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Germany Part two
This is the final part of the Germany/Europe trip.....promise.
We stopped at Reschen, Italy, and were admiring the Edelweiss tour BMWs at the lake here, before we took some photos of the reservoir/lake, where the fascist government of Mussolini flooded three villages, houses and all to make the reservoir to create hydro power. All that you see now is a huge lake, with a church bell tower still standing above the water line. We continued South then West, and crossed back into Switzerland again at mustair at a border crossing where they are supposed to check passports, but they just waived us through! I had taken my passport out, and had it firmly clenched in my teeth! Just after we crossed, the wind picked up quickly, to a point where the patio furniture from a roadside place was keeping us company going down the road. It started to spit rain, and Shu wanted to stay but I said lets run it into the mountains and see if we can lose it. We headed out and up through the pass switchbacks to the summit, bought a pin,then headed out. Ahead was a nasty black storm, and I thought we would get away from it,....I was totally wrong! It abated until we got to a place called Zernez, then the sky opened and it poured. We stopped and went into a restaurant where we could see the outside, and had a coffee. The rain seemed to stop and we headed back out to Susch, through a pass and construction, then East through the Fluelapass and we were right under the storm! The pass being so high, looked like a moonscape, and with it's bleakness, and the pouring rain, we could not take the liberties we wanted to in the fantastic twisties. We pulled over to let traffic pass, and visibility was basically zero, but there was nowhere to stop and shelter. At the bottom was Davos, which as we went through it, looked very trendy and spendy. We tried two places on the way to Tiefencastle without luck, and usually there were places that had old MCs outside to indicate they "liked" rider business. Everything seems to be full, and then we find out there is an equestrian event, that is huge, happening, and that explains it. Finall we get a place for 45 Euros each, and unload our stuff. We hang as much stuff up as we can, and then check out the restaurant. There is a big local table for locals only and it seems to take forever to get served. Shu stays and I go have a hot bath and get nice dry clothes and go back to meet Shu. We check our charts and decide tomorrow we will go over another higher pass to Undermatt. We leave Davos under threatening skies early and go through a 2km tunnel to Mistal, where we go to #3, to Chur. The city is in a 3 valley gap, and it has begun to rain again. We gas up and "hide" under a gas station overhang, until we are shooed off by a lady who runs the place. There is a Best Western next door, and lotsa MCs are going there. We decide this storm will be here all day, so we get a room, and meets a guy who is driving a V-Max with a custom built sidecar and a turbo system with adjustable boost. He has designed and built everything, and it is called the Milky Way! He tells us he has hit 240km on the autobahn with it, with his g-friend enclosed! The guy is building one over the comming winter with an intercooler on it. The rain poured for about two hours, then we decide to go for a walk into town. The sweetee at the counter said it was the city festival tonight, and that we should have a look see. It was not scheduled to start until after 6. We did some tourist smoozing, and found an indoor go kart track. It was huge, and the karts were electric. It was in an old warehouse, and was a very big challenging track. Even though the karts were electric, they werevery, very, fast. It cost 20 Swiss Francs for 8 minutes, and I said I would pay for both of us. Shu got out ahead, and because he is lighter, Icould not catch him until I figured out the track etc. Then we went hammer and tongs to the end of our time, and it was incredible fun! Even though I had passed Shu, he had the fastest recorded lap time of our set. The relative humidity from the storm was intense, and we were soaked with sweat at the end! We sat and had a beer with the locals, one of which, had the nastiest looking BMW mini cooper "S", I had ever seen. We continued on our trip through the city, and watched how they were turning this narrow streeted city into a festival venue. There were all kinds of outdoor vendors, and bands and singing. We met some older residents of the city who were having a beer, and I discovered that one of the guys had a brother living South of Calgary! We drank ,danced, and sang with them, and had a great time. Later as the crowds grew to extreme size, we headed back to our motel, and listened to all the bands on the way out. It was funny to hear C/W tunes I knew ,with german words. We went directly to sleep, but due to the paper thin walls we could hear the guy next door snooring. We got up at 7
o and went to the Fruhstuck, in the main lobby, only to discover that two bus loads of elderly tourists, were there already and causing a "fruhstuck gridlock". All I wanted to do was get out of there! We went back, loaded up and hit the road under threatening skies. The road paralled the autobahn, then crossed over it, and into Bad Ragaz. All along the route there were incredible statues of modern art, some gigantic in size, and everything smelled of big money! We were able to give the bikes some running space, and being behind Shu, I pulled over for a pix, and he didn't see me do it. He kept merrily trucking on, and I quickly snapped a photo, and then, in order to catch him, had to really redline the bike through the gears, it felt great! Shu had pulle dover, and we checked the charts again. We stopped at Rutti, on the Austrian/ Swiss Border, and then dropped back into Austria at Obernet and crossed the Rhine into some of the most amazing lowland fast touring! The mountain headwalls ahead were being lit up by the sun, and the scenes unfolding were gorgeous! Durnbirn, which was a larger city, and which we had to transit through to get to our next takeoff, was stop and go and stop and go, and very tedious. Finally we took route 200, up into the mountains on some of the nastiest switchbacks you could want. We took evry small road we could find and I just sat back and road the tires off of the Cagiva in the pocket behind Shu. At one point a squid with his lady on the back of a fast sport bike, "shared" my lane without my knowledge of what he was about to do, and I dropped down a gear and took off after him. He was quite surprised when I caught up and passed him on the inside of a tight sweeper, me in shorts and jacket and him all duded out in his skin tight leathers.
We arrived at Kaufberen, at an old Gast hause that had been remodelled just recently, and it was a 9 out of 10 place! It was totally quiet, in a small suburb, and we had our own huge balcony, cable TV, shower, etc. We lounged around and watched Tv although CNN, was the only station in English. Tomorrow we start to head for home.
We are up and packed before the place has the Fruhstuck ready, so we go for a short walk, then get the bikes out of the owners locked garage, where he told us to park them. We load up and it is eerily quiet, and getting hot already. Because it is Sunday, there is no truck traffic allowed on the roads, and we are the only ones moving. Finally we have a huge Fruhstuck, and there is no one else up, so it is like our very own place. I find the Hostess and pay our bill, which only comes to67 Euros, and I think, wow! How inexpensive! When I come back to the table, the hostess reappears and says she forgot the food and alcohol bill! That is 47 Euros, but easily worth it for the good beer we drank last night. We say good bye and head out to Kaufberen, the local big city, to get fuel, but since it is Sunday and not much is open, we decide to stick to as many of the small roads as possible. There are big yellow signs indicating the next town and how far, and we twist and turn, from one to another. It is about this time that Shu discovers his map is old enough that they have now changed all the route numbers. It is Sunday and we can't get a new one, so we do the "hunt and try" method. We frequently reverse course, but this only adds to the fun. It can be anywhere from 1 to 11 Km from place to place, and we zoom past fields of corn, Hops, and manicured forests with the undergrowth totally clean of any debris. The forest is so thick sometimes that the light from the sun cannot penetrate. Because of the day and the hour, we have the roads to ourselves, and "play" at every opportunity. The town streets are so narrow, that in some of them, one car has to stop to let the other through. The sun is already baking us by 9:30, so we see a place where there are people having beers on a patio, so we go to it. The discussion level inside is really quite loud, and we sit down with the charts and do the "swie beer, bitte", fun thing, while we decide where we are going to go. Two old fellows come out of the pub, bumping into and leaning on each other as they walk together, both typsy already! Shu says the wives go to church, the men to the pub, then they meet for lunch. We try a new idea of writing down a list of the names of places we need to go through, and put it under Shu's top clear flap on his tank bag. It works for awhile, but it seems some of the places and their signs have dissappeared! After awhile the country opens up, ans we have some great, "cat and mouse" games between towns, where I let Shu get a long way ahead and blast after him. Occasionally a BMW or Audi, or MB, becomes a pain behind us, and we roar away. We pull off in an area where the whole counrtyside is covered in hops, and recheck the charts. We are out of the mountains and onto the plains, where the endless horizon reminds me of Saskatchewan. It has become so hot, that we begin to shed riding gear. A spot opens up, and I roar after Shu, who has pulled off, and I almost go right past him, to who knows where! I pull over grinning like a Cheshire cat, and Shu casually says, "playing huh?" We decide it is time for lunch and stop at a place called Zooling. We take the wrong turn and go to another town across the Donau River. We stop to check the charts and I take a picture of a 4 person rowing shell on the river, very pretty. We cross back over the river, take the correct exit, and roll into another town, with a Gausthaus, with huge inner courtyard, with tables and chairs under great huge tress, and SHADE! There is a large "locals only", table, and it looks like everyone is enjoying themselves. On one wall next to us the date states 1742, and it looks it. I ask for a "dunkle", or dark beer, and we enjoy the shade and the rest.
We head out and go through Maansburg and Hwy 30. I see many huge commercial aircraft in the skies above, and Shu informs me they are comming and going to Munich. We turn East on country backroads to Pfeffenhausen. The pattern of flat straights, connected curves and small towns continues. We decide we have to pick up the pace so we can be home by evening, so we take Hwy #22 at Cham, and get onto a two lane Hwy. Suddenly we are cruising at 134KmH, and just keeping up to the flow. The sun and heat are fierce, and we stop at a rest area with shade @ Potz. We watch the traffic and have some water in what little shade there is. Reentering the traffic, we have to zoom up to130KMH to get into the pace. We catch up to about 10 bikes in a pack, and shadow them. There is a huge North American style of shopping center being built on the right side of the highway, with acres of parking and huge retail stores, so unlike what I have seen. We come over a hill and there is a huge truck holding up traffic! I am confused as to what it is doing on the road, but find out later, perishable food trucks can roll on Sundays! There are 8 cars behind it, and nobody is attempting to pass! This is the pits, and finally a long straight opens up. Shu puts the hammer down and flys! I am hesistant, but pull out, drop down two gears, redline it and shoot past the traffic, and overshoot Shu, at 185 KMH! Love that power! I slow and let Shu lead, and look back to see that no one else has passed! At the top of a rise at Weisenreth we are treated to a great view while we have another great beer.. My glass must have had a whole in it, because it was gone very fast, and Shu was only half done. I am going to order another, but Shu says we are close to home and a fridge full of cold beer. We get back on 22 and exit at Weiden. We cross over the autobahn, and I can see traffic on it is very heavy. Then we are into the lakes and forests of Weihenhammer and blast the bikes along. We take a right turn, and we are back in Keltenbrun.
We pull into Shus yard after finishing 1620 Kmsin about 6 days, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. Other than the days at the top of the pass where it rained and was bitterly cold in Switzerland, the rest of the ride was imcomparable! The Cagiva was one of the nicest rides I could ever hope for, both at high speed, and at breakneck cornering, and Shu is one of the easiest going , excellent riding partners a guy could wish to ride with. I have had the opportunity to see incredible country, tasted some of the best beer I have ever had, and eaten some very interesting food. Other than some "snooty" people, or irritating drivers, it was a remarkable trip! Had the weather not changed, we would have prolly stayed out longer, but our bodies were starting to talk to us on a regular basis.
I learned that at 1Euro 7 per Litre, there are very few SUVs or large gas guzzling cars, that everyone seems to own a scooter, that old grandmothers get on their bicycles every morning to go to get bread etc, strrets are clean, as are yards, there are not many old cars on the road or rusty ones due to "catalytic Taxes", and if a person wishe dto, they could blast from Shu's digs to the Med Sea in 8 hours on the Autobahns, Switzerland is "spendy", and there if you use the autobahn, once or how many times, you still pay a set fee. Yes, in hindsight, it was a cultural smorgasbord! Enjoy!
Chiao
Sid
We stopped at Reschen, Italy, and were admiring the Edelweiss tour BMWs at the lake here, before we took some photos of the reservoir/lake, where the fascist government of Mussolini flooded three villages, houses and all to make the reservoir to create hydro power. All that you see now is a huge lake, with a church bell tower still standing above the water line. We continued South then West, and crossed back into Switzerland again at mustair at a border crossing where they are supposed to check passports, but they just waived us through! I had taken my passport out, and had it firmly clenched in my teeth! Just after we crossed, the wind picked up quickly, to a point where the patio furniture from a roadside place was keeping us company going down the road. It started to spit rain, and Shu wanted to stay but I said lets run it into the mountains and see if we can lose it. We headed out and up through the pass switchbacks to the summit, bought a pin,then headed out. Ahead was a nasty black storm, and I thought we would get away from it,....I was totally wrong! It abated until we got to a place called Zernez, then the sky opened and it poured. We stopped and went into a restaurant where we could see the outside, and had a coffee. The rain seemed to stop and we headed back out to Susch, through a pass and construction, then East through the Fluelapass and we were right under the storm! The pass being so high, looked like a moonscape, and with it's bleakness, and the pouring rain, we could not take the liberties we wanted to in the fantastic twisties. We pulled over to let traffic pass, and visibility was basically zero, but there was nowhere to stop and shelter. At the bottom was Davos, which as we went through it, looked very trendy and spendy. We tried two places on the way to Tiefencastle without luck, and usually there were places that had old MCs outside to indicate they "liked" rider business. Everything seems to be full, and then we find out there is an equestrian event, that is huge, happening, and that explains it. Finall we get a place for 45 Euros each, and unload our stuff. We hang as much stuff up as we can, and then check out the restaurant. There is a big local table for locals only and it seems to take forever to get served. Shu stays and I go have a hot bath and get nice dry clothes and go back to meet Shu. We check our charts and decide tomorrow we will go over another higher pass to Undermatt. We leave Davos under threatening skies early and go through a 2km tunnel to Mistal, where we go to #3, to Chur. The city is in a 3 valley gap, and it has begun to rain again. We gas up and "hide" under a gas station overhang, until we are shooed off by a lady who runs the place. There is a Best Western next door, and lotsa MCs are going there. We decide this storm will be here all day, so we get a room, and meets a guy who is driving a V-Max with a custom built sidecar and a turbo system with adjustable boost. He has designed and built everything, and it is called the Milky Way! He tells us he has hit 240km on the autobahn with it, with his g-friend enclosed! The guy is building one over the comming winter with an intercooler on it. The rain poured for about two hours, then we decide to go for a walk into town. The sweetee at the counter said it was the city festival tonight, and that we should have a look see. It was not scheduled to start until after 6. We did some tourist smoozing, and found an indoor go kart track. It was huge, and the karts were electric. It was in an old warehouse, and was a very big challenging track. Even though the karts were electric, they werevery, very, fast. It cost 20 Swiss Francs for 8 minutes, and I said I would pay for both of us. Shu got out ahead, and because he is lighter, Icould not catch him until I figured out the track etc. Then we went hammer and tongs to the end of our time, and it was incredible fun! Even though I had passed Shu, he had the fastest recorded lap time of our set. The relative humidity from the storm was intense, and we were soaked with sweat at the end! We sat and had a beer with the locals, one of which, had the nastiest looking BMW mini cooper "S", I had ever seen. We continued on our trip through the city, and watched how they were turning this narrow streeted city into a festival venue. There were all kinds of outdoor vendors, and bands and singing. We met some older residents of the city who were having a beer, and I discovered that one of the guys had a brother living South of Calgary! We drank ,danced, and sang with them, and had a great time. Later as the crowds grew to extreme size, we headed back to our motel, and listened to all the bands on the way out. It was funny to hear C/W tunes I knew ,with german words. We went directly to sleep, but due to the paper thin walls we could hear the guy next door snooring. We got up at 7
o and went to the Fruhstuck, in the main lobby, only to discover that two bus loads of elderly tourists, were there already and causing a "fruhstuck gridlock". All I wanted to do was get out of there! We went back, loaded up and hit the road under threatening skies. The road paralled the autobahn, then crossed over it, and into Bad Ragaz. All along the route there were incredible statues of modern art, some gigantic in size, and everything smelled of big money! We were able to give the bikes some running space, and being behind Shu, I pulled over for a pix, and he didn't see me do it. He kept merrily trucking on, and I quickly snapped a photo, and then, in order to catch him, had to really redline the bike through the gears, it felt great! Shu had pulle dover, and we checked the charts again. We stopped at Rutti, on the Austrian/ Swiss Border, and then dropped back into Austria at Obernet and crossed the Rhine into some of the most amazing lowland fast touring! The mountain headwalls ahead were being lit up by the sun, and the scenes unfolding were gorgeous! Durnbirn, which was a larger city, and which we had to transit through to get to our next takeoff, was stop and go and stop and go, and very tedious. Finally we took route 200, up into the mountains on some of the nastiest switchbacks you could want. We took evry small road we could find and I just sat back and road the tires off of the Cagiva in the pocket behind Shu. At one point a squid with his lady on the back of a fast sport bike, "shared" my lane without my knowledge of what he was about to do, and I dropped down a gear and took off after him. He was quite surprised when I caught up and passed him on the inside of a tight sweeper, me in shorts and jacket and him all duded out in his skin tight leathers.We arrived at Kaufberen, at an old Gast hause that had been remodelled just recently, and it was a 9 out of 10 place! It was totally quiet, in a small suburb, and we had our own huge balcony, cable TV, shower, etc. We lounged around and watched Tv although CNN, was the only station in English. Tomorrow we start to head for home.
We are up and packed before the place has the Fruhstuck ready, so we go for a short walk, then get the bikes out of the owners locked garage, where he told us to park them. We load up and it is eerily quiet, and getting hot already. Because it is Sunday, there is no truck traffic allowed on the roads, and we are the only ones moving. Finally we have a huge Fruhstuck, and there is no one else up, so it is like our very own place. I find the Hostess and pay our bill, which only comes to67 Euros, and I think, wow! How inexpensive! When I come back to the table, the hostess reappears and says she forgot the food and alcohol bill! That is 47 Euros, but easily worth it for the good beer we drank last night. We say good bye and head out to Kaufberen, the local big city, to get fuel, but since it is Sunday and not much is open, we decide to stick to as many of the small roads as possible. There are big yellow signs indicating the next town and how far, and we twist and turn, from one to another. It is about this time that Shu discovers his map is old enough that they have now changed all the route numbers. It is Sunday and we can't get a new one, so we do the "hunt and try" method. We frequently reverse course, but this only adds to the fun. It can be anywhere from 1 to 11 Km from place to place, and we zoom past fields of corn, Hops, and manicured forests with the undergrowth totally clean of any debris. The forest is so thick sometimes that the light from the sun cannot penetrate. Because of the day and the hour, we have the roads to ourselves, and "play" at every opportunity. The town streets are so narrow, that in some of them, one car has to stop to let the other through. The sun is already baking us by 9:30, so we see a place where there are people having beers on a patio, so we go to it. The discussion level inside is really quite loud, and we sit down with the charts and do the "swie beer, bitte", fun thing, while we decide where we are going to go. Two old fellows come out of the pub, bumping into and leaning on each other as they walk together, both typsy already! Shu says the wives go to church, the men to the pub, then they meet for lunch. We try a new idea of writing down a list of the names of places we need to go through, and put it under Shu's top clear flap on his tank bag. It works for awhile, but it seems some of the places and their signs have dissappeared! After awhile the country opens up, ans we have some great, "cat and mouse" games between towns, where I let Shu get a long way ahead and blast after him. Occasionally a BMW or Audi, or MB, becomes a pain behind us, and we roar away. We pull off in an area where the whole counrtyside is covered in hops, and recheck the charts. We are out of the mountains and onto the plains, where the endless horizon reminds me of Saskatchewan. It has become so hot, that we begin to shed riding gear. A spot opens up, and I roar after Shu, who has pulled off, and I almost go right past him, to who knows where! I pull over grinning like a Cheshire cat, and Shu casually says, "playing huh?" We decide it is time for lunch and stop at a place called Zooling. We take the wrong turn and go to another town across the Donau River. We stop to check the charts and I take a picture of a 4 person rowing shell on the river, very pretty. We cross back over the river, take the correct exit, and roll into another town, with a Gausthaus, with huge inner courtyard, with tables and chairs under great huge tress, and SHADE! There is a large "locals only", table, and it looks like everyone is enjoying themselves. On one wall next to us the date states 1742, and it looks it. I ask for a "dunkle", or dark beer, and we enjoy the shade and the rest.
We head out and go through Maansburg and Hwy 30. I see many huge commercial aircraft in the skies above, and Shu informs me they are comming and going to Munich. We turn East on country backroads to Pfeffenhausen. The pattern of flat straights, connected curves and small towns continues. We decide we have to pick up the pace so we can be home by evening, so we take Hwy #22 at Cham, and get onto a two lane Hwy. Suddenly we are cruising at 134KmH, and just keeping up to the flow. The sun and heat are fierce, and we stop at a rest area with shade @ Potz. We watch the traffic and have some water in what little shade there is. Reentering the traffic, we have to zoom up to130KMH to get into the pace. We catch up to about 10 bikes in a pack, and shadow them. There is a huge North American style of shopping center being built on the right side of the highway, with acres of parking and huge retail stores, so unlike what I have seen. We come over a hill and there is a huge truck holding up traffic! I am confused as to what it is doing on the road, but find out later, perishable food trucks can roll on Sundays! There are 8 cars behind it, and nobody is attempting to pass! This is the pits, and finally a long straight opens up. Shu puts the hammer down and flys! I am hesistant, but pull out, drop down two gears, redline it and shoot past the traffic, and overshoot Shu, at 185 KMH! Love that power! I slow and let Shu lead, and look back to see that no one else has passed! At the top of a rise at Weisenreth we are treated to a great view while we have another great beer.. My glass must have had a whole in it, because it was gone very fast, and Shu was only half done. I am going to order another, but Shu says we are close to home and a fridge full of cold beer. We get back on 22 and exit at Weiden. We cross over the autobahn, and I can see traffic on it is very heavy. Then we are into the lakes and forests of Weihenhammer and blast the bikes along. We take a right turn, and we are back in Keltenbrun.
We pull into Shus yard after finishing 1620 Kmsin about 6 days, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. Other than the days at the top of the pass where it rained and was bitterly cold in Switzerland, the rest of the ride was imcomparable! The Cagiva was one of the nicest rides I could ever hope for, both at high speed, and at breakneck cornering, and Shu is one of the easiest going , excellent riding partners a guy could wish to ride with. I have had the opportunity to see incredible country, tasted some of the best beer I have ever had, and eaten some very interesting food. Other than some "snooty" people, or irritating drivers, it was a remarkable trip! Had the weather not changed, we would have prolly stayed out longer, but our bodies were starting to talk to us on a regular basis.
I learned that at 1Euro 7 per Litre, there are very few SUVs or large gas guzzling cars, that everyone seems to own a scooter, that old grandmothers get on their bicycles every morning to go to get bread etc, strrets are clean, as are yards, there are not many old cars on the road or rusty ones due to "catalytic Taxes", and if a person wishe dto, they could blast from Shu's digs to the Med Sea in 8 hours on the Autobahns, Switzerland is "spendy", and there if you use the autobahn, once or how many times, you still pay a set fee. Yes, in hindsight, it was a cultural smorgasbord! Enjoy!
Chiao
Sid
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