Ok then everyone here we go !
So I have never actually been to Switzerland. Around it, over the top but never to visit. We were chatting on the Whatsapp group back in darkest coldest January and someone literally suggested "How about Switzerland in August ?... that would be nice" And within minutes it was agreed. Off we would go for a week and see what its all about. Thankfully one of our group HAD been before and HAD still got a good idea of where to go where to stay AND what roads to ride. So that was sorted !
We would go Monday to Monday and started booking places to stay via good old Booking.Com.
It started to look like this ... early Chunnel on Monday morning (0700) to Calais and a bit of a hoof down to Nancy for the first night.
Then in to Switzerland proper with 3 nights at Hotel Hasil Lodge in Meiringen about 30K from Interlaken. In the morning pop into Italy, "do" the Stelvio Pass and then head North up to a hotel at Solda.
After a decent rest, we took off up cross country to Tubingen in Germany staying in the very comfortable IBIS STYLES .. like a posh Premier Inn. From there again north to Bastogne to stay right by the market square for our last dinner and beers to reminisce the week away and check out the US 101st Airbourne museum ... the Easy Company fighting ground. Then a final day back up to Calais and back home to Blighty.
Now I know by now that you lot like pictures of food, tea, and beers. Some scenic photos and a bit of route mileage. I don't know where we went every day or exactly how we got there but there were some long days. Even peppered with lunch and coffee stops charging about when its hot with lots of bendy hairpins is tiring ..and we ain't getting any younger ! (well that is my excuse) AND we are off ...............
now .... this is Folkstone on the Sunday night before the big off.
It was either up early early and hope you get there not missing the train in busy holiday traffic or roadworks or diversions etc so we booked in for one night only at The Grand Burstin Hotel in the harbour for only £44. Well it WAS pretty basic and I am sure in its heyday 50 years ago it would have been the place to be seen for a Folkstone A Lister but perhaps not today. Functional and a bit tired is how I would describe it but great position and the staff were all very friendly and helpful so that was nice. We ate out at the kebab place very close by. Out the front doors bang a left and go round the corner. DO NOT order LARGE anything ! Medium was huge and it was all very nice. Stuffed and off to bed. We filled up at the very close by JET petrol station. 105 dry sunny miles from Worthing to Folkstone.
RV in the car park for an early off. An uneventful but punctual journey on the train. It was busy as family cars laden with excited children headed into the EU. Only at these crossings was anyone at all interested in looking at passports. it was already warm as we went south. There had to be a bit of motorway to get some miles done but when it's all new and fresh and your'e excited who cares ?
7 of us. 5 GS's, a Honda something and a Ducati wotsit. Don't ask I have no idea .. if it's not a GS I'm not interested.
So this is the sort of scenery we were going to have to put up with. Not even there yet and it looks promising.
Not really very much to say other than it was 309 miles and 3 coffee stops ..don't our European cousins just love coffee ?
Oh my goodness yes they bloody do .. just as well I love it !
We were in Nancy for 630pm. Staying in our 1st IBIS STYLES hotel we went out for a "curry" and just a couple of ice cold beers.
Petrol prices were at this point 1.91 euro which was £1.64 so a little more expensive and I was interested to see how that may vary as we rode around and through the different countries over the next few days.
Third day in and this saw us up at 730 on the bikes for 9 and booooom ..we are off into the mountains and endless uphill blind sharp hairpins that just kept coming.
If you are technically good at this stuff and confident then its heaven all day long. For me I'm still improving but certainly practice makes nearly "quite good!!"
This was the first taste of Swiss life .. young and old, up and down the mountains on racing bikes, in big gears in very small Tour de France climbing gears, children on bikes
pensioners with their walking poles .. everyone is just out and about enjoying the moooontanes. Not surprising .. it's all very clean and beautiful. No rubbish no graffiti, just nice.
Up in the mountains obviously things get chilly .. 12 degrees or so but of course that's nice when its 26 on the floor.
It was back to the hotel where I saw local fuel selling at Euro 1.75 .. so just about £1.50. The Hotel here was nice with a good bar and its own restaurant.
The Pizzas went down well.
Back at 6ish with 237 miles done .. warm miles.
Today we nearly lost our Honda man.. kept cutting out, jump start then out again, high revs seemed to keep it going until ............ nothing. Thankfully one of our group is German and so with a bit of Googling and easy talking we had the bike recovered to a "local" Honda dealer for a look, Initially it was deemed as "terminal" and he would be going home to the UK but hours later they seemed to be able to fix it and 24 hrs later he was back in the game. Power alternator ? something like that but it was sorted. So not much on this day as it was somewhat "not planned". It was filthy hot day with 213 miles ridden. 
Now we were all back on the road for another hot day riding even more hairpin mountain roads and passes. Truly stunning scenery at every bend every corner it really did just keep coming.
We had the drone up for a bit of arial footage. What a great bit of kit they are ! Yes they take up space and batteries have to be carried but I am sure when we see it all everyone will be smiling. A mere 115 miles today .. almost a day off !!!
Day 6 saw us heading the short distance to the The Stelvio Pass. The top was busy .. a bit like a seaside town selling "Stelvio"stuff ! but of course who cares when you are sipping coffee with such views. Off we went down this iconic route .. it didn't disappoint. The roads are so good over there. Put them down, do NOT dig them up or cover them in gravel or cow shit and all is well.
Time for a bit more food with a little scenery chucked in too,
From the Stelvio Pass we were in for a 7 hr 256 miler up to Tubingen .. the problem being 2 crashes ( not us ) long hot queues and German / Austrian traffic that will not filter. Huge delays and the bikes just sit there. Perhaps it is an offence to filter over there .. but we did and quite safely too. Saved a huge amount of time and sweat .. it was a Saturday so all the locals were out as well.
It says here that I am unable to add any more photos .. oh dear !
The Sunday was spent heading up to Bastogne for our final night. Long fast open roads ... the opposite of the previous few days. Still very hot. Some of the Autobahn was "unrestricted" so we could make good progress in a relative short period of time. The GS even at these high speeds (118 was enough for me) was absolutely planted on the road. Solid and firm just oooozing confidence. 260 miles in 6 hours. We stayed at "The Leo" Hotel right in the middle of Bastogne just across from the main square. Lots of places to choose from for our final dinner and beers. This hotel was excellent.. clean and spacious considering where it was located. Sadly we did not get to the US Army museum. We shall just have to go back and make a weekend of it !
240 miles up to Calais in the heat getting there early for our planned 430 departure. We managed to slip through a few cones and bypass a shed load of queuing Englanders to be waved onto an earlier train .. no one interested in our "hangers" or timed tickets.
It really was a great trip. Switzerland like Norway and Finland is expensive. 7 coffees.. 35 euros .. the next day by the Stelvio 18 euros. Like all the places if you go just prepare yourself and suck it up otherwise you just wont enjoy it.
The Hotels were all good and lucky to have booked early for single occupancy.. love my mates like a do there is nothing like your own room.
Costing ? The hotels were booked and the chunnel came in at £169 so that total was £940 which we paid a while ago. The week itself was food beer and fuel.. about £800 so a 2k trip in all. Of course if you camp, if you don't drink and save on everything you can do it cheaper I understand that.
Hope you enjoyed this little write up.. wish i could put more piccies in !
Don't forget the £40 Swiss Vignette and you'll have a bloody great time. We did.
So I have never actually been to Switzerland. Around it, over the top but never to visit. We were chatting on the Whatsapp group back in darkest coldest January and someone literally suggested "How about Switzerland in August ?... that would be nice" And within minutes it was agreed. Off we would go for a week and see what its all about. Thankfully one of our group HAD been before and HAD still got a good idea of where to go where to stay AND what roads to ride. So that was sorted !
We would go Monday to Monday and started booking places to stay via good old Booking.Com.
It started to look like this ... early Chunnel on Monday morning (0700) to Calais and a bit of a hoof down to Nancy for the first night.
Then in to Switzerland proper with 3 nights at Hotel Hasil Lodge in Meiringen about 30K from Interlaken. In the morning pop into Italy, "do" the Stelvio Pass and then head North up to a hotel at Solda.
After a decent rest, we took off up cross country to Tubingen in Germany staying in the very comfortable IBIS STYLES .. like a posh Premier Inn. From there again north to Bastogne to stay right by the market square for our last dinner and beers to reminisce the week away and check out the US 101st Airbourne museum ... the Easy Company fighting ground. Then a final day back up to Calais and back home to Blighty.
Now I know by now that you lot like pictures of food, tea, and beers. Some scenic photos and a bit of route mileage. I don't know where we went every day or exactly how we got there but there were some long days. Even peppered with lunch and coffee stops charging about when its hot with lots of bendy hairpins is tiring ..and we ain't getting any younger ! (well that is my excuse) AND we are off ...............
now .... this is Folkstone on the Sunday night before the big off.It was either up early early and hope you get there not missing the train in busy holiday traffic or roadworks or diversions etc so we booked in for one night only at The Grand Burstin Hotel in the harbour for only £44. Well it WAS pretty basic and I am sure in its heyday 50 years ago it would have been the place to be seen for a Folkstone A Lister but perhaps not today. Functional and a bit tired is how I would describe it but great position and the staff were all very friendly and helpful so that was nice. We ate out at the kebab place very close by. Out the front doors bang a left and go round the corner. DO NOT order LARGE anything ! Medium was huge and it was all very nice. Stuffed and off to bed. We filled up at the very close by JET petrol station. 105 dry sunny miles from Worthing to Folkstone.
RV in the car park for an early off. An uneventful but punctual journey on the train. It was busy as family cars laden with excited children headed into the EU. Only at these crossings was anyone at all interested in looking at passports. it was already warm as we went south. There had to be a bit of motorway to get some miles done but when it's all new and fresh and your'e excited who cares ?
7 of us. 5 GS's, a Honda something and a Ducati wotsit. Don't ask I have no idea .. if it's not a GS I'm not interested.
So this is the sort of scenery we were going to have to put up with. Not even there yet and it looks promising.Not really very much to say other than it was 309 miles and 3 coffee stops ..don't our European cousins just love coffee ?
Oh my goodness yes they bloody do .. just as well I love it !
We were in Nancy for 630pm. Staying in our 1st IBIS STYLES hotel we went out for a "curry" and just a couple of ice cold beers.
Petrol prices were at this point 1.91 euro which was £1.64 so a little more expensive and I was interested to see how that may vary as we rode around and through the different countries over the next few days.
Third day in and this saw us up at 730 on the bikes for 9 and booooom ..we are off into the mountains and endless uphill blind sharp hairpins that just kept coming.
If you are technically good at this stuff and confident then its heaven all day long. For me I'm still improving but certainly practice makes nearly "quite good!!"
This was the first taste of Swiss life .. young and old, up and down the mountains on racing bikes, in big gears in very small Tour de France climbing gears, children on bikes
pensioners with their walking poles .. everyone is just out and about enjoying the moooontanes. Not surprising .. it's all very clean and beautiful. No rubbish no graffiti, just nice.
Up in the mountains obviously things get chilly .. 12 degrees or so but of course that's nice when its 26 on the floor.
It was back to the hotel where I saw local fuel selling at Euro 1.75 .. so just about £1.50. The Hotel here was nice with a good bar and its own restaurant.
The Pizzas went down well.
Back at 6ish with 237 miles done .. warm miles.
Today we nearly lost our Honda man.. kept cutting out, jump start then out again, high revs seemed to keep it going until ............ nothing. Thankfully one of our group is German and so with a bit of Googling and easy talking we had the bike recovered to a "local" Honda dealer for a look, Initially it was deemed as "terminal" and he would be going home to the UK but hours later they seemed to be able to fix it and 24 hrs later he was back in the game. Power alternator ? something like that but it was sorted. So not much on this day as it was somewhat "not planned". It was filthy hot day with 213 miles ridden. Now we were all back on the road for another hot day riding even more hairpin mountain roads and passes. Truly stunning scenery at every bend every corner it really did just keep coming.
We had the drone up for a bit of arial footage. What a great bit of kit they are ! Yes they take up space and batteries have to be carried but I am sure when we see it all everyone will be smiling. A mere 115 miles today .. almost a day off !!!
Day 6 saw us heading the short distance to the The Stelvio Pass. The top was busy .. a bit like a seaside town selling "Stelvio"stuff ! but of course who cares when you are sipping coffee with such views. Off we went down this iconic route .. it didn't disappoint. The roads are so good over there. Put them down, do NOT dig them up or cover them in gravel or cow shit and all is well.Time for a bit more food with a little scenery chucked in too,
From the Stelvio Pass we were in for a 7 hr 256 miler up to Tubingen .. the problem being 2 crashes ( not us ) long hot queues and German / Austrian traffic that will not filter. Huge delays and the bikes just sit there. Perhaps it is an offence to filter over there .. but we did and quite safely too. Saved a huge amount of time and sweat .. it was a Saturday so all the locals were out as well.
It says here that I am unable to add any more photos .. oh dear !
The Sunday was spent heading up to Bastogne for our final night. Long fast open roads ... the opposite of the previous few days. Still very hot. Some of the Autobahn was "unrestricted" so we could make good progress in a relative short period of time. The GS even at these high speeds (118 was enough for me) was absolutely planted on the road. Solid and firm just oooozing confidence. 260 miles in 6 hours. We stayed at "The Leo" Hotel right in the middle of Bastogne just across from the main square. Lots of places to choose from for our final dinner and beers. This hotel was excellent.. clean and spacious considering where it was located. Sadly we did not get to the US Army museum. We shall just have to go back and make a weekend of it !
240 miles up to Calais in the heat getting there early for our planned 430 departure. We managed to slip through a few cones and bypass a shed load of queuing Englanders to be waved onto an earlier train .. no one interested in our "hangers" or timed tickets.
It really was a great trip. Switzerland like Norway and Finland is expensive. 7 coffees.. 35 euros .. the next day by the Stelvio 18 euros. Like all the places if you go just prepare yourself and suck it up otherwise you just wont enjoy it.
The Hotels were all good and lucky to have booked early for single occupancy.. love my mates like a do there is nothing like your own room.
Costing ? The hotels were booked and the chunnel came in at £169 so that total was £940 which we paid a while ago. The week itself was food beer and fuel.. about £800 so a 2k trip in all. Of course if you camp, if you don't drink and save on everything you can do it cheaper I understand that.
Hope you enjoyed this little write up.. wish i could put more piccies in !
Don't forget the £40 Swiss Vignette and you'll have a bloody great time. We did.
