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My first euro tour
I went on my first real tour earlier this year and found this site on my return, been reading a few stories now thought I may as well add one about my trip to maybe inspire someone else to have a go! My apologies to the more experienced guys as this may be a bit boring but I’ve got the touring bug now so more involved trips are being planned…
Riding back from the London bike show this year on surprisingly mild February Saturday, I had a bit of a mid life crisis moment and started thinking that this year would be a “me and the bike” year. Before I got home, I’d come up with the plan of a solo trip round Europe and having been over to the Nurburgring once before on a bike, that had to factor into somewhere on the trip.
The following week, armed with a nice comfy warm office, I called up Google maps and before long had the trip planned;
Cross overnight from Portsmouth to St Malo,
Day 1 – St Malo to Bordeaux
Day 2 – Bordeaux to Andorra la Vella
Day 3 – Andorra to Toulon
Day 4 – Toulon to Chivasso in Italy via Monaco and the Col de Turini pass
Day 5 – Chivasso to Stetten in Germany via the San Bernadino pass, Austria and Lichtenstien…
Day 6 – Stetten to Jammelshofen (Nurburgring)
Day 7 – Nurburgring to Lille
Day 8 – Lille to High Wycombe (home)
Quite a few of the days were 300+ miles (which seemed ok sat on a nice comfy chair in a heated and air conditioned office…) and I wanted to stay off the motorways and autoroutes (f you want to see the route, let me know and I’ll forward the Google map link). This was early February and I planned to leave on the 14th May, so after a week or so of hurried excitement and activity, I then did not a lot till the couple of weeks before departure.
The biggest trip I’d ever done before was down to Cornwall with a few mates so facing the best part of 2,500 miles on my own with nothing but an iPod and sat nav voice for company was a bit daunting. There were a lot of “what if’s…” running through my mind and on more than one occasion I though about not going and spending the money down the pub!
Two nights before and I couldn’t wait any longer, so it was out with the shiny new throwovers and I started packing. 8 pairs of t-shirts, socks and pants (throwing them away as I went), wash kit, trainers, jeans, then bike gear, waterproofs, a few tools, levers, chain lube etc. and before long, MY ZX7 had been transformed into a tourer. A ZX7? Yep, that was my choice, it was either that or my other bike, a 1988 DR750 which is well past it’s best and wasn’t going to make it. I’d thought about getting another ZZR1100 as I’d had one before and knew it could eat miles but I’ll tell you about the results of touring on a race rep at the end of this tale…
I left work at lunchtime on the 14th and took a gentle plod down to Portsmouth, stooping off at Loomies café on the A32 for a cup of tea, fag and long stare at my bike before setting off for the docks. With the crossing set to leave at 8.30pm, my arrival time of 4.00pm was a tad premature but at least it gave me time to chill out and pretend I was a hardened solo traveler at the front of the queue as oppose to the secretly scared/excited, chain smoking, trip virgin I was.
Not a lot to say about the crossing really, expect to say I wasn’t that impressed with Brittany Ferries bike securing facilities, my previous experiences being with Sea France where they have an excellent little bike cradle you ride into and the bike is secured at 4 points using ratchet tie downs; in contrast, Brittany Ferries tied the bike to a spare railing with a length of dog eared rope. Mind you, whilst I was a bit concerned, it paled into comparison with the look on the guy in front of me’s face who had a fully loaded Wing… Crossing was smooth and I feel into a half decent sleep with only a mild feeling of trepidation of the days that lay ahead.
Day 1 – St Malo to Bordeaux
Woke up at 5am, got dressed and eagerly went upstairs to see what the weather was doing, no sign of rain but a bit cloudy but we were still a fair distance away from the port so I was pretty sure there it was going to be a good day. A few hours later and I joined the queue to get down to the car decks, wondering if that rope had held. It had luckily, as had the one holding the Wing next door, so I started the process of attaching all the throwovers. Now, I don’t know about anyone else but I admit to being paranoid of losing anything of the back so attaching these things ended up being a 20 minute process, utilizing about 6 bungees, a cargo net, as well as the original clasps/straps the things came with. I won’t go on anymore about the throwovers, suffice to say I hate the b*****d things now and am never using them again.
Ferry docked, sat nav attached, I left St Malo and hit the road and headed for Vitre, Bressuire, Niort, then Bordeaux. The whole trip was, for me, about riding my bike. I wasn’t that interested in seeing the sites so it was, get on, ride, stop for gas/water/smoke then get on and ride some more. One of my worries pre-trip was finding petrol stations on route as I wasn’t on motorways but this never proved to be too much of a problem and my cards worked in all the pumps, which wasn’t the case when I’d been in France previously. The ride itself was a great days riding. Off the motorways and sticking to D roads, there was very little traffic and I was easily holding the speed up which I knew I needed to do to cover the miles I’d set myself. Two things I quickly realized, 1) French roads are fantastic, 2) French drivers put the UK’s to shame. Every, and I do mean every, car I came up to wanted me to go past and I don’t mean the “stick it into the kerb, cover you with gravel and crap, make room on a blind corner” type of move you get over here but a decent move over to the left, indicate and let you past type move. Lovely stuff, I could get used to this…
I got into Bordeaux mid afternoon, found the hotel (no camping on this trip, I was spoiling myself), shower then went exploring. Bordeaux itself is a great city with one of the biggest cathedrals I’ve ever seen in my life but I was a bit tired from the ride so it was a quick tea and back to the hotel and an early nights kip.
Day 2 - Bordeaux – Andorra la Vella
This was a day I’d been looking forward to. I’d been to Andorra a couple of years before but as part of a car rally with two other bike mates. All of us wanted to get back and have a play on the roads with our bikes and out of the three of us, I was the first to try. I left Bordeaux about 8am and worked my way out of the city and into the Gascogne Landes national park which was about 100 miles of riding through a mixture of dense forest and wide open space, without seeing another car or bike. The roads were a bit damp but the tarmac still gave more grip than any dry road in the UK, then it was out of the park and towards Eauze, Auch, and then Foix, after which I caught site of my first glimpse of a snow capped mountain which made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was only about now that I realised about the kind of sights I was going to see on this trip and it gave me a real second wind for the day.
On into Aux-les-Thermes and roads which had a good layer of snow each side, following the roads up into the Pyrenees it started to get colder and colder. It really surprised me how quickly the temperature dropped and with snow each side of me, I had to really focus on the road and be a bit of a girl around the bends, not wanting to drop the bike. Bizarrely, the road conditions at the top were better than the way up so I stopped at the top to get a photo.
On into Andorra, I didn’t want to chance the mountain pass so I went through the tunnel and out into blazing sunshine. The road down into Andorra is amazing, with it dropping down over several hundred feet and loads of big sweeping bends that a large enough to keep your speed up but allow you to look down further into the valley. Into the maze of Andorra La Vella and after several u-turns (even with sat nav, this place is still confusing) I found the hotel, showered, changed and got into the town for food. There is something odd about Andorra, it’s a lovely place with a maze of streets and everyone I’ve ever met there is very friendly, it’s just a kind of weird atmosphere, not bad or unfriendly, just a bit surreal. Maybe it’s just me…
Day 3 - Andorra la Vella –Toulon
Up early-ish again and followed the road out that I’d came in on before, froze myself on the mountains again and then dropped down into a fantastic valley with a road that just went from hairpin to hairpin, great fun on a ZX7 but not so sure about a bigger tourer. Back up onto the mountains again and to take another photo
Followed the road back down into the valley, the D613, and just had mile after mile of awesome biking heaven, hairpins, sweepers, sheer drops, everything you could possibly want. Eventually the 613 ended in Narbonne, where I stopped for a lunch of petrol station tuna sandwich, the usual fag and a tank of fuel, then off towards Toulon, following the coast for a while in baking heat, a total contrast to the mornings freezing mountains. I was getting pretty knackered by this point, the tight and twisties in the morning had caught up with me but the road to my hotel (just outside Toulon in Sollies Pont) took me through the Foret de Font Blanche (I think), past the old circuit of Castellet and then another 50 miles or so of winding tree lined biking paradise. I got to my hotel, ate and slept like a log…
Day 4 Toulon – Monaco – Col de Turini – Chivasso.
This was a day I’d been looking forward too, possibly having a ride around Monaco and the Col de Turini pass…
The day started off with beautiful weather, so once packed up (damn throwovers) it was off towards Monaco. I rode down to the coast and followed the road along, chuckling to myself when I went past the sign for St Tropez as the thought hit me that I’d ridden my bike all the way here. Made the mistake of going through Cannes on film week, although I did have the chance of following a beautiful long haired local riding her scooter, five miles of sheer joy inhaling a mixture of two stroke and expensive perfume. Monaco was mental, got stuck in a traffic jam with an Aston one side, Ferrari the other, Porsche in front and Lamborghini behind me, petrol head heaven. Oh, then got told off for parking by Casino Square, then dropped my bike causing a bus to stall and causing traffic chaos.
Out of Monaco and towards the Col-de-Turini. I’d heard so much about this road and having always been into motorsports, it was one of the high points of the trip. The road started out with some gentle turns (where I got passed by some local nutter on a GSXR750) but then was soon into the hairpin turns it’s so famed for. All the way to the top with only one photo stop
One thing that everyone seems to not mention about the Col is that once you get to the top, you have to come back down again the other side… This was a mad, mad road, hairpin after hairpin after hairpin, brakes taking a battering with me being constantly mindful about the considerable drops on one side of the road! For the only time on the trip, I started to get a bit nervous about my fuel situation, I was already well into reserve when I finally got into Breil-sur-Roya where the bike finally ran out but managed to coast into a petrol station, only to find it closed for lunch… Parked the bike next door at a factory that by chance made custom tailored bike seats, they looked after the bike and I mooched back into town in full leathers in 35 degree heat for a well earned fag and can of coke (only the best diet for me). Met a guy from Monaco on his ZX10 who’d just ridden the Turini himself, he didn’t speak English, I don’t speak French but we managed to understand “bike speak”. Onto Chivasso and my first experience of Italian drivers, it may have just been me but everyone seemed to have a death wish. Chivasso itself was “interesting”, it may have just been having a bad day but the place seemed a little “tired” to say the least.
Day 5 – Chivasso - San Bernardino Pass – Stetten
Left Italy during rush hour, not a wise move. After 3 near misses in the space of 5 miles (was I just unlucky or are Italian car drivers really that bad?) I decided to get on the motorway and get some miles under my belt in the morning so jumped on and headed for the border. The motorway didn’t seem to make any difference to driving standards, except that everything just happened at very high speed!
Got off the motorway at Campagnola and followed the SS33 and the SS394 to the border, riding alongside Lake Maggiore. As I came upto the border, I had another one of those “I can’t believe I’ve ridden to here” moments, when from nowhere, the theme tune from Superman started playing on my iPod. I didn’t even realize I had it on there but, as cheesy as it sounds, it was very apt for the way I was feeling. The Swiss customs guy waved me through, motioning at me to keep the speed down, which wasn’t difficult as I was still riding alongside the Lake and its breath taking views.
I followed the road through and up towards Mesocco, heeding the advice I’d had from others and the customs guy about keeping the speed down but once out in the open there was no-one else on the road and I had a fairly brisk ride up towards the pass. With mounting nerves, I filled up with petrol at the last village before the pass and started on the climb up. I had the whole road to myself but still took some time winding up the hairpins with the odd flake of snow falling, rode past the motorway and the access to the tunnel, started to climb a bit steeper, came round a bend and was confronted by a barrier and closed road! Gutted, the pass was still shut from the winter! I kind of suspected it may be as I knew from planning that there was a good chance it would be closed and judging by the amount of snow by the sides of the road it would be for a few weeks yet
So, after a few snaps, it was back on the bike, down the road and through the tunnel. The tunnel was an experience and a bit awe inspiring but I’ve got unfinished business with the pass and I will be returning…
Once through the tunnel, it was down the valley and continuing on through Switzerland, sticking to the motorway for a while as there weren’t really any other options (unless anyone knows some on this route, like I say, I’m going back), continued on through Lichtenstein and Austria, following Lake Constance round to Meersburg in Germany.
This was a long old day and I was shattered by the end of it. The last 80 or so miles turned into a slog with me just wanting to get the miles done to the hotel. Probably the low point of the trip but I think the disappointment of the pass being shut was possibly the biggest part of that.
Day 6 – Stetten to Jammelshofen (Nurburgring)
Rain…
Lots of rain…
I like Germany, having been there a few times, it feels a bit familiar and speaking a bit of the lingo always helps. Today was the first real rain of the trip and it was a cold, wet horrible day but knowing I was on the way to the Nurburgring and a familiar area gave me something to aim for and the morning passed pretty quick, even with the constant heavy drizzle. I binned the route I’d planned and just set the sat nav to avoid motorways and just followed that but it sent me on a good route, riding through the Southern Black Forest Nature park and picking up the Rhein at around Karlsruhe and following the river until Koblenz, then cross country towards the Nurburg. Despite the weather, riding along the side of the Rhein for so long was amazing, damn that river’s long!
The weather broke into glorious sunshine as I headed away from the Rhein and onto the fantastic roads around the Nurburg area. If you ever head down that way and are nervous about hitting the track then don’t worry, the roads alone are well worth a visit. It was into the hotel and a quick change, remove the throwovers and down to the track. I won’t go on about the Nurburgring except to say if you’ve got any amount of petrol in your veins, visit this place sometime soon
Day 7 – Nurburgring to Lille (well, that was the plan…)
Woke up to brilliant sunshine streaming through the hotel window, followed by a beep of my phone as I received a text from one of my mates: “you back today or tomorrow? If your back today, fancy the pub?”. With that, the trip then turned into a day in the saddle riding straight from the Nurburgring back home to High Wycombe.
With a text to the girlfriend asking her to cancel my hotel in Lille, I set forth towards Belgium. After getting a tip from someone at the track the day before, I set off towards Kelburg on the 410, then west on the 421 and through the Eifel Nature Park and into Belgium. After a quick stop for fag, fuel and a call to the other half for ferry timings, the day degenerated into a challenge to get to Calais in the quickest time possible, which in turn led to some, shall we say, slightly higher than usual speeds on the motorway and the drop of the usual fag at fuel stops.
There was a sailing at 1.30, so as I pulled into the port at 1.15, I’d assumed I’d never make that one and sat in the passport queue like a good boy. By 1.35, I’d got to the front and happily passed over my open return ticket (bought just in case) and asked to get on the next one. There was a flurry of radio activity and the lovely Sea France agent turned to me and said, “you must go now, vite, vite!!” so it was on with the crash helmet and a mad dash across the docs where I was the last person on and they were still tying the bike down as the ferry started moving!
Up on deck in the sun, listening to some classical music on my iPod, I had a chance to think back on the trip and even though it was by now means a huge round the world feat, it was the first time I’d ever done anything like this and, if I’m honest, I did get a weenie bit emotional as I sat there being all chuffed with myself.
The rest of the trip was the usual Friday afternoon traffic jam fest up the M20 and M25, which confirmed beyond doubt I was back in the homeland!
From reading the rest of the stories on this site, I know this wasn’t by any means the biggest trip ever but it was the first time I’ve partaken in any kind of trip. Touring on a race rep? – No problems. Granted, at times I wished I had something that had a bit more low down grunt and more comfortable riding position but at many points on the trip, I wouldn’t have wanted to be on anything else. Yes it could be a bit uncomfortable but for me, the biggest pain in the backside was the soft luggage which just got on my nerves. The trip has changed my view on biking in general now and has opened up my eyes as to how I use my bike, so now I have a ZZR with full Givi kit alongside the ZX7 in the garage.
Only thing I have to do now is decide where next – anyone have any good suggestions, I’ll be with the other half next time…
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