• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Going to Germany!

grasslander

riding the bike(s)
Ok, first to everybody for pointing the way on this one. Vielen Dank!

Anita and I talked her favorite cousin and husband into going with us.
Airline tickets have been purchased (AA). Motors are reserved with the check in the mail (R1100RT's from Knopf Motorradreisen). Stefan is great.

As stated before I will be at the Drupa show in Duselldorf, Anita and friends will meet me at Frankfurt Airport on 12-June-2008. Stefan will arrange pickup and drop off on 22-June-2008 for the trip back. We will motor tour 13-June-2008 to 21-June-2008. We want to do Black Forest, Austria, Italy. Would like to do one day down to the Med if possible. Is a Pisa overnight doable from W. Austria?
BTW: Air travel cost is ridiculous this year. $1320.00 round trip Kansas City to Frankfurt with one stop in Dallas! Fall of 2006 business trip to Hanover DE with 10 days notice was $2400.00.

We are area planning and scoping hotel possibilities. We don't want advanced reservations if possible for flexibility. Now the real fun begins
 
W. Austria to Pisa? Probably not unless you do 100% autobahn or autostrasse. Like the US Interstate system, you can forget about seeing anything.

Let me make another suggestion... Slovenia/Croatia. We made it from the Autstrian/Slovenia border all the way to Rijeka in one day with lots of time to spare. The riding in Slovenia is some of the best and challenging you'll come across. There are lots of things to see. Plus you get see Europe in a different light.. Oh, Solvenia and Croatia are now both part of the EU. So, border stops are just formalities and the Euro is makes buying easy.

Our favorite stop in Croatia was Pula. Pula has a a Roman colosseum, temple and number of other Roman buildings. Very beautiful and nice. You'll also find very few tourists. Rijeka is becoming the Riveria of Adriatic. It's also the new place for Europeans to vacation since the iron curtain has come down.

Now, if you're still set on getting to something touristy, try Venice. Much more achievable in driving time. But, take as many back roads as you can.
 
Dear Grasslander: So very happy for you that your trip has come together! Gruss Gott!

Grasslander, It was fun corresponding with you and giving you little tips while you were putting your trip together. I think its great that all is now ready for you!

Franze is 100% correct! Western Austria to Pisa, Italy in one day is an easy one.

I went back to my notes from the October of 2004 Alps trip that AZ Beemers took, not the May-June 2007 trip that you and I were talking about, and my scribblings in John Hermann's book show that it took us 5 hours and 350 miles to get from Innsbruck to Pisa. If you don't mind spending 8 hours in the saddle and 400 miles riding on one of these legs, send me your mailing address, and I'll send you copies of my maps that will avoid a lot of the autobahn und autostrasse miles.

If you don't want to spend any time whatsoever on the autobahn/strasse on the route to Pisa from Innsbruck and don't mind investing ten hours and 425 miles I can also show you routing that will be spectacularly scenic. Just a slower pace!

I cannot disagree with jgifford regarding Slovenia/Croatia as a tour destination.

Counting up your dates shows me that you have the bikes rented for nine days.

You can easily ride from Pisa to Venice in a day using the autopista. However, it looks like riding the Central Valley of California; but you have to cross it anyway!

From Venice you would be at the doorway of Slovenia and Croatia if you wanted.

Please say hello to Stefan and his wonderful children from AZ Beemers. We felt like part of the family when we stayed with the Knopf's. If you do send me your mail address, I would like to send you a CD of pictures of the AZ Beemers Alps trip to give to Stefan. Naturally, burn/copy our pictures if it helps you plan your trip!
 
Getting very close - Update

Again thanks to all who've helped with the great info. A special thanks to Franze!

Planning is pretty well finished! Time to buy some euros and an extra face shield...

Well I leave in 3 weeks to work the Drupa Print show in Dusseldorf DE. I will meet Anita (wife), Pat, and Bart in 4 weeks (June 12) at the Frankfurt airport.

The trip shapes up like this:

Meet in Frankfurt and travel to Heidelberg to meet our BMW RT M/C's at Knopf Motor Touring.
Tour around Heidelberg and head into the Black Forest.
Spend 2 nights in the Triberg/Freiburg area looking for a cuckoo clock and drinking beer in the evenings ;')
Travel to Switzerland and spend 2 nights in Luzern area (girls wish to shop and walk here).
Travel to South Tyrol and Dolomite via Andematt/St.Moritz (longest travel day of the trip 280mi). spend 2 nights in Merano Italy exploring roads (girls wish to spa here). Drink wine in the evenings ;')
Travel back to Heidelberg via Munich.
Fly home and print pictures.

Again thanks to all -- a report will follow in July!
 
Is a Pisa overnight doable from W. Austria?

Yes, but what a waste that would be riding the autobahns/autostradas all the way. From Rovereto to Livorno (just past Pisa) took me a long day taking nothing but backroads.

You're better off savouring an area and coming back another time...trust me, you'll want to.

We are area planning and scoping hotel possibilities. We don't want advanced reservations if possible for flexibility. Now the real fun begins

Accomodations lists: go to the bottom of the 1st post in the link below. BTW, in 13 straight years of touring Europe and the Alps, I may have made two reservations.

Map suggestions as well as FREE ADAC map downloads of motorcycle touring suggestions: go to the 2nd post in the link below.

Alps Motorcycle Tours - Priced Right, How to go about

I'll be there all of June and a bit of July. :D :clap :stick :p
 
Croatia

I agree with jgifford and beemerdons on Slovenia/Croatia. Just got back from there yesterday. Big difference in the roads of Slovenia vrs. Croatia. Croatian roads were very, very, well maintained and Slovenia (at least the small part I was on between Trieste and the Croatian border, was more like rural America.......somewhere where it snows and there is a low road maintenance budget. BUT, I was not on the autoroute. My final (?) advice is to stay off the autoroutes as much as possible, the secondary roads are great fun and lead to interesting places.
 
Several years ago my wife and I took a similar trip. We flew into Frankfurt, Stefan picked us up at the airport and we spent the first 2 night at his B&B (a good way to reset the bodies clock). We had a general itinerary planned around central Europe but we had no reservations and except for Florence, we had no problems finding a place to stay. Everything we took packed in the luggage of a K75 plus a tankbag.

A few things to consider:
1. If you were to go everywhere people suggest, you'll need months.
2. You're going at a good time. Most of the Europeans start their holiday after June.
3. Planning the details of the next days travels is part of the fun.
4. Get good detail maps of the areas in which you're going to travel.
5. If you are going to visit a large city, consider staying in a smaller town with a train station outside of the city of interest and take a train into the city. Rail lines and stations are usually marked on the detailed maps.
6. The Alps can get cold in June.
7. If you can handle the US Interstates around a major city, You should have no trouble on the autobahns/autovias/and what ever else they call the major highways over there.
8. Don't travel in the left hand lane on the major highways. That lane is for passing.
9. If you are going to pass while traveling on a major highway, and you see something coming in the left hand lane when you check you mirror, wait. That something may be moving pretty fast.
10. Try to limit your travels to 6 to 8 hours a day. Leave yourself some time to enjoy the towns in which you stop. And rest day are good.
11. You can make it from western Austria to Piza in a day but you'll be on the major highways most of the way.
12. Don't be worried if you get lost. It just means you'll see things and go places that you didn't expect.
13. Cinque Terra, just north of La Spezia, Italy, is really a neat place to enjoy the Med. (Sorry, reference item 1).

I hope you have a good trip. My wife and I found ours very enjoyable.
 
Hey detweiler, I give you 10/10 on that. I enjoy getting lost......... I was "guiding" a couple of my wife's work buddies around Italy (Alba area) and we went past the same intersection twice in an hour........:doh
 
Back
Top