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EUROPE MC TRIP 2003/ Shu and BiG Sid
This is a ride report from BiG Sid, from August '03, with Scott shumaker, through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and lotsa other places. My wife and I flew from Seattle to Amsterdam, then to Nuremberg, where shu picked us up and drove us to his home in Keltenbrun. For the first week they were having a heat wave with temps hovering around 100 degrees F., and with jet lag, we could do nothing but sit in the shade and drink great German beer in copious amounts!
On August 11th Shu and I have packed up the Cagiva Raptor 1000, I will ride, and the Suzuki 650 SV Shu will ride, and we leave for parts unknown travelling light since we are going to "motel" it rather than tent. We follow all the small backroads that wind and weave through forests of Fir and fields of corn or harvested hay. The Raptor is a splendid ride, and after a few initial stumbles, while I learn it's characteristics riding, the smoothness and big torque of the machine are wonderful to play with. The houses in each village seem to be attached to the road edge, sometimes it is so narrow that single file is the only way through town. You just seem to catch top gear, cruise, then slow for another village, but each village is different, except for the red tiled clay roofs, colorful painted walls, and the cobblestones, and corners. When the streets are this narrow, it is alarming how much of "your" road space a huge tour bus can absorb when they follow the roads through towns. All of the houses are pretty well the same design, with 2 or 3 stories, peaked roof of red clay tiles, and colorful painted stucco or plaster over red square bricks. Some wood exposed sections are attached, with wooden balconies on each floor. Some of these places are over 200 years old, but most are newer, they just look old. Every town has a large church with a steeple, that rings out the hour,, each 15 minute segment, and and infinite number of gongs at 6:00 AM, suposedly historically to wake the people up to go to work in the fields. There are large open areas to view the surrounding scenery, interspersed with rolling hills. The morning is cool in temperature, with no wind, but it is getting hotter! Shu, is lead hand and I am happy to be in the rear slot. We ride at a conservative pace and are always "hounded" by cars behind who pass when they cannot see what is ahead and seem to be a danger to all. This is an ongoing aspect of riding over here and causes me to monitor my mirrors all of the time. We leave Amberg on Hwy 299 to Kastl, then down to Neumarkt, and all of the roads say they go to Neumarkt, but they don't! We have to turn around a number of times, and eventually we go through the big ,narrow center of the city. We leave the place and follow the "twisties" to Eichstatt, and continue on the country roads. A couple of times we crossover the Autobahn, with it's 4 lanes of traffic speeding below, and are glad to be on the winding country roads. We see other motorcyclists and everyone waves to us. We are finally forced to take a small section of the Autobahn to Augsburg, and there does not seem to be a speed limit, except for posted areas, and I see cars come up from behind and pass in the fast lane at extremely high speeds, often unannounced by their lack of headlights. If you plan to pass, you have to constantly monitor your mirrors, since it is illegal to pass traffic on the right. On one pass I make, I pull into the fast lane at 120KMH and have to go down two gears to make the pass at wide open throttle, before I am tagged by a car comming up in the fast lane. I do not like this, and yearn to get back on the country twisties. We go through tunnels in the city of Augsburg, or under overpasses and on to Landsberg. We get confused with the road signs and get lost, but manage to follow some very tiny farm routes, and get to Peisenberg. We drive around for awhile, but eventually find a place called the Alpen Hotel. We each get a small room for 34 E, and are dying for a shower and a cold beer. The temp is 38C, and after making sure the bikes are secured, we walk across to a great openair court yard across the street. Since it is Monday, most hotels etc are closed. We do find one open, and sip on great tasting beer, and just watch the people and unwind. We turn in at 11:00, and ask for a wake up call at 7:00. They have a great continental breakfast, which I later learn to call a Fruhstuck, and it is included in your room rate. We are very satiated, and head out for Fussen, which is located next to a beautiful lake. We gas up the bikes at 1Euro 7 per litre, and across the valley is King Ludwig of Bavaria's Castle shining in the morning light. The road runs between rivers, streams, plains, then mountains. It is a wonderful scenic area to ride in! We cross over into Austria, and the traffic is slow and the road very rough due to construction. There is a Unimog woth a load of branches and a guy on a Harley Davidson, who are slowing everything up ahead! This seems to go on forever, until the Harly and the truck pull off within metres of each other. We pass a place where they have parasailing, and another where there are hotair ballons.
We reach a 3 way intersection at warth, and stop for some refreshment. Motorcycles just keep passing through the junction from all 3 ways and a lot seem to be lost, because a large hotel construction project has removed the key highway sign. It is great "eye candy" to seel all the new bikes of every make go by!
Shu, suggests we book a room at this place, unload the gear, and ride! We go South from Warth on Hwy 198, where there are real tight corners and very short straights, linked with tunnels. We stop at the top of the pass and mingle with the tourists at a kiosk, where we purchase "pass pins", something we would do frequently. I take some photos of the surrounding mountains and tram lifts and we head South. We enter another tunnel about 2km long, and are forced to crawl along at about 10kmh behind a large truck with a big load. At the end of the tunnel we pull over and are greeted by an incredible scenic vista that extends down the valley for about 30km. At the next junction we head out on Hwy 188 to Ischgl. We stop at a "gasthause", where we have a well deserved bee, and then head out. It is so hot, I risk riding in shorts, with tons of sunscreen on. I am glad I have a "breathe top" on, but it to is soaked with sweat. When we stop and sit in the shade, I notice this is a very "upscale" area, and the houses, cars etc. show it.
We are on a beautiful slowly twisting rising road, and then we come to a toll booth, where we are charged 10 Euros each to use the high alpen road. It winds further and further up into incredible glaciers, a lake, and a tourist trap, where busses can go no further. I take more photos, purchase a pass pin, and some post cards, which later was a very timely purchase, and get out of the tourist masses. There are people everywhere and going is slow. Finally we get up to speed, and the road turns and twists. At the very top, we pull over to take a photo, and are mesmerized by the picture that greets us! We can see where the road goes for the next 40kms, and it is a pavement snake, that seems to get more determined to breach itself on every downward corner. HOOHAW! It takes awhile to get a corner rhythm going, and I learn some interesting lessons very quickly, about how to turn in a downward spiral when there is opposing traffic comming up! Eventually we both settle into a coordinated duo, where you feel comfortable. I actually stall the Cagiva on the steepness of one turn, and start to pay more attention to what I am doing rather than the scenery! We go down and down, left, right, left, right continuously, until we arrive at St Antoine, at the bottom. The intense heat is taking it's toll, and we stop to gas up and find what shade we can, while we swill copious amounts of water. There is a strong dry wind blowing and the temps have dropped to about 36C. We head for Bludenz, where because of an obscure pass we are trying to find, we get stuck in the city, asking directions and trying to find the pass road. Finally we find it and it is another incredible set of twisties going up the side of the valley right away. We climb and climb through small villages, that were mere specks from the bottom just one half hour ago. The trees offer what little shade they can, but eventually we are above the tree line. We are riding conservativly, but cars sit on my tail and are very rude and impatient. The rule seems to be, they are going to pass, and if something comes the other way, they will "ease" you off of the road! At one point, a mercedes "combi", with an aggressive woman driver, passes on a curve, blindly from behind me, and I can see there is a car comming, so I speed up to give her a chance to pull in behind. She does, but immediately, pulls out again, and honks agrily as she cuts Shu off in her race down the mountain. It is very irritating!! We are able to see down the pass to red topped villages we will be comming to. Some of these houses have the farm barn attached directly to the house, complete with animals and associated smells!
We come to Au, and pull into some shade at a small business center that has shade, a cash machine, and a huge Cauldron with a ice cold natural spring piped into it. AAAHHHH! It feels so good! We reach a junction, and turn East for 22km towards Wurth. This is a beautiful twisty road, with raised concrete twisty corners that tie the road together, suspended 40m in the air! The bad part is that there is a BMW at the front of the traffic doing 30kmh, and spoiling the ride! Two BMW bikes pass us, and I observe their technique at passing. Finally I am frustrated, and tired, and want to get going! I drop down a gear, pass Shu, the BMW, and drift up into a twisty! The Cagiva loves this and begs for more, so I give it! Corners are a blast when you are this close to the ground, and I flick the bike from one side to the other at speed! There are a few super tight corners which are first gear, but I have open space to play! Finally there is a long tunnel open on the valley side below, and I get a lot of speed up! The tunnel is mostly straight, and I have so much speed on, I blow by the second BMW, that passed earlier, so quickly, it startles him! I have to slow for the sharp turn at the end of the tunnel, then I am in Wurth, and pull into the parking lot of our place for the night. I watch for Shu while I strip down heading for a shower!. Shu arrives a little later, and we are both tired, thirsty, and sit and order cold beers....Nirvana!! We sit and sip and watch all the MCs go past the junction. There are makes from every manufacturer, and all the "eye candy" requires more beers! There is an Edelweiss Tour from the USA, and the numbers on the seats set them apart. Shu says that after airfare from USA to Germany, it costs about $3000 US to do the Edelweisstours on brand new BMW machines of your choice! We have a few more beers, then Shu turns in, but I stay up to watch the rise of the full moon right across the valley peaks. I finally turn in and the air is cool as all the windows and doors are opened. I have a "dead" sleep, and awake to the construction across the road at 7:00AM. We have the big free b-fast, and plan to just take it easy and rest today. The bikes are safely stored in the garage of the GastHause owner, and we plan how to use our time today! We think we will stay here again tonight, so we really don't have an agenda, except to maybe ride up the chairlift, or for Shu, to take a 150 E parasailing flight, ....tandem!
The next day is another scorcher, which requires copious libation, and this is accomplished with little protest! We draw up a sheet by brand names of motorcycles, and just sit back and count the makes that pass. At the end of the day we have counted close to 225 different cycles at the junction, and enjoyed the day immensely. I go for some short hikes around the town, and that is limited due to the lack of walking space on the roads. When I return, Shu, is having lunch, but I can't take another sauer Bratten, or Bratten Bratten, or whatever, and decide to go for a sleep. Two hours of mid day snoozing can do wonders, and I rejoin Shu on the terrace, and just watch the world roll by. Shu and I go to the Disco and play pool, and he turns in, while I wait for the moon again! At about 2 AM, I wake up to a huge storm, with high winds, lightening, thunder, etc. and watch the rain being driven horizontally past the windows! I rescue our laundry from the porch reail, close up the windows and doors. There are repeated crashes of thunder, but Shu sleeps right through them. I reawaken at about 3:30 to a sky filled with stars, and no storm. In the AM, we load up the bikes, have Fruhstuk, some very strong coffee, and head back out through the Arlberg Pass. We head to Landeck, through the wrong tunnel, which is severly polluted with Carbon Monoxide, and head out for Reschen in Italy.
Last part soon, thanks for your patience
SID
On August 11th Shu and I have packed up the Cagiva Raptor 1000, I will ride, and the Suzuki 650 SV Shu will ride, and we leave for parts unknown travelling light since we are going to "motel" it rather than tent. We follow all the small backroads that wind and weave through forests of Fir and fields of corn or harvested hay. The Raptor is a splendid ride, and after a few initial stumbles, while I learn it's characteristics riding, the smoothness and big torque of the machine are wonderful to play with. The houses in each village seem to be attached to the road edge, sometimes it is so narrow that single file is the only way through town. You just seem to catch top gear, cruise, then slow for another village, but each village is different, except for the red tiled clay roofs, colorful painted walls, and the cobblestones, and corners. When the streets are this narrow, it is alarming how much of "your" road space a huge tour bus can absorb when they follow the roads through towns. All of the houses are pretty well the same design, with 2 or 3 stories, peaked roof of red clay tiles, and colorful painted stucco or plaster over red square bricks. Some wood exposed sections are attached, with wooden balconies on each floor. Some of these places are over 200 years old, but most are newer, they just look old. Every town has a large church with a steeple, that rings out the hour,, each 15 minute segment, and and infinite number of gongs at 6:00 AM, suposedly historically to wake the people up to go to work in the fields. There are large open areas to view the surrounding scenery, interspersed with rolling hills. The morning is cool in temperature, with no wind, but it is getting hotter! Shu, is lead hand and I am happy to be in the rear slot. We ride at a conservative pace and are always "hounded" by cars behind who pass when they cannot see what is ahead and seem to be a danger to all. This is an ongoing aspect of riding over here and causes me to monitor my mirrors all of the time. We leave Amberg on Hwy 299 to Kastl, then down to Neumarkt, and all of the roads say they go to Neumarkt, but they don't! We have to turn around a number of times, and eventually we go through the big ,narrow center of the city. We leave the place and follow the "twisties" to Eichstatt, and continue on the country roads. A couple of times we crossover the Autobahn, with it's 4 lanes of traffic speeding below, and are glad to be on the winding country roads. We see other motorcyclists and everyone waves to us. We are finally forced to take a small section of the Autobahn to Augsburg, and there does not seem to be a speed limit, except for posted areas, and I see cars come up from behind and pass in the fast lane at extremely high speeds, often unannounced by their lack of headlights. If you plan to pass, you have to constantly monitor your mirrors, since it is illegal to pass traffic on the right. On one pass I make, I pull into the fast lane at 120KMH and have to go down two gears to make the pass at wide open throttle, before I am tagged by a car comming up in the fast lane. I do not like this, and yearn to get back on the country twisties. We go through tunnels in the city of Augsburg, or under overpasses and on to Landsberg. We get confused with the road signs and get lost, but manage to follow some very tiny farm routes, and get to Peisenberg. We drive around for awhile, but eventually find a place called the Alpen Hotel. We each get a small room for 34 E, and are dying for a shower and a cold beer. The temp is 38C, and after making sure the bikes are secured, we walk across to a great openair court yard across the street. Since it is Monday, most hotels etc are closed. We do find one open, and sip on great tasting beer, and just watch the people and unwind. We turn in at 11:00, and ask for a wake up call at 7:00. They have a great continental breakfast, which I later learn to call a Fruhstuck, and it is included in your room rate. We are very satiated, and head out for Fussen, which is located next to a beautiful lake. We gas up the bikes at 1Euro 7 per litre, and across the valley is King Ludwig of Bavaria's Castle shining in the morning light. The road runs between rivers, streams, plains, then mountains. It is a wonderful scenic area to ride in! We cross over into Austria, and the traffic is slow and the road very rough due to construction. There is a Unimog woth a load of branches and a guy on a Harley Davidson, who are slowing everything up ahead! This seems to go on forever, until the Harly and the truck pull off within metres of each other. We pass a place where they have parasailing, and another where there are hotair ballons.
We reach a 3 way intersection at warth, and stop for some refreshment. Motorcycles just keep passing through the junction from all 3 ways and a lot seem to be lost, because a large hotel construction project has removed the key highway sign. It is great "eye candy" to seel all the new bikes of every make go by!
Shu, suggests we book a room at this place, unload the gear, and ride! We go South from Warth on Hwy 198, where there are real tight corners and very short straights, linked with tunnels. We stop at the top of the pass and mingle with the tourists at a kiosk, where we purchase "pass pins", something we would do frequently. I take some photos of the surrounding mountains and tram lifts and we head South. We enter another tunnel about 2km long, and are forced to crawl along at about 10kmh behind a large truck with a big load. At the end of the tunnel we pull over and are greeted by an incredible scenic vista that extends down the valley for about 30km. At the next junction we head out on Hwy 188 to Ischgl. We stop at a "gasthause", where we have a well deserved bee, and then head out. It is so hot, I risk riding in shorts, with tons of sunscreen on. I am glad I have a "breathe top" on, but it to is soaked with sweat. When we stop and sit in the shade, I notice this is a very "upscale" area, and the houses, cars etc. show it.
We are on a beautiful slowly twisting rising road, and then we come to a toll booth, where we are charged 10 Euros each to use the high alpen road. It winds further and further up into incredible glaciers, a lake, and a tourist trap, where busses can go no further. I take more photos, purchase a pass pin, and some post cards, which later was a very timely purchase, and get out of the tourist masses. There are people everywhere and going is slow. Finally we get up to speed, and the road turns and twists. At the very top, we pull over to take a photo, and are mesmerized by the picture that greets us! We can see where the road goes for the next 40kms, and it is a pavement snake, that seems to get more determined to breach itself on every downward corner. HOOHAW! It takes awhile to get a corner rhythm going, and I learn some interesting lessons very quickly, about how to turn in a downward spiral when there is opposing traffic comming up! Eventually we both settle into a coordinated duo, where you feel comfortable. I actually stall the Cagiva on the steepness of one turn, and start to pay more attention to what I am doing rather than the scenery! We go down and down, left, right, left, right continuously, until we arrive at St Antoine, at the bottom. The intense heat is taking it's toll, and we stop to gas up and find what shade we can, while we swill copious amounts of water. There is a strong dry wind blowing and the temps have dropped to about 36C. We head for Bludenz, where because of an obscure pass we are trying to find, we get stuck in the city, asking directions and trying to find the pass road. Finally we find it and it is another incredible set of twisties going up the side of the valley right away. We climb and climb through small villages, that were mere specks from the bottom just one half hour ago. The trees offer what little shade they can, but eventually we are above the tree line. We are riding conservativly, but cars sit on my tail and are very rude and impatient. The rule seems to be, they are going to pass, and if something comes the other way, they will "ease" you off of the road! At one point, a mercedes "combi", with an aggressive woman driver, passes on a curve, blindly from behind me, and I can see there is a car comming, so I speed up to give her a chance to pull in behind. She does, but immediately, pulls out again, and honks agrily as she cuts Shu off in her race down the mountain. It is very irritating!! We are able to see down the pass to red topped villages we will be comming to. Some of these houses have the farm barn attached directly to the house, complete with animals and associated smells!
We come to Au, and pull into some shade at a small business center that has shade, a cash machine, and a huge Cauldron with a ice cold natural spring piped into it. AAAHHHH! It feels so good! We reach a junction, and turn East for 22km towards Wurth. This is a beautiful twisty road, with raised concrete twisty corners that tie the road together, suspended 40m in the air! The bad part is that there is a BMW at the front of the traffic doing 30kmh, and spoiling the ride! Two BMW bikes pass us, and I observe their technique at passing. Finally I am frustrated, and tired, and want to get going! I drop down a gear, pass Shu, the BMW, and drift up into a twisty! The Cagiva loves this and begs for more, so I give it! Corners are a blast when you are this close to the ground, and I flick the bike from one side to the other at speed! There are a few super tight corners which are first gear, but I have open space to play! Finally there is a long tunnel open on the valley side below, and I get a lot of speed up! The tunnel is mostly straight, and I have so much speed on, I blow by the second BMW, that passed earlier, so quickly, it startles him! I have to slow for the sharp turn at the end of the tunnel, then I am in Wurth, and pull into the parking lot of our place for the night. I watch for Shu while I strip down heading for a shower!. Shu arrives a little later, and we are both tired, thirsty, and sit and order cold beers....Nirvana!! We sit and sip and watch all the MCs go past the junction. There are makes from every manufacturer, and all the "eye candy" requires more beers! There is an Edelweiss Tour from the USA, and the numbers on the seats set them apart. Shu says that after airfare from USA to Germany, it costs about $3000 US to do the Edelweisstours on brand new BMW machines of your choice! We have a few more beers, then Shu turns in, but I stay up to watch the rise of the full moon right across the valley peaks. I finally turn in and the air is cool as all the windows and doors are opened. I have a "dead" sleep, and awake to the construction across the road at 7:00AM. We have the big free b-fast, and plan to just take it easy and rest today. The bikes are safely stored in the garage of the GastHause owner, and we plan how to use our time today! We think we will stay here again tonight, so we really don't have an agenda, except to maybe ride up the chairlift, or for Shu, to take a 150 E parasailing flight, ....tandem!
The next day is another scorcher, which requires copious libation, and this is accomplished with little protest! We draw up a sheet by brand names of motorcycles, and just sit back and count the makes that pass. At the end of the day we have counted close to 225 different cycles at the junction, and enjoyed the day immensely. I go for some short hikes around the town, and that is limited due to the lack of walking space on the roads. When I return, Shu, is having lunch, but I can't take another sauer Bratten, or Bratten Bratten, or whatever, and decide to go for a sleep. Two hours of mid day snoozing can do wonders, and I rejoin Shu on the terrace, and just watch the world roll by. Shu and I go to the Disco and play pool, and he turns in, while I wait for the moon again! At about 2 AM, I wake up to a huge storm, with high winds, lightening, thunder, etc. and watch the rain being driven horizontally past the windows! I rescue our laundry from the porch reail, close up the windows and doors. There are repeated crashes of thunder, but Shu sleeps right through them. I reawaken at about 3:30 to a sky filled with stars, and no storm. In the AM, we load up the bikes, have Fruhstuk, some very strong coffee, and head back out through the Arlberg Pass. We head to Landeck, through the wrong tunnel, which is severly polluted with Carbon Monoxide, and head out for Reschen in Italy.
Last part soon, thanks for your patience
SID
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