Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

After 2 weeks away and 2615 miles I'm home again.
A friend, Sergio is from the mountain area near Lake Como in Italy so this year he made a Biking holiday out of his trip home and invited myself and Gary along for the trip, and for once I had the money and time off available to say yes! First time outside the UK as an adult as I have that medication which has to stay cold, my entire top box was dedicated to a vile of medication smaller than my little finger but modern tech made it possible.

All ready to go

Bikes on a Train



Day 1


Bit of a whirlwind on day 1 and it was HOT! on both sides of the channel, it was all about getting to that hotel for a shower and something cold to drink.
We then had a bit of a walk to a local restaurant for dinner.

Day 2
Rue Pablo Picasso - Contrexeville with a peak of 36°c
385Km and some very sunny weather through the flat Northern French countryside, after day 1 we were avoiding the autoroutes and stopping every hour for drinks, either at a cafe or just somewhere with shade, my fridge was very useful for carrying up to 5, 0.5L bottles of water chilled to about 5°c.

One such stop for Ice cream happened in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, I parked in the shade of the church then spotted a sign...


We had stumbled across the birth place of Joan of Ark...



And then onwards to the Hotel for the night, the Hotel Cosmos, a 3 star hotel for €70, Booking.com turned up a couple of gems on this trip.

I still cant believe you had an onboard fridge - brilliant.

Glad the fridge plan worked out and you didn’t let your medical needs limit your enjoyment and adventures, good on ya mate!!

Day 3
Contrexéville - Thonon les bains. 387km in high heat and just skirting the boarder of Switzerland... Some not so straight roads here.

Loaded up like a pack mule in 35°c and the Continental RA4s never missed a line, I set personal lean angle record's both ways, excellent fun.



After the now usual lunchtime hotel search and booking we found the IBIS in Thonon les bains, basic but clean and the restaurant next door was pretty good.

Day 4
Thonon - Aime
A shorter day because of several near 400Km days, only 206 today and a peak of 30°c felt more reasonable.

We found a couple of nice roads and got yet more scenic shots and coffee brakes, Sergio was loving the Espresso's





A coffee stop,









The hotel in Aime was another good one, under €100 per room and had an indoor pool, sauna and hot tub.

It looks like a fantastic trip

It was amazing and all new to me, it did show that my touring set-up is a wonderful "Light" touring solution, a few days, maybe a week... This was not a light tour so for the next one I need more boxy panniers to fit the stuff in that I really need, I was borrowing stuff that I couldn't carry even with the tail pack on the back seat and tank bag bulging.

One thing you can't say near the Alps is "A GS? How unusual!" the things are EVERYWHERE! And I can see why, my little XR was working hard on the passes with the cooling fan running it's little heart out for half an hour at a time, the bike was chewing through oil and has lost some coolant. I got rinsed €25 for 1 litre of Motul 5/40... But I bought 1 bottle of water from their vending machine and it freaked out and gave me 3, for €0.60... It was well needed.

I got chatting to a GS owner who we kept bumping into for 2 days and he was shocked at how hard my XR was having to work, his bike was just lapping it up riding 2 up and he was matching our pace up the passes. I've been right on the edge of buying one for a while and this trip has proven that if I am going to tour more, which I really want to do then I do not have the right tool for the job.

Day 5
Aime - Guillestre, 255Km
This day took us past a reservoir and up through Val-D'isere and on to the Col D'isoard, nice and cool up on the passes.






Just a couple of K up the road


Alpine water is a bit different




I didn't get any pics in Val-D'isere, this was about 15K past it




At the summit

lovely and on my bucket list

Day 6
Guillestre - Cuneo.

I didn't get a good mileage reading as Gaz's garmin broke and I loaned him mine using my phone and BMW app as my own navigation, somehow it didn't record the trip until the lunch break at Saint Etienne-de-Tinee.

The view from the Hotel at Guillestre



It was our first wet day so the waterproofs were on and at one point I had to rely on the nav on my phone, zoomed right in to see where the road went... Riding through clouds is no fun when you're on a twisty mountain pass and they're thick/raining.






We decided to treat ourselves and booked in to a Best Western Hotel, the AC in the room was very nice, as was the €5 breakfast in the morning. Surprisingly not the most expensive room of the trip.
In a city centre restaurant I paid a little extra for a ham and mushroom pizza with Buffalo Mozzarella, it was delicious.

Day 7
Cuneo - Como
No pictures of the ride as it was mostly flat industrial areas until we got near Como and they we just wanted to get there, the driveway of Sergio's brother's house was wet slippery and steep (he had to use 4 low on his Suzuki Jimney) so the bikes were parked down the slightly less steep driveway of his neighbour, under some trees and out of sight. A second Jimney was roped in to transport all the luggage whilst we walked through the woods between houses.

Como

Not many pictures to share of the many family gatherings which happened as word spread that Sergio was home for the first time in 6 years, his brother is a great host and despite speaking no English and me speaking no Italian we got on well. He spotted on the first night that any noise in the woods had me looking, he thinks I would be useful on a hunt, they have Wild Boar in the area which were busy hoovering up the bones from our meal (Spare ribs and chicken wings).. Then the Bats came out and I could hear them!

The next morning I was introduced to another tradition, breakfast Espresso at a local cafe, I could get used to this.
On the way back we saw a small Deer, sadly it was injured and sick so no good for the pot and only a matter of time before it was Boar food.





Later we went to Como itself for a meal and some pictures by the lake






The local water bus


Somehow an Icelandic Troll was not what I expected but there where quite a few of them arround.


Waiting for the Ferry





Bellagio







My Feathery alarm clock and the local egg suppliers, also good for food waste like cheese rind, they love it.



There is also a waterfall on the property, not drinking water though.

On out last full day we were taken to the mountain top above Veleso, you need a permit to go up there and Dom has one so it was no problem, the private property up there is owned by a friend of his so we were welcome there too, even one of the goats was friendly.

One of the neighbours houses, it started as a cow shelter...


That's about a 1 in 4 driveway, hard to capture on camera but in 33°c it makes you sweat a bit walking up it.

Nice, enjoyed that

Thanks for sharing. It looks fantastic. What biking is all about.

Day 10
Como - Hotel Hof und post, Switzerland

Back on ADDA the Como ferry and up over the boarder to our Hotel for the night, very popular with British bikers as 3/4 of the bikes in the car park had UK plates.




We saw this high speed Hydroplane water bus


Switzerland... NO F*****G SPEEDING, the fines are incredible, as are the views.











The hotel on the Grimsel pass









I should have made notes of the pass names at the time, we were covering so many I have forgotten most of them

Day 11
Hotel Hof und Post to Ravensburg Germany via a brief ride in Lichtenstein

Another great ride, the scenery was incredible, the people all very friendly but after dinner the sky opened again... But at the end of the day the hotel owner insisted we put our bikes in the underground garage for free and we found a really good Italian restaurant, Sergio did the talking and got us some free drinks.

The Susten pass















Odd place for a lighthouse



Here it comes

Day 12
Ravensburg - Landstuhl
Not too many pictures as we were all getting worn out and just wanted to get there, yet again it was HOT! But we did a bit of the B500 and stopped here for drinks and a browse of the tourist trap.




Landstuhl



Giraffes in the hotel