The final countdown - Europe 2019

[ScepticalScotty]

Just need to pack and put the sheepskin on the seat, and then 3 and a bit days from now I'll be off a journey that may go as far as Slovenia and Croatia, but will certainly include Italy and Mandello. Friday ferry from Dover (Thursday ride up from here to near Stonehenge), first nght in the Ardennes and then we will be making it up as we go along. Breva 750 and Norge 1200. Camping...sometimes .... No room for the banjo on the bike, so that lead break from The Big Scioty will have to wait a bit.....

[guzzi4me]

Do us a favor and take us along on the trip by posting pics and updates!!

Ride safe and have fun.....

Jeff

[ScepticalScotty]

Hi Jeff,

theres two of us on the trip and there will be pics both digital and (from me) film using my Olympus Trip 35. Hope to use Kodak ProImage 100, a very nice film with great tones. Its going to be a very much "suck it and see" trip, for both me and Jeff. It will be my longest bike trip in 23 years of riding on the road. Man I wasted my time when I was young......

[guzzi4me]

Yesterday is gone...today is now!!

Most folks don't get the opportunity to travel by any means. You have the fortune of travelling the best way..by motorcycle!

Enjoy each day and experience..but most of all....

HAVE FUN!!!!!

Jeff

[ScepticalScotty]

OK we are leaving Mandello today, it's past midnight been drinking beers with Norwegians. Did the museum tour today, bought a hat, free souvenirs, breakfast by the lake, lunch at Restaurant Grigna where we stayed. Other highlights were staying in the Black Forest, and we did the Stelvio. I lost my back brake halfway down, but it came back. Tomorrow, we ride😁

[Tusayan]

lunch at Restaurant Grigna where we stayed.

If that place could talk, the stories it could tell... Once famous racers in residence etc.

I rolled up there once and they didn’t have a room... unless you don’t mind this one (you get the idea, the door probably hadn’t been opened for quite a while)  I slept well, the room was cheap, and the money saved was spent on a wonderful dinner.

Have fun riding tomorrow

[oldbike54]

 

 Dusty

[jumpmaster]

Seems like yesterday, but 30(!) years ago I was stationed in Sarajevo for 7 months and roamed far & wide in Bosnia and Croatia in a militarized Ford Bronco truck.  At least 5 times a day I wished I was on a motorcycle - great scenic motorcycling roads in all directions.  My fantasy ride back then was down the coast of Croatia thru Split and onward to Dubrovnik, then a hard left up thru Mostar to Sarajevo.  From there I'd go west thru Banja Luka back west towards Italy.  Not conducive to "boy racer" type riding - too many blind curves, logging trucks, etc. for that kind of riding - but that's what racetrack days are for, and the scenery is worth slowing down for, anyway.  I also made the drive from Sarajevo to Tuzla nearly weekly and was never bored with the scenery, but that would be far outside my fantasy loop.

[ScepticalScotty]

Jeff is now drinking Jameisons, me coke Zero, on a roof terrace Grindlewald staring at the mountains. Mittelhorn, Eiger, Jungfrau joch....... Did the St Gotthard and Susten passes today.....

[severely]

Would you mind sending me a PM to discuss how you shipped over and how that went? Thank you in advance.

[janguzzi]

Sorry but I had to..  (the band still rocks in 2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

[ScepticalScotty]

Shipping the bikes? Dover to Dunquerque ferry. We are from the UK. 

[severely]

Shipping the bikes? Dover to Dunquerque ferry. We are from the UK. 

   My bad, didn't see you location.

[ScepticalScotty]

Well it finished on Monday when I pulled up in my driveway 2339 miles after I started. Memories that will last a lifetime. Met wonderful people, rode on wonderful roads, ate great foods I'd never had before. I probably wont do a long form ride report, but the main points/highlights were;

The St Gotthard Pass - so beautifully made, a work of art, a joy to ride, great cafe and the views are awesome. Susten and Stelvio are also awesome, but it all came together on the day we did St Gotthard.

The Black Forest - a mini bikers paradise, great places to stay, awesome food, great geusthouses.

Mandello - nice museum tour even though I speak no Italian and the guide no English. We saw 10 Guzzis in the first 15 minutes at Restaurante Grigna, where we stayed.   Saw many more in the next 24 hours. It was HOT. Breakfast by the lake....Great pizza.

The Italian Tyrol - wonderful. Highly recommend Agropobitza as a place to stay in Mals? Near Glurms.???

We saw an Oom Pah band competition beside the road in Austria. Dirndls everywhere I tell you - lederhosen heaven....

German food is great, and a whole stack of people speak German in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. And Lichtenstein.....wh ich seemed a pointless country. Oh well.

Saw V85TTs ridden in Mandello. Agostinis demo was "at a party"

Both lost our rear brakes coming off the Stelvio....which is crowded, so not a race track. Bratwurst was OK.

Susten Pass has 15ft plus snow in summer. 

I love pork with cream sauce and spatzle.

The Eifel is nice.

La dolce vita is alive and well in Lake Como region, but you know what? I prefer Sud Tyrol myself.

We never camped once. We stayed in a city once - never again.

Will add a few pics when I can. My Breva 750 never missed a beat.

[Tusayan]

Sounds like a very nice trip 

Mals (or Malles Venosta in Italian) is correct, it's at the west end of the Venosta Valley.   A very interesting intersection of different geography and cultures there.  I once rode from there stuck in one gear, happily it was third which allowed me to cross over the Reschenpass and transition to the autobahn which takes you uninterrupted to Munich.  A group of us use to stay at the Garberhof in Mals, but it became a 'spa' and got too expensive.

Stelvio goes south from near Mals, and for sure it is no race track, more like a procession of bikess with random hazards presented by oncoming traffic, people crashing in front of you etc.  Some people refuse to ride it on the weekends and I can't really blame them. 

The Dolomites (Sudtyrol, Alto Adige) are for riding, Mandello is for enjoying off the bike...

Do it again next year