2012 Europe Sausagefest & Gelato Tour

[juniorfjr]

Uncanny resemblence............

Damn Scoot! You was an ugly baby.. Good thing Don decided to shave ya.

:****:

Be nice Bust, Greg's Mom and I thought that was an adorable picture of SkootyG at fourteen months; still one of our favorites of GreggieM, we have it hanging in the hallway!!!

Ya know, I kinda see the resem..........

 

[Redfish Hunter]

I am consumed by jealousy. I sincerely appreciate you getting the weather to change for the second video, you must have some friends in really high places. I am going to wait until this trip is over to give you guys all the praise you deserve for bringing this report to us back home. I hope you guys stay safe, keep enjoying yourselves. I'll be sharing this video with my Harley riding buddies at work tomorrow. No since in me being the only one miserable on a Monday...

 

[Bustanut joker]

Damn fish! Quit encouraging these fools..

I ********** in their general direction

 

[beemerdons]

Damn fish! Quit encouraging these fools..

I ********** in their general direction

So that was the tiny spot on my Beemers windscreen, it was so small I just assumed it was mosquito ****!

 

[yamafitter]

The 'Rest' Day

Pam took the day off to do some shopping and Tom had to hold the purse and the shopping bags so they didn't go out riding on this optional day. Diane was also in shopping mode so Chris asked Tom if he could try out the 1200 Boxer that Tom was riding. Uri also took the day off from the group and took a shorter sightseeing ride to check out a few of the local towns. We replaced them in our group with Stef from Milan & his friend Mek along with Dave Clark who came down from England to ride with us for a few days.

We had to stop at the gas station to fill the bikes and went through the Chinese Fire Drill that only the Italians could invent. The station is only automated on Sundays and you can't use a regular credit card. There is a machine that you can feed with Euros and then you select your pump and then run over and pump your gas before some impatient Italian cuts the line and fills his vehicle with gas you just paid for. Chris, not knowing the process that well, turned the tide on the Italians as he filled his bike yesterday with gas that some Italian had paid for.

We were then on our way into the first pass of the day ....

When we got off the pass and started heading over to Riva del Garda the traffic was extremely heavy so we took the lead from the Italian scooter riders and started lane splitting. I can't say I did it as good as the Italians since I never used the horn.

We were extremely lucky and found some great parking spots right down by the beach beside the cantina were we stopped for a coffee break. Being Sunday and holiday season in Italy there was much scenery to be had ....

Stef & Mek had to leave to get back to Milan so we took a group shot down by the water ....

Left to Right - SacMike (not in jail yet), Daniel, Me (yamafitter), Don, Dr Bob, Dave Clark from England, Stef, Dave, Mek & Chris

We were a little delayed as a tour bus and an RV tried to share the same tunnel and just about did an impersonation of a champagne cork. The bus driver slowly inched forward and was finally able to clear the RV without trading paint but it was extremely close as you would have been hard put to put a piece of paper between them.

The video in the previous post was just a tiny sampling of the ride from Riva del Garda to lunch. It was just incredible riding and the lunch matched the riding.

Manuel recommended the Spagetti Carbonara. Dr Bob wasn't sure if he was going to get through all that food ....

In the meantime Don was inhaling that spagetti up so fast it was lifting up the table cloth ....

As excellent as it was most of us couldn't finish it all except for guess who ....

If you ever find yourself near Lavenone and see this place make sure to stop in ....

I talked Bruce into doing a little photo shoot on the road coming in to the hotel after lunch ....

Dave Clark showed the Beemer Boys how it's done on the FJR as he scrapped the pegs through the corner ....

This was the route that we took according to my Garmin ....

It's time to pack up and head into the Dolomites.

 

[dcarver]

Excellent RR Mr. HuddieBear's Pappa! Ya'll are lucky dawgs, so Woof big and leave your marks... :lol:

 

[Dr. Rich]

Very nice job Bill...

Someone sent me this picture of Beemerdon with his beloved BMW after a day of hard riding.

 

[marcusorelius]

- SacMike (not in jail yet)

Ya sure 'bout that?

 

[yamafitter]

Today was a long day and I'm tired so I'm going to post up the rest later but I had to ask this question....

Does this road make my butt look phat.

 

[Dr. Rich]

Today was a long day and I'm tired so I'm going to post up the rest later but I had to ask this question....

Does this road make my butt look phat.

I was thinking just the opposite... Does your butt make the road look really narrow?

 

[yamafitter]

The Dolomites

After the morning briefing it was back over to the gas station in Levico Terme to get the bikes topped up for the day's ride back up into Austria. The gas station was fully open so it was no way near as painful as the day before and we were soon on our way to Lienz. The first pass of the day was Passo Manghen which in North America would be classified as a golf cart path rather than a road with two way traffic. Once we cleared the traffic we had a clear and very spirited ride all the way to the summit. At the summit there were lots of bikes parked and the riders were having their photos taken and signing the mountain book. We figured we should also have our photo at the summit ....

Most summits have sign posts though I would think once you start down the 12% grade it should be a bit of a tip off that you had reached the top ....

Anyone that can pedal up that pass has my respect. The German bikers told us that we came up the highway side and that the other side was even narrower. A peek down the other side confirmed what he was telling us ....

On the way down we had to stop as a delivery truck going down and a tanker truck coming up had to work out which had the right of way around a cow that had it's butt sitting on the road with absolutely no intention of moving .....

At the top of Paso de Rolle we took our morning coffee break ....

Chris thought it was pretty funny that I took this photo but I found the variation in marketing kind of interesting. I'm quite sure there would be howls of protest if this showed up on the store shelves in North America .....

At the top of Passo Duran we stopped for lunch ....

It took an hour to get our food but that is because we ordered the same thing as Tom and he is cursed. The noodles with mushrooms with the cream sauce however was worth the wait.

We took a stop at the summit of Passo de Giau in San Vito de Cadore. On the way up the road was still all chalked up from the Giro Italia and there were all kinds of bicyclists pretending to be Ryder Hesjedal who won the Giro Italia and was the first Canadian to win a grand tour ....

We stopped in Cortina for gas and enjoyed watching this employee washing cars ....

At our final coffe stop for the day, Dave Clark said his goodbyes as it was time for him to head back to England ....

When we made it to Lienz, Austria we had some trouble finding the parking spot for the hotel. The old parking lot was now a construction site and we had to circle back to the street where we came in to town and try again. I was having flashbacks to CFR 2010 and Ottawa but we ending up just parking in the town square a few meters away from the hotel.

I had thought my SPOT had died but it still working and is posting to this link ....

2012 Europe Sausagefest & Delato Tour

The Garmin Track is a little more accurate as to where we actually went on this day ....

Tomorrow - the last ride day up over the pass and onto the AutoBahn.

 

[beemerdons]

From AZ Beemers Club Member Bruce Cain:

I finally had a a decent connection to wifi and wanted to get some photos up on the website. The alps are just magnificent. Photos do not do justice but they do show some of it. The roads are great. I have videos to post that I believe you may enjoy watching. Hope you enjoy the alps photos. We went through the dolomites today. Those photos will come a little later. Hope you enjoy seeing the photos as much as we enjoyed seeing it first hand!

Here are a couple of more photos from the last couple of days. The huge gray mountains are the dolomites.

 

[Bustanut joker]

Meh. :drag: ....Looks just like Owosso after the snowmelt.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Most excellent photos y'all, looks like quite the adventure so far!!

--G

 

[bbdig]

Billy after being immersed in the world of Bavaria I know it will be very difficult for you to acclimate to NERDS ville, so I will do my best to help you reacclimate upon your arrival.

Great RR , keep it coming.

Jack

 

[marcusorelius]

BERLIN -- A kangaroo is on the lam in Germany after breaking out of a wildlife park, with a fox and a wild boar & Sacramento Mike his suspected accomplices.

Michael Hoffmann, assistant head of the Hochwildschutzpark Hunsrueck west of Frankfurt, said Monday the male kangaroo was one of three that escaped overnight Saturday with the inadvertent help of the menagerie & Sacramento Mike

Hoffmann says the kangaroos got out of their enclosure after a young fox snuck into the park and dug a hole next to the cage's fencing. Two of the three were then able to get out of the park entirely through another hole dug by Sacramento Mike & a wild boar under the exterior fence.

Hoffmann says "we've got two of them back; now we're just looking for the third & Sacramento Mike who's been touring the area on a rented motorcycle"

 

[Tanker]

OMG!!! That is one amazing trip you guys are on. M/C **** for sure...

Thanks so much for sharing this adventure. I need to do this trip for sure. :yahoo:

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Realy G R E A T!! Pictures from Realy Beautifoul Places!!

I wish you enjoy your Wonderfoul Trip in Europe!!

Thanks for sharing with us!!

 

[wheatonFJR]

Did you guys ride your bikes to the top of this hill?

 

[yamafitter]

The wrap up party just ended and it's too late and after a number of dark Weissbeer I'm too drunk to make any sense of my photos so this ride report is on hold until I get back home and sober up. These two photos will have to hold you over till then ....