Travelogue: June 16-28, 2004
Prologue - I had been scheming
and plotting for nearly 2 years, trying to convince Curt to do a motorcycle
trip in Europe. His standard response was, why do you want to go to
Europe, we have great riding here. Yes I know, but that's not the
point chief. After much pestering and cajoling he finally relented.
The plan was to fly into Munich, Germany, spend a few days sightseeing
and then head down to Innsbruck, Austria where the motorcycle trip started.
The motorcycle trip
was an 8 day tour with 5 days of riding through Austria, Switzerland, Italy
and Germany. We did a loop out each day on a different route and then
returned to the same hotel each night. Curt is already booking a trip
for next year, I think he saw the light ;-)
Day 1 - Wednesday,
June 16th: Oakland, CA to Munich, Germany Ok, so whoever said
that "half the fun was getting there" was wrong on this trip. A bit of
a mess to say the least. And before we go any further, Delta Airlines
is definitely off my Christmas list. Our flight was suppose to leave
at 9:00 A.M. but was delayed until 11:00 A.M. because of a dead battery.
What? That sounded lame, but whatever. Truthfully, I was scared
to look out the window thinking I might see the food delivery van with
jumper cables hooked up to the airplane...some things you just don't want or
need to know. We finally get off the ground and on our way to
Atlanta, but were worried because we were going to miss our connecting
flight to Munich. We figured we'd deal with it when we got to Atlanta.
We land in Atlanta and as we are getting off the plane the flight attendant
comes on the PA and says "Ah, folks we've had an accident in the aisle so
please be careful as you exit the plane." Well, some girl barfed in
the aisle, pleasant. I hold my nose as we approach, so I don't
contribute to the mess and notice that someone else has stepped in it and
tracked it down the aisle, eeewww. The flight attendant is smiling and standing
next to the vomit asking everyone to please be careful. Ok, has the
village lost all its idiots? Throw a damn blanket over the mess, step
away and use the PA, don't stand next to it for God sakes. We proceed
to the gate agent to determine if there is another flight to Munich, which
there is fortunately and he tells us that we are all set and booked on this
flight. We go to our new gate to get our boarding passes and we
are met by a very rude agent. He informs us in a terse tone that he is
booting up the computer system and will be ready in 8 minutes. 8
minutes, what's up with that. Who the hell says 8 minutes, you say
either 5 or 10 or 15, it's known as the law of 5's. From there it
jumps to 1/2 hour or 3/4 of an hour. It's ok to put an "about" in
front of any of these estimates but never an 8. On the low end of the
time estimate spectrum (TES) is "just a sec" which can actually cover up to
10 minutes. Again, note the law of 5's in action. "Be ready in 2
seconds" - which covers up to 20 minutes or "just a minute" - which covers
up to an hour. But again, notice that nowhere are any frickin' 8's in
evidence here. Ok, done with the law of 5's aside...credit must be
given here to Curt for the law of 5's diatribe.
Curt goes up to the agent after "10" minutes and inquires about our new
boarding passes. The agents says "Sir, you are on stand-by" and I
can't issue you passes at this time. Curt goes around in circles
with him for several minutes and comes back to our seats looking very
pissed-off. Now I am pissed and I have a go at it, but by this time
there is another agent assisting so I wait for him. He
tells me that we are booked and issues me new boarding passes.
How stupid is that....I of course gave the gate agent (Mr. 8) a piece of my
mind. It didn't accomplish jack, but at least I felt
better...and it's all about feeling good. I think the agents had the
last laugh though because they gave us the crappiest seats possible - middle
aisle against the bulkhead so we had no room to stretch our legs out for the
short 8:30 hour flight and the TV was mounted on the bulkhead so our noses
were 8 inches from the screen...thanks a bunch...but on the plus side, no
one barfed.
Day 2 - Thursday,
June 17: Munich Arrival - Finally we arrive at 10:00 A.M. Hallelujah.
We are exhausted and have been up for 28 hours with the time difference, but in one piece
nonetheless. Our first task was to navigate the subway system and get
from the airport to our hotel downtown. Fortunately, I had my
handy-dandy Rick Steve's travel guide and it mapped out which train to take.
A bit more complicated than our local BART system, but manageable.
Once we popped up from the subway we were a short
"10"
minute walk to the hotel, not 8 minutes, but 10 minutes. A decent hotel with all the necessities, but
certainly no Ritz Carlton. We got checked in, fought for the
shower....I lost, but in the meantime found the minibar, ha. We
crashed for about 5 hours and then got up and wandered around downtown to
get our bearings, some food and drinks. We went over to the
Marienplatz which is the central downtown Munich area. A
plethora of
shops and cafes and beer gardens (biergartens) in classic European fashion.
After walking around for a while we sniffed out a biergarten, where we
planted ourselves and people watched for a while as we sipped some German
beer and ate weiner schnitzel - and no it wasn't a hot dog. Weiner
schnitzel is a thinly sliced piece of veal with a wonderful coating of
breading and spices. Ok, so we didn't know this at first either, but
the menu was in German and Curt just randomly ordered it and lo and behold
it was delicious...imagine that...things were looking up. More
wandering around after our dinner and then back to the hotel for more sleep.
The only pictures here were of the back alley way to the hotel. We were operating on little sleep and
figured we'd have plenty of time for pictures later.
Click on the small pictures for a larger view to appear.
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Hotel Deutsches Theatre - back entrance alley |
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Hotel Deutsches Theatre - back entrance alley |
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Subway map - looks worse than it really was |
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Day 3 - Friday,
June 18th: Munich Sightseeing - We were both wide awake at 6:00 A.M.
so we decided to get up and explore a bit. In our travels we found the
Central Hauptbahnhof. This was the main railway station where all the
above ground trains funneled into. Since we were going to Salzburg,
Austria the
following day we inquired at the information window about the cost and how
we go about getting tickets. A very nice young lady printed out the
different trains we could take, the times of departures and arrivals, the
fares for each class (1st or 2nd) on each train, and the departing track
numbers. All very organized and concise, but hey, I wouldn't expect
anything less from the Germans. After our big discovery we were
famished, so back to the hotel it was for our buffet style breakfast that
started at 7:00 A.M. every morning. After breakfast we got all geared
up for tourist action and headed out to the Olympic Village (home of the
1972 Olympics), and then to the English Gardens which is on par with Central
Park in New York. After staring at the ticket machine in the subway
station for 15 minutes that was in German, we both concluded that we
couldn't read German - duh. We stubbornly decided that we needed a
little help - this is quite funny because both of us are roughly 1/2 German.
Us stubborn and willful, nah. We found an information booth, waited in
line for help, but when we finally got to the front the guy didn't speak
English. Ok, plan B in action now. Hover around the ticket
machine and sheepishly ask people getting tickets if they speak English and
can help. Bingo, the first couple bit and got us all straightened out.
Tickets and train number in hand we jumped on the U-Bahn and headed for the
Olympic Village. Very cool to see in person and wander around. I
was a bit surprised that it wasn't very crowded...hmmm guess it was the 1972
Olympics though, only a few years ago right.
After our oohs and ahhs we
jumped back on the U-Bahn and headed to the English Gardens. This was
spectacular until a thunderstorm, complete with torrential downpour,
absolutely soaked us. Brilliant. I noted several locals looking
at us and shaking their heads - I know exactly what they were thinking...stupid ass tourists. I'll tell
you what though, that was the one and only day we ever left the hotel again
without umbrellas. Looking like soaking rats we made our way back to
the U-Bahn and to downtown. We stopped for pizza and beer at a great
little Italian restaurant off the Marienplatz on our way back to the hotel.
Since we were still jet lagged and a bit out of sorts we thought it would be
a good idea to take a quick power nap. Quick and power being the
optimum words here. We were down at 2:00 P.M. and groggily awoke about
9:00 P.M. - now that's a real power nap. Sheesh. Wide awake once
again we set out for some evening exploration. We saw an Internet Cafe
and first decided to send off a few e-mails to family and friends.
Once again the looming ticket machine all in German. Ugh. No
problem, I was a seasoned pro this time. I just sat back and watched a
few other folks and then took their lead. Ok, so it didn't take a
rocket scientist to figure out that you drop a few coins in and hit the big
green button for a ticket. Mission accomplished.
Afterwards we were a bit hungry again, you know, all that napping really
builds up the appetite, and for whatever reason we found ourselves back at
the central train station. There was a little store in there selling
bratwurst on baguettes so we got a couple....wow, good stuff. Funny
sometimes how something as simple as standing at a counter eating a sausage
and watching trains pull in and out is so surreal.
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Starting point of Olympic Park - drop off Spot from U-Bahn. |
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Some crazy kind of tower in Olympic Park |
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Tennis courts with Olympic Village in the background |
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One of the entrances to the Olympic Village |
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Pond in the Olympic Village |
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Olympic Village swimming pool |
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Curt and the ducks at another pond in Olympic Village |
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Shot of the BWM factory building from the Olympic Village |
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Hofgarten near the English Gardens |
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Shot of biergarten in the Hofgarten near the English Garden |
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River running through the English Garden |
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Laurel at the river in English Garden...just before the downpour hit |
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Day 4 - Saturday,
June 19th: Side Trip to Salzburg, Austria - Alright, time to shake
it up and head out of town. We got up early, again, the 9 hour time
difference was killing us. We had our train schedule from the
day before and jumped on the semi-express train to Salzburg, Austria.
Roughly a 2 hour ride through amazing scenery and towns. Once we got
to the Salzburg train station we hit the information booth and asked how to
get to the old center of downtown. Another nice lady helped us and instructed us to
take the #5 bus, she pointed to a ticket machine and I think Curt and I
both simultaneously groaned. Great. Another ticket machine in
German with lots of buttons and colors of the spectrum. We went
through the whole staring at the machine thing again for 15 minutes and
finally defeated, we went back to the information booth for more detailed
instructions. Ok...got it...riiiight. After a bit of guessing
and pushing of buttons a few tickets spit out, not sure if they were right,
but we had tickets to something by God. First things first though,
with food being a priority for Curt. Being the true creative Americans
that we are, Curt found a Burger King next to the train station - very
original. But in a pinch, it'll do. The most entertaining part
of waiting for Curt to finish was watching a Taxi cab driver forget to put
his car in park as he helped passengers out of his cab in front of the train
station. Just as all made it out safely, the car rolled forward and
slammed into a flag pole. The flag pole was a bit flimsy and
significantly listed to one side after the crunch, oops. The man was
thoroughly embarrassed and was looking around to see how many people saw the
blunder. I of course was giggling uncontrollably from the Burger King
window. I know, that's mean, but it really was comical and the cab
driver was quite theatrical. He finally jumped in his cab and sped
away....good move.
On to the bus stop which was right across the
way from the train station and listing flag pole. We hopped on
the bus and presented our tickets, we were not yelled or cursed at or kicked off, so
that was a good sign. It was a 20 minute bus ride to the old center
downtown area. We knew there was a fortress and funicular we wanted to
ride to the top of the fortress. As we journeyed through the streets
it didn't take long to spot the Hohensalzburg fortress and funicular (festungsbahn).
Up we went and were treated to incredible views of the countryside.
The fortress was pretty cool itself as we walked around freely.
We came back down and walked around all the narrow little streets and peered
in the shops. Time for a soda break so we stopped at a cafe and did
the people/tourist watching thing. Sad to say that this place
was eat up with tourists. After more wandering we had a late lunch at
an out of the way Italian place that was outstanding.
Just as we were seated in the restaurant upstairs it started pouring.
It was interesting watching everyone without umbrellas run for cover....been
there done that...we came prepared this time.
We were booked on the 4:30 P.M. train back to
Munich so we hot footed it back to the bus stop and caught our bus back to
the train station just in time. A pleasant ride back to Munich
on the train. We retreated to the sanctuary of the hotel for yet
another nap.
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Curt hopping on the train to Salzburg in the Munich station |
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Shot of Munich train station - looking back |
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Curt in old center downtown street of Salzburg, Austria |
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Random side street in old center downtown |
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The Hohensalzburg Fortress looming large on the hilltop |
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Shot of Salzburg from high atop the fortress wall |
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Another view from fortress wall |
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Curt looking out from fortress wall |
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Another angle from fortress wall |
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Laurel inside fortress...fire in the hole |
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Procession of guys dressed up in the fortress |
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Shot looking out the backside of the fortress |
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Interesting life size chess game in one of the squares in Salzburg. Ya, like I have a clue. |
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Salzach River in Salzburg that you cross in order to get to old center downtown. |
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Shot of newer downtown Salzburg area that is not part of the old center downtown |
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Day 5 - Sunday, June 20th: Side Trip to
Hamburg Castle and Rothenburg, Germany - On this day we were the
epitome of tourists and joined a tour bus group that went for a tour of Hamburg Castle and then moved on to the medieval town of Rothenburg via the
Romantic Road scenic route. The castle was interesting, but Rothenburg was
really the highlight. We met at the Neptune Fountain just a few blocks
from our hotel at 8:00 A.M. Hey no problem, we've been up since 3:30
A.M. Once again it was pouring rain, but the bus was dry and cozy.
Our tour guide (Christine) was hilarious. She was an elderly
German woman and most certainly suited for tourism. She told funny
story after story and educated us about local area history. We arrived at the Hamburg
Castle first and had a 1 hour guided tour. Very interesting and
actually dangerous for some. Some of the stairs were steep and narrow, and many
of the walkways uneven, which caused two people to trip and tumble.
Everyone was ok fortunately, but a few bruised egos were had. Ok, so I
did squelch a giggle after everyone was ok - why is it that other people
tripping and tumbling is so comical...must be something about flailing
arms and legs sprawled in all directions...alright, moving on. We
jumped back on the bus and headed down the picturesque Romantic Road to the
walled town of Rothenburg. Christine lead us to the town center and
then cut us loose to wander around for several hours unchaperoned.
The town was amazing in that it had a stone wall encompassing the entire
town. The wall had a platform all the way around which enabled you to
walk the perimeter. We didn't have time to do the entire town, but on
our way back we did do a fair portion of the perimeter walk.
Lunch was first up so we started at a
restaurant that Christine had recommended. Menus in
English...whoa...no more mystery food. After eating we ventured out
down many of the side streets and hit some of the main attractions and many
shops. We also ended up taking a tour of the Medieval Crime Museum...a
bit morbid, but interesting nonetheless. After a couple hours we
had had enough, as again it was tourist city, and it was time to mosey
back to the bus. We did the perimeter walk back to the bus.
Fortunately, all the other parties were promptly on time and we got rolling
back to Munich....a 3 hour ride. We were pretty much wiped out
by the time we got back so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to
the hotel.
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Neptune Fountain in Munich - Our meeting spot for the tour group |
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Shot of inside grounds of Hamburg Castle |
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Shot of inside grounds of Hamburg Castle |
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Shot of inside grounds of Hamburg Castle |
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Shot of cafe inside grounds of Hamburg Castle |
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Shot of countryside looking out a window in Hamburg Castle |
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Town map of Rothenburg - note the solid black line around the perimeter which is the wall of stone |
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Inside Rothenburg walls - This is shot of town center |
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Inside Rothenburg walls - another shot of town center |
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Rothenburg - side street shot |
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Medieval Crime Museum shot - Hmmm....No thanks |
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Rothenburg - side street shot of Curt |
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Rothenburg - side street shot of Laurel. Note the umbrella in the backpack, don't leave home without it. |
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Rothenburg - side street shot of Laurel |
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Rothenburg - standing on the perimeter wall looking down into cafe |
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Rothenburg - standing on the perimeter wall Looking out over the city |
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Rothenburg - standing on the perimeter wall Looking out over the city |
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Day 6 - Monday, June 21st: Off to
Innsbruck, Austria- Time to pack up and move out to Innsbruck,
Austria for our motorcycle trip. Munich was fun and all, but we were
now anxious to get out of the big city and on the motorcycles. We
crammed all our stuff back in our mongo suitcase that we were sharing.
Now there's a reason for divorce court...never mind that we over-packed.
You see, we had one suitcase filled with our motorcycle gear (boots, pants,
jackets, etc.) and another one that we shared which housed all of our
clothes. Funny how the imaginary white line down the middle of the
suitcase can cause such a riff if there is the slightest bit of encroachment
on either side. The hurt and outrage caused by accusations of too many
shoes was unbearable....me, an Emelda Marcos collection, never.
Onward...Schnell, Schnell to the train station for our 9:30 A.M.
departure time to Innsbruck. Two plus hours later we arrived in
Innsbruck and waited for our tour guide (George) to come pick us up.
He promptly retrieved us at 12:00 P.M. and loaded us into the minivan for
our journey to the hotel in Barwies, Austria which was about 45 minutes west
of Innsbruck.
Once checked-in at the hotel we met the other
folks from the tour that had already arrived. We all had lunch
together and started out on a good note. There were 9 of us in total -
one couple from New York (Jimmy and Christine), one couple from Connecticut
(Bill and Dani), one couple from San Francisco (John and Mary), and one guy
from Boston (Chris). Jimmy, Christine, Bill, Dani and Chris were
all buddies and had planned the trip together. After lunch we settled
into our room and took a power nap. Later on we took possession of our
motorcycles from George. We had to look the motorcycles over and note
if there were any scratches or damage - if so, they were logged so we
wouldn't be responsible for them when turning the motorcycle back over.
All was good, paperwork and insurance and signatures were completed.
During the activity of the motorcycle
transfers, Jimmy from New York comes up to me and says "Hey, you have any
relatives in the New England area". I replied that I did - my Dad's
brother and his family are scattered about the east coast. Strangely
enough though I have never met my 4 cousins - I know of them and their names
but over the years we just never gotten together. I have only met my
Dad's brother and his wife. Jimmy asked if I knew anyone named Jackie
Sutcliffe, of which I replied that I thought that was my cousin. We
compared bios of what she did for a living, other family members, etc. and
sure enough it was her. Turns out that Jimmy and the rest of the group
all knew Jackie very well and shared the same ski house. How
bizarre is that...we all sat around scratching our heads and laughing about
the strange coincidence. Of all the millions of people in the world
you could end up with on a random trip and they know your cousin that you've
never met....too weird.
Moving on - group dinner was at 8:00 P.M.
with everyone getting acquainted and sharing some good tales of past
motorcycle adventures.
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Front of hotel in Barwies, Austria |
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Front of hotel in Barwies, Austria |
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From our balcony at the hotel - Wow! |
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Other direction from our balcony at the hotel |
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Day 7 - Tuesday, June 22nd: 1st Day of
Motorcycle Tour - Oh the excitement and anticipation, we were like
two school kids on the first day of school. Buffet breakfast was at
7:30 A.M. in the dining room and a briefing commenced each morning
afterwards at 8:30 A.M. Briefings consisted of the daily route that we
were going to be taking and entertaining excerpts from George our guide.
George was from Nurnberg, Germany and turned out to be the greatest guy. He
had a great sense of humor and the nicest demeanor about him. His
English was pretty good, but many times when he wasn't meaning to be funny
he was because of translation issues. We hit the gas station
down the road and were off riding by 9:00 A.M. Jimmy, Chris, and
Christine took off on their own to Italy the first day because they had
already done the route we were doing on another trip they had taken.
Our route was a loop through Austria and
Germany with the highlight being King Ludwig's Castles (Neuschwanstein and
Linderhof). George took it easy and slow as he assessed the riding
ability of the group. Fortunately, we didn't have any slowpokes and
everyone was a competent experienced rider. I must admit that
throughout most of the tour I had no idea where we were with the exception
of boarder crossings. Normally I am the one playing Julie McCoy at
home and doing all the navigation, so it was a nice change to sit back and
enjoy being led around by George and not have to worry about taking a wrong
turn somewhere. After climbing up a pass and through scenic villages
we stopped for a coffee break at a lakeside cafe. Welcome to Austria.
More meandering down back roads and twisties and what seemed like bikepaths. At one point we ended up on a narrow wet and muddy gravel road
and George kept looking at his map in his tank bag. I thought uh-oh
here we go, he's gotten us lost and has no clue where he is. But I
soon learned that even if George temporarily displaced us, he always
recovered nicely and got us back on track. He had this 6th sense of
direction that was uncanny. We all got a chuckle when he stopped a
group of English bicycle riders and asked directions in German. The
man replied that he didn't understand George and that he'd have to speak
English. There was a lot of pointing and gyrating going on...lost or
not though, I really didn't care because the scenery and the experience was
too beautiful. As we moved on we eventually found our way and popped
out of the woods to our lunch spot with an amazing cathedral across the
street. We consumed more quantities of weiner schnitzel and pommes (fries)
and then walked over to the cathedral to check it out. Off again on
more interesting roads with the destination of the castles in mind. We
didn't actually get off the bikes and tour the castles, although that was an
option. Everyone was more interested in riding at that point and not
to keen on standing in a line for an hour to buy tickets. We did do
some group photo shots and such and were then on the road again. A
final afternoon coffee break was in order at another lakeside cafe and then
the last leg home was down Fernpass and back to the hotel by 6:00 P.M.
All in all it was about a 180 mile day. Not to shabby for a first run.
George I know was concerned about the others
that had went off on their own, but they drug in about an hour after us and
had an interesting romp in the Dolomites in Italy. Sounded a bit
treacherous, as the roads were wet and icy and visibility was down to a few
feet. With everyone reunited and changed out of their riding
duds we swarmed the bar and told more lies. The tales got bigger and
bolder as the alcohol consumption increased...hmmm funny how that happens.
I know my nose grew a bit. We moved to our group dinner table and
feasted on an amazing multi-course meal. No sleep issues that
night, nor the rest of the trip for that matter. We were out like a
light, I don't think I moved the entire night.
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Shot of me on the bike at the hotel before we jetted off. Curt and I were both on BWM 650 GS's. Great fun and perfect choice for high Alps treachery |
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Shot of lake from cafe at the first coffee break |
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Shot of lake and group from cafe at the first coffee break - George and Curt on the left, Mary, John, Dani and Bill on the right |
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Semi-group shot of bikes in front of cafe - George, Laurel, Bill and John |
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Curt and Geoge's bikes parked in front of lunch spot |
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Curt in front entrance of lunch spot |
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Cows on the cathedral grounds across the street from our lunch spot |
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Cows on the cathedral grounds across the street from our lunch spot. Accordint to George, the cows wear bells because their horns don't work ;-) |
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Inside cathedral. Too bad this turned out dark, because the colors were amazing. |
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Road leading away from the cathedral - a flavor of what we rode in on. Notice how narrow it is. |
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Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany |
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Curt and I with castle in the Background |
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Group shot at castle, sans George. From left to right - Mary, John, Dani, Bill, Curt, and Laurel |
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Photo stop at a neat river and falls after the castle. The river is that milky color due to copper in the water. |
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Photo stop at a neat river and falls after the castle |
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Shot of last coffee break location on another lakeside |
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It's not easy being a superhero - Curt at the lakeside cafe |
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Looking down the road from the lakeside cafe. |
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Day 8 - Wednesday, June 23rd: 2nd Day of
Motorcycle Tour - If I had to pick a best riding day, it was most
certainly this day. They were all amazing, but this one just stuck in my
mind the most. Curt and I had this plan of just hanging back and
checking out the rest of the group on the ride. The rest of the group
meaning Jimmy, Chris, and Christine. Just like any sport,
you are always assessing the others ability and competence. Jimmy and
Chris had been talking a pretty good game the night before, so we just
wanted to see what kind of riders they were. I must admit that I was
very curious about Christine's ability as well...see, women are worse then
men when it comes to competition and I am certainly no exception.
However, one thing I've learned in my 20+ years of motorcycle riding is that
no matter how good you think you are, there is always someone better.
So I always keep my mouth shut and just observe before I make a judgment or
start talking trash.
We all blazed off at 9:00 A.M. after briefing
and a fill-up at the gas station. Oh, and by the way, anyone that is
still complaining about gas prices here, don't. Gas is roughly $4.00 a
gallon other there. No wonder everyone rides bicycles or motorcycles.
Anyway, so much for our plan to hang back in the group. Chris jumped
out in front behind George and I couldn't help it, I had to jump in behind
Chris. George picked up the pace and led us through some fun backroad
twisties. As the group spread out a bit I was glued to Chris's back
tire. I think he was a bit surprised and wasn't expecting it. We
had a good fun romp for a number of miles before we stopped for a photo
opportunity. Everyone was smiling and laughing and basking in the
moment. Curt sauntered over to me and asks, hey what happened to just
laying back and watching everyone. Ah, well, sorry Babe, I just
couldn't help myself. He just laughed and gave me a big grin and
whispered, nice riding. After some photos we went charging off
again and stopped at the entrance to the Panoramic Highway where we had to
pay a toll. This road would take us all the way up to a ski resort, I
think it was St. Anton. After tolls were paid, Chris took off quickly
with Curt and I right on his heels and the rest of the group not far behind.
Curt decidedly ditched the "hang back" plan as well and was full speed
ahead. We shortly hit a patch of road that turned into gravel which
forced Chris to nearly come to a stop. Curt and I had bikes that
had dual sport tires which allow you decent traction in gravel. As
Chris was slowly navigating the gravel Curt and I flanked him on either side
and sped off. That was fun. I don't think Chris knew what hit
him...no mercy. Curt and I blazed off but later slowed and waited for
the pack to catch up. We definitely had an advantage with bikes that
were lighter and more nimble. We climbed up and up and up and after 27
hairpin turns found ourselves ensconced in snow as we approached the
ski area. Wow, beautiful. We stopped here for a coffee break and a bit
of ribbing.
Bellies full of coffee and hot chocolate, we
headed back down the mountain. By this time George figured out that
the entire group was competent and that he could relax a bit and not worry
about anyone riding off the side of a cliff or into a snowbank - a big
relief for him. He later admitted that out of his last 3 tours
at least one person per tour had wrecked. Hmmm...no bueno. I
could see where he might be a bit gun-shy. Anyway, George pulled out
and led us down the mountain. Again, with Curt, George and I all
having the same model bikes we had the advantage of being more nimble and
quicker down the mountain. The 3 of us quickly found ourselves dicing
back and forth down the Panoramic Highway having too much fun. We
figured George was probably toying with us, as he was an incredible rider
and could have left us in the dust anytime he wanted. But being the
gracious guide and gentleman that he was, he was kind enough to play along.
The most comical part of our romp was towards the end when we were
approaching a minivan. The minivan saw us coming and instead of
pulling over, he stepped on it. Holy crap this guy was driving like a
bat outta hell. We could not catch him, honest. He was an
amazing driver. Later we all laughed that we got our asses kicked by a
minivan, wow. After we came to the end of the Panoramic Highway we all
practically jumped off our bikes and started high-fiving. We were
grinning ear to ear and shaking our heads - what a ride, what a road.
The rest of the group appeared shortly after
and we took off for our lunch destination. George took us to the most
amazing cafe - again, another reason this was one of my favorite days.
The cafe was on a hillside that had amazing views. We sat outside at
tables perched on a grassy knoll and eat kasspatzle (I think that's how you
spell it). It is sort of macaroni and cheese on steroids, with breaded
baked onions sprinkled on top...way yummy. We waddled back to
the bikes after pigging out on lunch and headed for the Hahntennjoch pass.
This was a great road with incredible views and scenery and twisty fun.
Unfortunately, it had started raining so we took it easy, kind of ;-) At the
bottom of the pass we stopped for our final coffee break of the day and then
headed for the hotel. About a 200 mile day on roads and passes
contained in the Austrian countryside . The evening routine was the
same - bar, dinner, hmmm, do we see a pattern developing here.
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View from our first photo opportunity stop |
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View from our first photo opportunity stop |
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Partial group shot from our first photo opportunity stop - From left to right: Christine, Curt, Chris, John, Jimmy, Bill |
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Ski area at the end of the Panoramic Highway - again, I think it is St. Anton. Curt and backside of Jimmy in shot. |
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Parking lot of lunch cafe |
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View looking over the wall of our lunch cafe |
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Day 9 - Thursday, June 24th: 3rd Day of
Motorcycle Tour - This day turned out to be our longest day with
roughly 250 miles logged. We hit the Queen of all passes, the Passo
dello Stelvio in Italy and then dropped down into Switzerland for a spell.
We weren't suppose to do this route until Friday, but the weather was
awesome and George wanted to make sure we did this on a good day. The
Passo dello Stelvio has 48 hairpin turns that I certainly would not have
wanted to tackle in snowy or icy conditions....good call George. A
little history on the Passo dello Stelvio, in that it was planned in 1818
and took 2,000 workers 2 years to build. It is the highest Italian
pass in the neighborhood of 9,000 feet and the third highest of the Alps.
First up was some new tires for Chris and
John's bike, they were in bad shape. We headed over early to the local
motorcycle garage and were in and out in 30 minutes, pretty impressive.
Our first coffee break led us to a cafe in Austria that had some cool
animals out front. There was a bunny rabbit pen with cute little
bunnies and guinea pigs in it, another pen with goats and finally a
miniature horse. The ladies attending the bunny pen started rattling
away at us in German. I did the Sprechen Sie Englisch? thing with no
success, but this didn't seem to deter the ladies. They were
determined to make us understand as they kept rattling on in German.
Ok, riiiiight. I just kept nodding and smiling and they kept speaking
German. Oh well, one thing in common was the enjoyment of the animals.
They kept picking up the bunnies and handing them to us to hold and pet.
For the goat pen, they filled our hands with grass so we could feed
and pet them. I was on my own with the miniature horse though which
was down the road a few steps. I didn't have any grass left but Mr. Ed
apparently like the flavor of my boots, hmmm, did I step in something?
Weather holding steady, we moved onward to
the Passo dello Stelvio. This was probably the most technical riding
we had ever done. This pass was narrow and steep with tight hairpins -
48 in all. I was mentally tired when we finally reached the top.
You really had to be on your toes watching for traffic coming down and when
overtaking slower traffic going up. Once again George, Curt and I had
the advantage with the smaller bikes. We jumped out front and blazed a
trail to the top with George leading most of the way. Curt did sneak
by him at one point and we never could catch him after that. See ya.
At the top we were all rewarded with more amazing views. We hung out
for quite a while taking pictures, shopping at tourist traps, and pondering
life in general. Fortunately, there was a backside of the pass
and we didn't have to go down the way we had come up. The backside of
the pass was not nearly as steep or treacherous. We were able to wick
it up a bit and fly down the mountain. On the way down we flew by
another Edelweiss tour group that had a bunch of slowpokes in it.
George loved this because not only is it fun to pass people, but he got to
rib the other guide later about his slow group. There were some scary
tunnels on the way down. They were generally very narrow, dark, and
the road surface was potholed and bumpy. When I was in one of the
tunnels, it was so dark that I lifted my face shield up to see better (I
have a tinted shield) and at the same time a car was coming the other
way that hit a pothole that was full of water and it splashed right in my
face. Perfect...thanks.
We later stopped for a late lunch in Italy,
we were all starving as it was about 3:00 P.M. It was then on to
Switzerland. We didn't get to St. Moritz as was planned, but we did
some great roads and one wild tunnel. Right after the boarder crossing
we had to stop and wait for about 15 minutes and then got the green light
for the tunnel. The tunnel was pitch black, one lane, freezing cold
and went on for several miles. We came out on the other side onto more
fun roads. We stopped for gas and then started to head back to camp.
Our coffee break was at a neat little Switzerland cafe right on a main road
that was very narrow. We got to witness two large buses coming in
opposite directions try to maneuver past one another. That was quite
entertaining and took up most of our coffee break time. Off in
another blaze of glory with us finally arriving around 7:45 P.M. - tired but elated. Yep, you guessed it -
bar, dinner, bed.
A nice side note here in that Dani had an
epiphany today on the ride. She was initially a bit skeptical about
coming on the trip altogether, but husband Bill, Jimmy and Christine had
talked her into it. She had ridden very little overall as a passenger
and was not at all comfortable the first day we went out. I think
Bill's back had turned black and blue by the end of the day from her
pounding on him. However, by the 3rd day she was having a ball.
That night at the bar she said "I think I get it now, this is really
amazing". Here, here Dani, you go girl. Not to mention that Bill
could stand upright again as well ;-)
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First coffee break stop at cafe |
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First coffee break stop at cafe |
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Bunnies and goat pen at the first coffee break cafe |
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Miniature horse at the first coffee break cafe |
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At the top of Passo dello Stelvio in Italy looking down on the road we just rode up - whew! |
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Passo dello Stelvio from the bottom looking up to the top |
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Curt at the top of Passo dello Stelvio |
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Laurel at the top of Passo dello Stelvio |
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At the top of Passo dello Stelvio |
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Partial group shot at the top of Passo dello Stelvio - from left to right: Christine, Bill, Dani, Curt, Mary, George |
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Day 10 - Friday, June 25th: 4th Day of
Motorcycle Tour - We were all a bit tired still from the day before,
but that didn't stop us from having another great day. The big passes
this day were Timmelsjoch and Jaufenpass. Timmelsjoch was no slouch
either at roughly 8,000 feet. We headed south out of Austria and
eventually into Italy. On our way up to Timmelsjoch we could see that
it was completely shrouded in fog. The weather had moved in and the
visibility was terrible. We all stopped at the toll both, paid our
fares and stared at each other. We figured George would lead the way
but he gave us the, "go at your own pace" speech. Gee, thanks George.
Everyone looked at Curt or I to take the lead, but we ended up nominating
Chris since he had actually traveled the road before. With that
settled we tip-toed down the road very cautiously as it was wet and looked
icy in some spots. Chris did a great job of leading us up the pass and
pulled over at the top for our coffee break. We ended up meeting the
other Edelweiss group we passed the other day at this stop. The guides
all socialized but it was funny that the members of the groups didn't.
Sort of territorial I guess, and they were probably still pissed about
getting passed the other day. Ouch.
I liked Timmelsjoch better than Passo dello
Stelvio, despite the fog. The road surface was much nicer and it was
not nearly as steep. Onward down the backside which was great fun, as
the weather had cleared quite a bit and the road was dry coming down.
We were going to meet the other group again for lunch, but we had some time
to kill so George found some fun roads that he cut us all loose on.
Chris, Jimmy, Curt and I raced off chasing each other down valleys and
through woods. Whoa, what a gas. George finally rounded is all
up and led us to our lunch destination that was mid-way up the Jaufenpass.
On the ride up, Chris thought he'd try his hand at taking on a few big bore
Japanese sport bikes. Oh ya, he held his own just fine. George
and I were bringing up the rear watching the joust unfold...you go Chris.
Chris eventually backed off and let them go after he had proven his point.
George took the lead back and steered us into our lunch spot.
Unfortunately, Jimmy and Curt missed the turn in to the lunch spot, even
though George tried to wave them in, they went zooming by. Ok, guess
they weren't hungry. George figured they'd turn around and come
back....well Curt figured it out, but Jimmy went all the way up and down the
back side of the pass before he realized that hey, I am all by myself.
Helloooo, come back to the light Jimmy. By the time he returned we had
already finished lunch.
The other group was at the restaurant
eating already, and it was much the same as at the coffee break, no one was
really interested in interacting. I think it was really more for the
guides to converse and compare notes, which is all good. The founder
of Edelweiss, Werner Watcher, who lives in Austria was out riding around and
joined us for lunch and later a romp up the Jaufenpass. Nice guy, very
personable and eager to hear feedback. He announced a few new trips
coming up for 2005 - Greece and Cuba....Hmmm, Greece sounded interesting.
We departed our lunch spot and headed for the top of Jaufenpass with Werner
trailing behind Chris. Chris keep throttle pressure to a minimum as he
didn't want to get George in trouble. He didn't want Werner to know
that George had a bunch of outta control speed junkies on his hands.
Ok, we weren't that bad, but still, Werner didn't need to be witness to any
of our antics.
Late coffee break was at Austrian cafe that I
forgot to takes pictures of. I was getting lazy with the camera the
last two days and I regret it because each place was unique and interesting
in it's own right. Oh well. Back to the hotel where we broke up
the routine a bit and went for a swim and sauna before the bar, dinner, and
bed routine. The evening dinners and debriefs were really fun.
Everyone had their own stories and interpretations of the day that were
shared.
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George in parking lot of coffee break cafe on Timmelsjoch - note the foggy conditions |
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George, Jimmy, and Bill in parking lot of coffee break spot on Timmelsjoch |
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Curt and others in parking lot of coffee break spot on Timmelsjoch - near the top and weather starting to break a bit |
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Shot from the end of a valley road that George had cut us loose on |
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Shot of some of us on a bridge in Italy on our way to lunch destination |
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Our lunch destination part way up Jaufenpass |
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Peacock perched on railing around the corner from the lunch cafe |
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Day 11 - Saturday, June 25th: 5th Day of
Motorcycle Tour - Last riding day...bummer man. Next tour is
going to be at least a two-weeker, minimum. At the morning briefing
George warned us about the perils of the last riding day.
Statistically people crash and burn on the first and last days. The
first day because you are not used to the bike and get in over your head,
and the last day because you are overconfident. George informed us
that today we were going to take it easy for these reasons.
Um-hum...sure George...beware of the nodding head I say. We all gave
the perfunctory nods and oh sures, but Curt and I turned our heads and
gave each other a conspiratorial wink. Poor George, talk about stress,
he was so close to having a clean tour with no wipe outs. I am sure he
was praying, please, just one more day, nobody lose it.
The highlight of the route this day was the
Silvretta High Alpine Road and a do-over on Hahntennjoch pass (the first
time it was raining). The front side of the Silvretta landed us at an
artificial lake, anddown the backside we hit more hairpin turns.
We headed out, slowly, really slowly.
Ok George, you can shift out of 2nd gear now, let's speed up the bullet
train. It was kind of tough following suit here after the usual quick
pace. I think Curt nearly ran George down several times in some of the
turns. Now there's a twist, ah, how did this accident happen...well,
you see, he was going to slow. The morning was spent on somewhat of a
scouting expedition on narrow hilltop side roads. On several occasions
George got us into a few tight situations. One road appeared to climb
out of a village but we ended up in what seemed like a family's side yard.
The family was all out working and George asked where the road went.
They replied that it shortly turned into gravel, went on in this fashion for
quite some time, and then ended up down in another village. This was
no good as all of the bikes but ours were large and not suited for a slip
sliding adventure down gravel. This meant that we all had to turn
around on a steep narrow hillside, now that was fun. George, Curt and
I didn't have much trouble but the rest of the group cursed and groaned as
they rocked back and forth and tried not to hurtle down the hillside.
I think John was the most pissed. He had Mary on the back, whom had to
dismount first, which was an aerobic exercise in itself, and after all that
he still couldn't get turned around. Bad time for my sense of humor to
kick in - I was polite though and zipped it. He ended up giving up and
had to hand the bike over to George for assistance. This of course is
the ultimate motorcycle insult to the male ego - having to give your bike to
another dude to get it turned around...back luck neighbor. I kept my
mouth shut again, but my inner monologue was rapidly churning saying,
sheesh, what the hell did you get such a big ass bike for. This thing
was really huge, about the size of a Goldwing...honestly, I have no idea how
he wrestled that thing with Mary on the back up the Passo dello Stelvio.
Back to that thing about some things you just don't want or need to
know. Ok, so we are all about-faced and pointed downhill. We say
our thanks and good-byes to our Austrian family, who by the way were quite
friendly and helpful, and toddled off down the hillside. But wait,
there's more. George is still leading us around these narrow
slopes and shortly gets us into another pickle. He is trying to find a
cafe for our coffee break. He again stops and asks a local woman and
she informs him that the cafe he is searching for closed quite some time
ago. Crap, we are stuck on another dead-end perch that requires some
tricky maneuvering. I think I heard a few choice words from under the
helmets of John and Mary and some of the others. Christine came inches
from plunging down the hillside, but fortunately Bill warned her just in
time before her back tire went over the edge. Whoa, that would have
been some "E-Ticket" ride. John and Mary went through the dismounting
swearing routine again, but damned if he'd give up his bike this time to
George. Don't know how he did it, but he got it swung around.
Enthusiasm for our hillside billy goat routine was quickly waning.
Fortunately George is a smart man and got us the hell down the mountain
before some of the group erupted in further streams of profanity.
He promptly found a great cafe for our coffee break and most all was
forgiven. He caught my eye as we dismounted and I shrugged my
shoulders and said "hey, shit happens man, no biggie." I know he felt
bad though.
He soon redeemed himself though as we hit the
Silvretta after the break. He lifted the speed ban and let us zoom off
at our own pace along the Silvretta pass. Good call. We needed
to open it up a bit after our crawling around on the hillside. The
backside down the Silvretta was more fun than the front, as the scenery was
stunning as was the road itself. Lunch was next after we were all
safely down the pass. We headed over to a cafe in a neat little
village. The food at this place was the best of the trip. Again,
I blew it with the camera and didn't get any shots...errrr. After
lunch we started making our way back, heading to the Hahntennjoch pass.
We were looking forward to this because we loved it the first time in the
rain and wanted to ride it again in dry weather. While we were
stopped for gas at a station, 3 slick looking sportbikes pulled in - two
guys and a gal all in full race leathers with tricked out bikes. Very
impressive looking and niiiice bikes. This always cracks me up because
these guys can either blow your doors off or are scared to get it out of 3rd
gear. The 3rd gear folks we fondly refer to as "posers" - meaning just
that, they are posing...all show and no go. The other group that'll
blow your doors off, well, you simply bow down and kiss their boots.
Why I am mentioning all this is that we'd meet our race-ready friends again
at the Hahntennjoch pass. Hmmm....me competitive...well you already
know the answer to that one. Curt, George and I saw them coming as we
waited for our group to gather at the cut-off to the pass. We looked at each other, grinned and shook our heads, we were
both thinking the
same thing - light the fires and kick the tires, were gonna have a little
showdown and see whatcha got under those fancy leathers. We let them
go ahead and waited a bit so it didn't seem too obvious. In a word -
POSERS. We caught up to them and passed, and were mildly disappointed
that they didn't even give us a run for our money. Probably just as
well, George's cautions of last day accidents were ringing in my ears.
We decided to forego our final coffee break and headed back to the hotel.
Once back at the palace we turned the bikes
over to George - more paperwork and such. We hit the swimming
pool and sauna again and then all convened at the bar. I was starting
to feel like one of the Cheers sitcom characters, ha. Our last dinner
and debrief session was kind of sad. Neither of us were ready to go
home yet and face reality. George asked everyone in the group what
their favorite part of the trip was. I think Mary stated it the
best...she said something to the effect that she couldn't really give a
response because she was still digesting and taking it all in. Above
all though, George gave each one of us the biggest compliment. He said
that it felt like he was out riding with a bunch of friends rather than
working. On the surface his job seems like fun and games, hey you get
to do what you love and ride a motorcycle all day. But after hearing
some stories of accidents, difficult clients, people going off on their own
and getting lost, people fighting, etc. , etc., and observing the long
hours that he worked and all the behind the scene things he had to take care
of, we realized that it took a special kind of person to be able to
manage everything. Thanks George!
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Narrow hillside road that I was referring to in the narrative - no problems on this one though, just a photo opporunity spot |
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Same hillside spot with shot of George, Dani, Curt and Bill from left to right |
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Looking over the edge down the hillside at same photo spot |
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Looking over the edge down the hillside at same photo spot |
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Laurel on bike at same photo spot on hillside |
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Shot looking out from the cafe at our first coffee break |
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Artificial lake and mountains in background at Silvretta |
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Map of all roads ridden on the trip |
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Day 12 - Sunday, June 26th: 6th Day of
Motorcycle Tour - Departure day. We managed to cram all of our
crap back into our joint suitcases without incident this time ;-) We were
seasoned pros by now. We had an early call in the morning as we had to
be at the train station in Innsbruck to catch our 8:30 A.M. train back to
Munich. In Munich we had a 1:00 P.M. flight to Atlanta. George
dropped Chris off first at the airport and then us at the train station.
Somehow we screwed up and got the wrong train tickets but didn't know it
until we were moving down the tracks on the train. Curt noticed that
the train wasn't going in the right direction. When we came in
originally we were on a low track following a river much of the way.
Now we were on a mountainside going through tunnel after tunnel.
Rut-row. The conductor came by and in broken English we got the gist
that we were at least going to Munich, thank goodness, but we were on the
scenic route - in other words the slow boat to China. The train we
wanted was suppose to get us into Munich at 10:30 which left us plenty of
time to get to the airport. The train we were on wasn't going to get
us into Munich until 11:45...yikes. It was gonna be close. Once
we got to Munich we hustled out to the curb where there was suppose to be
taxis line up....bad luck...no taxis. Crap. Finally one
appeared, he said he could get us to the airport in about 35 minutes, I love
the law of 5's. It was now 12:00 P.M. and that would leave us 25
minutes to get checked-in and such. Schnell, Schnell. We hit an
autobahn finally and he wound it up to 180 km on the speedo - roughly 110
mph, whoa, you get a big tip...I like these German guys, they know how to
drive. He deposited us at the terminal and we rushed in only to find
out that our flight was delayed. All that for nothing. Oh well.
Then the waiting game commenced. Apparently there was a mechanical
problem with the hydraulics and they were sending for a part in
Frankfurt, Germany. Here we go again...hence, why I stated earlier
that
Delta Airlines was off my Christmas list. Around 4:00 P.M. they
announced that the part was here and they were installing it. Ok,
good, progress. More waiting, and waiting. Finally at 6:00 P.M.
they announce that they have to cancel the flight and that we will all be
put up in the Kempinski Airport Hotel. Great. The pilgrimage
began, 200+ passengers wandered through the airport passageways over to the
hotel. Upon arrival, a huge line for check-in had already formed and
the hotel only had two clerks on duty. Wonderful. After an hour
in line we got checked-in.
Day 13 - Monday, June 27th: Extra Day
Stuck in Munich - The next morning we made our way back to the
airport for our re-scheduled 10:00 A.M. departure only to find that the
flight was delayed until noon. Man, we are never gonna get outta here.
After checking our baggage and waiting around at the gate, an angry crowd
started to brew. Tempers were getting short and a couple of guys
started getting vocal. I meandered over as a curious on-looker.
The supervisor got pulled into the fray and was trying to calm everyone and
explain what the problem was - basically, they got the wrong part from
Frankfurt and the correct part was being flown in from Atlanta. As the
hysteria escalated, I noticed two Polizei with fully automatic weapons
slowly approaching, shazam, think I'll just go have a seat now. Let's
just say the gentlemen that were getting loud, got real quite. Order
was restored and we were on the plane without further incident within the
hour.
We connected in Atlanta and were on our way
home, almost. We were half way into the flight and I just happened to
look up to see the flight attendant staring at the back of the plane with a
horrified look on her face. Great, now what. I turn around in my
seat to see another flight attendant giving someone the Heimlich Maneuver.
The person receiving was flailing their arms and legs in the air. This
didn't look good. A moment later a flight attendant got on the PA and
asked if there was a doctor or any medical personnel on board, and if so,
please come to the back of the plane. A few people jumped up and
headed back. I must say that all the other passengers were incredibly
calm. I had visions of someone dying in the back of plane. My
next thought was, that we would probably be diverting and landing somewhere.
Sure enough, I felt the plane descend and the captain came on informing us
that we were diverting to Colorado Springs. Once there the fire and
paramedic personnel got the person off the plane. Turned out it was
some pre-teen girl that choked on the cap of a pen. Brilliant.
Fortunately she was ok. We sat in Colorado Springs for an hour and
finally got back to Oakland around 10:00 P.M. It's good to be home.
