For my second ever trip abroad on the bike I decided to head for the Alps so here is my write-up.
I had the bike serviced early ready for the trip and at a sensible time I was ready for the off
For this trip it was the tunnel and LeShuttle, so about 3 hours after leaving home it was into the queue – there were a lot of people about and it turned out that there had been an “earlier problem”.
Anyway after a short delay I was on the train.
As I’ve never been on the Eurotunnel before I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is; drive on, stand around for 35 minutes, talk nonsense to fellow bikers, drive off – no barriers to pass through once you get off the train, just hit the road and go!
First night’s stop was Bouillon; so Autoroute to Cambari then N & D roads,
Hotel de Post was the destination, very nice too (thanks to whoever had recommended it in various threads).
Walking around there was this parked up
Unfortunately there was no one about to ask for a closer look.
Not a bad view from the breakfast table
(ok, I know that this was taken outside but it’s the same view)
Next stop was Verdun.
There was a triathlon going on in Verdun so the place was really busy with sporty types.
I did a little bit of Autoroute and at a Péage plaza saw the two guys that had been in the same train carriage as me the day before, small world and all that.
More N & D roads followed, eventually arriving at Baden Baden.
A lovely sunny Sunday afternoon and it was busy, I missed a turn and before I knew it I was through the tunnel and out heading for the B500.
Lots of cars and bikes out and the car-parks at Mummelsee were rammed.
Still enjoyable enough though.
Arrived in Seebach at Pension Williams mid afternoon and thought it would be rude not to try the localish produce
I forgot to ask why there was a Christmas tree on a long pole in the village
Monday dawned bright and sunny and it was south toward Lake Constance.
It was good to have this section of the B500 to myself, rather a nice bit of road.
A bit of Autobahn, just because, and then past the lake.
It is pretty but it is also a bit tedious and in to Lindau, hot and busy but a pleasant enough place to stop for lunch.
Through a bit of Austria on the B308, over the Oberjoch pass to see views like this
Eventually arriving at Mad King Ludwig’s’ Neuschwanstein Castle
No, wait – that’s the lake, this is the castle
I had a walk up to the castle, up close the structure is fantastic and the scale of what was essentially a house built for one person a bit difficult to get your head around.
Apparently it was this castle that inspired Walt Disney for his castle at Disneyland.
Hotel Muller was very comfortable and served good food, although it was one of those “stretch the budget” stops, no garage for the bike either.
Day 4 and some big mountain passes were on the agenda starting with Timmelsjoch
A balmy 6deg C at the top soon replaced by 25+ at Merano, I had intended to stop here for lunch but it was just too warm for me, a lovely looking town and definitely a place to return to, probably for an overnight stop.
So form here we head west to Spondigna and then south West where there is a bit of a hill to go over, what’s it called?
Oh yes I remember – it’s the Stelvio Pass.
I stopped at Trafoi for lunch and got chatting to three 60 something (I’m guessing) Dutch guys who were on their way down after coming up the Umbria Pass and over Stelvio, nothing particularly significant about that - except that they were riding classic bikes, the largest of which was a whole 80cc (sorry I didn’t get a picture – what was I thinking!)
Anyway, here is the obligatory Stelvio photo
I really enjoyed the ride down to Bormio, being just that bit more open the corners are much better on this side (other opinions are available)
After this it was a longish haul, broken by a couple of diversions to the villages to the north of SS38, to the west side of Lake Como where I was meeting my wife, who had flown out, and staying for six nights.
Of course I wasn’t going to leave the bike parked up, so next day with panniers removed it was a trip to Lake Maggiore, going past Lake Lugano, into Switzerland (filled up with much cheaper fuel) back into Italy and a ferry crossing to Intra to have a look at the gardens at Villa Taranto.
The ferry on the way over was not especially busy, but on the way back I think it’s fair to say that it was not quite filled to capacity......
A trip up the eastern side of the lake and up Passo Alpi de Neggia and a lunch stop at a little cafe in Indemini, which is just in Switzerland.
I really like the bell towers in this part of the world
Before returning to Tremezzo.
Time was playing tricks and it felt like I’d been away for ages but it was only Thursday when we went to Como town, obviously I was on the bike and enjoyed the trip down the side of the lake luggage free, which enables you to adopt a more Italian riding style should you so wish, if you get my meaning!
Lunch at a cafe overlooking the lake and a ride up the east side of the west arm of the lake to Bellagio and a short ferry trip back to the other side.
Friday and Saturday were off the bike days, we went to Villa del Balbianello (where the final scenes of Casino Royale (Mr Craig as Bond) where filmed.
It’s a truly beautiful location.
And to Verenna
So now it was the second Sunday of my trip and we were going to St Moritz, me on the bike, wife by coach and train.
The drag was the ride back to Tresenda but then it got interesting, I headed along the SS39 to Aprica (slight delay due to cycle race) and then the plan was to turn off at Megno and go over the Mortirolo pass.
I got to the top and the road was closed due to a cycle race!! There was no way the policeman in the big hat was going to let me through, even though the race wasn’t due for another hour.
Still nice views
No choice to back track – and what’s that at the bottom of the pass? Oh, it’s a “road closed due to cycle race” sign, obviously written in Italian, but either way I’d somehow not seen it on the way up.
Never mind, all part of the experience.
So back to Tirano and then up the Bernina Pass.
Now this is a great road if you have some space to ride at the pace you want to and even though it was a Sunday somehow that’s what I had, brilliant. Lunch at the rather expensive restaurant at the top.
I was having far too much fun on the way up to stop for photos.
From St Moritz is was past Silvaplana and the ridiculously blue lake
and down the Maloja pass and back to Italy.
I now had six days to get home, the plan was back to Silvaplana, over the Julier Pass,
(I got mixed up with some Polish supercar guys who didn’t like being overtaken, a couple of them really were trying too hard)
down to Chur across the Oberalp to Andermatt, over the Furka (another Mr Bond location)
and Grimsel passes, yes it was wet and yes the cloud came down on the Grimsel, couldn’t see a thing until I got below 2,000m
I made my way past Brienzersee and rolled into Lauterbrunnen (with LAMPF! on the panel).
After checking into my hotel I was all set to have a look around and it started raining and that was that for the evening.
I looked in my luggage for my spare headlamp bulb – and there it wasn’t , somehow I’d managed to not put it where it was supposed to be.
Tuesday came with full cloud cover which didn’t look good however after breakfast the sun came out and the scenery was revealed.
Great I thought and set off for a wander around, soon the sun disappeared and the rain started, humf!! Not happy.
After waiting around for a bit, riding up to Grindlewald and having a coffee I gave it up as a bad job by midday and headed to Thun.
Fortunately as I got to Lake Thun it stopped raining so I could see something, lovely road, didn’t take any pics for some reason.
Anyway Moto Centre Thun sorted my headlamp and I had a look around the shop and had lunch in the cafe there.
It was a quick trip from here to Chamonix.
Now this is the first place I am revisiting from my trip last year and is a place I really like for some reason, I don’t know why because I’m not normally a fan of busy places but somehow Chamonix works for me.
Hotel found (with garage parking) and a good evening at one of the myriad of eateries.
Tomorrow I was going up the Aiguille du Midi cable car, weather permitting of course!
Wednesday, mainly cloudy and a decision needed making, cable car or not, forecast was for clearing so I decided to go for it.
The whole thing is crazy;
build a cable car to a rock pinnacle,
then build a bridge to the adjacent pinnacle,
carve a tunnel through that
and make a hole straight up and put a lift in it,
to the very top,
at 12,602ft
This is looking down to the cable car station from the 12,602ft level (3,842m in new money)
And this is looking up at it from the 12,388ft (3,776m) cable car level
It amused me all the publicity about the new “Step into the Void” glass box (on the right of the pic above)
Yes it’s a big space under your feet but there are three layers of 12mm glass laminated together in a just completed and no doubt very over-engineered structure.
But look at the walkway you have to go round to get to it, it all looks far more flimsy.
And the open tread stairs at the cable car level made me think far more.
As I said, the whole place is crazy, but a fantastic achievement.
I’d debated staying in Chamonix another night but as it was still early afternoon I headed west and then south through Beaufort and then over the Cormet de Roselend to Bourg St Maurice.
Gratuitous col summit photo.....
And the start down to Bourg St Maurice.
I ended up at the hotel l’Autanic, just out from the centre of town but very comfortable, garage if you want it and a decent breakfast.
As it was a lovely evening I had a quick trip up the Petit St Bernard pass before heading back to town for dinner.
You’ve got to admire the cyclists who pedal 25km to the top of the hill, turn around and ride back down.
Thursday and I’ve got three days to get home. A beautiful sunny day welcomed me so I just had to go over Col d’Iseran
Now this is my kind of place (well on a sunny day at least)
From here I really needed to start heading north so it was via Annecy, where I stopped by the lake for lunch, the heat must have got to me because I didn’t take any photos here either.
The plan being to go via the Jura, which was a great bit of road and then stop at Besancon overnight.
I’d timed it badly, not done any research and it was really busy, which is not generally my thing, so I carried on alongside the Doubs River until I found a suitable place to stop.
For my last full day in France I had the idea of heading to the Vosges and the Grand Ballon
This was certainly not the most direct route to Calais but worth the detour, I was most amused to see that at 1 o’clock I was actually heading south for a while before really turning north.
Sometimes I think that using Basecamp to plan your route can mean you end up feeling compelled to follow it.
You don’t have to of course and plenty of times I’ve stopped the current navigation and just put a destination in the “where to” then used the map to decide broadly how to get there.
However sometimes it’s brilliant because it takes you down roads you otherwise probably wouldn’t use, like this one
Originally I was going to head for Vouziers, for no other reason than it was in the right direction (also where Roland Garros is buried) however as it turned out I ended up in Reims where a very enjoyable evening was had at one of the town centre restaurants, I really like that bikes seem to be able to park anywhere in France and Italy
Unfortunately the morning brought rain, so any plans of looking around or taking a scenic route to Calais were scrubbed; instead I had a very leisurely breakfast and eventually got on the Autoroute for the trip back to the tunnel.
It did dry up after about 50 miles, but by then I was in “going home” mode so that was it.
Other than some torrential rain whilst on the M25 the rest of the journey home was uneventful.
I was surprised to see that somehow the Zumo had recorded an extra 70 miles compared to the bike!
Some of my days ended up being quite long, but I do tend to stop and look at the scenery and take photos and I really like riding my bike, sometimes just to be riding somewhere.
Also as I was travelling alone I only had myself to please about how long I rode for and when and where to stop for coffee, food, fuel etc
There is no right or wrong way of doing it – just do what works for you.
If reading this inspires anyone who has not done a trip before to go, in the same way that reading reports prompted me to go for the first time last year, then it’s a bonus.
To those of you who have already been to the places I’ve written about I hope it refreshes good memories.
I had the bike serviced early ready for the trip and at a sensible time I was ready for the off
For this trip it was the tunnel and LeShuttle, so about 3 hours after leaving home it was into the queue – there were a lot of people about and it turned out that there had been an “earlier problem”.
Anyway after a short delay I was on the train.
As I’ve never been on the Eurotunnel before I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is; drive on, stand around for 35 minutes, talk nonsense to fellow bikers, drive off – no barriers to pass through once you get off the train, just hit the road and go!
First night’s stop was Bouillon; so Autoroute to Cambari then N & D roads,
Hotel de Post was the destination, very nice too (thanks to whoever had recommended it in various threads).
Walking around there was this parked up
Unfortunately there was no one about to ask for a closer look.
Not a bad view from the breakfast table
(ok, I know that this was taken outside but it’s the same view)
Next stop was Verdun.
There was a triathlon going on in Verdun so the place was really busy with sporty types.
I did a little bit of Autoroute and at a Péage plaza saw the two guys that had been in the same train carriage as me the day before, small world and all that.
More N & D roads followed, eventually arriving at Baden Baden.
A lovely sunny Sunday afternoon and it was busy, I missed a turn and before I knew it I was through the tunnel and out heading for the B500.
Lots of cars and bikes out and the car-parks at Mummelsee were rammed.
Still enjoyable enough though.
Arrived in Seebach at Pension Williams mid afternoon and thought it would be rude not to try the localish produce
I forgot to ask why there was a Christmas tree on a long pole in the village
Monday dawned bright and sunny and it was south toward Lake Constance.
It was good to have this section of the B500 to myself, rather a nice bit of road.
A bit of Autobahn, just because, and then past the lake.
It is pretty but it is also a bit tedious and in to Lindau, hot and busy but a pleasant enough place to stop for lunch.
Through a bit of Austria on the B308, over the Oberjoch pass to see views like this
Eventually arriving at Mad King Ludwig’s’ Neuschwanstein Castle
No, wait – that’s the lake, this is the castle
I had a walk up to the castle, up close the structure is fantastic and the scale of what was essentially a house built for one person a bit difficult to get your head around.
Apparently it was this castle that inspired Walt Disney for his castle at Disneyland.
Hotel Muller was very comfortable and served good food, although it was one of those “stretch the budget” stops, no garage for the bike either.
Day 4 and some big mountain passes were on the agenda starting with Timmelsjoch
A balmy 6deg C at the top soon replaced by 25+ at Merano, I had intended to stop here for lunch but it was just too warm for me, a lovely looking town and definitely a place to return to, probably for an overnight stop.
So form here we head west to Spondigna and then south West where there is a bit of a hill to go over, what’s it called?
Oh yes I remember – it’s the Stelvio Pass.
I stopped at Trafoi for lunch and got chatting to three 60 something (I’m guessing) Dutch guys who were on their way down after coming up the Umbria Pass and over Stelvio, nothing particularly significant about that - except that they were riding classic bikes, the largest of which was a whole 80cc (sorry I didn’t get a picture – what was I thinking!)
Anyway, here is the obligatory Stelvio photo
I really enjoyed the ride down to Bormio, being just that bit more open the corners are much better on this side (other opinions are available)
After this it was a longish haul, broken by a couple of diversions to the villages to the north of SS38, to the west side of Lake Como where I was meeting my wife, who had flown out, and staying for six nights.
Of course I wasn’t going to leave the bike parked up, so next day with panniers removed it was a trip to Lake Maggiore, going past Lake Lugano, into Switzerland (filled up with much cheaper fuel) back into Italy and a ferry crossing to Intra to have a look at the gardens at Villa Taranto.
The ferry on the way over was not especially busy, but on the way back I think it’s fair to say that it was not quite filled to capacity......
A trip up the eastern side of the lake and up Passo Alpi de Neggia and a lunch stop at a little cafe in Indemini, which is just in Switzerland.
I really like the bell towers in this part of the world
Before returning to Tremezzo.
Time was playing tricks and it felt like I’d been away for ages but it was only Thursday when we went to Como town, obviously I was on the bike and enjoyed the trip down the side of the lake luggage free, which enables you to adopt a more Italian riding style should you so wish, if you get my meaning!
Lunch at a cafe overlooking the lake and a ride up the east side of the west arm of the lake to Bellagio and a short ferry trip back to the other side.
Friday and Saturday were off the bike days, we went to Villa del Balbianello (where the final scenes of Casino Royale (Mr Craig as Bond) where filmed.
It’s a truly beautiful location.
And to Verenna
So now it was the second Sunday of my trip and we were going to St Moritz, me on the bike, wife by coach and train.
The drag was the ride back to Tresenda but then it got interesting, I headed along the SS39 to Aprica (slight delay due to cycle race) and then the plan was to turn off at Megno and go over the Mortirolo pass.
I got to the top and the road was closed due to a cycle race!! There was no way the policeman in the big hat was going to let me through, even though the race wasn’t due for another hour.
Still nice views
No choice to back track – and what’s that at the bottom of the pass? Oh, it’s a “road closed due to cycle race” sign, obviously written in Italian, but either way I’d somehow not seen it on the way up.
Never mind, all part of the experience.
So back to Tirano and then up the Bernina Pass.
Now this is a great road if you have some space to ride at the pace you want to and even though it was a Sunday somehow that’s what I had, brilliant. Lunch at the rather expensive restaurant at the top.
I was having far too much fun on the way up to stop for photos.
From St Moritz is was past Silvaplana and the ridiculously blue lake
and down the Maloja pass and back to Italy.
I now had six days to get home, the plan was back to Silvaplana, over the Julier Pass,
(I got mixed up with some Polish supercar guys who didn’t like being overtaken, a couple of them really were trying too hard)
down to Chur across the Oberalp to Andermatt, over the Furka (another Mr Bond location)
and Grimsel passes, yes it was wet and yes the cloud came down on the Grimsel, couldn’t see a thing until I got below 2,000m
I made my way past Brienzersee and rolled into Lauterbrunnen (with LAMPF! on the panel).
After checking into my hotel I was all set to have a look around and it started raining and that was that for the evening.
I looked in my luggage for my spare headlamp bulb – and there it wasn’t , somehow I’d managed to not put it where it was supposed to be.
Tuesday came with full cloud cover which didn’t look good however after breakfast the sun came out and the scenery was revealed.
Great I thought and set off for a wander around, soon the sun disappeared and the rain started, humf!! Not happy.
After waiting around for a bit, riding up to Grindlewald and having a coffee I gave it up as a bad job by midday and headed to Thun.
Fortunately as I got to Lake Thun it stopped raining so I could see something, lovely road, didn’t take any pics for some reason.
Anyway Moto Centre Thun sorted my headlamp and I had a look around the shop and had lunch in the cafe there.
It was a quick trip from here to Chamonix.
Now this is the first place I am revisiting from my trip last year and is a place I really like for some reason, I don’t know why because I’m not normally a fan of busy places but somehow Chamonix works for me.
Hotel found (with garage parking) and a good evening at one of the myriad of eateries.
Tomorrow I was going up the Aiguille du Midi cable car, weather permitting of course!
Wednesday, mainly cloudy and a decision needed making, cable car or not, forecast was for clearing so I decided to go for it.
The whole thing is crazy;
build a cable car to a rock pinnacle,
then build a bridge to the adjacent pinnacle,
carve a tunnel through that
and make a hole straight up and put a lift in it,
to the very top,
at 12,602ft
This is looking down to the cable car station from the 12,602ft level (3,842m in new money)
And this is looking up at it from the 12,388ft (3,776m) cable car level
It amused me all the publicity about the new “Step into the Void” glass box (on the right of the pic above)
Yes it’s a big space under your feet but there are three layers of 12mm glass laminated together in a just completed and no doubt very over-engineered structure.
But look at the walkway you have to go round to get to it, it all looks far more flimsy.
And the open tread stairs at the cable car level made me think far more.
As I said, the whole place is crazy, but a fantastic achievement.
I’d debated staying in Chamonix another night but as it was still early afternoon I headed west and then south through Beaufort and then over the Cormet de Roselend to Bourg St Maurice.
Gratuitous col summit photo.....
And the start down to Bourg St Maurice.
I ended up at the hotel l’Autanic, just out from the centre of town but very comfortable, garage if you want it and a decent breakfast.
As it was a lovely evening I had a quick trip up the Petit St Bernard pass before heading back to town for dinner.
You’ve got to admire the cyclists who pedal 25km to the top of the hill, turn around and ride back down.
Thursday and I’ve got three days to get home. A beautiful sunny day welcomed me so I just had to go over Col d’Iseran
Now this is my kind of place (well on a sunny day at least)
From here I really needed to start heading north so it was via Annecy, where I stopped by the lake for lunch, the heat must have got to me because I didn’t take any photos here either.
The plan being to go via the Jura, which was a great bit of road and then stop at Besancon overnight.
I’d timed it badly, not done any research and it was really busy, which is not generally my thing, so I carried on alongside the Doubs River until I found a suitable place to stop.
For my last full day in France I had the idea of heading to the Vosges and the Grand Ballon
This was certainly not the most direct route to Calais but worth the detour, I was most amused to see that at 1 o’clock I was actually heading south for a while before really turning north.
Sometimes I think that using Basecamp to plan your route can mean you end up feeling compelled to follow it.
You don’t have to of course and plenty of times I’ve stopped the current navigation and just put a destination in the “where to” then used the map to decide broadly how to get there.
However sometimes it’s brilliant because it takes you down roads you otherwise probably wouldn’t use, like this one
Originally I was going to head for Vouziers, for no other reason than it was in the right direction (also where Roland Garros is buried) however as it turned out I ended up in Reims where a very enjoyable evening was had at one of the town centre restaurants, I really like that bikes seem to be able to park anywhere in France and Italy
Unfortunately the morning brought rain, so any plans of looking around or taking a scenic route to Calais were scrubbed; instead I had a very leisurely breakfast and eventually got on the Autoroute for the trip back to the tunnel.
It did dry up after about 50 miles, but by then I was in “going home” mode so that was it.
Other than some torrential rain whilst on the M25 the rest of the journey home was uneventful.
I was surprised to see that somehow the Zumo had recorded an extra 70 miles compared to the bike!
Some of my days ended up being quite long, but I do tend to stop and look at the scenery and take photos and I really like riding my bike, sometimes just to be riding somewhere.
Also as I was travelling alone I only had myself to please about how long I rode for and when and where to stop for coffee, food, fuel etc
There is no right or wrong way of doing it – just do what works for you.
If reading this inspires anyone who has not done a trip before to go, in the same way that reading reports prompted me to go for the first time last year, then it’s a bonus.
To those of you who have already been to the places I’ve written about I hope it refreshes good memories.
