Our 2 week European tour 2016
Discussion
Hi Everyone,
I thought I'd write a little thread about our European tour, partly because you might be interested, partly for our recollection in future!
It was just TimmyWimmyWoo and I this year, which meant a mostly faff free holiday.
Tim took GoPro of a lot of the ride, which he is making into a video, but that will probably be a while.
I'm going to do it in a few chunks because I haven't finished going through the photos yet and because there is probably a limit to the number of pictures I can put in one post!
Without further ado:
The trip went from London to Vosges mountains in France, then over to Black Forest in Germany, then down through Switzerland to do a few mountain passes then down briefly to Italy before going down the route napoleon, along the south coast of France to the Millau Viaduct, then across the Pyrenees before getting the boat home from Santander.
I, shamefully, had only ridden 100 miles on my Street Triple in the last year, so I was out of practice, so I thought that a great way to deal with that was to sell the street triple and buy an S1000R 3 weeks before the trip! My first liter bike. It's bloody mental, luckily it has more electronics than the space shuttle to keep my variable wrist timing in check.
It's safe to say the bike is much faster than I'm capable of riding. It was crazy fun. The only modification it has is the comfort seat which helped a lot!
Tim went on his newish-to-him Multistrada that i'm sure he'll be in here to froth all over the screen about, both were Red which is what matters most!
Day 1 - 210 miles - London to Arras
This doesn't really count as a day because I spent the entire day at work. I did end up covering 210 miles though. I first rode in to work in London from Essex which made a delightful change (I'll stick with the train). On the first real day of our trip we always try and get across northern France to somewhere interesting and we've found the best way to make that not such a chore is by getting to France the night before. So after work we met near the M20 and had dinner in a beautiful McDonalds. Went over to Calais on the train and rode for about an hour to Arras.
Day 2 - 410 miles - Arras to Gerardmer
We woke up fairly early, around 7:30, had some breakfast at the hotel and then did half a day of Péage cruising at no more than some miles an hour above the speed limit...
I had a tiny screen but it actually felt nicer to cruise on than my street triple which had a bigger screen, it's all to do with where the wind is hitting you and I much prefer it in the chest than around the helmet because I find the noise more tiring than the actual wind pressure.
We decided to just have a quick snack during one of the many fuel stops at which point I think I accidentally ate 2000 calories of sugar in the form of chocolate waffles.
We arrived at Gérardmer in the Vosges about 2pm where we had our first fannying about with Airbnb (we mostly stayed in Airbnbs all trip).
At this point I'd like to go in to one of the flaws with the S1000R. The side stand is s
t. It's too long...
We parked up in a street and Tim went to get the key and view the flat, I knew my bike was parked very precariously and wanted to move it as soon as possible because it was very upright. Out comes the woman with Tim, demanding I give her €20 for sheets, the only cash money I had was deep in my luggage which was strapped to the back of my bike. so I opened it up still on the bike, rustled around and got her money out and she left, I then tried to take my luggage off my bike, which proceeded to fall over on to a Renault Twingo from 1854. I'm so lucky the car was there, because the only bit that hit was the rear right seat plastic, the car was fine, and luckily it had prevented the front of the bike hitting anything at all so all in all I only had a small/medium scratch on one fairing and that's all! Phew. Still, £150 fairing, but hey.
After that we went for a 3 hour jaunt around the Vosges mountains, we did a loop which included the Route des Crêtes. It was beautiful, good weather, good roads. I must say I wasn't on my best form that afternoon due to it being the longest I'd been on a bike in years, combined with dropping it. But it was good to ride none the less. I was aching by the end of the day. We ate a massive dead cow that evening though.
Tim did this a lot, ironically I must point out, because by the end of this you may think he was doing it seriously.
View from the room
Tim briefly went the wrong way which made for a good picture
I thought I'd write a little thread about our European tour, partly because you might be interested, partly for our recollection in future!
It was just TimmyWimmyWoo and I this year, which meant a mostly faff free holiday.
Tim took GoPro of a lot of the ride, which he is making into a video, but that will probably be a while.
I'm going to do it in a few chunks because I haven't finished going through the photos yet and because there is probably a limit to the number of pictures I can put in one post!
Without further ado:
The trip went from London to Vosges mountains in France, then over to Black Forest in Germany, then down through Switzerland to do a few mountain passes then down briefly to Italy before going down the route napoleon, along the south coast of France to the Millau Viaduct, then across the Pyrenees before getting the boat home from Santander.
I, shamefully, had only ridden 100 miles on my Street Triple in the last year, so I was out of practice, so I thought that a great way to deal with that was to sell the street triple and buy an S1000R 3 weeks before the trip! My first liter bike. It's bloody mental, luckily it has more electronics than the space shuttle to keep my variable wrist timing in check.
It's safe to say the bike is much faster than I'm capable of riding. It was crazy fun. The only modification it has is the comfort seat which helped a lot!
Tim went on his newish-to-him Multistrada that i'm sure he'll be in here to froth all over the screen about, both were Red which is what matters most!
Day 1 - 210 miles - London to Arras
This doesn't really count as a day because I spent the entire day at work. I did end up covering 210 miles though. I first rode in to work in London from Essex which made a delightful change (I'll stick with the train). On the first real day of our trip we always try and get across northern France to somewhere interesting and we've found the best way to make that not such a chore is by getting to France the night before. So after work we met near the M20 and had dinner in a beautiful McDonalds. Went over to Calais on the train and rode for about an hour to Arras.
Day 2 - 410 miles - Arras to Gerardmer
We woke up fairly early, around 7:30, had some breakfast at the hotel and then did half a day of Péage cruising at no more than some miles an hour above the speed limit...
I had a tiny screen but it actually felt nicer to cruise on than my street triple which had a bigger screen, it's all to do with where the wind is hitting you and I much prefer it in the chest than around the helmet because I find the noise more tiring than the actual wind pressure.
We decided to just have a quick snack during one of the many fuel stops at which point I think I accidentally ate 2000 calories of sugar in the form of chocolate waffles.
We arrived at Gérardmer in the Vosges about 2pm where we had our first fannying about with Airbnb (we mostly stayed in Airbnbs all trip).
At this point I'd like to go in to one of the flaws with the S1000R. The side stand is s
t. It's too long...We parked up in a street and Tim went to get the key and view the flat, I knew my bike was parked very precariously and wanted to move it as soon as possible because it was very upright. Out comes the woman with Tim, demanding I give her €20 for sheets, the only cash money I had was deep in my luggage which was strapped to the back of my bike. so I opened it up still on the bike, rustled around and got her money out and she left, I then tried to take my luggage off my bike, which proceeded to fall over on to a Renault Twingo from 1854. I'm so lucky the car was there, because the only bit that hit was the rear right seat plastic, the car was fine, and luckily it had prevented the front of the bike hitting anything at all so all in all I only had a small/medium scratch on one fairing and that's all! Phew. Still, £150 fairing, but hey.
After that we went for a 3 hour jaunt around the Vosges mountains, we did a loop which included the Route des Crêtes. It was beautiful, good weather, good roads. I must say I wasn't on my best form that afternoon due to it being the longest I'd been on a bike in years, combined with dropping it. But it was good to ride none the less. I was aching by the end of the day. We ate a massive dead cow that evening though.
Tim did this a lot, ironically I must point out, because by the end of this you may think he was doing it seriously.
View from the room
Tim briefly went the wrong way which made for a good picture
Edited by Salgar on Monday 26th September 09:27
Day 3 - 204 Miles (37mph average) - Gerardmer to Titisee - Blackforest
Determined to eat healthily and not ruin our award winning physiques, we had breakfast at the closest boulangerie. Chocolate croissants and pain au chocolate were on the menu today (and almost every other day for the whole holiday). We crossed into Germany by riding over a giant lock on the rhine river, we stopped to watch as it filled up very fast. The black forest is extremely picturesque, rolling hills and log cabins everywhere, and it was a beautiful sunny day. I want to come back with the OH. We encountered many LOLs as we dubbed them (Lorry of Logs). This day was also the day of closed roads. One of them was the only road in that direction for miles around, so we ended up backtracking quite a bit and skipping a bit of our route, but it wasn’t the end of the world. The roads are amazing though, there are many fast flowing corners and you can really go quite quickly (which might explain why I don’t have that many pictures of this day). We stopped at a guesthouse for lunch which wasn’t supposed to be open and they gave us the only meal they had on for the day, which was a 3 course goulash meal and it was lovely!
We stayed half way between Titisee and Schluchsee and went for an afternoon swim in Schluchsee where they had other pools and a waterslide too, which we obviously did. Dinner was one of the weirder ones, we went to the top rated place in Titisee on TripAdviser. Ordered ‘garlic toast’ and a pizza. The garlic toast was literally a few cloves of garlic cut up on a piece of toast, and the pizza I ordered was about 50kg, I managed about a third of it after all the toast!
Day 4 - 213 Miles (36mph average) - Titisee to Interlaken - Swiss Pass day
Rode to a health food shop again (see first picture) for breakfast. Had a brief blast down the B500 again before going in to Switzerland where you’re required to buy an annual vignette for their highways, think it was €40 for the calendar year, which is strange because it doesn’t seem to go down, even though we’re more than half way through the year. We didn’t do much in northern Switzerland but it isn’t a huge country. The views in this part of Switzerland seem to mostly be made up of the sides of many many tunnels. But once you get off the highway the views are spectacular. We did a loop that included first the Susten pass, then we stopped for lunch in Andermatt where I had a healthy chicken and bacon salad… covered in honey. Then continued around the loop and did the Furka and then the Grimsel pass which just continue one after the other on the same road. The scenery was spectacular. The riding was fun too, but it is quite stop-starty, the Susten and Grimsel have slightly more flow but the Furka is very narrow, it’s often 1.5 cars wide and the surface is like that of a teenagers face. I eventually got what I call ‘hairpin shoulder’ because I was locking out my arms too much (doing it wrong).
We stayed in Interlaken that night in a hostel because everything else was either booked up or priced for someone that isn’t us. We had some Korean girls at the hostel put their chicken filled lettuce in our mouths, then we went for dinner and drank many good beers.
Susten Pass
Susten Pass
Furka and Grimsel Passes
Interlaken
Even the fuel stations in Interlaken look good
Day 5 - 152 Miles (40mph average) - Interlaken to Aosta - 2 passes 1 pizza
We decided to do away with the health food and live a little, so we ate some pastries for breakfast today. Not before being woken up by a steam boat letting off some… steam outside our hostel room, it was extremely loud. We did the Jaun pass in the morning, a lesser pass, but actually quite good to ride because it wasn’t all hairpins. Here we encountered one of the only people in a car going faster than us all holiday. An Audi S3 was going insanely fast up this pass, well done to him. We went into Montreux which is a very nice town on lake Geneva, we mostly went because Tim wanted to see the Freddie Mercury statue. I could see myself living there. (There were a lot of places I could see myself living, if I won the lottery). We then popped over to Italy over the Great St Bernard pass, which is a very empty pass because right at the base there is a tunnel to go under the pass instead. So the only people up there were people like us. It was good peaceful riding, except for the Porsche that was lying on the side of the mountain, obviously having gone off the end of a hairpin, there were a few tow trucks trying to figure out how to get the car, didn’t look like fun. At the top of the pass, we saw some people walking their St Bernard dogs! Which was a very xzibit moment. We did very well with the Airbnb this night, staying in a lovely house with a swimming pool, table tennis table and a GILF. Aosta hosted the best pizza we had all trip too! Prego
STEAM BOAT
Montreux
Great St Bernard Pass
Aosta view from the Airbnb
Determined to eat healthily and not ruin our award winning physiques, we had breakfast at the closest boulangerie. Chocolate croissants and pain au chocolate were on the menu today (and almost every other day for the whole holiday). We crossed into Germany by riding over a giant lock on the rhine river, we stopped to watch as it filled up very fast. The black forest is extremely picturesque, rolling hills and log cabins everywhere, and it was a beautiful sunny day. I want to come back with the OH. We encountered many LOLs as we dubbed them (Lorry of Logs). This day was also the day of closed roads. One of them was the only road in that direction for miles around, so we ended up backtracking quite a bit and skipping a bit of our route, but it wasn’t the end of the world. The roads are amazing though, there are many fast flowing corners and you can really go quite quickly (which might explain why I don’t have that many pictures of this day). We stopped at a guesthouse for lunch which wasn’t supposed to be open and they gave us the only meal they had on for the day, which was a 3 course goulash meal and it was lovely!
We stayed half way between Titisee and Schluchsee and went for an afternoon swim in Schluchsee where they had other pools and a waterslide too, which we obviously did. Dinner was one of the weirder ones, we went to the top rated place in Titisee on TripAdviser. Ordered ‘garlic toast’ and a pizza. The garlic toast was literally a few cloves of garlic cut up on a piece of toast, and the pizza I ordered was about 50kg, I managed about a third of it after all the toast!
Day 4 - 213 Miles (36mph average) - Titisee to Interlaken - Swiss Pass day
Rode to a health food shop again (see first picture) for breakfast. Had a brief blast down the B500 again before going in to Switzerland where you’re required to buy an annual vignette for their highways, think it was €40 for the calendar year, which is strange because it doesn’t seem to go down, even though we’re more than half way through the year. We didn’t do much in northern Switzerland but it isn’t a huge country. The views in this part of Switzerland seem to mostly be made up of the sides of many many tunnels. But once you get off the highway the views are spectacular. We did a loop that included first the Susten pass, then we stopped for lunch in Andermatt where I had a healthy chicken and bacon salad… covered in honey. Then continued around the loop and did the Furka and then the Grimsel pass which just continue one after the other on the same road. The scenery was spectacular. The riding was fun too, but it is quite stop-starty, the Susten and Grimsel have slightly more flow but the Furka is very narrow, it’s often 1.5 cars wide and the surface is like that of a teenagers face. I eventually got what I call ‘hairpin shoulder’ because I was locking out my arms too much (doing it wrong).
We stayed in Interlaken that night in a hostel because everything else was either booked up or priced for someone that isn’t us. We had some Korean girls at the hostel put their chicken filled lettuce in our mouths, then we went for dinner and drank many good beers.
Susten Pass
Susten Pass
Furka and Grimsel Passes
Interlaken
Even the fuel stations in Interlaken look good
Day 5 - 152 Miles (40mph average) - Interlaken to Aosta - 2 passes 1 pizza
We decided to do away with the health food and live a little, so we ate some pastries for breakfast today. Not before being woken up by a steam boat letting off some… steam outside our hostel room, it was extremely loud. We did the Jaun pass in the morning, a lesser pass, but actually quite good to ride because it wasn’t all hairpins. Here we encountered one of the only people in a car going faster than us all holiday. An Audi S3 was going insanely fast up this pass, well done to him. We went into Montreux which is a very nice town on lake Geneva, we mostly went because Tim wanted to see the Freddie Mercury statue. I could see myself living there. (There were a lot of places I could see myself living, if I won the lottery). We then popped over to Italy over the Great St Bernard pass, which is a very empty pass because right at the base there is a tunnel to go under the pass instead. So the only people up there were people like us. It was good peaceful riding, except for the Porsche that was lying on the side of the mountain, obviously having gone off the end of a hairpin, there were a few tow trucks trying to figure out how to get the car, didn’t look like fun. At the top of the pass, we saw some people walking their St Bernard dogs! Which was a very xzibit moment. We did very well with the Airbnb this night, staying in a lovely house with a swimming pool, table tennis table and a GILF. Aosta hosted the best pizza we had all trip too! Prego
STEAM BOAT
Montreux
Great St Bernard Pass
Aosta view from the Airbnb
Edited by Salgar on Tuesday 27th September 20:29
Awesome, some of those pictures look like paintings, stunning place. I'm going down to Switzerland for 5 days late August next year, via the black forest (to break up the journey down there) and the Dolomites/lake Como for another 5 or so days (12 days in total).
I'm realising I'm going to need to allow more time for stops at the top of the mountain passes to just gawp at the scenerey
I'm realising I'm going to need to allow more time for stops at the top of the mountain passes to just gawp at the scenerey
Berz said:
How much does a trip like this cost per day when you're staying at airbnb/hostels instead of hotels? Fuel, food, accommodation; anything else to budget for?
I did a very similar trip a couple of months ago with two friends trying to keep it as cheap as possible within reason. We did 2300 miles over 9 days, took the ferry rather than the tunnel - significantly cheaper - and it ended up costing around £600-650 for direct costs (food, accom, petrol, breakdown cover, ferry etc). My Speed Triple averaged 46mpg over the whole trip. That figure doesn't include the fact that I almost went through an entire rear tyre, and did a few bits and bobs like oil/filter change before we left. I pre-booked all accomodation and averaged £20 each per night, most breakfasts/lunches were supermarket bought (some hotels had brekky included) although we did eat out for dinner every night, followed by a couple of beers.
SteelerSE said:
"We had some Korean girls at the hostel put their chicken filled lettuce in our mouths"
Is this some sort of code?
Most random thing ever.
No, it literally happened just like that. We were sitting reading our books when we were called over and asked if we wanted to 'try some' pointing at a table full of food. And they shoved lettuce filled with chicken and sauce directly into our mouths. It was as strange as you imagine. We smiled and nodded and left...Is this some sort of code?
Most random thing ever.
Salgar said:
SteelerSE said:
"We had some Korean girls at the hostel put their chicken filled lettuce in our mouths"
Is this some sort of code?
Most random thing ever.
No, it literally happened just like that. We were sitting reading our books when we were called over and asked if we wanted to 'try some' pointing at a table full of food. And they shoved lettuce filled with chicken and sauce directly into our mouths. It was as strange as you imagine. We smiled and nodded and left...Is this some sort of code?
Most random thing ever.
My imagining of what that meant differed significantly from the reality!! Bordtea said:
Berz said:
How much does a trip like this cost per day when you're staying at airbnb/hostels instead of hotels? Fuel, food, accommodation; anything else to budget for?
I did a very similar trip a couple of months ago with two friends trying to keep it as cheap as possible within reason. We did 2300 miles over 9 days, took the ferry rather than the tunnel - significantly cheaper - and it ended up costing around £600-650 for direct costs (food, accom, petrol, breakdown cover, ferry etc). My Speed Triple averaged 46mpg over the whole trip. That figure doesn't include the fact that I almost went through an entire rear tyre, and did a few bits and bobs like oil/filter change before we left. I pre-booked all accomodation and averaged £20 each per night, most breakfasts/lunches were supermarket bought (some hotels had brekky included) although we did eat out for dinner every night, followed by a couple of beers.
Oh also, £200 for the spain ferry, £40? for the dover one.
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