We traveled down to Dover Tuesday nite & got ferry 8.30 am Weds. We then had the 500 miles across France, Belgium, holland & into Germany to Nurenburg. Autoroutes weren't very inspiring but did see 3 figs on speedo
Thursday we went onto Austria - Zedlitzdorf. This entailed going over a mountain pass where it was snowing quite heavily, good old BP put a petrol station at the top of the hill for us softy bikers to caffeine up & eat strange shaped sausages.
Came down out of the hills to SE Bavaria & onto base camp which itself was like going up a mountain with hairpins that were quite a challenge on a loaded D9. Dropped bikes off & went to only restaurant in town to meet others on trip. Quite a shock to walk in & find a dozen Italians & Swiss & all want to kiss you .
Next day after a late nite we headed off into the Austrian Alps for a 300km ride. Your head sure clears on some of the hairpins we took, didn't see any goats cos they had more sense than to go where we did. Had 2 big Harley D's with us & they just lapped it up .
Visited the local big town & saw town hall quite an amazing room, decorated in "perspective" but you had to stand in the centre of the room & look up to see it correctly, weird.
Following day we were going to do Austria, Italy, Slovenia & back to Austria another 300kms. Roads were even worse . We went up to some pass 1611m where the principle seemed to be, make sure the road surface is really chewed up, then put as many 2nd gear hairpins as you can &.... make sure you put cobblestones down on all the hairpins .
I found it a challenge to stay upright & avoid the crazy Austrians who wanted to come down hill on my side of the road in their 4x4's. One woman was smoking & on a mobile on a hairpin
Dropped down the pass on the other side, white stuff on road was salt not snow, it was so thick it felt like sand dunes in some places.
Saw some signs of the war in the with tank traps & old deserted tanks, bit of a grim reminder. Onwards to typical Slovenian lunch which was BBQ meat? didn't ask what & strange sauces, frys with everything.
Sunday morning time to set off home, & guess what it's snowing, oh well nice little flakes never hurt anyone did they .
Wrong cos 200 m up the hill they were whacking great big ones. We pushed on through this for a couple of hours past our BP station . It was getting so bad we had to slow down to open visors to see, then glassed froze up . We pulled off for an hour at a cafe just so the snow could change to light rain & decided to press on. It rained all day till about 6.00pm then the sky opened I have never ridden in such hard rain, the water was bouncing 6" back off the road.
SP takes management decision, off Autobahn next jct & there is a hotel sign, Yeehaa. Get to hotel, big new modern place built in the middle of a new industrial estate. There were 300 rooms, god knows how many staff & 4 guests. Service was excellent
Did cost £100 for the night between us but that's life.
Anyway up the next morning 480 miles to Calais. On the road at 7.30 ferry 4.30 no problem...... wrong . What had looked like a mist at the hotel turned out to be really bad freezing fog. I know it was freezing because after travelling for 2 hours at about 40 it started to clear. My visor had misted up every time I closed it so again I was riding with it up & wiping glasses every 5 mins.
Saw a bit of sun ahead so snapped visor down & a perfectly formed visor shape of ice dropped into my lap 1/4" thick, bit of a surprise
Anyway we were now pressed for time & my mate has to fill up every 120-140 miles so that was 4 stops & it was freezing so we had to thaw our hands , consequently Holland, Belgium & france now bathed in glorious sunshine went by in a blur. Yes D9's with large riders, panniers & top boxes will happily cruise at 90+ for hours.
Reached Calais with 10mins to spare only to find some Froggy pen pusher who took 15 mins to get us through. Missed ferry still we had a coffee after we'd prised fingers open. Next ferry was 50 mins which we got on & cruised back to balmy England.
Then just as we were leaving ferry my mate hit a puddle of diesel & took a spill, fortunately panniers saved bike & he just looked silly .
The rest was a quiet cruise back to Leicester 687 miles that day.
Joined: Jun 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 1,116 Location: uk
Re: Austria Trip « Reply #3 on Oct 21, 2009, 8:06pm »
Good write up Mike, Sounds like you all had a great time despite what the weather gods threw at you, don't much fancy cobbled hairpins sounds a bit to familiar to me
Pictures are cool, in years to come you'll look at those and remebr the highs and lows of your trip
![[Home]](http://www.yamahadiversions.com/images/ForumFiles/buttons/home.gif)
![[Help]](http://www.yamahadiversions.com/images/ForumFiles/buttons/help.gif)
![[Search]](http://www.yamahadiversions.com/images/ForumFiles/buttons/search.gif)
![[Login]](http://www.yamahadiversions.com/images/ForumFiles/buttons/login.gif)
![[Register]](http://www.yamahadiversions.com/images/ForumFiles/buttons/register.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://www.yamahadiversions.com/images/ForumFiles/buttons/sendtofriend.gif)
![[Print]](http://www.yamahadiversions.com/images/ForumFiles/buttons/print.gif)
Author
![[avatar]](http://i423.photobucket.com/albums/pp319/Mikestrong1/Bike/31509050-1.jpg)
still we had a coffee after we'd prised fingers open. Next ferry was 50 mins which we got on & cruised back to balmy England.
Logged![[avatar]](http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc207/Brandane_1962/fzs600_b2_l.jpg)
![[avatar]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/avatars/linux.gif)
![[avatar]](http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e151/yandyyay/Sylvester.jpg)
![[avatar]](http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/cam7777/1145c5c8-915f-4cb5-baed-1424.jpg)
![[avatar]](http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u42/m40man/ENG_K100.gif)
![[avatar]](http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w58/tj900/brinquito.gif)
![[image]](http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w58/tj900/Stripler2.png)
![[avatar]](http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w145/ContourMac/ziggy.jpg)