2012 Europe Sausagefest & Gelato Tour

[MEM]

Have a great Birthday traveling home, 'fitter! :clapping:

I can't believe you're considering an appearance at NERDS? :blink:

 

[Bustanut joker]

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 ....

Damn!!

Dude you are drunk.....

WTF????

 

[yamafitter]

The Wrap Party

Bust called me at 2AM local time and told me had had to finish this or he was going to rat me out to Homeland Security so I have to get this done or I can't come home.

The guy with the big ears, maybe a brother to SkooterG, stood guard over the bikes in Lienz ....

I had a little time before the last morning briefing to check out some of the town square ....

Shortly after leaving Lienz we started up into the Grossglockner Psss. Part way up the pass we took a little detour to check out the Franz Josef Glacier ....

At 2369 meters the Grossglockner is one of the highest passes in Europe and we passed through a number of climate zones to get here. At this point the climate is the same as it is at the Artic Circle. Small wonder the 'Zonie Beemer group were frozen solid. Just before reaching the summit there are a number of switchbacks and the smell of car & truck clutches and auto transmissions burning up filled the air. I was fortunate before one of the cars spewed its transmission fluid all over one of the switchbacks. Tom & Pam were not as fortunate and lost the bike in one of the corners as they hit the fluid. No one was hurt fortunately but the Beemer took a little bit of a scrapping up on the engine cover and added a few more scraps to the sidebag. They soon got everything righted and were able to continue. At the summit we stopped to check out the view of the surrounding peaks ....

One the way down to the valley floor I was following Uri & SacMike who were just cruising. I'm sorry but those descents were not to be wasted and I passed them and had a very spirited ride down to the valley floor before catching up to the leaders. Had the brakes failed going into some of those corners I would not be here to tell you about it but it sure was big fun. I have the video.

We stopped for lunch and took time to smell the flowers in Kraprun ....

Tom had the ham & cheese on toast with a salad ....

Pam had the soup ....

and I had a sandwich that required some assembly ....

to be continued ....

 

[yamafitter]

Wrap Party Continued

At the last coffee stop our Guide, Manuel finally started to let his hair down ....

While I was taking photos of some of the local riders BeemerDons was over at the goat pen lining up a date for the party later on ....

The trip finished off with a little 120 km ride down the Autobahn chasing down the Beemers and the Mercedes at 160 kph. All too soon we were back at the Hotel Henry were this adventure had started.

At the wrap banquet Don had the fish which he thought was supposed to be Salmon but there was something fishy about that ....

The local Germans were probably appalled at the lack of table manners displayed by some of those 'Zonies .....

Here Manuel was lecturing Dave on the evils of smoking while riding (which Dave did on numerous occasions) ....

Bruce modelled the tour t-shirts we all received for coming on the tour ....

The final group photo ....

front row left to right - Manuel, Chris & Diane, Tom & Pam

rear row left to right - Me, Dave, Bob, Uri, Mike, Dan, Bruce & Gary (I think).

We all said our goodbys as some of the group had an early flight out and soon it was all over all too soon.

I have hours & hours of video to go through that will allow me to keep FredW entertained with lame ass videos for the winter months so there are still other stories to tell.

Pam has over 3000 photos and Diane shot video from the back of Chris' bike. BeemerDons has been strangely quiet but I am sure he will soon be clogging up the FJR Forum server with his ramblings. In all it was a truly fantastic experience and I urge you all to get this trip on your Bucket List but don't wait too long.

and with that I'm outta here.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

I feel priviledged that you took us all along for the ride. Thank you so much for doing this report. I think you should know that these pics and videos from Europe were used by me to make some South Louisiana motorcyclists very very jealous. And it made me question some of the stupid places I spent my money. I should have saved it for something smart, like this trip.

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

 

 

 

This guy looks exactly how I feel every Monday morning when I got to go back to work.

 

[SkooterG]

Don't let mi bastard step-pappy come back! Leave him there.

The forum has been quite enjoyable lately without his moronic and infantile jabbering. Jes saying and 'nuff said!

 

[juniorfjr]

Don't let mi bastard step-pappy come back! Leave him there.

The forum has been quite enjoyable lately without his moronic and infantile jabbering. Jes saying and 'nuff said!

Ya know, it has been a little quieter. Jes saying and 'nuff said.

 

[Dr. Rich]

Don't let mi bastard step-pappy come back! Leave him there.

The forum has been quite enjoyable lately without his moronic and infantile jabbering. Jes saying and 'nuff said!

Ya know, it has been a little quieter. Jes saying and 'nuff said.

I did notice that for the past several weeks I have not had to use my Slang / F**ked Up /Incorrect Spanish for Dummies and my Slang / Mostly Forgotten German for Old Army Grunts to understand what he was saying. It has been quite serene!

 

[marcusorelius]

 

[marcusorelius]

 

[yamafitter]

I have arrived in the Greater Toronto Area just in time to enjoy the Toronto Rush Hour Traffic. The Autobahn it is not.

On the plus side I had time on the plane to put together my entry for the FredW Lame Ass Video Awards this weekend at NERDS ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-nY3NyNMpI&hd=1

The laundry is now in the dryer and I should be all packed up to head out for NERDS in the morning. Someone else will have to do that ride report.

It's about time somebody else picked up the slack around here.

By the way, the polizia hauled SacMike off to jail this morning from the hotel. Something about being too slow on the Autobahn from what I could gather.

 

[Bustanut joker]

Me sheep wouldn't have been in the road had BeemerDons used the gate instead of vandalizing the fence whilst off on his evening tryst ..

I hope he sits in jail for a good long time the cheep bastage!!! $20.00 is damned awful cheep for the whole night with one of em.... <_<

BTW.. Fred should be impressed with the lameness of this.

 

[Bungie]

I have arrived in the Greater Toronto Area just in time to enjoy the Toronto Rush Hour Traffic. The Autobahn it is not.

On the plus side I had time on the plane to put together my entry for the FredW Lame Ass Video Awards this weekend at NERDS ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-nY3NyNMpI&hd=1

"This video contains content from SME, UMG and EMI, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. "

Grrrrr

 

[yamafitter]

"This video contains content from SME, UMG and EMI, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. "

Grrrrr

Try downloading the video from my Dropbox ....

Grossglockner Pass Video

You will need a video player that handles a m4v file.

By the way this video is not blocked here in Bowmanville which leads to the question of when did Sudbury succeed from Canada?? Please add this to the list as to why Sudbury sucks.

 

[yamafitter]

The Spot Tracker ran out of battery so I finally had a chance to download the track from my Garmin Montana .....

For those who know how to play with Google Earth here is a link to the GPS tracks from the entire trip ....

Alps Tour Track files

It is not totally complete since there were some days when the Montana would go into a pout and just shut itself off if we deviated too far from the route I had mapped out. For the last few days I didn't use the routes and all was fine.

 

[yamafitter]

In a fit of Jet Lag I also put together this video going down the north side of the Grossglockner Pass in Austria on our last day on the bikes on the Alps tour .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Bc5lQVmSw&hd=1

 

[Bungie]

Please add this to the list as to why Sudbury sucks.

Man, I'm gonna have to put that list on a micro-fiche.

 

[beemerdons]

From AZ Beemers Club Member Gary "Mudslide" Miller: https://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp161/profmil19/Alps%20Extreme%20Tour%202012/?start=all

Had the time of my life and so much more. Thanks to Don (and Uri) for putting this together and dragging me over there. It was tough but somebody had to do it.

Too much going on for a full ride report so here are some pics of the whole trip anyways. Enjoy. Some may be repeats.

https://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp161/profmil19/Alps%20Extreme%20Tour%202012/

 

[beemerdons]

Please add this to the list as to why Sudbury sucks.

Man, I'm gonna have to put that list on a micro-fiche.

Hey Bungie, Tom and Bill told me that you really get a kick out of posing for pictures at high lookout points! Here's one: