7th July 2012

Debs:
Another morning dawned with Steve sporting a few more mosquito bites to attend to..
Today we said goodbye to Holly, who was going to potter round Vienna on her own for a few hours before catching her flight back home while we headed for Neukirchen am Großvenediger, another of my ‘stick a pin in the map’ hotels en route to Innsbruck. We were in for about a 5 hour ride so needed to be away by 11am the latest, and yet again we were to take the motorway as the back roads would add too many hours to an already long day.

It was now that the weather began to break up and after about 2.5 hours of riding the clouds darkened and the lightening flashed, so it was a quick stop to pull on our waterproofs - and just in time as the rain hit us, but before long we were peeling them off again, and by the time we arrived at our destination the sun was back in its full glory once more..

Eventually we got off the motorway and onto the normal roads, bend after bend in the best Austrian tradition until Dolly warned us we were only 10 miles from our overnight stay.
We were a little surprised on our arrival by a huge Triumph banner affixed to the side of the guest house until we learned that the location was also favoured by the Triumph Owners Clubs and was inundated by several thousand of them the weekend before.

We were greeted at the guest-house by an lovely lady who showed us to a beautiful room with a balcony overlooking yet more stunning mountains, and the now familiar bed and huge pillows that just swallowed you up when you lay down on them. By the time we'd had a shower and changed it was time for supper so off we went to the village to see what they had to offer, and just for a change it was more Italian.. but a few glasses of wine to go with the pizza made the whole thing perfectly acceptable!

There is one thing for certain, the miles that we'd done over the day ensured a sound nights sleep..

                                    8th July 2012

Debs: 
 
Breakfast was tasty and plentiful, so nursing full tummies and Steve with his itchy mozzy bites beginning to become infected we packed and rode off towards Innsbruck.

A short ride today of just 2.5 hours, and my true focus for coming to Austria was the Olympic ski-jumping hill - the Begesil. Named after the mountain on which it was erected and the site of a fierce battle back in Austrian history.

Our hotel was on the edge of the city, so we hoped it would be nice and quiet, and our first impressions were excellent. It was a full suite with lounge, bedroom, huge bathroom (and a deep bath - Yeah!) and two huge 50” TV’s.. but unfortunately no tea/coffee making facilities or air-con, and the real downer was a church tower so close you could chuck a stone at it, and it had truly discordant bells! Every 15 mins we were treated to the campanologists nightmare with the grand finale on the hour..

Before setting off for the Begesil we had to go in search of a pharmacy to get Steve some anti-histamine pills to try and ease the itching from his many bites, but as at  home the pharmacies shut at 12 on a Saturday, but we were given the address of a duty pharmacy and managed to get some relief for the poor lamb..

At Begesil we located the car park quickly but found that they wanted an absolute mortgage to park, so in true Vienna style we rode round the barrier and parked beside the bins before making our way up to the stadium. I dashed off to the gift shop to try and find something with the Gold Medal winning team of the 2012 world cup, but despite my best efforts all I could find was their picture on a label attached to a woolly hat. The shop assistant explained that their picture was not permitted on anything, but then smiled at me and cut the tag off the hat and slipped it into our bag.. A really nice lady, thank you.

Then it was up to the top of the world, first on the little tramway to the bottom of the tower and then the lift to the viewing platform on the very top.  The view was awesome!

The dead centre of town... (sorry)

When the ski-jumpers hurtle down the in-run and leap off the end of the ramp this is the view they get -  the ornate and well populated cemetery just below the stadium!

After a coffee and huge slab of apple strudel we took a slow walk down the many steps taking photos of all my heroes on the way - all the various gold medal winners spanning many years of the sport, and we were really pleased to see that amongst them was a picture of our very own ‘Eddie the Eagle’ who apparently was very highly regarded.

Just before we got down to the exit gates we stumbled on a room showing a film of  the history of ski jumping as first an Olympic sport then up to the present day with various photos adorning the walls.. strangely there was no sign to say this room even existed but I would have been sad to have missed it. So very happy and satisfied with our visit we headed back to our hotel.

Steve: After dinner at a local restaurant and several glasses of wine we checked the weather for the next few days on the internet, and to our disappointment saw that there was heavy rain and thunder forecast throughout Germany and France for the remaining 4 days of our trip. We came to the conclusion that our vision of relaxing and swimming in the lakes in Germany and then cruising up through the Lorraine on sun dappled French back roads was pretty unlikely to happen, so made the decision to cancel the remaining hotel booking, change our Eurotunnel ticket and plan for an early return home.

We'd been very lucky throughout our trip and it just wasn't worth sticking to a plan that involved us riding through rain and storm just to get to hotel after hotel in order to complete our route, we were already in France and on the final lap so let's just head for home, dogs and a comfy bed!

                                   9th July 2012

Steve: As luck would have it the church bells had been turned off at 9pm, but at 7 o'clock Sunday morning they certainly made up for it.

The local bell ringers must be on steroids to make that much noise - a barrage of clanging discordant bells fit to wake the dead! We leapt out of bed and watched the great and the good file into the small church, needless to say we declined, so with no chance of a lay-in we went down for a cracking breakfast with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, fresh fruit, yoghurt and toast , just what we needed with such a long ride ahead of us and only motorway service food to look forward to.

We had decided to ‘go for it’ and put in a couple of long days to make our way back to the Eurotunnel, which were also pretty boring as most of it was motorway.  But for our sins the sat-nav non-motorway route had taken us along one of the many German ‘motorbike routes’ which are both picturesque and winding, which normally could have been great fun except being a weekend it was heaving with about 20,000 BMW GS’s, cars, caravans, coaches.. you name it, I tried to overtake it.

Debs:  Eventually we arrived at our cheapie hotel, a Formule 1 in a small village just over the  French border, and having booked in and climbed out of our bike gear we sat with our tummies rumbling for food.  Fortunately, on the way in I had seen a kebab shop and decided this was definitely our supper destination, but on arrival we found it was also the hang-out for the select group of the local Turkish tough boys, all with the same hair cuts and a ’special’ hand shake! Keeping our giggles to ourselves (they were also large tough boys) we demolished our kebabs and headed back to the Formule 1 ready for an early night and the last hit to Eurotunnel. 

                               10th July 2012

Debs:
 
Other than being worried about the dubious parking at the Formule 1 we managed a reasonable nights sleep and had a very early start, as having made our decision to get back home we ensured we were quickly away and grabbed a sketchy breakfast on the motorway services, and from then on only stopped for fuel.

The 5 hour bum-numbing motorway ride seemed far longer than it was, but we eventually arrived at the Eurotunnel Terminal a full three hours early to be faced with a DIY check-in machine that totally baffled Steve, so he pressed the help button and we were told by a disembodied voice that we could board in 10 minutes.. Great, back in Blighty by 3pm!

Steve:

On the train, half an hour then off the train, a quick stop in Ashford for a rather plastic steak & chips before making the final dash of 1.5 hours to home. It seemed so weird riding on the left again, but apart from an aborted attempt to go the wrong way round a (fortunately empty) roundabout we eventually made it back home, where a lovely cup of tea and our comfy bed and pillows were waiting - utter, absolute heaven.

It’s great to be home again! I'll wash the bike tomorrow.. maybe.



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Some fond memories.. and others:

 Debs:

Good -
Dolly the sat-nav having a hissy-fit in Italy, it really was funny.
Having peaches thrown to us by a travelling veggie man when we were swimming at Lefkada.
The wonderful food, especially small fish and fresh bread (and wine) in Greece.
Breakfast on the top of the mountain in Austria, which had not been on our itinerary.
Meeting my friend Pat in Linz after knowing her for so long, but sad at never meeting her husband Marcus.

Bad -
My disappointment in Austria having more Italian restaurants than native Austrian, and having to pay 40p to use the toilets in the motorway services and never having the change!


Steve:

Good -
Getting to Valentino Rossi's cafe

Riding 10 hours of S-bends and tunnels between Serbia and Montenegro
Throwing myself into the sea in Montenegro after a 10 hour ride, I was so hot!
Cold beer in hot countries - Hah!
Lots of small fish and white wine in Greece.
The fabulous varied views and smells throughout the trip and just riding through so many different countries, exciting and at times bewildering.. but aren't motorbikes just wonderful?

Bad -
Dolly the sat-nav having hissy-fit in Italy, a very worrying moment at the start of the trip as all the hotel locations and routes were stored in its memory.
The numerous garage forecourt tyre pumps that didn’t fit and deflated my tyres, I've since bought my own pump.
Bitten by bedbugs in Bulgaria… (shudder)

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And just for interests sake, the entire trip covered 4982 miles and our trusty Honda ST1300 Pan European gave an average of 50.004mpg over the trip - considering the loads it carried and some of the terrain covered I am very impressed, needless to say there were no dramas at all, not even a puncture!
We learnt a lot from the trip and despite our best efforts we still took too much clothing and clutter, but nearly a year of planning paid its’ rewards.. We can’t wait to do it again.



Byeeee…


PS - I recently discovered a bike travelers website called Horizons Unlimited (www.horizonsunlimited.com) and really wish I'd found them before the trip! The advice and suggestions have been invaluable, and some of the trips that these people go on really fuels the imagination.  If you've ever considered doing a bike tour but are worried about it or think "I'll do it next year"

DON'T.....
.
Plan it now and do it very soon, or you'll be old before you know it and then all you can say is  "I wish ...."