Sunday 15 July 2012

In Conclusion

Although the trip was 2 weeks it feels to have been a lot longer. It is nice, however, just to have to unpack for once.

We did roughly 2,500 miles excluding the ferries.

Highlights:


  • Castellane (location and hotel)
  • The Grand Hotel - Sete
  • The restaurant in Andermatt
  • Bad Oberdorf (easy call as this is our home from home)
  • All the route apart from blind hairpins and German Autobahns.


Room for Improvement:


  • Sete - didn't realise it would be so touristy. I expected nice sea food restaurants not a mass of all you can eat for €20 establishments.
  • Val D'Isere - if it closes for summer it should say so.
  • Andermatt - currently under reconstruction.
  • German autobahns - unbelievable road works!


Thanks go to all those who contributed to the trip with route and accommodation suggestions (oh - that will be me...), my pillion photographer, and last but by no means least the bike which lugged us and our copious luggage across Europe without missing a beat.

Thanks for reading. I hope it was worth it (even for the one view the blog has had from Iran!).

The tour + Le Tour


The timing of our tour purposefully clashes with the start of the Tour de France as it is good at the end of a days ride to check in and watch the end of the days stage - or, as in some cases after long days this year, the highlights in the evening!

Whilst Cavendish looks to be saved for the Olympics it is great to see Wiggins in yellow. It's just disappointing that the story for cycling still relates to doping as opposed to the effort made by Team Sky to conquer the Tour.

The route across the South Coast of France and in the Pyrenees actually retraces some of our route and so I will be looking forward to relieving parts of our trip.

Friday 13 July 2012

Mc Surfing

The hotel WIFI was too poor to mess around with photos so I'm taking advantage of Ronald's hospitality.

Guess which country we are in?


Do the bikes give it away? This one hasn't moved for a while!


Killing time now with an hour to go before we can board our ferry home from Rotterdam to Hull.

The Moselle (German Mosel) River

Our destination for the evening was Klotten near Cochem, right on the side of the river.

I specifically asked for a river view. What I didn't know was the main railway line also runs along this part of the river i.e. no open windows if you want to sleep.



The river hosts some big boats,


The hotel caters for bikers and has a great garage which must have been some former dance hall.




At least it is handy for the station.



R+R (Rain + Roadworks!!!!!)

Today should have been a steady blast along Germany's famed de-restricted autobahns making 500km less than 5 hours including a few stops. It took us 7 1/2 hours!!!

Every motorway had some works going on. On the motorbike you are able to filter which at least keeps you moving. Most people accept filtering - apart from one guy, but I put this down to part of my education of learning new hand gestures.

The worst section without doubt was the A8 between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, a busy stretch at the best of times with plenty of intersections, and now all being dug up. Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh.

I would like to see the people responsible for this put up at the side of the road similar to the end of Spartacus.....

I have a 'Swabian' friend in Stuttgart who is investigating - when he returns from his next trip to Rio.

Wednesday 11 July 2012

And breathe

It's been well over a week since I had the opportunity to clean the bike - so


A proper biker's wardrobe


And relax


To Bavaria (Bad Oberdorf)

Coming out of Switzerland we pass Lake Lucerne - one of my favourites for the crystal blue colour.




Onwards to Lake Constance (German Bodensee) which serves as the border between Switzerland, Austria and Germany. It's Europe's third largest lake at 40 miles long and is the source of the river Rhine.

Our stop off is at Bregenz in Austria where we previously went to the opera to see La Tosca.

Opera - me!

Well yes as the location is a bit special - it's on the Lake. It was used in the first James Bond film with Daniel Craig.

The current show is Andrea Chenier.


The impressive stage is on the lake and the auditorium on the shore.




Bregenz mind games


The trip is drawing to a close as we get back on familiar ground. The forecast for our day off in Bad Oberdorf is not good :(

Then one nights stop on the Moselle before heading back for the ferry and again the forecast is not good - but this is nothing compared with the weather back in the UK so no complaints.

White van drivers


Andermatt

This nice town in Switzerland is a favourite with bikers as every road out is an alpine pass.



The emblem of the town is a bear and this is very evident on flags and signs including the main roundabout.


Andermatt is currently the beneficiary of a significant investment by an Egyptian Billionaire developer Orascom to make the area into a major European skiing resort. The Developer courted many potential alpine resorts before choosing Andermatt - no doubt helped by the Swiss Government relaxing the normally strict legislation on non Swiss acquiring property.

The planned £1BN scheme will include hotels/apartments/villas, a golf course and crucially will expand the skiing area by linking the existing facilities to an adjacent region and the provision of new lifts to provide the real attraction for the resort.

However things are not going to plan. The apartments are not selling and work has yet to start on the key to the whole project - the skiing works. Doubts are being raised about the viability of the whole project and if the town will be left as a building site.

Has somebody sold something to somebody?


Why do I tell this story?

Because the noise from the bloody construction work was annoying!

Monday 9 July 2012

St Bernard Passes

Todays route was to take in the Little and Grand St Bernard passes and finish with the Furka pass. The Little pass is on the border between France and Italy, the Grand pass is between Italy and Switzerland.


The passes were routes used by Pilgrims and St Bernard set up monasteries and hospices to look after travellers, assisted by the St Bernard breed of dog.





He is celebrated on both peaks.




as are the dogs.



Rolling along the valley floor in Switzerland we came across this guy on his mobility scooter. We were in a 50 kph (30 mph) speed limit and couldn't lose him!


We crossed the Furka pass on our first European bike tour.


Then, as we 'wobbled' around death drop hair-pin bends, the pillion photographer went on strike. How things change...


Val D'Isere - Disappointing :(

I was looking forward to seeing this ski resort, it was always one I remembered from watching David Vine on Ski Sunday.

The truth is it does so well as a winter ski resort it does not really put itself out in summer.

There were some places open during the day, but less in the evening. We took a cable car to find nowhere open at the top plus the car then stopped running to stop for lunch.

Well VDI - if you can't be bothered in summer I can't be bothered recommending you and I doubt we will see each other again.





One gadget too many?


(Click photo to enlarge)

Sunday 8 July 2012

To Val D'Isere

The French standard of driving is pretty poor with a tendency not to signal and pull out into traffic at will. Whilst this has introduced a new phenomenon of pillion rage.....it was not the reason for our biggest 'near miss' to date.

There are plenty of loose dogs around on the alps and one ran out as we were cruising at 60 mph. We were fortunate it realised at the last moment.

Our ride was to follow part of the famous Route de Grandes Alpes including conquering four mountains (Cols).

Col d'Allos (1792m) - very narrow and not that enjoyable.

Col de Vars (2109m) - OK

Col du Galibier (2642m) - great pass made better with the cycling event.

Col de L'Iseran (2770m) - another great pass with plenty of snow still around.



Good - it's open.



Tunnel at the top of the Galibier.


The Valloire area looks very good (stones on the mountainside).


This is the first sign we saw for Val d'Isere out of a 330km journey.