RBEmerson
Kein Nasebohrer
After dragging everyone through all my natter about renting, planning, and I don't know what all else, it's time to inflict the start of a ride report here. The original material appeared on Sport-touring.net. This is a shameless copy of my material there. Let the fun begin!
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I'm going back to the Alps in July. The plane tickets are booked, the rooms are booked, the bike is booked, and the routes are laid out. There is no tour company involved in this trip.
The dates: leave 29 June, return 17 July (house is alarmed, police respond quickly even to false alarms, backup friend has a concealed carry permit).
The plane part is simple: Lufthansa - Philadelphia-Frankfurt-Philadelphia. BTDT doin' it again. We like Lufthansa's cabin service, we don't like their seat pitch or having to pay a IMHO through the nose price for civilized seating. Four-wheel transportation by Hertz.
Rooms are more complex. We have family (in-laws to me) west of Frankfurt. That's the "hotel" prior to and after The Trip. The trip is actually two trips: 1) Wife and brother and sister and 2) me, me, and nobody but me. Group 1 won't be riding and they want to see something of Lake Garda. Group 2 rides and isn't big on Italian lakes unless they're in high mountain passes. Our paths will cross (Scharnitz AT, near Bozen/Bolzano IT, and Lofer AT). More later. As much as possible, with one exception, the idea is to find good value-for-money accommodations that aren't "vacation fun factories".
The bike is a BMW K1600GT, rented from Bike & Travel Services in Munich.
The overall route is a counter-clockwise loop with stops in Andermatt CH (AKA Switzerland), Prutz AT, Collalbo IT, Lofer AT. The basic intent is "bagging passes".
Expanded comments follow. (in other posts)
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Place names: I'll be in German-speaking Switzerland, no big surprises there. Austria is counted as German-speaking. Things get strange in Italy. The northernmost part is called Alto Adige but is also known as Süd Tirol or Southern Tyrol. That's heavily (60%) German-speaking. (Please refer to my history lesson in last summer's RR about my tour with Edelweiss, or see Wikipedia, or don't.) Parts of the Dolomites are in another state: Veneto, where Italian dominates. Sorta.
To keep everybody confused, I'll use, where possible, German/Italian names. For example: Bozen/Bolzano. Look up whatever name you want. Or don't.
Abbreviations and conversions: CH = Switzerland (Cantons Helvetia) , AT = Austria, DEU = Germany ChF = Swiss (Ch) Franc - Switzerland isn't part of the EU
km/h=kilometer/hour 1 mph = 1.6 km/h, 1 km/h = 0.6 mph - 60 mph = 100 km/h. Figuring, over larger distances, distance in km is roughly one and a half times a distance in miles and distance in miles is roughly half a distance in km will get you by.
No degrees centigrade, promise.
At the moment 1€ = $1.05 and 1 ChF = $0.99. Who knows where all of this will be four months from now. :headscratch:
One last addition: I keep referring to the Edelweiss tour. Here's a link to it: Film at 11! The photos have disappeared (might be my doing, might be the Russians)
- - - -
I'm going back to the Alps in July. The plane tickets are booked, the rooms are booked, the bike is booked, and the routes are laid out. There is no tour company involved in this trip.
The dates: leave 29 June, return 17 July (house is alarmed, police respond quickly even to false alarms, backup friend has a concealed carry permit).
The plane part is simple: Lufthansa - Philadelphia-Frankfurt-Philadelphia. BTDT doin' it again. We like Lufthansa's cabin service, we don't like their seat pitch or having to pay a IMHO through the nose price for civilized seating. Four-wheel transportation by Hertz.
Rooms are more complex. We have family (in-laws to me) west of Frankfurt. That's the "hotel" prior to and after The Trip. The trip is actually two trips: 1) Wife and brother and sister and 2) me, me, and nobody but me. Group 1 won't be riding and they want to see something of Lake Garda. Group 2 rides and isn't big on Italian lakes unless they're in high mountain passes. Our paths will cross (Scharnitz AT, near Bozen/Bolzano IT, and Lofer AT). More later. As much as possible, with one exception, the idea is to find good value-for-money accommodations that aren't "vacation fun factories".
The bike is a BMW K1600GT, rented from Bike & Travel Services in Munich.
The overall route is a counter-clockwise loop with stops in Andermatt CH (AKA Switzerland), Prutz AT, Collalbo IT, Lofer AT. The basic intent is "bagging passes".
Expanded comments follow. (in other posts)
- - - - -
Place names: I'll be in German-speaking Switzerland, no big surprises there. Austria is counted as German-speaking. Things get strange in Italy. The northernmost part is called Alto Adige but is also known as Süd Tirol or Southern Tyrol. That's heavily (60%) German-speaking. (Please refer to my history lesson in last summer's RR about my tour with Edelweiss, or see Wikipedia, or don't.) Parts of the Dolomites are in another state: Veneto, where Italian dominates. Sorta.
To keep everybody confused, I'll use, where possible, German/Italian names. For example: Bozen/Bolzano. Look up whatever name you want. Or don't.
Abbreviations and conversions: CH = Switzerland (Cantons Helvetia) , AT = Austria, DEU = Germany ChF = Swiss (Ch) Franc - Switzerland isn't part of the EU
km/h=kilometer/hour 1 mph = 1.6 km/h, 1 km/h = 0.6 mph - 60 mph = 100 km/h. Figuring, over larger distances, distance in km is roughly one and a half times a distance in miles and distance in miles is roughly half a distance in km will get you by.
No degrees centigrade, promise.
At the moment 1€ = $1.05 and 1 ChF = $0.99. Who knows where all of this will be four months from now. :headscratch:
One last addition: I keep referring to the Edelweiss tour. Here's a link to it: Film at 11! The photos have disappeared (might be my doing, might be the Russians)