SPT 24007 - Alpine Delights with BMW Performance Center

A pleasant welcome day on which nearly the whole group assembled together for a rather explicit discussion about our upcoming adventure and the safety rules to keep in mind. Afterwards, thanks to BMW Instructor Aaron, we toasted with a glass of Champagne on the terrace on the upcoming days. They will definitely be a joy.
Due to a canceled flight and a thereby a really late arrival of Ronald and Amy, as well as a rather adventurous moment for one of the other guys, after he locked himself out of his room during the night, the group decided on starting their bikes a little bit later than scheduled. But thanks to this delay, the group could as well wait until it stopped raining. As another pleasant surprise, Tobias, the head of Edelweiss Bike Travel joined us from the morning on on his bike. We used the morning to get used to our bikes on this tour and get accustomed to the European traffic. Aaron & Riccardo, the BMW Performance Center instructors, acted as our sweepers and watched the riders closely. The highlight of the day was in the afternoon, when the group ascended to the Großglockner mountain, the highest peak of Austria. From the top of it, everyone could enjoy the amazing landscape building up around them. The tourguides Julia & Eugen led the group safely to the Hotel in Lienz. One of the benefits of this joint venture with BMW Performance Center is definitely the debriefing, which happened after the main course of our dinner. Aaron & Riccardo pointed out the positive aspects of the riding moves, which they could closely monitor as sweepers, but also the things that riders needed to improve in order to become an even more safe, well-experienced and self-confident rider. After a quick "history lesson" by the assistant Tour Guide Marco the group went to bed and probably already dreamt of the next upcoming days.
Thanks to the cooperation with BMW Performance Center the group had various options on what to do on this day. Obviously most of the guys opted for riding the whole day. The route took them to another country, namely Slovenia, and lots of mountain passes along their route. Julia, the tour guide, had as well a couple of surprises in stock for the customers. First of all, she organized a lovely lunch on one of the mountain passes. On their way she stopped at local shops and bought ham, cheese, bread and so on. It was simple and like a picknick, and everyone loved it as everyone saw where those products were coming from. Her next surprise was just for the most daring ones. A stop to take a little swimming break, however only the bravest dared to jump into the freezing and refreshing water. The group returned back rather late to the hotel, but one could see in their faces, that it was definitely an amazing day. As mentioned earlier, there were also other options offered for this day. One of them was a guided city tour with Marco. Andrea & Jeff chose this option and could enjoy a rather pleasant day as well. Next to showing them around town, visiting churches and listening to yet another history lesson by Marco, we spent a long time in the castle of Lienz, where we had a look at the various exhibitions in there. The lunch stop led the group on an "Alm", a rural restaurant on one of the mountains, by taking the cable car. After Andrea took care of the Animals on this farm and a great lunch, we somehow had to get back down the mountain. What a better way would there be than going down the hill in the Alpine Coaster? It was so much fun and to finish of this perfect day, we enjoyed a little beer tasting in the local brewery in the afternoon.
On this day, the Dolomites where on our agenda. A magnificent mountain range, which one has to see for himself. But before we really headed deep into this mountains, we enjoyed a lovely coffee stop at a local sweets manufacturer. Lovely! Obviously we did a lot of mountain passes during the day once again including a lunch stop on one of these mountains. Such a great landscape! Aaron & Riccardo where having a close eye on the riders in front of them. After all, the goal of this tour is next to experience an amazing time, as well to become better riders. So after an intense day of riding a lot of curves, the BMW Instructors could once again pass on their feedback to the group.
Again thanks to the BMW Performance Center there were several options available for us. This time only a few went for the whole riding experience as it started raining a little bit in the afternoon, as well as the hotel Spa & the lovely town of Bolzano were rather intriguing options as well. Eugen led the tough guys, who defied the rain and simply wanted to ride as much as possible, whereas Julia took care of the group, which decided on a shortcut to get back to hotel a bit earlier. Marco took care of Amy & John, who decided to enjoy a guided tour in Bolzano, including the best ice cream of this town. Andrea & Jeff went to the city on their own, but joined the others for lunch and some time in the afternoon. In the evening we had had once again a lively discussing about riding skills in which everyone joined in.
What a beautiful sight from these mountain tops - in case you like fog. The view was rather limited due to intense mist, at least on the Italian side of the Alps, but the weather got better once we returned to Austria. Again the group split up in a faster and a more relaxed riding group. Everyone made it back safely to the hotel in Austria, where two surprise were waiting for the riders. First up, an ice cold refreshing beer directly after getting off ones bike. And second of all, there was a live concert taking place at the hotel in the evening, which meant a pretty joyful evening for our group. And on top of that, Rainer, the CEO of Edelweiss, joined us for dinner. All in all, once again a remarkable day.
It was time to say goodbye to the alpine region and get back to Erding, which meant leaving the climbs and getting back to flat terrain. However, obviously it was not a boring riding day at all, as we had a look at several hidden gems, which one usually wouldn´t come across. But the best thing waited for us in the evening. Thanks to BMW Performance Center, who made this possible, we could enjoy our dinner at a rather peculiar place. We had so much fun at the Herbstfest in Erding, which is a smaller and less touristic version of the Oktoberfest. Beer jugs in Germany are definitely a little bit bigger than usual glasses. An amazing ride came to an end with another unique experience. It was so much fun, we want to do it again!