Best of Europe - Here we come!
For the charming couples Jean & Bruce and Donna & Rick the BEO starts with a City Tour through the very heart of Bavaria: the inner city of Munich. We entranced the city via the old Isartor, had "a zünftigs Weisswuaschtfruahstuck" (THE Bavarian Breakfeast with its liquid and solid compenents = it´s a good cold Weissbier with delicous White Sausages and Laugenbrezel), walked over St.Peter, the Marienplatz to visit famous King Ludwig II in his last restplace, crossed Hofgarten just to land in the Garden of the Hofbräuhaus for our next "Jaus'n" (... also the Brassband was awesome, wasnt it?) ... to make a long story short: We had a unique time and very much fun! In the later afternoon Paul and Ken joined the group for our Best Of Europe Welcome Briefing, where the TGs Ted and Felix explained the curves, we all love. After that a smart Dinner with tons of jokes and stories made us all just more curious of the coming:-)
Our first day started with an already very nice temperature and it became only better during the day! Exactly how we motorcycle riders like it: sunny, but not too warm! When everybody saddled up their pony's we began to ride through the hop field of the friendly Haltetau and enjoyed a nice and pleasant coffeestop in Wolnzach. Following our way northwest we encountered quite some detours, but hey: Who cares! Th weather is good, the roads are nice, so on to our relaxed lunch in Eichstatt. And after a nice first riding experience we enjoyed our dinner and then had to rush outside to follow the famous Nightwatch with his entertaining walking tour around the old center of Rothenburg where we stayed the first night. Great day
Time to leave Rothenburg: Via wonderful Langenburg and the medevial Archenbridge over Jagst river - which is nearely original and still in use - this day lead us to the impressing Schönthal Monastery. We all where flashed how many "Beichtstühle" the wonderful renovated church offers - our conclusion: We are all bad sinners:-))) Nice sweeping roads and a few detours led us direction Neckar river to Hornberg, the famous castle of even far more famous Götz Von Berlichingen - yes, the real knight with the iron head and the beefy vocabulary! Our next Stop was Hirschhon Castle and along the banks of the Neckar River we reached our Hotel on Königsstuhl Mountain to enjoy the most wonderful view over the whole town an surrounding area. This simply genius day anded with a delicious dinner - and of course one/or more chilled beers!!! - in the very center of the old Unversity Town of Heidelberg.
A Restday? No. All of the group wanted to mount their bikes and come with us on a fabulos route through the interesting surrounding of Ribeauville. And than it went flash by flash! First stop: Castle Haute Koenigsbourg. Second: La Necropole National - the cemetary of the fallen French Soldiers of WW1. Third: short coffeestop where a huge group of original Bugatti cars showed up just for us. Afterwards another WW1 place: La Linge. And in the evening at the Dinnertable everybody had a lot of new stories to tell.
Time to leave lovely Ribeauville to head back to the Black Forest region in Germany again, crossing the border from France at Marckolsheim Rhine Lock. Passing Freiburg im Breisgau with its extincted volcano Kaiserstuhl, we rode up Kandel Road to its foggy summit - sorry no panorama Pic possible;-). In the center of the "Cuckoo-Clock Industry Region" we had a short break with coffee and delicous Black Forest cakes just to head to the next culinary sensation: Ted's fantastic picnic in the woods near Göschweiler. Nice and sweepy roads brought us to Switzerland and the impressing Rhine-Falls near the city of Schaffhausen.
Today we left Schaffhausen in Switzerland and went in the morning over the old bridge and border to the south bank of the river `Rhine. After the leisurely ride along the Lake Constance or Bodensee as they name it here, we went into the northern part of the Als into the Schwägeralp. Unfortunately no cable cart ride up to the Santis because of the low clouds. But after we had a nice cup of soup we followed our way towards `Liechtenstein and finally into Austria. Our last part went over the Hanthenjoch which is great fun to ride and of course with spectacular views. Our hotel in Warth provided us a splendid dinner and so we could conclude this very nice riding day
Guess what: In the morning fresh snow fell nearly down to the height of our splendid hotel in Warth. Riding along the Lech we reached Reutte and from there Lake Plansee with its cristalclear water. Only a few miles later - and back to Bavaria/Germany we visited the beautyful gardens of Linderhof Palace and crossed than over to the magnificent Ettal Monastery. Via Wolfsratshausen, Sauerlach and Aying the our route led us back to Erding finally. While enjoying our Water&Bread farewell dinner, stories and impressions of this fabulous tour where great fun to listen at and to tell:-))) Thank all - Jean&Bruce, Donna&Rick, Paul and Ken - for an unforgettable time with you! Your TGs Ted and Felix