BOE2301 The Best of Europe
Before the tour starts, Monica, Wanda, Martin and Howard booked a guided city tour in Munich. After a good and original Münich breakfast with a white sausage, we are strong enough to climb 300+ steps on the St. Peterstower. That gave us a wonderful view over the whole city of Munich. In our front view we witnessed the bellplay of the Marienplatz.
At 5 pm sharp, the tourguide team introduced themselves and showed the hyped customers what they will witness the upcoming days and explained some rules to driving in a group. After all questions where answered the important part of the whole trip started, the bike hand-over.
On the first riding day, everybody was excited. We started at 9 o'clock, just after the daily briefing. The group was divided into two teams, both accompanied by a tourguide. We left Erding behind us and went on our way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This is a middle-aged town, surrounded by strong citywalls. Am ersten Fahrtag waren alle aufgeregt. Wir begannen um 9 Uhr, kurz nach dem täglichen Briefing. Die Gruppe wurde in zwei Teams verteilt, beide von einem Touruide begleitet. Wir ließen Erding hinter uns und machten uns auf den Weg nach Rottenburg ob der Tauber. Dies ist eine Stadt mittleren Alters, umgeben von starken Stadtwänden.
The next day, we started when Rothenburg was still asleep. It was sunday. The roads were empty and the weather was nice, like yesterday. We only drove backroads and arrived at 12:30 on the lunch location, where Mark prepared a delicious picnic. One photo says more than a thousand words!
A rainy day was on the plan, we had to go out of Heidelberg over the German Autobahn into the Black Forest and hoped we get dry and sunny weather. But this plan did not go to work and we could enjoy rainy and foggy weather through the nice roads of Black Forest. After a nice lunch we all headed down to the Rhine where we could watch a ship going through the lock. One hour later all where happy to be in Ribeauville and enjoy a French cuisine highlight!
It happens not so often that everybody on the tour wants to ride on rest day. But today this occasion happend and so everybody hitted the road. Two of the group hitted the road on their own and used the possibility to ride on there own and explore the elsass. The other of the group splited up and hit in two groups the offered rest day route here.
Little showers followed our day luckily at every stop it was dry and we could make some great pictures. First we stopped at the Maginot Line and headed then into the black forest where we could enjoy some nice roads and eat the famous black forest cake. At lunch we got a title surprise where a picnic was ready for us and we could enjoy a nice meal. After that we continued our journey into Switzerland where we first saw the Rhine fall. At the hotel the next surprise was waiting for us and we could enjoy a nice and cold beer at the parking lot.
Schaffhausen we left behind us and just after a few kilometers we were back in Germany... and back in Switzerland... and back Germany again... What is going on? Weren't we going to Austria first? The road next to the Rhine river made us pass the border multiple times, without us even noticing! When looking at Lake Constance, it showed us that the lake is a three-country point and we are on our route. A quick stop at a dealer of American motorcycles helped us to get some nice merchandise T-shirts, before visiting another dealer with the other American brand bikes for a hot drink. It was rainy all day, so we made two catches at once. After some winding roads, a lunchstop was made at the foot of the Säntis mountain, that gave us a glance of the beauty of the alps. The fourth country is Liechtenstein, which we check off from our list. Due this was the longest riding day, we made a "shortcut" via the Flexenpass, with an height of 1773 meters above sealevel before arriving in Elbigenalp. The sauna with mountainview was heated up upon arrival, well deserved!
Unfortunately the last day has arrived. We are heading back to where we started this epic journey where we made a lot of new friends. On our way to Linderhof Palace -built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria- we had a glimpse of Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle. The road to the palace is along the Planlake with the most gorgeous mid-speed curves, even the sun shows up. Brilliant! Due to our visit ath the palace, which is overwhelming by the way, some time must be made up and we hit the Autobahn for a short period of time. The final hilly landscap ends the journey at our starting point, where we have our last dinner together. A huge thank you to everyone participating on this tour! - Your tourguides