The ducati factory and museum was closed so we went exploring through the national parks... Bumped into a bunch of dutch guys, quality chaps and total hooligans, one fella was knee down on open road on a vfr1200! We road with them for the morning down to Florence where we stopped for some lunch before heading back
The next day we headed for the dolomites... Which was had some of the beat roads and certainly scenery I've seen...
After the dolomites and an afternoon in Austria we had the grossglockner pass and head through Austria and into Germany south of the black forest...
Following day was the b500 and then up for the national park and wine region to the ring... Not before new boots as our tyres were shagged! Stopped off at what we thought was a museum, turned out to be a guys private collection of classic porsches where his personal mechanic restores them... He offered us a cuppa and showed us round his "garage" Found a road called the b48, was longer and quieter and also slightly twistier than the 500 - amazing road, will be going back!!
Were late back fri night so didn't get round the ring and the next day was a club meet and pissing down, so sadly headed home without any laps this time... Oh well always next year, be rude not to watch the cars though!! Back at Calais... Roll on 2013...
Fantastic Jimbo. That's some serious mileage to cover. Some of those roads look amazing, and the scenery is unreal mate. Pity about the Ring but as u say, there's always next year.
Brilliant mate, love it all some of those pics are amazing, think I might have to tag along next year thanks for sharing even though I am a little jealous.
Breathtaking! Looks like it was an amazing trip. Seeing as it rained on my 4 day Yorks excursion, I'm more than a little envious!
Most excellent trip there James. Reminds me I have to get back to Italy at some point. I only saw one bike all day I was in Bologna, a 550f, identical to the one back home in the garage. So that was money well spent on the trip. Only Jimbo could wear out his boots en-route. LOL.
cheers fella's - yeah was amazing, and every country offered something different which was cool... was good being just the two of us (Tony headed home after a couple days as the pace and mileage was too much) as we could cover some serious ground.... next year i think i'll close the milestones a little so you can be a bit more flexible with routes each day... or not book hotels and stop where you feel, bunch of english guys we met go away for a week each year and never book and have no issues. must admit the big group banter was missed a little though... Col - too right, wherever i go next year, the ring will be done - love the place and surrounding area is awesome. Jamie - get a pass and start saving, it's an awesome week mate, proper adventure V - gutted for ya mate, we had a couple wet days, but only afternoons or couple hours then clear, didnt rain on any of the major passes we planned to do though which was lucky Ken - ha ha - they had done about 1k before i set off, knew i would have to get a rear, but they didnt have sport smarts so changed both to bridgestones which to be fair, seem bloody brilliant.
Now THAT is a trip! Thanks for the heads-up on the B48 too - will definitely try that the next time we're down that way. Just checked my trip logs from a previous trip as we crossed over the B48 when dropping down past Kaiserslautern down to the Black Forest (presume that's the same B48 you did?) Mind you, the road we did take was a fast sweeping road going through deep forest for miles with zero traffic so was a fantastic ride too. Don't think you can go far wrong on most of the roads round that area!
Quality mate - i'll have a look... yes thats the one, ive done similar routes down from the ring also but honestly this was by far the best!! link it up with the river road out of cochem and you have one hell of a day.... but seriously the b48 was like the 500 in terms of width and road quality, but was sooooo much better.... there was one corner where the signs showed the inside lane being under a 3m hanging rock and effectively going down to one lane, but you could ride straight under it on the bike on the bend - was cool as f*ck... no traffic other than local bikes who obviously know about it.
What a fantastic trip and nice pics. 3 weeks till my trip, ill be taking on the Mosel Valley, B500, vorelburg, dolomites and grossglockner.
Hi Jimbo , 4 of us are going end of July , 1st stop just off the B500 3 nights , then down to Austria near Innsbruck 2 nights , do the silveretta pass , then up to the nurburg ring area for 2 nights , can,t wait
You two will have a blast... Didn't go Innsbruck but I think Si went that way and looked amazing. Word of warning though, take it easy in Austria - we didn't see any but plenty have said that the police love a hide up and speed trap and the fines are hefty, we just stuck to the limits coming and going into villages and towns... If you haven't done routes or maps yet, buy the Michelin regional maps, they highlight scenic / good roads and we followed these sticking to red routes for more flowing roads to make time or yellow if we fancied some twisties to mix it up, worked well.... Done the main map reading and Dave entered a way point past a major town of the road we wanted to pick up next and dare I say it the sat nav didn't let us down (did one night but that's another story) was a really good way of making sure you stuck to the intended route without d tours which cost you so much more time on the road...
