pork, chicken, sausages, meatballs and various side dishes. While I am normally reluctant to try new foods, the combination of good beer and the grill had me grabbing a bit of everything.



Tomorrow would be our first full day of touring with the whole group, and we had a full day planned with a route hitting all the supposedly good roads in the area. Hermann's book was a little help, but most of the suggestions came from enthusiast websites.

Sorry to say it's going to be a few days before the next update as I will be away for the weekend.  I promise the next installments will have plenty of photos of that "bike-on-road action" you're all waiting for   :D

Thanks for reading along so far.

Great job so far Mr. Denton!   I am REALLY enjoying it! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Ken This is a great thread so far, continue as you may and thanks for sharing . PS Happy Birthday!!!

 :beerchug: :banana: :chili:

Thanks!

I travel to Germany quite a bit on business and your comments are right on. I'm loving your RR so far.

BTW - you never commented on them, but did you find the towels in the hotels like cardboard?  I stepped out of the shower one AM with water in my eyes, grabbed a towel off the rack and scrapped the skin off my face.

Keep it coming. :thumbsup:

Tanti auguri Buon Compleanno and many happy more

Nein, nein, nein!  Sagt man ,,Herzliches Glückwünsch zum Geburtstag''!   :D

Aber am nächsten Tag fuhren wir nach Sud Tyrol und dann Italien.    :cool:

Happy (belated) Birthday!

Love the report, Ken!

(http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2011-06-11%20alps/06-13/Alps2011_2011-06-13_18-55-43.jpg)

That's not Sean Connery, it's Jim, the Explorer. He gets around you know.  :lol:

Fantastic stuff!  :thumbsup:

:popcorn:

I'm back in town, updates coming tomorrow  :thumbsup:

:popcorn:

[jealous]


Beautiful ride Ken. Thanks for taking the time to share. Can't wait for the rest of the report!  :bigok:

It's nice to live in a place where other people vacation  :D

BTW for you history buffs, here in front of the Feldherrnhalle in 1923 is where Hitler's attempted Beer Hall Putsch came to head and police and nazis exchanged fire. About 16 Hitler supporters were killed and Hitler fled injured, although he was captured several days later.

Interesting - thanks, Ralf. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch


:popcorn:

So let me see if I got this straight.

Hitler fled like a coward, got put on trial for treason, and became a national hero as a result of all the free publicity.

That's politics for ya.  Interesting, and we were drinking beers right across the street from where that happened.



Dear Mods, please don't move this thread to Politics Only.  No more outbursts, I promise.

06/18, Austria Loop

I had laid out a route of a little over 200 miles for the day that included some roads that were specifically mentioned in Hermann's book and some that just looked good on Google maps. I was also using this great set of maps (http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/alps2011/mr01rue-complete.pdf) as a source of good road choices. Since we managed to hit some good roads yesterday I was hopeful that today would uncover some gems. The weather wasn't looking great, but you have to take what you get sometimes. We all decided to taunt the weather gods and not don our rain gear.



After getting gas just south of town our first new road of the day was 305 going west from Schneizlruth. What the road lacked in twists and turns it made up for in scenery. When it wasn't passing through quaint little towns it offered sweeping views of the countryside. It would qualify as a decent connector road to get to something interesting, but I was hoping for more. At Reit im Winkl we turned south on 176 towards St. Johann in Tirol, which turned out to be quite a busy and, quite frankly, ugly town. Truck traffic had increased substantially in this area, and my love for Austria was waning.

I had planned a 50km loop from St. Johann in Tirol west to Worgl, then east to Kitzbuhel and back up to SJiT, but just a few miles in decided to scrap that whole section. While 178 may look good on a map, it was just a busy commercial road that we shouldn't be wasting our time on. I don't know what 170 would have been like, but I'm guessing more of the same. We backtracked through SJiT and picked up 164 to Saalfelden which took us over Griessenpass. Or at least that's what the map said, the pass was certainly not memorable in any way.

We stopped for a quick break (eat, drink, bathroom, warmer gear) near Saalfelden, and then had to stop a few miles later to put on rain gear as the gloomy day with on and off fizzing finally turned to proper rain. We continued on 164 over the Dientner Sattel, which at 1357 meters was our first real fun road of the day - which unfortunately wasn't saying much. Our enjoyment was kept in check by the steady rain and the car traffic. By this time we'd been on the road for nearly 4 hours and really hadn't come across really fun roads.

We split off 164 onto 166 on the other side of Huttau, and at least shed some of the traffic. There were a couple roads in this area that I had high hopes for - one was Pass Gschutt, which sported a 17% incline, and the other was a road through Postalm. The Postalm was a toll road, and highlighted in Hermann's book.

Pass Gschutt didn't take us where we needed to go so we just did a run over it to Gosau and headed back. The very beginning of the road was quite fun with several hairpins, steep hills and some tight turns, but it quickly petered out into another "just kinda curvy" road. In the town of Gosau there was some kind of big community event going on, with many folks in traditional dress and people setting off fireworks. I'm thinking it was a wedding, but I'm not ruling out a funeral either. Whatever it was, it slowed down our return to the pass while all the partygoers drove from the fireworks site to a reception hall. We did a photo stop at the start of the good section of the pass, and several of the guys made runs up and back for the camera. Unfortunately the gloomy weather did not conspire to make for interesting photos.



We made it back to 162 and turned north to get to the Postalm road. We had some confusion finding the start of it, with the Zumo saying one thing and the road signs saying another. We stuck to the road signs and found ourselves heading higher and higher as the road got narrower and narrower. Within a couple kilometers we were on a glorified goat path with no other traffic in sight. We left behind a couple isolated farmhouses at the start of the road and then were "in the wild". Even with the subpar weather and its attendant visibility issues there were some terrific views deep into the valley below.



After another few kilometers we came to a toll booth, and had to pay 4 euro each to continue. Given how "blah" the roads had been so far I was happy to fork over some cash for what promised to be a good road. Took the four of us a while to deal with cash, gloves, toll gate, etc. Once we were all on the other side of the gate, I started a routine that would serve us well for the rest of the trip: I told everyone to go "ride their own ride" and "wait for everyone at the top". I was glad we could stay together on the transit sections, but I wanted everyone to do the fun roads at their own pace.



The Postalm was certainly the highlight of the day, and I bet it would be even better on a dry day. We pretty much had the road to ourselves which was an added bonus. A shorter ride than I had hoped led us to the broad open summit where we all met up again. Fortunately the road had much to offer past this point, and it began twisting and turning it's way down the eastern side.



It was at the photo stop above where we ran into a problem. When I packed up the camera and rode up to Dave, he motioned for me to stop. Turns out when he stopped to take in the view he noticed a great deal of steam/smoke coming from his bike, and a pool of liquid forming beneath it. Unfortunately none of us are really mechanically inclined, so we set our heads to scratching.



Was it the radiator? Didn't look or smell like coolant, but what if the bike shop used water instead of coolant? Brake fluid? Some sort of overflow reservoir? We poked around a bit, and it didn't look like anything was actively leaking when the bike was started. I slotted in behind Dave and we rode for a short while to see what would happen. Not much, it turned out, until we stopped again. Dave stopped the bike, got off, and billows of steam starting coming from the radiator area. The bike wasn't riding strangely, there was no temperature gauge to check, the coolant level wasn't dropping so far as we could tell, and we were really not in a good place to do anything to the bike. We decided to ride the few kilometers to the Agip station the Zumo promised us was ahead.

The rain started coming down in buckets as we neared the gas station, and it was a relief to be under a roof for a bit while we figured out what was going on. With the aid of a very helpful local who lent us his phone (because none of us could figure out how to correctly dial a German number, the + sign was the culprit) we gave the dealer a call, and the best Herman could do was send a truck around on Monday. This being Saturday, that did not fill us with happiness. Worse yet, tomorrow was to be the ride over Grosglockner into Italy, and a bike with issues on a Sunday could be big trouble.

To make a long story short, it was rain water. Like I said, none of us are mechanics. When Dave rode the bike, splashed up rain water would collect on some fairing inner or some other hideyhole, and when he put the bike on the sidestand it would dump out over the radiator producing copious amounts of steam. Buncha geniuses we are.



Once we had that sorted, we just needed to get back to the hotel. My route had included some more exploring east of Salzburg, but the rain hadn't relented and we were mentally beat from mucking with the bike and playing out various "what if" scenarios. A more or less direct course to Bad Reichenhall was plotted (avoiding the Autobahn though) and we pulled out into the deluge. We had some more GPS-induced problems on the way back, culminating in ending up in a back alley of a back alley in Bad Reichenhall. While Frank punched more buttons to find the correct route out, I took off up a tiny leaf-strewn path that looked promising. Fortunately it did end up at the main road so I didn't need to try to turn around or head back down the slippery path.

We parked the bikes, got changed, and headed into town for dinner. Some of us managed to score umbrellas from the hotel, others just used their raingear to stay dry. We ended up at the closest restaurant to the hotel, La Dolce Vita. While it had been a mostly disappointing day for me, with the exception of the Postalm road, this dinner helped end the day on a high note. Meals were excellent all around, beers were large and cold, and desserts were fantastic.

Next up is Grosglockner, the Dolomites, and sunshine  :)

I think i was lucky to still be breathin'.  As I recall, the mirror on that thing missed my head by inches, or at least it looked that way from inside my helmet.  I was facing downhill and didn't see him coming.  Can only imagine how it would have turned out if I had decided to move before looking.  This was my first encounter with a alpine tour bus and I re-learned an important lesson.  Anything with more wheels than you always has the right of way!

PS  Your crappy photos look pretty damn good to me.  Keep on clickin'

06/19 - Part 1, Up the Grosglockner

I can't tell you how jazzed I was about today - after 2 long years I would once again be riding in the Dolomites, a place I consider heaven on earth for motorcyclists. We'd be staying for the next several days at the Hotel Mesdi, one of the high points of the last trip. Adding to my excitement was the prospect of introducing 3 friends to this area and acting as tour guide. To top it all off, we'd be leaving Austria by the best way possible, riding over the Grosglockner.

Once again the weather looked uncooperative in the morning, so we had a quick discussion about changing our plans. Perhaps we shouldn't bother with the Grosglockner in the rain and fog? That alternative was quickly dismissed and we donned our rain gear after a hearty breakfast and headed south.


Frank had plotted today's course so he took point as we rode down 311 past Saalfelden and Zell am See to the town of Bruck where we gassed up. I made one quick photo stop to get a shot of the Austria sign but couldn't swing getting the Germany sign on the other side of the road. Most of the ride was pretty uneventful, but pleasant enough. That may be how I would sum up riding in Austria on this trip - "pleasant enough". There had been a few really fun stretches of pavement, but there was also an awful lot of dull connectors to get to them. Don't get me wrong, riding in Austria kicks ass compared to riding near my home in southern New Jersey, but knowing some of the other areas we could have been in it didn't impress. As I described earlier, I had basically swapped out riding the passes near Andermatt, Switzerland for riding this area of Austria, and in hindsight I'm not sure I made the right choice. It was good to see a new area, but nothing we rode in Austria comes anywhere near the phenomenal confluence of Furka, Grimsel, Nufen and St. Gotthard passes from the 2009 trip. I would have hated to miss Munich though, that's a town I really fell in love with.



It took us just over 2 hours to reach the toll plaza for Grosglockner. The tarrif was pretty stiff at 19 euro (about $26.50 US at the time), but the reputation of the road seemed to warrant it for us. For your duckets you got a brochure, a sticker, a receipt, and most importantly, a "magic coin" to open the tollgate. Temperatures were dropping and rain was falling so I had my heated gear connected and cranked up. I took up post at the toll machine to help get everyone through (no sense eeryone fumbling with coins and gloves) and get some photos, and in a few minutes we were ascending the famed Grosglockner High Alpine Road.

Not that we could immediately tell what the big fuss was all about. As we started bending through the initial hairpins the fog got thicker and thicker until you could just barely see the road in front of you. We had again started the "meet at the top" riding model, but nobody was attacking the road so we were in loose formation for most of the beginning. After a photo stop at an all-too-brief clearing in the fog (where a group of dozens of classic Alfa Romeos were heading the opposite way from us) we continued the ride up into the white mist. By this time the rain had started mixing with something more solid, and the fog had gotten even denser. I know I was happy to have another bike in front of me so I could see his taillight. There were some sections in the beginning where I don't think we did much more than 15 or 20mph for miles at a time. I can honestly say the ride up Grosglockner was enjoyable only looking back on it (what's the saying? Adventure is adversity recounted at leisure). At the time it was a pretty miserable slog up a cold, wet road with zero visibility. I had to laugh as it got colder, wetter and foggier, but after a bit I just wanted to be done with it.



Surprisingly it got a little better as we neared the top. The fog was going in and out (and the in sections were just as bad as earlier), but the rain/snow/whatever had stopped. One of the features of the Grosglockner that we were looking forward to (or dreading, depending on who you were) was the ride up the cobblestone switchbacks to the Edelweisspitze, the highest point on the "High Alpine Road". Our hopes were quickly dashed (or fears averted) when we got to the entrance and saw the snowplows still clearing the road. Even if they weren't clearing the road, the wet/icy conditions on the cobblestones would be a recipe for disaster for sure. We warmed ourselves at the rifugio/gift shop, had some ice cream, warmed ourselves again, and took in the views during the brief breaks in the clouds.

I apologize for the time between updates  :o

Panorama of the "other side" of Grosglockner

(http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2011-06-11%20Alps/06-19/grosglockner_600.jpg)

Damn...y'all were living the dream: AWESOME! :clap:

06/19 - Part 2, Down the Grosglockner

It was only after we passed through the tunnel that the weather started to improve. Seamingly with every additional mile the clouds got thinner, the air warmer, and it wasn't too long before a patch of blue sky miraculously appeared. Maybe we could salvage this day yet! Sure enough, 15 minutes later we were carving up hairpins on a beautiful summer day (albeit a chilly one) under a blue sky with puffy blue clouds. Suddenly all was right with the world and a new item was added to the "Top 10 Moments of the Trip" list. The Grosglockner instantly became one of our favorite roads. Vastly different than everything we had ridden on this trip so far, it was all suddenly perfect pavement, big mountain views, and fellow bikers sharing the moment.

The run down that side of the pass was over much too quickly. Actually, I thought it kept on going. I had left the guys behind to go get some more photos, and when I came to a traffic circle I went across to the other side to take the spur road up to the glacier. Not all of us were on the same page, and some confusion led to Peter exiting the circle onto the road that led to the exit of the pass. We waited roadside for a while, then sent search parties out when he didn't show up. Eventually he was found at the southern toll plaza, unfortunately on the other side of the tollgate. Lucky for him he had kept his receipt so he had no trouble getting back in. I had really enjoyed my fast run down the pass to the toll plaza, to which I had added some sort of artificial sense of urgency to find Peter. For the run back I think I pretended I needed to get the word back to Dave quickly so I enjoyed another very spirited run to the roundabout.

Since the weather was so perfect none of us wanted to leave Grosglockner. We all agreed that we should take the side trip to the glacier, even if it meant delaying out arrival in Arabba until near dinner time. This turned out to be a great decision, as the road up to the glacier was excellent, and the views absolutely outstanding. We hung out at the glacier for a bit, grabbed some snacks, and then enjoyed a perfect summer-day ride down to the toll plaza.

Oh. My. God. or rather Oh. Mein. Gott.  :eek:  :inlove:

06/19 - Part 3, A Return to the Dolomites

After regretfully leaving behind the best road of the trip so far we had a straight shot of around 20 miles on 107 to the town of Lienz so we put Dave out in front. For the majority of the transit sections either Frank or I would take point since we had the GPS units, but it was nice to be able to mix it up a bit. Besides, since Dave and I had our Scala Q2 headseats connected I could help him out with any route decisions if we came to any confusing junctions. This worked out just fine, even when we had to deal with another crossed-out road town that was on our intended route.



For the most part we were on a fast B road (E66 in Austria, which turned into SS49 when we crossed the border into Italy) on our way to Valdaora, our jumping off point to the Dolomites. We were able to keep a good pace, but with our extended stay on the Grosglockner our ETA for the hotel was getting later and later. Once we crossed the border into Italy traffic started getting pretty, well, interesting, with Italian bikers doing what Italian bikers do - pass all over the place. I knew I was back in Italy when a rider on a Ducati 1098 (or 848, or 1198, etc) came at us around a curve, knee down, surrounded by pretty thick traffic. While I had gotten used to the "pass whenever" style of riding by the end of the last trip, after so long an absence it came as somewhat of a shock again to see riders lane-splitting in curves, passing in blind corners, etc. I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing the other guys eyes were popping out of their heads at some of the moves people were making. Of course it doesn't take too long over there to find yourself going over to the dark side...



Frank's route had us leaving the main road at Valdaora and heading south on Furkelpass, or Passo Furcia. Even though it was getting late I was eager to try this pass out as it was a new one for me. I'm very glad we did, as it turned out to be a treat of a road. Very, very narrow in places, hairpins, views, perfect pavement, little traffic, all the things you hope for in a pass were present and accounted for.



After Passo Furcia we worked our way down SS244 through Corvara in Badia, and the guys got their first up-close look at the Dolomites at the start of Passo Campolongo. With a late-afternoon sun highlighting the mountains it was truly a magnificent sight, and I couldn't think of a better way to end a day that had started so uninspiringly. I can't begin to tell you how glad I was to be back in the Dolomites.

We dispatched Passo Campolongo pretty quickly, and while the guys were very impressed with it I knew Campolongo was really one of the area's minor treasures. The roads I would take them on tomorrow were going to blow them away.


We rolled into Arabba around 6:30, and as we got closer to the hotel I could feel myself starting to get downright giddy. You ever have that feeling when you're so excited you start talking too fast and can't keep still? That was me. Right up to the point where we pulled into the hotel lot and I dropped the bike. I think I was actually so elated that I forgot to put the sidestand down. First time I've had a bike on it's side in over 15 years, and it's a rental. On the plus side the bike was not in pristine condition when we picked them up, and the side cases (which took the brunt of the fall) were already sporting some battle scars. I was also in good company that day - Peter had dropped the FJR (which actually was pristine on delivery) earlier in the day on the Grosglockner, but out of sight of everyone, not right in front of all his buddies and the people enjoying drinks outside the hotel.

When I went inside to check in I was delighted to find that the manager/owner immediately recognized me and welcomed me by name - that was an unexpected surprise! We got ourselves checked in and met downstairs for dinner a little later. One of the big bonuses of the Hotel Mesdi (and most of the hotels in this area) is that your room price includes a full dinner as well as a substantial buffet breakfast. You have assigned tables that you return to every night, and we were seated at the very same table I had last time. I was even more pleased when our waitress came over to get our drink orders and she remembered me as well. She also asked about Jim who was with me last time while we ordered our first round of beers. Agnes was a delight last trip, and I was very happy to see that she was still here.

Dinner was excellent, as was the beer after a long day in the saddle. Back in my room, sleep came quickly.

06/20, The Dolomites Best Loop (Part 1)

Today was going to be a slam-dunk. The sun was shining, we were in the middle of the Dolomites, and we were on motorcycles. For our first day in the area I had put together a loop that would take in the best roads and sights that I experienced 2 years ago. It was nice to start the day knowing the roads were going to be great, as opposed to the last few days where we explored and hoped for the best.

Breakfast was excellent and even more filling than last trip since the hotel has added made-to-order egg dishes to their offerings in the morning. I went with the bacon and eggs, and found the eggs delicious but the bacon nearly raw - the concept of crispy cooked bacon hasn't really caught on in the area I suppose. They don't know what they're missing.

One of the best things about the Hotel Mesdi (and there are many good things) is it's location - it's literally on a hairpin curve at the base of my favorite pass in the Alps, Passo Pordoi. You turn right out of the parking lot and start swinging the bike side to side as you ascend the mountain. That fun would have to wait a bit on this day as first order of business was fueling up and the nearest gas station was 4 miles on the other side of town. On my last visit this station was always staffed, but this morning we had to figure out the automated fueling station for ourselves. No credit cards were accepted (credit cards are hit-and-miss for gas in the area), so you had to guesstimate how much fuel you would need and prepay with euros. Unless you have multiple bikes with you to take up the excess it's best to underestimate what you think you'll need.

With all the bikes having more gas than when we got there (but not filled) we doubled back through town, past the Mesdi, and began the ascent of Passo Pordoi. I'll say it once again - I can't tell you how thrilled I was to be back in this area and particularly on this road again. We broke off to "meet at the top" and I zoomed ahead to setup for some pictures of the guys coming up. I can't decide what I was looking forward to more - riding the pass or seeing the reactions of the other guys when we talked at the top.



No one rode straight to the top though, unless you're the most hardcore "ride all day" type you have to stop and take in the magnificent vistas in front of you. As I expected, the other guys were blown away by the road and the views - and the day was just getting started! We leapfrogged each other up the pass as one person would pull over to take pictures, then another, etc. This side of Pordoi sports 33 hairpins, or tornantes, and we made the best of them.

At the top we made our traditional shopping stop - I was looking to add more pass pins to my collection (though I already had Pordoi of course) and Dave was collecting stickers. In hindsight, 1.5 euro stickers make more sense than 6 euro pass pins, especially as the count rises into the teens. I think I now have about $150 worth of Alps pass pins on my walls at work.



We continued down the other side of the pass, working through another dozen or so hairpins mixed in with just "regular" tight turns until we picked up the start of Passo Sella. Sella is probably the most popular pass in the area and generally is much busier than the rest of the passes. Parts of it are also quite a bit tighter than Pordoi, and this combination of cramped quarters and lots of traffic somewhat diminishes my enjoyment of it. What it does have over some of the other passes are fantastic views at the summit - I dare say it may be the most beautiful view in the Dolomites at the top. If you can get a clean run up Sella, with little traffic to deal with, it can be an amazing experience. Unfortunately this is rarely possible.

And it certainly wasn't possible on this Monday morning as Sella was quite busy with cars, pack of cyclists, other motorcycles, and busses. Each of these modes of transportation is dealt with differently, with cars being the most trivial -you just pass them. You pass cyclists as well, but they often cause backups as cars get jammed up behind them waiting for a long enough section to pass. Motorcycles, at least for us, are more of a threat from behind. None of us just put-put along the road, but almost without exception bikers in the Alps are exceptionally fast, skilled and from what I could tell, fearless. They come up quick, and at the slightest opening (or in some cases imagined openings) they flash by. It's the busses that are the worst though, and more often the issue is them coming the other direction. With some of the hairpins on these roads, as another STN'er put it, "tight enough so you can read your own license plate", you can imagine how much of the road a tour bus needs to make the turn. Yup, every square inch of it. If you see them coming with a corner between you and them, you need to recalculate how you're going to get through. My biggest moment on the way up Sella involved a pack of cyclists. I was rounding a super-tight right-hand turn that was very steep, and turned the corner to meet up with about a dozen cyclists going 1mph. With cars and bikes coming the other way blocking my pass I was reduced to pretty much paddle-walking the bike up the slope until an opening appeared.

The top of Sella (well, the first top you come to, there's a much larger area another mile along) is very tiny but always packed with bikes. We managed to find spots to wedge our bikes into (Dave lost his first spot to a car that stole it "sorry") and walked around a bit.



We had a nice run down the other side of Sella and, turning off onto Passo Gardena, left most of the traffic behind us. Gardena is another pass with fantastic views, perhaps not as dramatic as those on Sella but still beautiful. It was tricky finding a place to park the bikes as a bunch of pay lots had sprung up since my last visit. We did our round of pass-pin/sticker shopping and I set up on a hairpin to get action pics of the guys.

(http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2011-06-11%20Alps/06-20/Alps2011_2011-06-20_11-46-05.jpg)
Can't remember a nicer shot of an FJR

Stunning. I've seen views as remarkable (American Southwest comes to mind) and I've been on roads that were pretty fantastic, but the combination of The Dolomites can't be beat.

Thanks for the ride.

Very nice. I'm drooling at the vistas and the hairpins.

Someday......

Sure would be nice to go with folks who have experience as one could miss a lot as an Alps rookie.

06/20, The Dolomites Best Loop (Part 2)

Next up on the "Best of the Dolomites" loop was Passo Valperola which has a rocky landscape distinctly different than the rest of the surrounding area. Valperola leads up to an area of the Dolomites that was the site of fierce fighting in WWI - in fact this area of Italy belonged to Austria before the war. Fort Tre Sassi was closed when we arrived, but you can look down the hillside and just make out a series of buildings and trenches that were used during the war. We spent some time at the top, walked back a bit to the rifugio for some shopping, and the blasted down the short straightaway to the top of Passo Falzarego. The short stretch between these 2 pass tops is a good place to "clean out the carbs" as it's about nearly flat and straight as an arrow, something that can't be said of too many stretches of road in this part of the world.












The top of Passo Falzarego is always busy, and this day was no exception, though unlike Sella or Gardena there's plenty of room to go around for parking. We parked for a while, got some more snacks (lunches were becoming a distant memory), and generally took in the scene and ogled the bikes. The route I planned for today allowed us a lot of time for distractions which worked out well.



We took Falzarego down towards Arabba again, turning off onto SP563 before getting there. SP563 is a tiny, crooked little road with about a dozen hairpins that descends sharply on its way to Passo Fedaia. On the last trip we had come up 563 in the rain, with an Audi wagon on our taillights the whole time - this run was much more pleasant. Once on Fedaia we split up, with instructions to meet at the dam. Fedaia is an out-of-the-way pass that doesn't really go anywhere or connect anything to anything so it doesn't see a lot of traffic. It's also pretty spread-out so there are some nice fast sweepers to balance out the hairping sections. Fedaia runs through an area known as the Marmolada, home to the mountain of the same name, which is the highest peak in the Dolomites at 3,343 meters. At the top is the dam of Lake Lago de Fedaia, and was used in the beginning of the "Italian Job" remake.

We took a nice long break at the dam, seeing as the weather was just so perfect and the day was still relatively young. My planned route from this point was just to continue west on Fedaia, then turn north to meet up with Passo Pordoi and back to Arabba. After another ice cream (a pattern?) we decided to extend the day's ride. No problem, I figured, there's no shortage of great roads in the immediate area.

We doubled back down Fedaia (which was no hardship), then found ourselves on SP20, a little connector road that would lead us to Passo Giau, our next goal. Like many (most) roads in the area, SP20 turned out to be fantastic, working it's way through a deep canyon and past waterfalls. In a small way it reminded me of Smoke Hole Road in West Virginia, which is no bad thing.

06/20, The Dolomites Best Loop (Part 3)

Passo Giau was a favorite from our last trip, and it didn't disappoint this time around either. It's one of the two main passes to get from the "big" road that cuts through Arabba over to Cortina D'Ampezzo, and it's by far the lesser used one. Each side of the pass is distinctly different from the other - the southern/western approach is mostly hairpin after hairpin (maybe 20 or so?) but the northern/eastern ramp is a mix of every kind of bend imaginable with stunning views down to Cortina D'Ampezzo and the surrounding mountains. I much prefer the northern section, as the hairpin-short straight-hairpin-short straight thing can get monotonous after a while. Giau rose to the top of Frank's list of favorite passes, and I suspect it was close to the top of everyone else's.

We did our normal "meet at the top" thing, with everyone getting to do the pass at their own pace. After a short stay at the top I went ahead to setup for some more action photos since the background here is tough to beat.



And now for the action shots of the guys. I liked several variations, so forgive the somewhat repetitive shots.



Next up was Frank


And last but not least, Dave


I zipped back on the bike and had a great run down the north ramp. At various places I passed some of the guys parked on the roadside taking in the sights so I found myself a nice hairpin to setup on and get more pictures.



Once we dispatched Passo Giau we headed for Passo Falzarego to get us back to the hotel. We had done half the pass earlier today, from the intersection at the top with Passo Falzarego west so this half up to the summit was new for the day. This half of Falzarego is pretty wide-open after some twisties at the start, and for the most part and you can maintain some decent speed. We stopped for a minute at the top just to regroup, and then Dave and I took off first. It was a lot of fun following Dave down the pass, I find I don't mind increasing my pace a bit when following someone I trust.

We rolled into the Hotel Mesdi around 7:00 with a full day's perfect riding behind us. It was one of the best day's riding I'ver ever had, and I know the other guys were thoroughly impressed with motorcycling in the Dolomites. A delicious dinner only added to the experience.

 :clap: :clap: :clap:

Fantastic RR. We all appreciate the effort you have put into the photos!! This would make a great entry on My "Bucket List"

06/21, Vajont Dam Day (Part 1)



A couple years ago I was watching a show about Engineering Disasters that did a long, detailed segment on the Vajont Dam disaster in Italy. The dam was completed in 1960, and at a height of nearly 900 feet above the valley floor it was, at the time, the highest thin-arch dam in the world. Unfortunately, to make a long story short, they may have known a lot about engineering dams at the time but they didn't know enough about geology. In the middle of the night of October 9th, 1963 an enormous section of mountain (about 350 million cubic yards) on the left bank slid into the reservoir, displacing about 30 million cubic metres of water. A wave of water rose up the right bank destroying the village of Caso, 850 feet above the level of the lake, before over-topping the dam and crashing down nearly 1600 feet below and onto the villages of Longarone, Pirago, and others. It's estimated that a total of 2500 lives were lost.

For more detailed info:

http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/vaiont-vajont-landslide-of-1963.html

http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=373

What's incredible is that the dam is still standing today. The disaster only chipped away a small section of the top of the dam, so it appears nearly perfect as it looms over the rebuilt town of Longarone. In preparing for this trip I was excited to see that Longarone is only an hour or so south of Arabba, and would make a great sidetrip. Even if no one else was interested in joining me I was going to check this out. I was pleased to find out that the other guys wanted to see it, although none of them had heard of it.

I was awakened by the 7am church bells. If you miss them at 7 you'll get another chance at 7:15, then at 7:30, and so on - 9pm is the final bell. We had another way-too-filling breakfast (where Frank announced the location of the mystery fridge) and walked out to the sunshine to get the bikes ready for another perfect day.

I had laid out a route to the dam that included a named pass, Passo Staulanza, and continuing as the road turned into SP251. Our ride to the start of Staulanza was marred by an abundance of truck traffic, but that thinned out as we turned onto the pass proper. As fun as Staulanza was, and it was a very twisty if not particularly scenic pass, it was the rest of SP251 that impressed me. Miles and miles (and miles) of twisty pavement, with a rock face on your left and a dropoff (with guardrail) to your right. Try to imagine the best part of Hawk's Nest in NJ, but extend it by 10 or 15 miles. No hairpins on this one, just lean-left, lean-right, lean-left for perhaps 20 or 30 minutes. My route for the day would have us backtracking on this particular section before heading over to Passo Cibiana and points north, so I was looking forward to rerunning it on the mountain-side.



Just before Longarone there's a long tunnel, and immediately as you emerge from it you can look up in the mountains and see the Vajont Dam, impossibly high above you. I wish I would have stopped to get a picture, but I was thinking there would be a better vantage point. There wasn't.

We had a little bit of confusion figuring out how to get up to the dam, but eventually the route became clear (read: we saw the sign for it). A series of tight hairpins took us higher and higher over Longarone and eventually into a series of tunnels, each with cutouts looking out over the valley. I was initially a little alarmed at the tightness of the tunnel until I figured out they were one-way and controlled with signal lights. As you exit the last tunnel there's a set of buildings on your right and a parking lot, which is the visitor area for the dam.

I'm sure I can't adequately describe the feeling I had up there. At the parking lot you are looking out over the reservoir, or what used to be the reservoir. It first appears that you are just looking at a grassy, rocky field, but you're actually looking at what used to be the mountainside that came down to fill in the reservoir. Chilling. You can only see the backside of the dam from the parking lot, to see anything else you have to walk back through the tunnels. Frank stayed behind and the rest of us headed cautiously into the non-pedestrain-friendly tunnels. There were some interesting vistas available at the various openings in the tunnel wall, but it was only when you came out the other side could you get a good look at the front of the dam and get a sense of it's impressive height. The thought of a wall of water crashing over the top and roaring down to the towns below.... well, you really don't want to think about it.

The thread of awesomeness.  :thumbsup:

GREAT job Ken.  I am really enjoying it!  :clap:

06/21, Vajont Dam Day (Part 2)

While the rest of us had been checking out the dam, Frank had been busy plotting out a new route for the afternoon on the Zumo. I didn't have any "must-do's" on the rest of my planned route so I didn't mind too much a change in plans. Besides, this was a group tour and everyone should get input. In the months leading up to this trip I had impressed upon everyone (those invited as well as those who ultimately went) that this was a "choose your own adventure" trip. If people wanted to stay together that's fine, but I strongly encouraged folks that they could do anything they wanted, ride anywhere/anyhow they wanted, and hopefully we would all just catch up at dinner. I wasn't sure how that was going to turn out, whether some folks would splinter off and ride their our own routes, but so far we were all sticking together and that was working out fine. I think if there were more people on the trip we might have had multiple groups doing different routes.

One of the side benefits of a trip like this is getting to try out different bikes, and I was itching to swap out the TDM for one of the other bikes. I had ridden an FJR before so that was last on my list, and Frank was going to lead on the Varadero with his GPS, so I tossed my camera in Dave's CBF. The ergos were more compact than the TDM but still on this side of comfortable.

We retraced our route down to Longarone, doing all the hairpins downhill this time. I haven't spent time on an inline four in a long time, and have never had any long rides on a liter bike (even one as neutered as the CBF) and it was taking me a while to adjust to the different power delivery. I really enjoy the twin's strong midrange surge, be it the TDM on this trip or my Multistrada. The CBF's linear climb to a top-end rush was an entirely different experience and, to me, not well suited to hairpin strafing, at least on the downhills. I would open the throttle on corner exit and instead of a nice surge of torque propelling me a bit faster I had a lot of revs racing me to the next corner entry. I'm probably not explaining it well, but I like the lumpier "torque on demand" motor more than the "rev the rocket" type.

We had a bit of trouble back in Longarone trying to get out of town and onto the GPS-plotted route. More than once we found ourselves dead-ended, or circling the same street a couple times, before finally being able to get on the right track. This was my first time on the trip without a GPS, and it was at once both liberating and maddening. It was nice to let someone else do the leading and not keep looking down to make sure you didn't miss a turn, but when things go awry the OCD in me gets frustrated and it was hard not to be able to see what the issue could have been. The Zumo's were continuing to be a source of frustration on this trip - it's surprising how quickly you go from "what would I do without this?" to "I'm going to through you in the next river!" when it misbehaves, or doesn't do what you think it should have done. 97% of the time the Zumo's were faithful and invaluable servants, the other 3% they were routing us down one-way alleyways.

The road to the first pass on the new route was pretty uninspiring, just a busy commercial route through uninteresting towns. Passo d. Mauria turned out to be just so-so, beat-up pavement, no views to speak of, and short. We got to the top only to find that everything was closed, so no new pass pins (or ice cream) for us. Hey, sometimes you take a chance on a road and it doesn't work out, we've all been there.



I felt I'd had enough of the CBF to get a good feel for it, so swapped with Peter for the FJR. Dave took his bike back, and Peter took my TDM. The route didn't have us continuing over the pass, so I pointed the FJR back down the road and we took off. My goodness the FJR is a rocketship. Very comfy, and very, very fast. To be honest I can't say it loved being on a tight, twisting pass with crappy pavement, but in it's element it's probably killer. By the bottom of the pass I was eager to get on my TDM, and Peter was equally as happy to give it up. He thought it felt 'loose' and 'broken'. I wish I liked either of the other 2 bikes more, but I was relieved to be back on the TDM (and have my GPS back). Our next stop was via Santa Ana, a small pass north of us about 20 or 30 minutes away.

Unfortunately that pass eluded us. We did a couple passes up and down the town but were unable to find the turnoff. Eventually we gave up and continued north in the vague direction of Cortina d'Ampezzo. We had a little stretch of busier boring road to contend to, but then found ourselves on Passo tre Croci which, at least on the southern half, is a fantastic fast road through the woods with some nice sweepers. Definitely a fun bit of road for some super-legal velocities. The hairpins (always there are hairpins) start near the top, and the ramp down to Cortina is a typical Dolomite twisty perfect affair.

We spent too much time at a too-crowded gas station in town (including some time being concerned about the blue gas coming out of the nozzle), eventually filling up 3-abreast on the same 50 euro note. Tanks replenished, I led the group up to find Drei Zinnen, a viewpoint that eluded Jim and I last trip due to crappy weather. That wouldn't be an issue this time, but my lack of knowing exactly where it was would be. More Zumo-induced hilarity getting out of Cortina before we could start back up Tre Croci, then we had to pick our way through a string of construction vehicles trying to back into us, then finally a fun run up the pass. I stopped to talk with Dave on the side of the road, only to realize it wasn't Dave but just some random biker on a black CBF. When we got to the top (again) of Tre Croci I had had enough time to figure out that Drei Zinnen was out of our reach for the day if we wanted to get back to Arabba at any decent hour. The run down Tre Croci (#3) had us entertained by a girl driving one of those tiny 3-wheeled trucks downhill at an alarming pace. You see one of these ahead of you and figure you'll zip right by in a moment or two. I'll be damned if it wasn't tricky to get around this girl barrelling down the pass.



From Cortina there's two ways to get back to Arabba, over Passo Falzarego or Passo Giau. Hands down we chose Giau again. I had a great time following Dave down Giau, we were really in a good groove. That groove continued for me as we left Giau for another run on our newly-discovered SP20 and over Passo Fedaia. We stopped at the dam just to regroup, then completed the western ramp of Fedaia that we skipped yesterday. Fedaia passes very close under the biggest mountains in the Dolomites,which lead to Dave ranking them highest on his scale of rocks - "That's a big fucking rock!". Dave throws out perhaps one or two curses per trip, so you can imagine how impressed he was.



I can't recall where it happened, but I have a note about "crazy yellow biker". It might have been on the Pordoi, not sure, but as I'm approaching an uphill left-hander, with plenty of traffic coming down at me, I get passed by a guy on a yellow bike who then basically lane-splits the hairpin between cars going in both directions.

We arrived back at the Hotel Mesdi with enough time to sit outside and enjoy a beer before dinner. I love this place - we sit down, a couple minutes later one of the waitresses comes out to see what we would like, and a few minutes after that we have a round of beers, some hand-cut fries and other assorted goodies.

Topics of conversation included:

• The new Multistrada is the Alps Bike of the Year for 2011. Dozens of them around, they might have dethroned 2009's BMW R1200GS. Second place goes to the V/Weestrom. Lots of these as wel
• I LOVE the looks of that CB1300S, but I think the inline four is a deal killer for me.
• Dave has hit his toes several times on hairpins
• Peter not in love with the FJR now that we're in the Dolomites - "too much work"

   


Dinner was very tasty tonight, topped off with a very good apple cobbler. After dinner we walked around downtown Arabba a bit (if there is such a thing) and checked out the ski lift area. Dave and Peter are avid skiiers, and at various times during our stay here you could practically see the wheels turning in their heads about coming here to ski.

(http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2011-06-11%20Alps/06-21/Alps2011_2011-06-21_16-46-02.jpg)

Another stunner! Cheers.

I'm glad you picked that one - it may be one of my favorites of the trip.  I'd like to clean up the haze in the green at the center of the photo, but, if I may say so myself, a large print of this would be a beauty (are you reading this Frank?  ;)).  In a small print the bike gets lost.

Glad folks are enjoying this, I know a lot of this is a rerun of the 2009 trip.

That was this guy...

(https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/gallery/4/12127_02_07_11_10_38_26_0.jpeg)

You bet am I reading this  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

I'd like to see that picture of the 4 of us in the recliners at Lago de Fedaia, if that came out.  
Did that get taken with your pocket snappy?
There were a group of Germans and one of them snapped a picture of the 4 of us strectched out on the deck.

They didn't use mine, let me check with the other guys.

Ask and you shall receive:

06/22, Black Rose Pizza Day (Part 1)

I was very happy to see we woke to yet another day of great weather. Today was going to be a mix of old and new, as I wanted to get back to the Black Rose Pizza restaurant in Falcade, and I was also eager to explore some of the smaller roads to the west of the main Dolomite passes. I had a pretty ambitious route layed out but I did build in an escape point back to the hotel if we were running out of time. Our bellies (over)stuffed from breakfast yet again, the first order of business was heading over Pordoi. Not a bad way to start the day, not at all.

The run up Pordoi was fantastic, as was the section down to the intersection with Sella, but from there the road was clogged with trucks and busses. You can sit for quite some time while 2 busses figure out how to pass each other. We passed where we could, but even so it was slow going down to Canazei.



We had about a 20 minute ride down SS48 to get to the start of Passo San Pellegrino, but our trip was slowed to get around the scene of bike accident involving a Ducati Monster and, most likely, one of the construction vehicles doing roadwork. We also passed a tour group of BMW C1 "super-scooters".

Passo San Pellegrino doesn't have an abundance of hairpins, but that can make for a nice change of pace. It's mostly sweepers up to the top, and while the scenery isn't as jaw-dropping as on Sella or Giau there ins't nearly the amount of traffic on it. We shared the road mostly with other bikers, with an occasional car or bicycle group along the way. The top of San Pellegrino is pretty bare, so we didn't waste a lot of time there before continuing on. Just before the intersection with Passo Valles there are, of course, some pretty fun downhill hairpins. We were riding solo back down from the top, and since I was in front I stopped at the Valles intersection, which just happens to be on a hairpin. Pretty soon Frank came along, and I sent him ahead to "wait at the top". Dave was next, and he agreed to be the lookout for Peter, so I headed up Valles. A few miles ahead I found a nice section of straight road with a great backdrop for photos, so I pulled off to wait for Dave and Peter. What I didn't know at the time was Peter had sailed right on by Dave at the hairpin and had continued down into the town of Falcade. Dave had to give chase. Of course when Dave and Peter did come by a truck was lumbering down the road ruining the shot. Grrr. At least when I continued up I spotted a terrific hairpin location for more photos, which I would direct the guys to a little later (we would be rerunning these 3 passes in the opposite direction).



The southern ramp of Valles is a really nice ride next to a roaring creek, twisting and turning, rising and falling. No hairpins on this one (that I recall), just a great series of turns through the forest. At the end of Valles is a tight left turn to start up Passo Roll, easily missed.Thankfully everyone regrouped on this one and we each took off for our run of Rolle. Lots of hairpins on Rolle. At the top of Rolle we turned around and did Valle again on our way to the Black Rose Pizza in Falcade. I remembered the hairpin photo-op and went ahead on Valles to setup for the guys. After the hairpin photos I was back on the long straight section of road where I waited earlier. There was a cyclist hauling downhill here, and I clocked him at just over 50mph. Not too shabby.

Get's my vote :thumbsup: if I had to pick one picture...

06/22, Black Rose Pizza Day (Part 2)

We found our way to the back alley off the back alley that was home to Black Rose Pizza and, with great expectations on my part, went in for lunch. On my first riding trip to Italy in 2009 (which was also my first time ever in Europe) I declared their pizza "the best Pizza in Europe" and I was eagerly looking forward to another perfect pie. Everyone ordered their own pizza, and I went with my beloved "buffalina" from the last visit. This time around, sorry to say, it was only excellent and not exquisite. The guys seemed happy with what they ordered, and I know the Cokes went down well on this hot afternoon.


I had one more bike to try out - Frank's beast of burden, the Varadero. He was eager to give the TDM a whirl as it was pretty close in form and function to his Weestrom back home. We topped off our gas tanks in town and then had the pleasure of re-riding Passo San Pellegrino again on our way back to SS48. I liked the power delivery of the Varadero, and the riding position was really nice and spread out. The brakes left something to be desired, but this would probably be easily remedied. When we switched back to our own bikes at the end of the pass Frank was not eager to give back the Yamaha after professing his love for it.

A short run up SS48 took us to Passo Costalunga, which on the last trip Jim and I had voted "worst pass of the trip". The ride up to the top confirmed my feelings - it's just not that much fun. No views to speak of, fairly heavy traffic, and terrible sightlines for most of the curves. Now on that last trip we only rode this eastern side and back, but this time we continued along to the connection with Niger Pass. The "new" section of Costalunga was a little more interesting, but didn't change my vote.

One of the reasons I had picked Niger Pass was because on the map we had it was listed as "24% grade", which sounded like it could be fun. Niger was also one of several passes that led west to the Autostrada where we could pick up other more interesting roads back east. I had spent some time on Google maps finding the tiniest through roads in this area and had plotted a zig-zaggy course using several of them. While Niger pass was decent, I don't recall it being any steeper than the rest of the passes in the area. The highlight was a fantastic view of the Dolomites for a split second when you left the top, which became almost immediately obscured by trees. Our string of perfect weather also came to an end on this pass, as the rain started on and off as we headed further west. There was more traffic than we would have liked on Niger, and even more as we got closer to the Autostrada. Some of the tiny roads would have been much more fun if we weren't just in a conga line of dozens of cars, or at least if it wasn't raining.

Eventually the rain started tapering off and we started working our way back east on a road that got progressively narrower and narrower. We were deep in farming country now, and were surprised to see how much farming is seemingly done with manual labor. No giant green John Deere harvesters out here, just old women with pitchforks and hoes.

The narrowness of our road was matched only by the fantastic views down into the valley far, far below us. We took turns stopping and taking pictures for a while, and then had a pretty slow run down the mountain to connect with a main road that would lead us to Worz Joch. The slow run was primarily dictated by the serious consequences of an off-road excursion - there wasn't much of a shoulder to speak of, and then a steep roll down the hill.



We needed gas again before ascending Worz Joch, and that stop turned into an adventure in itself. The attendant/owner only spoke German, and was earnestly trying to explain something vital to us about the pumps. I tried to enlist Peter as a translater since I knew he spoke a little Italian, having not figured out the guy was speaking German. How could I mix up German and Italian? Eventually we worked out that it was cash only (or credit-only, I forget now), and he had to do all the pumping. I sprung for a $4 coke and pretty much guzzled it in one swig - it was pretty hot down in the lowlands.

The west approach to Worz Joch was another new section of road to me, having only down the eastern half last trip. To think that on that trip I remarked that Worz Joch was especially narrow - this side made the other look like Route 13 in Delaware. The road was about as narrow as I'd ever seen, essentially one car wide like the smaller farm road we were one earlier but this one was designed to handle more traffic. It started raining a bit as we ascended, and the temperature starting dropping as well. By the time we reached the summit I was pretty chilly, wet, and it was getting late. This "getting late" situation was becoming a recurring theme on this trip. You always want to pack so much stuff into every day that you inevitably end up running out of time to do it all. We were always the last ones back to the hotel, with other groups already sitting around enjoying drinks when we rode up. Next time I'd like to make a concerted effort to plan a shorter day and return to the hotel feeling good, rather than pretty worn out. On the other hand, you can see more by riding more. Tough call.


More rain accompanied us on the run down Wurz Joch, but it was almost forgiven when we came across a perfect, horizon-to-horizon rainbow at the end of the pass in town. Somewhere along the way we had passed by two orange Laverda's, which increased my "Laverdas seen on the road" count to....2. There was some GPS-induced confusion (once again) after town finding the main road back to Arabba, followed by a pretty uneventful ride down SS244 into Corvara and then over Passo Campalongo. Not entirely uneventful though - while passing a hotel my glance lingered too long surveying the parking lot full of bikes, and when I looked up again the car in front of me had slowed dramatically to turn into another hotel. My first experience with ABS was satisfying.





Dinner was, of course, delicious. I had the Penne Arrabesque followed by "air dried beef". I could have had three plates of the penne, it was excellent. The "air dried beef" was just OK, but the Panna Cotta for dessert made up for that. The texture was a bit rubbery but the taste was wonderful. After dinner we moved to the bar for another round of drinks, and had a good time shooting the breeze (I bet the Erdinger Weissbier helped).



I went upstairs to my room, and wanted to check the Zumo to see how long the route was going to be for tomorrow, our long ride to Passo Stelvio. The zumo wasn't in the room. Hmm, I must have left it in the mount on the bike. The Zumo 550 has a locking mount, which you need a special key to thread a small screw into the clamp preventing removal of the GPS. I wandered outside a little tipsy, and was not thrilled to see no Zumo in the mount. Maybe I put it in the topcase? Opened that up, rummaged through it, nothing. Hmm, I must have put in my pocket or something and brought it inside with me. I went back to the lobby of the hotel and spent a couple minutes looking through their brochures of the area, for what reason I have no idea. After a while a guy comes up to me and asks me, in the best English he can muster, if the red bike is mine. I replied that it was, and then he said a lot of things from which I picked up "navigate" "left on bike" and "manager". Turns out I had taken the Zumo off the mount (with Frank's key) and had left it on the seat when I went inside. And remember when I say "the Zumo" I really mean "the Zumo my friend Jim lent me". These guys noticed it and brought it in to the hotel manager. Wow, could that have been bad. THANK YOU GUYS! I found most of the hotel staff downstairs in the restaurant off the bar and the manager indeed returned the Zumo. She also mentioned we should park the bikes under the hotel rather than in the parking lot our front. Good for cars, she said, not so good for motorcycles.

06/23, Ride to Gavia (Part 1)

Today was a big riding day as we were leaving Arabba and heading to Passo Stelvio on the border with Switzerland. On the last trip Jim and I had planned a route from Arabba to Andermatt that went over Passo Stelvio, and even though we made good time and head good weather (with the exception of one downpour that we waited out with some other bikers under an overhang) by the time we we had gotten to the top of Stelvio we were ready to call it a day. Unfortunately we still had something like 5 or 6 hours of riding to go at that point.

To avoid that this time, and to ensure us some extra fun time on Stelvio and the roads around it, we booked rooms at the Hotel Folgore, a hotel one hairpin away from the top of Stelvio. We figured we could arrive at Stelvio early afternoon and run up, run down, do whatever we liked for a while and we'd have a hotel right in the middle of it all. What's the saying about the best laid plans?

I was sorry to have to leave the Hotel Mesdi this morning. This was my second stay here, and to say I love the place is an understatement. The food, the service, the location, the staff, everything just conspires to make for a truly memorable stay. I was a little concerned that the rest of the group would not be as impressed with the hotel as I had been, but as the trip progressed everyone commented how fantastic the place was, and how it was a highlight of the trip. If you're ever in the area (and I can't recommend riding in the Dolomites strongly enough) please think about staying at the Hotel Mesdi. Tell them Ken sent you, and say hi to Agnes and Simon for me.

After breakfast we gave our waitress, Agnes, a nice combined tip and settled our bills (including my 35 euro beer tab) at the front desk. As we brought our hardbags out to the bikes I noticed there was a handwritten note on mine telling me about the GPS. Thanks again guys! The skies were gray as we began our (regrettably last) trip up Pordoi. Reluctant to leave the Dolomites behind we made a run up and down Sella as well, and were pleased to have very little traffic to deal with. While it was less crowded, it was also less warm - thermometer at the top of Sella read 10 degrees Celcius. There were a few noteworthy moments that morning - having a pair of Ferrari F430's pass by us on Sella; watching Peter make a pair of passes on the inside of hairpins coming down Pordoi; seeing a pack of crazy trikes at the top of Sella.



Passo Costalunga was out gateway out of the Dolomites, and I have to say the western half is a lot of fun. Even after the "pass" part of it fizzled out and it just became SS241 it was still a nice ride almost all the way to Bolzano. Getting through Bolzano was a different kind of fun. We ended up on a short section of almost-highway (but thankfully not on the Autostrada) that was packed with cars and barely moving. We dawdled along with traffic for a few minutes, and I didn't know if being more aggressive was a good idea with a group. When a group of bikers passed us splitting lanes between us and oncoming traffic that made my decision for me.

What a hoot it was zipping around the stopped cars, using turning lanes, using the center line, using whatever open space was available to us. We weren't flying by, not by a long shot, but just being able to move was a welcome relief. It was one of those moments where you're just soO happy you're on a bike. Fortunately everyone kept together for the most part (aided no doubt by Dave keeping me informed over the Scala when we got too far strung apart) and we found our exit that would take us to Passo Mendola.

The skies were getting rapidly darker as we stopped for gas in Bolzano. Once again we were flummoxed by the gas pumps - this place was pump first, pay later. While we were hanging out for a bit and contemplating donning our rain gear a brand-new BMW K1600GTL pulled in next to us. We got to talking to the couple for a bit, and found out they were on vacation from Oregon and the bike was a loaner from BMW - as was all their gear! How did that happen, we asked. Turns out he's a motorcycle travel writer by the name of Bruce Hansen. Along with various magazine articles he's had published he'd written a book in the same series as Hermann's Alps book we were using - Motorcycle Journeys in the Pacific Northwest (http://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Journeys-Through-Pacific-Northwest/dp/1884313531) (available through Amazon and other places). He and his wife were charming to talk to, and we could have easily spent more time talking with them but the darkening skies had us eager to move on.



The ride over Mendola was fun - for about 5 minutes until it started to rain. And rain, and rain, and rain, and thunder, and lightning... It was truly an epic rainstorm. We passed a couple groups of (smarter) riders that had tucked in to some natural rock overhangs as we continued higher and higher. Normally there's a great view on this road, as it hugs the side of a rock wall and sports a mostly-open view of the land far, far below. On this day, though, you couldn't really see anything due to the rain. By the time we got to the top of the pass we looked like drowned rats. We thought about killing some time at the top to see if the rain would pass, but decided to just soldier on. I made a quick stop at a store that, in 2009 at least, sold very cheap soccer jerseys hoping to pick some up for my soccer-obsessed 10 year old son but the store had changed hands. This store was the source of his favorite souvenir from the last trip, a garish yellow Valentino Rossi jersey (http://www.kendenton.com/img/v0/p198717338-5.jpg).

I can't really say much about the ride from Mendola to Passo Tonale, other than it rained pretty steady the whole time. Once in a while it would taper off and give you some false hope, only to come down even harder a few miles later. Of course the Zumo kept us entertained with a couple off-route excursions, but other than that we just slogged our way west. By the time we were ascending Passo Tonale it was officially "downright miserable". The top of Tonale is a surprise, because instead of just a refugio or a couple shops there's basically a whole city. Not much looked to be open, or at least didn't look like they had any customers, so we ended up at the same sandwich place I stopped at last time. I'm sure the staff loved us coming in and taking over a table just for all our soaking wet gear. Lunch choices were limited by the fact that they were out of bread, but we were more interested in hot beverages.

While we finished our lunch I brought up the obvious - if the weather was going to continue like this it was pointless to continue on over Gavia and Stelvio. While I'm quite sure we could have have done it, no one would have enjoyed it. Both passes have famously spectacular views which would t be obscured by rain and clouds. Any hairpin-strafing enjoyment would be nixed due to the wet roads, and if the temperature dropped there was a good possibility of some ice on the roads as well. We had gotten lucky the other day with Grosglockner, which started out rainy and foggy as well, but we really had no choice once we got there but to get to the other side. On this day we could decide to hotel it this side of Gavia and still be able to do Gavia and Stelvio tomorrow. We agreed to ride on to Ponte di Legno, the last decent-sized town before the start of Passo Gavia, and make a decision based on the weather at that point.

We did have one good laugh at the sandwich place though. When I used the one-person men's room it was not obvious how to flush the toilet. There was a button right next to me on the wall, perhaps this was it? Imagine my surprise, upon pressing the button while still trying to all the layers of pants back up, to find that it rings a bell at the front counter indicating someone needs assistance in the bathroom. I don't think I've ever zipped up quicker. When I relayed this story to the guys at the table, Peter started cracking up - he had done exactly the same thing!

As I was getting back on the bike the waitress came running out with my (smaller) camera. Yesterday the GPS, today the camera. Not good, not good.



Which turned out to be an easy decision to make, since if anything the weather got colder and wetter as we rode. We were expecting Ponte di Legno to be a good-sized town with maybe a few hotels to choose from - we were wrong. First off it took us a few false starts to find the town "Centro" - the Zumo was pretty much useless at this point, it's delay in realizing it was off-route making navigation almost impossible. We resorted to following the signs for Centro (I know, so old school), and found ourselves heading down a steep, narrow, twisting, soaking wet cobblestone street. This couldn't be right, could it? I was quite concerned about the wet cobblestones but the bike never made a misstep. A couple minutes (felt like more than that) and the narrow street opened up into a tiny piazza with a restaurant on one corner and a coffee shop/bakery on the other. No obvious place to park, the rest of the group behind me found a spot to wiggle their 3 bikes into but I had already gone by and no way could I reverse direction on those cobblestones. I rode around the corner and found an alleyway in which to leave the bike.

Not wanting to sit and have an expensive meal at the restaurant, we chose to walk into the coffee shop. Which, as it would turn out, would kick off of one of the most amazing experiences of the trip.

How much do I love you folks?  Next part posting in a few minutes!  :thumbsup:

06/23, Ride to Gavia (Part 2)

We sat our wet selves down again, and it was obvious that there was no point in continuing to Stelvio. We were cold, wet, and the weather showed no signs of improving. We ordered some drinks and desserts and tried to figure out what to do. We had been hoping to find some obvious hotels in town, but that was not the case. There was one right on the piazza, but didn't look like it had seen a guest in months.

At our urging, we convinced Peter to try out his Italian on the coffee shop owner to see if he knew what the weather was going to be like for the rest of the day and tomorrow. Peter claims his Italian is not very good, and he's reluctant to use it, but he gave in and engaged the owner in a conversation. Man, you would have thought Peter just stepped off the boat. No idea why he didn't feel comfortable speaking Italian up to this point, the conversation was flowing just fine.

I have to say there's really no way I can relay how special the rest of the day was, it might be one of those "you had to be there" things.

A couple minutes later the owner's brother comes out with a laptop, showing us the weather forecast. Not good for the rest of the day, but tomorrow should be sunny and warm. We had Peter ask them about hotels in the area, and they suggested two, then disappeared. I sent some texts to my travel agent (my wife, thank you baby!) and she cancelled all of our reservations at the Hotel Folgore. When the brothers came back they told us they had called the local B&B for us, and talked to the owner to make sure he had rooms. There was also a restaurant within walking distance, and they had called them as well to make sure they were open today. They highly recommended the place, gave us directions, and told us the B&B owner, Yuri, would be waiting for us with an umbrella at the turnoff to his road. Seriously? We thanked the brothers, Michael and Pino, profusely and rushed back out to the rain to get on our way.



We were assured it was just a few kilometers away, but (I know, this is getting old by now) we still managed to lose our way a couple times. At the top of one road, sure enough, was a man standing with an umbrella motioning emphatically for us to follow him. He ran down the street as we rode slowly, and directed us into a garage to park the bikes. In the front of the garage was a Ducati Monster S2R, so that was a good sign already.

I don't know how to describe Yuri; he was about the happiest, kindest, enthusiastic, most helpful person I've ever run across. He's always smiling, always talking, and was always eager to help us with one thing or another. Once we got off the bikes he insisted we give him all our wet gear so he could get it dried overnight. He made a couple trips running back and forth between the garage and the house while we kind of stood there in disbelief. When we came back I talked with him a little about Ducati, and Valentino and MotoGP, and he had some funny comments - "Yamaha too smooth, boring for Rossi, Ducati like BANG BANG BANG! More fun!".


He told us we had a whole floor of rooms to ourselves, and showed us around the B&B. He was obviously very proud (and rightly so) of his house and town, and his enthusiasm was infectious. Breakfast was included of course, and he asked us what time would we like it. We replied 8am, and were told that's a little late for mamma's home made bread. 7:30 it is, no problem! As we got unpacked in our rooms (sure enough, a whole floor just for us, with 2 shared bathrooms) the weather cleared up a little, but we didn't care by this point. Back downstairs Yuri was happily showing us some of the old "simple" things he had on display - a wooden sausage press, a daguerreotype camera, etc. We talked to him a bit about the coffee shop, and Peter asked if the Michael and Pino were brothers. "You mean Chip and Chop?" There were a lot of laughs in the ensuing conversation.


When we asked where we should go for dinner, he started to give us directions, then thought better of it. "Follow me!" We spent the next half hour on a guided tour of his beautiful town, stopping here and there as he described life in the town as it used to be, or what the significance of a certain sign was, or why there were troughs of water outside, etc. A couple of times a window would be thrown open and an old Italian lady would yell down "Yuri!" and they would chat for a minute. By the time we finally got to the restaurant we were totally taken in by Yuri and Ponte di Legno.



(I have a confession to make. Being born and raised in The Bronx, I'm more suspicious of people than most. I always think there's a scam unfolding when a stranger approaches. While on our tour Yuri took a call on his cell and stepped away for a minute, and I imagined he was having this conversation: "Yes, yes, four motorcycles, you can come get them in the morning. Tonight I slit their throats while they sleep." I do eventually trust folks, but it takes a while.)

The food at dinner was excellent, the place prides themselves on local dishes and their portions were more than generous. The best part, for me at least, wasn't the food. Once the dishes from dinner were cleared away, our waitress brought to the table a bottle of grappa, a bottle of regular limoncello, and a bottle of homemade limoncello. On the house. Grappa's not my thing, but the homemade limoncello was fantastic. As Peter and I were making short work of the limoncello who shows up at the restaurant but Chip and Chop. They figured that they sent us here, they should check and see how we were doing - and share some wine with us. One of the more memorable dinners I've had.



The walk back to the B&B was easy, even in the dark. I went to sleep 95% sure I'd wake up with my throat intact.

This is the best part travel - going with the flow. You just never know what jewels you might find. Fabulosa!  :inlove:

Bump this to the top!  You have restless fans waiting for the rest of the trip!!!  :D

Been off-line all weekend.  Hopefully I can get the next part up tomorrow night - it's a big one!

Eagle-eye rider Dave noticed I was missing a section from the middle of the trip to Gavia, our experience with Chip and Chop.  I've added it to the start of Gavia (Part 2).  Go back and read about the brothers who made our crappy day into one of the best of the trip.

(http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2011-06-11%20Alps/06-23/Alps2011_2011-06-23_17-09-29.jpg)

Thanks Dave!

06/24, Gavia and Stelvio (Part 1)

The only negative thing I can possibly say about our experience at Yuri's is that mamma's bread was nothing special - and that's really nitpicking. Yuri greeted us at breakfast and had a fine spread laid out for us. He brought out our dried gear, then posed for some pictures and introduced us to gramma and his uncle ("he's the General, I'm just the last soldier") while we finished getting packed up. Eventually it was time to say goodbye to Yuri and his hospitality (total cost for a room with a great view of the mountains, full breakfast, and a personal town tour guide? 35 euro per room - what a deal!), and after posing with the bikes for a group shot we took off for Gavia. Not even we could get lost on the way to Gavia, as Yuri's road is practically on the pass.



What can I say about Passo Gavia? It was suggested to us by some Dutch riders we met on our last trip, and they described it as this "it is two way, but how do you say, sometime no possible?". With a recommendation like that Jim and I couldn't turn it down, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip - and a road whose pictures sparked concern for some of this year's group. Yes, it is that narrow. Yes, it is fun. The views are superb, the pavement, with a couple exceptions, is in great shape, and there are hairpins a'plenty. The section on the middle of the pass is what really gets your attention. While the road is just about one-car wide, it's no narrower than the western half of Wurz Joch. On Gavia, however, there is a lot of exposure on that narrow section with steep dropoffs into the abyss. We're not talking La Paz death-road drops, but you can't afford to fool around.

I had a small moment on the very first hairpin when I rode over some fresh manure on the apex, but quickly recovered. I stopped a bunch to take photos of the pass and the guys on the pass and really enjoyed my trip up to the summit. There was a lot less snow this year, possible because it was 2 weeks further into the summer than last time. Once everyone arrived at the top we hung around a bit before finishing Gavia. There isn't much to say about the northern descent, it's very scenic and has a good mix of hairpins and sweepers, but after riding (conquering?) the souther half it's a bit of a let down.

06/24, Gavia and Stelvio (Part 2)

There was a short connector road to get to the base of Stelvio, then a quick gas stop. Unlike most of the passes we've done, where finding them can sometimes be a challenge, you can't possibly miss Stelvio as there are signs all over town directing you towards it. The start of Stelvio is plenty of fun with a couple hairpins to get you warmed up. The nearly pitch-black tunnels were a challenge, as they were very narrow and often contained ninja bicyclists that you could hardly see. The best part of the ascent is when you come around one of the turns and get a glimpse of the zig-zag climb up the mountain that lay ahead of you. It definitely gets your attention.

We had to share the pass with a lot of other bikes, bicycles, cars and busses but it wasn't overly crowded - I for one had a great time. We again kept passing each other as all of us stopped for photos at one place or another, and I loved knowing that my buddies were most likely having the time of their lives today. I find the southern ascent (which we were coming in on) is more fun than the northern descent, as the northern side just seems like an endless series of hairpins with not much else to add any variety to the ride. The southern side does have a lot of hairpins (and since we were going up they were trickier) but it's not the defining feature - there's a lot of different types of turns to keep you entertained. I had a twinge of regret when we passed the Hotel Folgore near the top, which is where we were supposed to stay last night, but I'm very happy the way things turned out.

Correcto mundo!;-)  I think he passed me on the inside in the next corner.  I never did get a good look at what he was riding; it was a big and rather loud v-twin.  I tried hanging with him for awhile, he was attacking curves aggressively with a little too much careless abandon for my comfort level.

I'll point another picture of his bike in the next post - it was a Guzzi Griso.

Regarding the MV Senna pic listed way up on the page, going on memory the Senna bike was a Ducati 916. I did not realize MV made a version. :headscratch:  

Neither did I, but... http://www.mvagustausa.com/web-mvagusta/07_F4_SENNA.html

06/24, Gavia and Stelvio (Part 3)

The top of Stelvio was, as usual, a circus. On my 2009 trip the very cold temperatures and strong winds probably kept the crowds thin, but today was a beautiful summer afternoon. Bikes by the hundreds, dozens of souvineer vendors, several food carts, all contributed to the carnival-like atmosphere - which I loved. We squeezed the bikes into a hole in the crowd and walked around the top of Stelvio shopping, eating and oggling the bikes. One of the things Dave (and probably Peter) was looking forward to was the possibility, I kid you not, of skiing while we were here. It might have worked out had we stayed here last night, but there certainly wasn't enough time today to make that happen. As a consolation prize we decided to take the cablecar from the top of Stelvio to the ski areas just to check out the view. Now I'm not a huge fan of cable cars, but the things we do for our friends...



We killed some time on top of the mountain, and I have to say I was blown away by the scenery. We do a lot of vacationing in the Rockies in Colorado and I always feel at home in the mountains. It was very cool to look down and see bikers riding on Stelvio, then look over and see people skiing down the slopes. As I said before I'm no fan of riding in cable cars, but this was definitely worth the few minutes of elevated heartrate.

Thankfully we didn't have as long a day ahead of us as last time, but we still needed to get moving again to make it to Linderhof at a reasonable hour. Back down the mountain we went, and after a quick round of stamp/postcard buying got ready to roll out.

Made me sad - not a single STN sticker to be seen - we deserve some recognition!

Wow there's a lot of pictures from this day - stay tuned for part 4!

06/24, Gavia and Stelvio (Part 4)

Uh-oh.

On a couple of occasions earlier in the trip Frank's Varadero experienced some troubles starting but after a couple stabs at the starter would eventually fire up. This time, up at the very top of Passo Stelvio, one day before the bikes had to be returned, it steadfastly refused to start. It would crank and crank but never turn over.

Uh-oh.

Our first thought was to try bump-starting the bike, so Frank rolled out into the middle of the zaniness and tried, without success, to bump-start the bike. And tried, and tried. Figuring this was our best bet at getting things going, Frank used the downhill grade of the pass to repeatedly try to get the bike going. We had a quick discussion before deciding which way to descend, and agreed that there was it made more sense to head to the town at the southern entrance (which we passed through earlier) rather than continuing north into unknown territory. The three of us waited at the top, fully expecting Frank to roar on by in a few minutes. When it was obvious that wasn't going to happen, I headed downhill to catch up with him and see what was going on.

Frank was on dirt pull-off area trying to get the bike started. He had coasted down a number of hairpins repeatedly trying to get the bike to life. We looked the bike over for a while, doing a lot of beard-stroking and head-scratching, and Frank thought maybe the bike was low on oil. The sightglass really didn't show any oil, so that was a concern. I left Frank there and rode (quickly) back up to Dave and Peter and sent them on an errand to find a biker with some spare oil. Returning (quickly) to Frank, enough time had passed with the bike stationary that the sightglass was showing an acceptable oil level. Frank wanted to try some more bump-starting, so I rode (quickly) up to Dave and Peter to call them off the oil search.

We all rode back down to Frank and when he left to continue coasting down the pass we had some time to discuss our options. Perhaps we could find a biker with more mechanical skills to help us out, or maybe there was a shop down in town that could fix the bike. If the bike was dead, though, what would we do? The bikes were due back tomorrow (Saturday) by 1, but we could be later if needed. Dave and Peter had reservations on a train to Rome Saturday night, and my family was arriving in Munich Sunday morning. While you never want to leave a man behind, it wouldn't make any sense for all of us to stay together if the Varadero wouldn't run. There were a couple hotels right on the summit that had rooms and restaurants, so it wouldn't be like we were leaving Frank to the wolves in the wilderness. Still, no one really looked forward to abandoning one of the group. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

We watched Frank below us, slowly working his way downhill before pulling into another parking area, and we rode down to join him. I had put PDF's of service manuals and owners manuals for all the bikes both on my phone and my iPad, so we started doing some reading. Of course nothing really helped. We called Herman, this time knowing the trick of dialing + in front of the number. After playing a little phone tag on his answering machine he got back to us, but didn't really have any helpful advice. Eventually he said he would try to find a mechanic nearby that could come help us out. OK, that was a plan.



Literally the minute we hung up with Herman the bike started. Wahoo! We'd probably spent 30 minutes poking and prodding the Varadero to no avail, and now, magically, it was running just fine. I called Hermann back to tell him we were fine (for now), and told Frank not to turn the bike off under penalty of death. We rode back up to the summit and started our descent on the other side. Whew.

Had a great ride down Stelvio, enjoying the photo stops in this perfect weather and getting in a nice groove when I got back on the bike.

Your last Alps report was excellent.

This one is just superb.

The best Alps report I have read.

Bravo.

 :thumbsup:

Holy page load batman!

I had to refresh the page 3 or 4 times because I kept running into the dreaded red X's.

But I'm loving it. You guys are a quartet of lucky ducks. Wish I could, but glad you did, and are sharing!  :bigok:

I still have dial-up - you should try waiting for that to load - I logon & go to dinner! :D  

Someday maybe our neighborhood will get broadband.  My neighborhood has fiber optic, but not our township.



While you were gone, I pulled every fuse - and I mean every fuse on the bike - and looked for a blown fuse. I had to fish a few out with needlenose and was praying I didn't drop one into some unknown recess.   I had a supply of spare fuses and was hoping to find something blown, even though the bike was still cranking over.  

I could not smell gas, but I suspected it might be flooded by now; although I have been able to bump start flooded engines in the past, particularly with the amount of downhill coasting I did with the engine engaged.  Pulling the plug and checking for a spark would have been a major job, and I didn't think we had the tools or time for it because I'm pretty sure it required lifting the tank.  But that would have told me whether I had a spark and allowed a flooded cylinder to dry out.  Whatever the problem, the combination of waiting, praying, calling Herman and the change in altitude did the trick.   (Perhaps my prayers got heard because we were so close to Heaven.  ;)),

PS I did discover why my heated grips weren't working in the process - big consolation - law of unintended consequenses :lol:

06/24, Gavia and Stelvio (Part 5)

We regrouped at the entrance to the pass and looked at our options for getting north to Linderhof, our town for the last night of the group trip. Linderhof was close enough to Landshut to make an easy ride Saturday morning to return the bikes, and not so far from Stelvio that getting there would be a stretch for the day. Of course we were planning on starting the day on top of Stelvio rather than having to cross Gavia, but it was still doable. We had about a little over 2 hours of uninteresting roads ahead of us before there was an option to head over a pass, and then another hour and a half or so to get to the hotel.

There were a couple amusing moments on the last section of road leaving the area of Stelvio - one was watching a guy push a solar-powered bicycle uphill, and the other was my having to abort a passing attempt on a bicycle. The guy was doing a good clip downhill, and I couldn't get a clear enough section to get around him. Frustrating, but also very funny.

Nothing really interesting to say about the next 2 hours, other than advising you that if you see wind farms in the valley you're riding through (as opposed to on the hilltops), hang on! We were all getting pushed around quite a bit for a while, but at least that helped relieve the boredom a little. It was probably more than just boredom that was contributing to my melancholy - we had just finished the last major pass of the trip and the bikes were going back tomorrow. I know I was not looking forward to this adventure coming to an end.

At the next gas stop I convinced Peter to switch bikes with me as I was eager to give the FJR a test in it's natural habitat - fast B roads, sweepers, traffic to squirt around, etc. I don't think super-tight hairpin roads showed the FJR in it's best light and wanted to give it a fair shake. I don't think Peter was that thrilled to be back on the TDM, but being the nice guy he is he indulged me.

Indeed, I ended up enjoying the FJR a lot more on these open roads. The seat is sofa-like in width, the windscreen provided a pretty serene cockpit, and the motor was a lot of fun to wind out when room allowed. I could definitely see the appeal of a bike like this in the states, where a much larger percentage of time is spent on less technical roads.

We felt we were making good enough time to detour off the fast B roads and make a run over Hahntennjoch. There was also some concern over possible toll roads and whether we were required to have vignettes if we stuck to the "shortest time" route, plus I know I wasn't going to say no to a chance at a pass on the last full day of riding. Hahntennjoch turned out to be nearly deserted, I don't think we saw more than 10 vehicles while we were there. The south side had some very big views of green hills, and a road that hugged the mountain. The northern descent was more of the same to start, then turned into the familiar scene of switchback after switchback. I was glad I had switched back to my TDM at the top of the pass for the twistier descent.



The rain started when we got to the bottom of the pass, but not hard enough to warrant rain gear. The route from here to the hotel was primarily on empty, endlessly twisting backroads, which was a great wind-down to the day. Nothing especially challenging, or fantastically scenic, but just nice curve after curve after curve, with a very occasional hairpin or two thrown in. Think of a European version of the Blue Ridge Parkway and you'll get the idea. We had a group of bikers behind us for longer than usual, but eventually they decided to wick it up and sped past us. Watching them ride 2 abreast through some of the really tight turns was eye-opening.

We were getting pretty cold by the last half-hour or so, and between that, the drizzly rain and the long day behind us some of us were more than ready to get to the hotel. The Schlosshotel Linderhof looked deserted when we arrived, but there was someone at the front desk when we dragged our soggy butts inside. The world's tiniest elevator whisked us to our rooms where we got quickly changed for dinner before the restaurant closed. We were the only people in the dining room by the time we got down there, and it was obvious the staff wanted to get out of there. The only thing on the short menu that appealed to me was the salad, but the other guys were more adventurous. The beer was icy cold and most welcome.

Tomorrow will be just a short ride to return the bikes. Bummer.



 

Brilliant ride report and pics Ken.
We were just a few days behind you and it has been great fun reading your report and reminiscing about our own trip.

I tottally agree that the Dolomites are the most fantastic riding areas.

Would have been great fun to meet up with you guys.

You can read my version of our trip here  http://seqtrailrider.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/06/the-dolomites.html  if you want to compare notes, but I should warn you, my pics are not a patch on yours.
Cant wait for the rest.

06/25, Return to Munich

I woke up extra early to get a little riding in before breakfast. There were a couple interesting roadsigns that I had been meaning to get pictures of when we were in Germany early in the trip, but I kept passing them by thinking "I'll get the next one". Well, eventually you run out of "next ones" and you have to go back. The road south from the hotel was unsurprisingly deserted at this hour of a Saturday morning, and I had no trouble pulling off the road to get my shots.

Back at the hotel, the highlight of breakfast was hot fresh croissants, of which I ate too many. We packed up the bikes for the last time and discussed out options for the ride back to Landshut. We didn't have a whole lot of extra time to waste, but we were loathe to just plot a direct Autobahn route on our last day riding in Europe. We worked out a fair compromise that had us on the High Alpine Road for about half the morning before picking up the Autobahn for the remainder.



The High Alpine Road turned out to be a nice enough way to spend the morning, nothing demanding and some decent views along the way. There must have been some event going on in, or south of, Linderhof because literally hundreds of clasic BMW 3.0's and 2002's passed us for most of the morning heading south. There was also a pack of 5 Lotus Elises that got my attention. We had our usual GPS shenanigans but didn't get too far off our route.

The stretch on the Autobahn was actually quite fun, and not too crazy. While there were certainly some folks going faster than us, no one flashed by us like the Audi's on day 1. I don't know how many times we had to switch Autobahns on the way, but we certainly had to pay attention to the GPS and road signs to keep swapping routes. The TDM was really happy up to about 120kph (about 75mph), after that the buffeting was pretty strong. Anything faster than 160kph (about 100mph) and it really felt like it was out of its element, wandering around and feeling really loose. I bet the FJR was happy as a clam - if the US had something akin to the Autobahn where you could legally go as fast as you want a GT-type bike like the FJR or Connie14 would be at the top of my shopping list.

I was beginning to feel a little worn out during our time on the Autobahn. I don't know if it was just the early morning ride I had done, or the prospect of returning the bikes was weighing on me, or if maybe we'd just strung together too many intense riding days. Pretty much for 8 days solid we've been on the bikes, often on quite demanding mountain passes. I'm not saying I was ready to give up, or that I was dangerously fatigued, but I was not feeling as charged up as I was a few days ago. Maybe next time I'll try to work in a day (or half day at least) of downtime in the middle of the trip.

The last order of business before returning the bikes to Herman was gassing them up. Seemed like it would be a simple task, but finding a gas station in Landshut proved elusive. Twice the Zumo took us to phantom gas stations that either never existed or had gone out of business. I ended up stopping a guy walking in the street and pointing to my gas tank. He pointed down the road we were heading on and said "2 kilometers". Sure enough, local knowledge trumped computer datasets and the gas station was where he said. Filled up, used the restroom (using the restroom at the bike shop was an arduous task involving walking through the crane garage and the fire/ambulance hall due to some repairs being done), got some snacks, and, not without a little sadness, got on the bikes for the last time. The 5 minute ride to Herman's was over much too quickly.

I was a litle concerned about the damage (although only cosmetic) from Peter's FJR tip-over being a costly issue, but the guys at the shop didn't so much as look at the bikes while we unpacked. What a difference from Moto Mader in Switzerland, where they thoroughly examined the bike with clipboard in hand, making lots of notations. Herman and crew just made sure we had gotten all our stuff from the bikes, returned our gear (looking much the worse for wear, especially my fresh-from-the-box boots), gave us back our suitcases and thanked us for the business. We drug our suitcases across town and took a (standing room only) train back to Munich.



I don't have any more notes from that day, so I'll try to remember what I can. We checked back into the NH hotel near the HBF, and walked back towards Marienplatz. Along the way we stopped for lunch at the Augustiner Keller beirgarten and managed to escape a bit of rain, and then generally wandered around the old town center.



Remember the bachelor party guys from my first days in Munich? This weekend appeared to be all about the girls. We came across a bunch of differently-costumed groups of girls having a great time and often getting the locals involved in the fun. If anyone knows more about this tradition I'd love to hear about it.



After wandering around for a bit after lunch we ended up at the beer garden in the Hofgarten behind the Residenz where we took our time enjoying some beer and conversation. This would really be our last time together - Dave and Peter were heading to Rome that night, Frank was flying home in the morning, and I would be remaining in Europe with my family for a while.



One of the oddest experiences of the trip happened on the walk back to the hotel when we came across a candlelight vigil at a Michael Jackson shrine. Dozens of folks were praying, crying, holding hands, several dressed as MJ himself. I was speechless.



We got back to the hotel and said our goodbyes to Frank, and I let Dave and Peter grab showers in my room before catching their train. I walked with them over to the train station, and with a couple handshakes they were gone and the Alps 2011 motorcycling adventure was at an end.

Well folks, that's it for the motorcycle-riding part of this trip. It was (another) trip of a lifetime, and I was very sorry to see it end.

But wait! There's more!

I remained in Europe for another 2 weeks with my family, and I managed to work in a few motorcycle-related activities - namely attending the MotoGP race in Mugello and a visit to the Ducati factory and museum. I'll be writing about (and of course posting tons of pics from) from those events in this thread as well. So please stay tuned over the next few days.

I also want to post some final thoughts on the group trip, but that's going to take a while to craft.

Thanks so much for reading thus far, and for all your comments, I really do appreciate them.

Think the MJ memorial is bad wait until Hasselhoff kicks the bucket.  :D

Here's some pics from the start of the family trip.  I'll do full write-ups on the MotoGP race and the Ducati tour, these are just some interesting random shots.



Going over Timmelsjoch we saw these guys having a blast at the top:

did somebody mentioned Ducati gelato??...
(http://taylorshocks.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/entourage_drama_8623.jpg)

Fantastic report  :clap:

I agree with FJR-UK. This is a great shot. It has a curve, it has a bike leaned over and it has a backdrop. Calendar pic  :bigok:

(http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2011-06-11%20Alps/06-21/Alps2011_2011-06-21_16-46-02.jpg)

Your interaction with your GPS would drive me to distraction  :omgomgomg:

 :D

That's all the odds and ends leading up to the MotoGP race.  Next post will be a big one  :thumbsup:

Hey Ken
What about starting a new post about the moto gp, with a link from here. Might be better for thise of us on limited data plans and to save reloading all your brilliant pics.

Just a thought I love your ride reports but having to reload this page all the time sucks up the data.

7/3, Mugello MotoGP

I knew this was going to be one of the highlights of the vacation, a chance to see a MotoGP race in Italy. I've been to the MotoGP in Indianapolis for the last 3 years (and going this year), and have always had a blast - even during Hurricane Ike the first year. This Mugello race would mark Valentino Rossi's first appearance in Italy on a Ducati, and European fans are more enthusiastic then their American counterparts, so I was confident this would be quite an event.

Since I had the family with me we were only going to attend on race day and skipping Friday and Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions. I had bought 2 general admission tickets for Sunday (children get in free to GA with adults) over the internet prior to leaving for the trip, and made sure we worked our travel plans to keep us near Mugello for the night before the race. We wound up staying in Bologna, about an hour north of the circuit. Florence is closer, but much pricier to stay in. There are also a few hotels in the town next to the track that would have enabled us to walk to the race, but they were long since sold out.

On race day morning I hustled the family out of the Holiday Inn Express bright and early for the ride down to Mugello. I had read many reports about how the traffic getting to the circuit could be bumper to bumper so I wanted to allow as much time as possible. By 7:15am we were on the Autostrada heading south. Things got tense for me when we split off the Autostrada on the GPS's say-so. There really weren't any signs for the track at this point, and the road we turned onto was a narrow two-lane twisting country lane. I was very stressed that we were on the wrong road as it took around 20 minutes before we saw the first sign for Autodromo Mugello. We started passing people parked on the roadside, but the GPS said we were still 5 miles from the track. Being a rule-abiding law-fearing American I waited until we found an organized parking lot (albeit a grass field with a guy taking 10 euro notes) a few miles further.

It was still a long, long walk to the circuit, first down a road, then up a steep grassy hill, then across a grass lot, then down a wooded lane, then finally the short road to the circuit entrance. If there were no crowds to follow there's no way we would have known where to go.

When I said before that I got tickets, that turned out to not actually be the case - I got vouchers for tickets. The instructions on the vouchers were vague, in one part saying "you must exchange these at the venue for tickets" and in another saying "not good at venue". I guess in the excitement of being on vacation I forgot about that part, and when I presented them to the lady at the ticket booth all I got was a head shake. "No good". I would need to walk back to the car, leave the parking lot and drive 7 kilometers to another town to get to the place where I should exchange them. Then drive back in ever-increasing traffic, find another place to park and hoof it back to the track. Sigh. "I'd like two $120 general admission tickets please". Normally this would have pretty much ruined my day, but this time I just let it go - I'm not going to have my one day at a European MotoGP round ruined by my own stupidity.



Once we got inside the gates it became obvious just how crazy busy this place was. Masses of people everywhere, motorcycles and scooters moving in both directions on the same paths everyone was walking, tent villages setup on prime viewing locations, trash everywhere, etc. At Indianapolis everything is very well organized, everyone doing what they're supposed to, lots of open space, tons of staff on hand, etc. This, in comparison, was anarchy. And I loved it!

Where we first walked in we had a pretty good view of turn 12, but there were so many tents there you would have to stand the whole day to see what was happening on the track. We watched some of the warmups from this spot, then decided to try to find someplace better. It was not at all obvious how to get to the other side of the track so we just started walking the side we were on. We eventually settled on a nice spot on a hillside that gave us a great view of turns 8,9, and 15, as well as a distant but decent view of turns 6 and 7. With the exception of getting lucnh we pretty much planted ourselves on that section of hill for the day.

Wow!    :clap:

More coming tomorrow  :thumbsup:

I want to apologize to any readers hoping for good shots of racing action. Normally at Indy I can get close enough to produce some decent photos (http://www.kendenton.org/ducati/2008-09-14 MotoGP/racinggallery/index.html), but that was clearly not possible at Mugello. As thrilled as I was to be at a European round of MotoGP, for the actual viewing experience Indy does it much better. There are a lot more giant video screens in Indy (didn't see any at Mugello), far more food and drink vendors, vastly superior restroom facilities (both permanent and portable), and the elbow room and general organization enabling you to get around easily. Don't get me wrong, I loved Mugello, and would do it again in a heartbeat, but Indy is a much "nicer" experience.



After the 125 race my family decided they were hungry so we set off to find some food - as did thousands of others. Just walking on the path was taking forever, as it was jammed with people and bikes. The large food tent was packed to overflowing, and the heat was starting to get the better of us. We ended up with some hot dogs from a cart and worked out way back to our hillside seats. Fortunately for my wife and son there was a nice shady tree a little higher on the hillside for them to hang out under and escape the sun, although you couldn't see the track from there. I braved the heat for the Moto2 race, and summoned them when it was time for MotoGP.



Different way of preparing hot dogs. The rolls are impaled on one of the metal spikes in the right of the picture, which toast them from the inside. When ready, the hot dog is inserted into the hole in the bun from the spike. Every parent of a toddler in the US would appreciate this method - no more hot dogs rolling away.



It was great to watch Valentino work his way up a few positions during the race, even if he did only end up in 6th. I had read that you should not even think about trying to leave the circuit right after the race as you'd spend hours just sitting in traffic. I'd also read that things get pretty crazy on the track, so we figured we'd hang around a while and see what develops.

What I didn't expect was that the next hour was going to be one of the absolute highlights of the whole trip, both for me and my son.

As we started slowly walking to the exit it was obvious that people were lining up (well, lining up implies some kind of organization, let's say they were massing) at the certain places along the fence. From what I had read I was expecting there would be a few crazy folks that rushed the track against the rules, but there were hundreds of people just at this spot. Figured we'd watch and see how this plays out. After 10 minutes or so the crowd started surging forward - someone opened a gate in the fence. Suddenly everyone was storming past us, with plenty of motorcycles, scooters and bicycles mixed. People were climbing over the Armco and tire wall, and running onto the track. I took a minute to survey the situation, and figured "when in Rome...". I motioned to my wife, who was hanging far back from the throng at the fence, that we were going in. I grabbed my son and in a minute we were getting filthy climbing the tire wall. We made our way across the gravel trap and finally onto the track, with my son absolutely in disbelief the whole time.

The action on the track was pure (delightful) chaos. Motorcycles zooming in every direction, people running around, guys riding their bicycles around the circuit, burnouts, wheelies, you name it. There were literally thousands of people all over the track. Man oh this was fun.

After a while my wife even came out to join us, smartly finding a place where you didn't have to climb through tires. We hung out for a while watching the zaniness before finding a gate to exit through. In retrospect I really wish we had walked a lap of the track, that would have been fantastic.

The walk out was a challenge, every square inch of space was jammed with pedestrians, bikes and cars and the heat was pretty intense. I think we bought 4 bottles of water just in that walk. Once we got to the car it actually wasn't too bad getting out of the lot (out the back entrance anyway, the line for the front exit never really moved) and while the roads were busy it did move along pretty well. It was fun watching all the bikes passing everyone, even if some of the moves looked risky. On a normal day Italian bikers ride like men possessed, after spending a day at the racetrack, well, it certainly got their blood flowing even more.



The only big delay was the last mile or so before the Autostrada entrance. It could have been even worse, but they had workers stationed at the tolls helping everyone get through - impressive! One more slowdown on the Autostrada at the scene of a motorcycle accident, and finally we collapsed back at the hotel, exhausted.

I can't emphasize strongly enough how much fun I had at Mugello. Yes, it was hot. Yes, it was very crowded. Certainly unorganized. Pitiful facilities for food and bathrooms. Plus it cost me nearly $400 for general admission tickets. Knowing all that, I'd go again in a heartbeat. Everyone there was having such a great time, the chaos and excitement was addictive. I know I will do another European MotoGP round one day, perhaps Jerez or LeMans. Have to start saving some more pennies...

Next up is a post on the Ducati Factory Tour and Museum (after I return from the Indy MotoGP  :D)

Hey Ken
I am loving this ride report.
Have to agree with you about the Mayhem of the italians. I just loved it. The track invasion chaos was one of the most funnest things I have ever done and i must admit to getting caught up in all. Ordinarily I wouldnt do this in a fit, but it seemed ok at the time.
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6066/6078556491_d884e483a7_z.jpg)

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6090/6079096330_669ec63475_z.jpg)

hey ya didnt find my back pack did ya. It came off the bike around where you were while I was being silly. :-)

That will be a moment that you (and your son!) will never forget!  What an experience!  

OK folks, sorry for the delay.  Between the Indy MotoGP (https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,66333.0.html), the Millville AMA races (https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,66449.0.html) and work it's been difficult to find time to work on the trip report.  Fortunately it's been a slow day in the office  :thumbsup:

07/05, Ducati Factory and Museum Tour

After attending the MotoGP race on Sunday my son and I were even more excited about the tour of the Ducati factory and museum that we had scheduled months ago. It was easy to sign up for one, just go here http://www.ducati.com/company/book_your_visit/index.do and enter your details. It was 10 euro per person, and well worth the price.

We had heard that you must arrive early for your tour to get checked in, so we made sure we were in Borgo Panigale in plenty of time. About 30 minutes before our tour was scheduled to leave we checked in at the main factory gate, and then waited outside with about a dozen other folks. At 10 minutes before our scheduled start our lovely Italian tour guide showed up and we were off.


First stop was the small Ducati Musem store where we had to pay for our tour, then it was off to the factory floor. Our tour guide explained that the front, smaller part of the factory complex was the street motorcycle area, which is what we would be seeing. The larger half of the factory was Ducati Corse, the racing division, which she says she's never even seen the inside of. "Very secret, special keycards".

Of course we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the factory. I was surprised to learn that almost nothing is "made" in the factory, nearly everything comes from suppliers and is assembled here. I think the engine crankshaft was one of the only parts made in-house. There were 3 assembly lines, one for Monsters and Hypermotards, one for superbikes/streetfighters, and one for Diavels and Multistradas (iirc). The Diavel/Multistrada line was the old Desmosedici line. She said the new Multistrada was a huge success, and that the Superbikes are not popular in Europe (too "sporty").

I was hoping to see a huge river of red paint running through the middle of the factory, Willy Wonka style, with happy Italians scampering about dipping trellis frames in the waters, but was disappointed. At this point there are no paint facilities on site. They are hoping to add that ability soon.

The factory tour took about 30 minutes, and then we moved over to the Museum. Camera were whipped out, and jaws dropped as we were led around past some simply gorgeous machinery. She would stop at certain bikes and give us some history as to it's importance, and happily answered any questions asked. Sadly the tour was over much too quickly, and you weren't allowed to wander around without a guide.



While the museum store didn't have a lot of items to choose from (quite frankly by this point I was practically salivating to buy something (else) with a Ducati logo), we were told the official Factory Store just across the street would meet our needs. Boy, were they right. I've never seen so much Ducati merchandise in one place - shirts, hats, jackets, gloves, helmets, books, videos, keychains, flags, pens, watches, mugs, toys, bicycles, motorycles, you name it. Our tour ticket came with a 5 euro coupon good for merchandise purchased at the store. In the end, we exercised some restraint and ended up with just hats for my son and I.



It was a little sad pulling away from the Ducati store and starting our drive to Vinci. After 10 days of riding the alps, attending the MotoGP race in Mugello, and now touring the Ducati factory and musuem, this was the last biking-related activity of the vacation. That chapter was closing, and the rest of the trip, while expected to be wonderful, would not in some way revolve around bikes.

 

Some more random photos from the family part of the trip:

Awesome report!  All of it.  Although I think the biggest takeaway for me is the need for some good Italian food.

+1 on that CB1300S  :drool:

Ah, Houston, we have a problem.

All of the Ducati tour images and after are "not found" even when I try opening the links directly (bit of cut and paste magic to grab the images' URL's).  

Everything before that is OK.

 :headscratch:

Web server issue.  Should be ok now.

 :bigok: