2100 miles, 6 countries, 7.5days

[Phoenix]

Ok thought I'd do a quick write up before I forget what we did, not done one before so excuse me if it's boring.

Decided lastyear I was definately going for a ride round Europe this year, planned to do 2 weeks but the person I was going with could only manage 1 so stuck to that, plus having already had 1 holiday this year I wanted to keep costs down.

Nothing was planned, decided on a very rough route, booked the first night in dunkerque in a cheapo hotel (premier classe) as we'd be landing about 11pm local time and Si had to work a half day in the morning before we left.

Day 1

As usual I left all my packing and the last few items until the morning and was a mad rush to get sorted, documents, stack the bike up etc etc I was changing pads and bleeding my brakes up until 5minutes before leaving, not sensible really, but that's me.

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Yeah I'm a tight git


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Perfect...didn't look quite so perfect as time went on.



Got going about 2.00 pm Friday 25th from Birmingham to catch the 8pm Ferry from Dover to Dunkerque, plenty of time.... stopped at High Wycombe for some petrol to last until France. First problem, my bike won't start, had to bump it. Assumed battery was nailed despite being on Optimate for last few days, but as holiday progressed the symptoms indicated it was more likely the starter motor was knackered, had to bump start it every single time, very occasionally it would work, pain in the ass but not a real problem, easy to bump.

Hit the M25 and stopped, proceeded to filter through gridlock traffic for the next 60miles, all the way from the M40/M25 junction to halfway down the M20, total nightmare. No near misses except one ass who tried to close the gap on me with the car next to him, never done it before but rage overcame me and I belted his mirror, with my hand, doing about 20mph....ouch. According to Si, following behind me, he turned his windscreen wipers on in outrage before finding his horn a while later, shame the mirror only bent back.

Got the Ferry kiosk at 7.35, checked in, sent straight to lane, straight onto ferry and strapped down, made it, god knows how.

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Only 5 bikes onboard


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Nice shot at sea

Premier Classe hotel was about 10mins off the ferry, despite me taking the wrong exit at a roundabout, room was a bit skanky but served it's purpose at 42Euros.

Day 2

Early start in morning about 6.30, and straight onto motorway with the intention of heading straight for Switzerland via Belgium and Germany as the motorways are all free, quick petrol stop in Dunkerque and found a Yamaha dealer to get some chain lube (forgot mine). Back on the motorway and just pinned it with a petrol and food stops, and a waterproofing stop after the Brussells ringroad due to storms, nice quality driving round there...

Petrol for the whole trip seemed to average 1.50-1.55Euros on motorway and 1.40 at the supermarkets, Luxembourg on the way down was by far the cheapest at 1.26 a litre.

Finally decided to jump off the motorway at Saarbrucken in Germany and got onto the N62 back into France's Des Vosges Du Nord national park, was wet and roads were ok but nothing amazing, through a town called Bitche and stopped at a campsite near Phillipsbourg for the night, only 11Euros each.

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Tourist Info, Phillipsbourg

First night camping was ok, had dried out by time we pitched up, was warm, had good showers. My £12 tent from Tesco showed why it's £12, wake up and most of your stuff is fairly damp, really quite horrible, but dries out after a while back on the road. We both had Coleman stoves too for cooking, run on unleaded we syphoned from the bike tanks as needed, quick, cheap and easy, good for £35.

Day 3

Got up early again and were repacked and on the road by about 9am, headed to Strasbourg via Haguenau, found a nice little B road, twisty, but road surface got increasingly poor until it was gravel that you couldn't see, hit the main road into Haguenau and got lost. The signposting was apalling, spent about 1.5hours travelling in a big circle, albeit down some interesting roads and through a small french village who I don't think were used to bikers coming through.

Eventually stumbled across the motorway again, paid our first fixed toll and got to Offenburg where we came off again onto the E531 through the Black Forest, bit boring to start with but got really quite nice as we got further on.

Hit some more rain, and I tried to get a hotel on the German/Swiss border, but the woman on the desk was very frustrated at my inability to speak German and started throwing pens around so we made a hasty exit and just went straight into Switzerland. Was a bit edgy at this point as progress had been very slow along all the A-roads, amongst getting lost near Strasbourg, even the road through the black forest were virtually all 30mph zones with very few and short NSL bits, meaning looking at the map we'd done bugger all distance.

Weather improved anyway on the Swiss border, bought our Vigenettes at 32 Euros I think it was so we could use the motorwaysand took the A4 into Schaffhausen where I decided on a small diversion to go look at the Rheinfall, quite impressive and worth a look. From there we carried on into Winterthur where it was getting late so found a campsite and pitched up for a pittence, nice friendly staff, very tolerant of my lacking German skills.

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Swiss Border (no bike checks despite people saying they're very aggressive on vehicle checks, thought some of the Swiss registered banger we saw driving around would indicate otherwise).


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Rheinfall



Day 4

Another early start, better at packing up now, so were on the road and sorted by about 8.30 I think. My ability to interpret the Swiss/French signposting was improving (ignore it), and we got out of Winterthur and onto the B roads to Rapperswill where the Alps started to come into view, over the lake and onto Nafels, the start of the Klausenpass.

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Nafels

The Klausenpass started off as very slow, constant 30 zones and villages again for a good 15miles, but then it opened up and was nice clear twisty road, and loads of hairpins and steep climbs. Quick stop for a drink and stumbled across a waterfall hidden off the road, could walk right behind it.

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Waterfall....

The road got better and better, bit like wales at points, but instead of sheep in the road it was cows..with bells. Weather had been excellent all day, cooled down quite a bit at the summit.

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Bends

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Summit

Hit Altdorf and got onto the motorway for a few miles south and off again at the Sustenpass, this road was fantastic, great views and endless hairpins, tunnels, bridges. Got to the top, which was in the clouds and it was pretty damn cold, and awful visibility, then decended again into a big thunderstorm but got through that in about 5minutes and it just turned to a misty drizzle for remainder so just had to slow down a bit.

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Sustenpass

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Edge of a very high mountain...

Skies cleared up and it was onto the Grimselpass down to Gletsch, another great road

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Reservoirs

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Nice...

Low on petrol at this point so chose the quickest way to a town which was along the Furkapass, and up past a Glacier which we stopped at for a quick look.

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Glacier

Down some tight hairpins with no barriers and some significant drops into Andermatt, where we filled up and stopped the night at a campsite. Bad choice as it got extremely cold during the night (were still at considerable altitude), £12 tesco tent not a good defence against the cold, glad I got the £35 sleeping bag at least, slept clothed.

https://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff264/kiowan/Europe%202008/DSC01576.jpg
Watch the edge




Day 5

Slow to get up today as it was absolutely freezing, all the stuff in my tent, clothes sleeping bag etc were ice cold and damp and my feet were very painful from the riding so far. Started lining my boots with plastic bags from here on and it stopped any rubbing, reduced sweating and made them comfortable again, ahhh. Original plan was to head over to the Stelvio pass from here and through north of Italy, but time looked tight for that and wasn't convinced Stelvio was worth it.

Finally got going after some coffees about 10ish and shot back along the Furkapass west, quick suggestion of directions to some lost looking english bikers and we carried on towards Mt Blanc.

Loads and loads of hairpins as we decended to sea level again, really quite hard work on the wrists and the temperature shot up and was easily around 30degrees by the time were were near Sion. My phone was dead and I'd got no car charger for it and my continental plug adaptor was obviously from a different continent as it didn't fit any sockets, so got a car charger from a big store in Sion and made first use of my underseat 12v socket I put in weeks before.

Used a bit of motorway to get to Martigny and onto the Col des Montets up to Mt Blanc, nice twisty road again and weather held, lot of tourist traffic though and clapped out motorhomes doing 5mph up the hills.

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French side of Mt Blanc

Decided to go through the Mt Blanc tunnel and into Italy, great road upto it, perfect surface and wide open hairpins, lot of trucks though. 22 Euros to get through the tunnel, ouch, better than £15.90 just to get over the Severn bridge though.

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Italian side of Mt Blanc

Took the Col du petit St Bernard from Italy back into France, more endless hairpins, roads and the area was fairly desolate, lots of abandoned building, bit eerie in places.

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Middle of nowhere

Stopped in Bourg St maurice after the tiring decent, must've been over 50 hairpins and was hard to get past traffic. Camped up again pretty cheap after failed attempts to find a hotel for a decent price.

Day 6

Reasonable start, packed up in record time, and on the road around 9. Went backwards a bit and got on the D902 Col de l'Iseran. This was a great road, which was good as it was one of the last mountain passes we'd be doing. Weather was excellent once again and took some nics pics, dams, long windowed tunnels.

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Dam (with a giant painted on the one side)

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Lots of tunnels along here

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Runaway mine train??

Got cold up near the summit, caught up with some Czeck bikers (and their lovely pillions) that'd been at the campsite earlier. Seemed to be a bit of a local bikemeet at the top, coldest place we'd been so far and was still a fair bit of snow around. Was a cafe/museum in the main building, a few WW2 relics, bren guns, german helmets etc

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Bikemeet

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Worth the hike, bit slippy in SIDIs though.

On the way down we took a left onto the Col du Mont Cenis, another nice road, nothing too extreme, warm and nice sweeping bends, some very slippery tarmac though at points. This took us back into Italy again and into Susa, where we took A-roads to Claviere heading back for France, nice scenery in Italy, extremely hot and humid too.

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Col du Mont Cenis

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Crazy hairpins down into Italy

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Susa, Italy

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Big bridge, Italy

Plan was to head down the N94 via Briancon and stop in Gap, ready to start heading back via Route Napoleon (much talked about), could only really afford to the section from Gap to Grenoble, no time to get to Grasse.
Got to Gap about 7-8, hard work finding and getting a cheap hotel, but managed it thanks to a helpful french hotelier with no english but plenty of patience, bikes got garaged too. Was very hot and humid that night, 27degrees by 11pm, went out for a drink and a chinese, and roasted during the night.



Day 7

Set off about 9.30, up route Napoleon, wasn't impressed, then as we got halfway along it got a lot better, lots of twists and turns, easy to go fast, had a frenchy in a Citroen C4? hatchback infront of me who seemed to think he was in a rally car, going pretty damn quick and doing crazy overtakes until he ended up coming off the road round one corner, oops, shit himself up a bit I think and he gave up after that.

Was boiling hot riding up to Grenoble, stopped for a break before jumping on the motorway all the way to Dijon. Decided to come off at Dijon for a break and use the N71 up to Troyes, looked more direct and fancied a break, was a good choice. Virtually no villages along it, very straight with a few nice zig zag sections every now and then, could keep a good speed up all the way.

Ended up stopping the night at a cheap hotel in Chatillion sur Seine. Nice small town, lots of WW2 history, including the hotel. Si has most of the pics from there, will post later if anyones interested, found a massive creepy graveyard too inside a walled half derelict abbey.

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Gap-Grenoble



Day 8

Left early, to grey skies and rain. Carried on up towards Troyes and got onto the motorway again, didn't stop again for 155miles when we reached Laon where we took a good break. Then back on again and up via Lille to Dunkerque, took that route as it toll-free motorways, saves 7 Euros or so, the surface around Lille is bad though, crushed my nuts on several occasions thanks to the lumps, bumps and craters.

Original plan was to stop in dunkerque and get on the Midday ferry following day, but got to the port at 4.45 and asked if we could get a ferry then, got us onto the 6pm one and across we went, then a clear run back upto Birmingham and home for 11.30, hit the most rain of the holiday there, typical. 550miles in the last day, was a decent run.

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Mileage


https://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff264/kiowan/Europe%202008/RouteMap1.jpg
Route Map

https://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff264/kiowan/Europe%202008/RouteMap2.jpg
Terrain Map



All the pictures are here if you want to look https://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff264/kiowan/Europe%202008/


Finito

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Good write-up.

Looks like some beautiful passes on the North French Alps/Swiss area, never been up there before but must do at some point.

Great route to get all that done in 7 days and 2100 miles.

I've found some Germans can be really arsey, had a waiter really get the hump because I mispronounced something from a phrase book. What do they really expect, that you can be fluent in every language in Western Europe?

[StevenF]

Looks like you had a great time! Nice pictures too! Something I would love to do in the future.

How would you rate the experience as a whole?

Edit: I'm sure Top Gear tested some of those roads.
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My Project - Honda CBR 600 F2/FM

[Phoenix]

To be fair, my German didn't include the words, room, bed or how much, it's mainly limited to numbers, asking for something and pleasantries, and she spoke absolutely no English whatsoever so it was hard work. Maybe they've just had bad experience of English people before so take a dislike, or maybe it is just a German thing. I found the French and Swiss all very amicable and tried to speak German/french when I could manage it rather than just expect them to speak English.

Steven, the trip was excellent, better than I thought it'd be, should've done it years ago. Not worked out the costs yet but looking fairly good, camping kept them down, and eating from supermarkets. My plan to do the Stelvio Pass and the San Bernadino pass came from Top Gear, however neither really fitted into the route well, or the timeframe, so were abandoned.

[thelamoth]

Good write up mate, was an absolutely blinding trip....have to do that again

Pics are uploaded to my pc ready to be burnt on to a disk, ill drop it off to you at the weekend!

No mention of my hippopotamus snoring then, hah ha!!!

[colin1]

Nice pics and write up.

[EuropeanNC30R...]

I still think in that situation the reaction is unecessary.

I mean two British bikers walk into a hotel, it's very unlikely they are there to enquire on the price of local dairy products. Any hotel receptionist with an IQ in double figures should be able to work out they want a twin room, most probably for one night, and right the price on a sheet of paper.

After my German experience I always took a preference to pump 4 in petrol stations, I could say that ok.

[Biker101]

Excellent write up, nice short paragraphs and lots of pics

I am really jealous, wish i had gone touring instead of the 18-30 i went on, although it was good i think you had a better time.

I am definitely touring next year.
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Past: 06 Runner SP50 >>> 01 Varadero XL125 >>> 08 Kwak ER-6f >>> 05 CBR600rr
Present: 99 FZS600 Fazer

[TechJinx]

great write up, reading that sure beat working
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bikes: SV650S K5 that is making me do this 57 CBR125 RW-7 - sold ; 54 CBR125 - anyone wanna buy a project?

YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.

[sagalout]

Excellent write up and trip

Any chance you could post a link to the google maps route? I like to save them in my favourites for route planning myself.
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Current Bike: Triumph Speed Triple T309
Previous: CBR600F => ZX9R => Triumph Tiger => Honda Blackbird => GSXR 750 => Versys =>ZX12R

[Shay HTFC]

Nice one. Looks awesome!

Europe and the Alps is my next touring destination I think
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Full Motorbike License - GS500E '95

[Shaun]

[Phoenix]

Yes, I think Ein room for zwie people (thanks for the phonetics Colin ) would be interpreted fairly well anyway, as Maurice said, I was hardly asking for 2 pints of milk. The problem was that everything I said resulted in a speil of german propelled back at me that I couldn't decipher at all, she seemed unable to give simple answers, therefore dialog broke down completely as I became lost in where the conversation had gone.
Eventually got her to write a price on paper which was too high anyway. I couldn't think what too much was in german, only french and was picturing Full Metal Jacket in my head and "too beaucoup", that's when I left

Sagalout I'll redo the route on Google Maps for you and post a link, there's a problem along the Klausenpass though (Nafels to Altdorf), for some reason it won't use it as a through route so I'll have to leave it out.