Day 10 - Dolomites

Bit cooler overnight, but it was pleasant enough in the tent. We lit the big red day candle in the porch and had a cosy little home for the night.

Louby spent the morning distracting a huge group of Italian mountain bikers. The italians love a redhead. She teasingly walked past them leaving the shower with dripping hair, then they all did a flypast while she was sat in her strappy little vest and leathers, waiting for me to finish my bird bath.

Her hamstring stretches in a pretty little frock first thing this morning didn't help either.

I'm not receiving similar attention from the Italian ladies. Or any ladies for that matter. Hmm.

We tried to aim for clear skies today but didn't do a particularly good job. We were constantly running from bad weather and it caught us at every opportunity.

Passo di Fedaia first (Louby's first dolomite pass), then Marmolada, then (the recently resurfaced, in part) Passo Duran, then Passo Cibiana. Coffee and panini at the top followed by a very mediocre strudel then on to Cortina for a quick fuel stop. The weather had closed in so hoofed it back over the shortest route home, via the Falzarego and Pordoi passes. The journey up the Pordoi was horrific. There were a few blizzard moments where we'd round a hairpin and get a full head on blast of wind and rain.

It's been a disappointing introduction to the dolomites for Loobs. It's one of my favourite places and the roads are amazing when they're hot and dry, but today was grim. Any spectacular scenery was obscured by clouds and mist. Hopefully we'll catch it in a better light tomorrow before we make tracks.

Back to base for hot showers and a quick nap. We both needed to thaw and recharge.

I walked into town on a failed mission to find provisions. Canazie on Sundays is a ghost town. Spar is open until 7pm, but i arrived on their doorstep at 7.55. I returned back to base empty handed and soaked through. Even the campsite bar was closed.

We reached a prompt and unanimous decision to try the pizza restaurant over the road. A fine choice. Two pizzas and a carafe of house red and a chocolate pud to round off the evening. The waiter was a fine young chap who took great pleasure in mocking my pathetic attempts at ordering in Italian.

Fully fueled, we returned to the tent to try and get some sleep. I had a brief dash outdoors in my pants to dismantle the collapsed basha, but I'm hoping the tent survives tonights storm...


112 miles

Day 9 - Lake Garda to Dolomites

Horrendous thunder and lightning storms overnight. I though we'd be rained off today, but all was good by 9am.

Settled the bill and had a peek at one of the bungalows. We prefer the apartments.

We love this campsite and will definitely be back. They've been busy over winter fitting plush new showers and toilets. The facilities are excellent and spotless as always. Maybe next time Louby will finally hire a kayak but unfortunately she left disappointed this time.

Forecast not good but decided to brave the dolomites. Everywhere is forecast to clear by Monday.

Rode a few clicks south to Malcesine and had a cruise through the centre. It's lovely. Market day today so really busy, but it's a very pretty little town on shore of the lake.  Saw the castle and cable car. Louby can't believe I've not explored this place before. Neither can i.

Rode north out of Riva, after stopping for one final ice cream.

Retraced a similar route to our journey down here a few days ago then pulled off onto the S48 dolomite road near Ora.

Got held up at a roundabout by a huge procession of Ferraris approaching from the left. Something for everyone, including a handful of testarossas and an f40. We filtered to the front of the queue for a better listen. There was obviously a big meet on in the town but we didn't stop to investigate.

As we gained height we pulled into the Tenz hotel in Montan/Montagna for a quick cuppa on their rather nice terrace. We were both starting to feel a little sluggish with the heat. We were going to stick with coffee, but the waiter mentioned apple strudel and we couldn't resist. We split one. Not the best, but not bad. It really needed warming up and a big dollop of cream and ice cream.

Ended up camping in Canazei at the usual spot. Had a quick look to see if there were any alternatives but there's slim pickings around here. I later remembered the spot at Misurina. It was marked on the map after a recommendation from a couple of walkers a few years back. Basic but scenic. Maybe next time.

We hit Canazei about 4.30. Short ride today, 110m, but it was the right time to stop.

Struggled to hammer the tent pegs in with a rock. Some German mountain bikers sympathised and lent us a huge mallet. This tent isn't going anywhere!

The site is pretty quiet. Apparently the weather is keeping everyone away. It's definitely cooler but so far we've avoided rain. The majority of campers are downhill mountain bikers but there's a few families dotted around.

Walked into town, after an excellent shower, for a bite to eat. Chose one of the restaurants with a terrace overlooking the mountains and had pizza, gnocchi with ragu and a 1l carafe of house red. All were excellent and a fine feed for less than 30 quid.

Made a few phone calls to catch up on the family. Chuffed that JP is back home and she sounds on fine form. We'll keep our fingers crossed for the coming weeks.

Pleased to hear that ethel is keeping guard over the house and turning away any unwelcome yoofs. Sorry Izzy!

x


110 miles

Day 8 - Lake Garda

Spent last night drinking with our German neighbours - George, Ola and Päl the dog. A lovely little chap - a Pon apparently. Never heard of them but he was a funny thing and Louby immediately fell in love.

Ola was a young social worker, George a banker. They've got 6 weeks on the road in an old camper van.

Ola brought out the weighted hula hoop. Me and George made complete tits of ourselves but Loobs nailed it straight away. It's now on the Christmas list.

We downed three bottle of wine again, failing to learn from last nights mistake. A quick paddle before bed then we were out for the count.

Bid farewell to all our neighbours this morning. We're staying put for another night, but George and Ola are heading to Verona to enjoy a picnic and some culture in the amphitheatre, before heading down to Rimini to meet friends.

Another day off the bike today. We rode round to Limone for a wander and a swift bite to eat by the lake. One of us had a lovely tall, cold refreshing beer. I had a mediocre coffee. We then headed home through grey clouds but it never came to anything.

Stopped at lidl for some bbq fodder then down to the lake for a paddle with a bottle of fizz and a sun lounger.

I made another infamous Lea faux pas by telling Louby she looks 'indestructible'. It was on a par with the 'maternity dress' comment i made many moons ago, which was also taken wrong and I am often reminded of.

She later returned the compliment by telling me she 'loves my funny face' and asking "do you remember Pob?"

Had a look at one of the holiday apartments on site, just for future reference. Thinking a cheap Ryanair flight to Verona and a hire car would make for a nice little break.

Had a chat to the old boy on reception about Malcesine. We're actually 7km from the town, but it a nice walk along the beach from here and takes about an hour.  We thought we might attempt it, but sparked the BBQ up and opened a bottle of wine instead.

We've stuck to recommendations on local wine. Found a nice lagrein in lidl that tops the reds and picked up a chilled lugana from campsite reception based on a strong recommendation from the son in law. The lugana vineyard is at the south end of the lake and apparently they only produce a small run so it's difficult to get hold of outside the region.

Both were met with approval. Obviously a bottle of fizz was also required as an aperitif.

Day 7 - Lake Garda

Stayed put today...

1. Woke up with sore heads
2. Swimming in lake by 8am
3. Wound up Catherine by 9am. Plastic chairs, sun lounger, foot massage, etc etc. She understands.
4. Faffed around with basha. Lots. But got it right, eventually.
5. Bare back ride to Riva. Picked up bbq provisions. And lots of booze.
6. Ice cream in torbole. Amareno wins again, hands down.
7. Louby hand washed my long johns. Nice!
8. Picked up more chilled fizz.
9. Rang the folks. Treated Louby's dad to the sound of lake against shore. He's a huge fan of this place.
10. Louby repaid all foot massage debts with an amazing al fresco shiatsu. Mmm, thanks baby! x
11. Drank more booze.
12. BBQ
13. Goodnight.

Day 6 - St Moritz to Lake Garda

A hotel was definitely the right choice last night. There had obviously been plenty of rain overnight and it continued now, although clear skies were breaking through.

Louby hooked into the free hotel wifi and checked out some weather forecasts. It was the kind of predictions that convinced Noah to build an ark. Europe is forecast thunderstorms for the foreseeable future. Unsure of the best option, we unanimously agreed the only sensible choice was to leave Switzerland. You can usually ride out and recover from storms in southern France and Italy. Switzerland, despite it's amazing beauty, is cold and miserable when it's wet.

There are very few bad options for routes out of St Moritz. The Stelvio pass was a possibility today, and the skies looked promising to the east, but we didn't want to push our luck.

So we headed south east over the bernina pass towards Italy. The road up was good, but the weather and road down was much better. Still bloody cold though. My navigator had her vest of toastiness cranked up to max.

It was a slower journey down than it had to be. Lots of spectacular photo opportunities and brief pit stops to admire (yet more) pretty cows.

Running on fumes so stopped for fuel on the Swiss side of the border and treated the tractor to a big glug of oil. It's taken a right hammering over the last few days and had earned every last drop.

As we passed into Italy the weather and temperature lifted significantly. We both got that lovely warm glow that Italy gives you after riding through Switzerland. The mountains are lush, rather than inhospitable, and the driving noticeably improves. Everyone drives with utter conviction. We were both grinning with delight.

Rode north east over the tonale pass. Everytime i ride this pass there's roadworks and today was no exception. We got held up just after the pass by some logging work. Filtered to the front of the queue and were eventually joined by a huge group of sports bikes. On green we gave the tractor a big fistful of beans and by Cles we'd lost all but three of them.

I've ridden various routes over to Garda, bur today we chanced upon a new one. Cles to Denno, where we stopped for a quick coffee and a breather, then the S421 via molveno and it's rather pretty lake, to Ponte Arche. Then stuck on the S421 down to Riva. All in all, a great run. The entire road was excellent in the main but the few imperfections were huge mine craters, and they gave me a potty mouth.

I bloody well love Lake Garda. We camped at the usual spot in Malcesine. It's quiet - just us and two other couples from what we can tell. Our young Austrian neighbours were originally camping but said the weather had been so stormy that they hired a bungalow. Not a good omen, but we'll brave it.

The weather tonight was brilliant. We sat on the shore with our feet dipped in the lake and had a long night of putting the world to rights and polishing off three bottles of wine, including a very nice fizz that we found chilling in the fridge on reception. We checked in with the family and unfortunately received some bad news from back home. So we raised more than one glass to JP and out thoughts are with the family while we can't be.

x


158 miles

Day 5 - Grindelwald to St Moritz

We got our moneys worth from the breakfast buffet this morning then waited for the rain to clear. By 10am it was looking good and the roads were steaming and starting to dry.

The mist had cleared from the mountains so we had the north face of the eiger above us in all it's glory as we loaded the bike.

Took time out for a tiny detour down through Lauterbrunnen to see some of the waterfalls. In nicer weather and visibility there's plenty to do here (http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/lauterbrunnen.html) but we were fighting against the weather again didn't hang around. The spray and mist from the torrent of a river running along the valley floor feels like rain, but black skies and proper rain was setting in too.

Back through Interlaken, into better weather and retraced our path from yesterday.

We decided to head east out of Switzerland towards Italy and hopefully better, more consistent weather. We had various options to and beyond Andermatt, and chose the one straight through the middle.

Grimselpass was ticked off first. Thick fog all the way to the top so the amazing views were wasted on us. Temperature was down to single figures so we pulled in at the pass for a rummage in the panniers. Louby dug out and christened the heated vest. She turned it up to max was *very* impressed with the results.

There was just two bikes at the top, including ours. The only other bikers silly enough to venture up here this morning were a couple from Preston on a triumph tiger explorer. They were staying in a hotel in andermatt and, despite the weather, though it would be a shame not to go out for a play on the bike.

The run down the other side on the pass was much nicer. The weather had cleared and we had a perfect view of the valley and the road up the other side to our next target - the Furkapass.

We had a great ride down to Gletsch then up again to the Furkapass. At worst, we saw a light drizzle of rain but this just steamed off the road so we made good time.

There was a German couple at the top riding a beautiful vintage motorbike and sidecar. This was quite rightly receiving plenty of attention, including that of a manic Dutch woman wearing a little t-shirt and shorts who was running around talking to everyone, slapping and rubbing her bare thighs. She was hilarious and great fun. Her husband was trying to follow her around, but even he looked a little shell shocked by her intensity.

Onwards to Oberalppass. Couple of Brits at the bottom filling up a C63 AMG and an Aston Martin Vantage. I wouldn't say no to either, but the Brits in the old MG BGT with the just married sign in the back window and the Lotus Elise on Toyo 888s were very obviously enjoying themselves and deserved far more credit.

We parked up on the Oberalppass and took a break in one of the restaurants. We were served hot drinks and a perfect apple strudel by a lovely Swiss girl who clearly found my attempts at speaking German painful. She kept stopping me and saying, in perfect English, 'it's ok, i understand'.

Suitably refreshed, we headed down the pass and came across a calf wandering across the road. He (or more likely she, i guess) had somehow escaped the confines of an electric fence and was been followed around the perimeter by his two mates. Foreseeing a cow vs bike disaster on a hairpin, we tried in vain to help. We turned off the fence and lowered it, trying to coax him back in but he was having none of it. We put everything back as we found it and left him in peace.

The road east from Oberalppass is brilliant. There's road works in places but the clear stuff more than makes up for it.

As the weather started to turn, we decided to head south towards Italy. We just needed a run over the julierpass to St Moritz where hopefully we'd find better weather. Unfortunately we didn't. We braved the start of a storm but submitted and pulled in to a garage north of the pass. We waited for it to pass but with time against us and less than 10 miles to St Moritz, we decided to press on. I mummified Louby in waterproofs and treated myself to a few extra layers. Disco vests went back on, although they've not been off all day. Dropping down into St Moritz it was obvious we weren't going to clear the weather tonight. Any thoughts of camping by the pretty lake were scrubbed. We tried continuing further south but the sky was black.

We turned around and pulled into a campsite just outside St Moritz. We contemplated it for a few minutes. There was plenty of tree cover, but the ground was soaked so we went hunting for a reasonable hotel.

Given that we're in St Moritz, we didn't expect cheap digs. However, hotel sonne was reasonable enough. The restaurant was open until 11pm and the guy on reception very kindly let me park the bike under the hotel by the service doors.

After a long soak in a hot bath, where we necked Catherine's bottle of red from yesterday, we hit the restaurant. One pizza and one salad to share. Both good, but the pizza must go down as one of the best I've ever had. Dead simple topping, wafer thin crispy base and perfectly seasoned. It was excellent.

It seems ages ago, but yesterday morning we woke up in a heatwave in the black forest and today we're struggling with the cold and rain. Maybe Italy will bring better weather tomorrow...


200 miles

Day 4 - Titisee to Grindelwald

We were up early this morning so went down to the lake to watch the morning sun rise. The lake was covered in a low mist which was rather spectacular.

We did a bit of al fresco yoga in the early morning sun. The guy in the shop found it very amusing. He was wearing clown trousers and braces and he thought we looked funny. Go figure.

Rode over to todtnau and 'treated' Louby to a ride on the huge dry toboggan run.

'You ok?'
'YEAH, BUT YOU F***ER !!!'

Settled the adrenaline with a tasty post-run currywurst from the sausage van next to our abandoned bike.

Rode on to todtmoos for two huge pieces of BFG perfection at Cafe Zimmerman. Soaked up some sun in a swinging seat then pressed on, but not before picking up a pretzl from the bakery for some emergency rations.

The final stretch of the B500 down to Waldshut on the Swiss border is biking heaven. It stuck in my mind from last time. In fact last time i double backed on myself and rode it twice.

The weather over Switzerland looked amazing and the forecast is good so we continued south. We want to cross Switzerland and there's some great passes to help us do it, but the weather needs to be good to enjoy them.

Stopped for fuel and a break from the 30+ degree heat. As we set off, the sky clouded over. As we hit Hochdorf, the heavens opened. It was one of those biblical storms that can appear instantly in the alps. Sensing it before it really started, we rode the bike under the canopy outside a clothes shop.

It was perfect timing and perfect shelter. The rain was torrential and horizontal. Thunder, lightning and howling wind.

One of the ladies from the shop came out to move a clothes rail. We said hi and asked if we were ok using her shelter. She smiled and said yes, then asked if we wanted a cup of coffee. She returned with two very nice and very welcome cups of coffee. Cups and saucers and cream and sugar. How very civilised. So big thanks to the girls at De Vill in Hochdorf for looking after us!

Called in the the coop while we waited for it to clear. Picked up a few essentials including a bottle of kaltersee wine that Catherine enjoyed a few years back. The  only red she's ever enjoyed, apart from the bottle from the secret family cellar that dad opened for her graduation but me and sparky never got to taste.

Assuming that we'd be in Switzerland for a while, i drew out some cash from the cash point. Not everywhere in Switzerland accepts Euros and we aren't paying for a couple of coffees on credit card. I drew out 100chf and the bugger gave me a single 100chf note. Not sure of the exact exchange rate but i figure there's now a 65 quid note in the kitty.

Continued south to the lower end of lake sarner then asked Louby to make a call on our destination. I offered her an early finish in meiringen, a back to basics campsite with excellent showers in andermatt (which is the direction we need to head) or a ride along a pretty lake to Grindelwald (which isn't the direction we need to head) and a nights camping at the base of the eiger near a valley of waterfalls. Maybe i bigged it up too much, but we went for the latter.

Satnav got a bit confused with motorway avoidances. We haven't got a vignette and we're not buying one for our flying visit. I don't want to ride on Swiss motorways. I want to avoid them, but it's really difficult. Some of the smaller roads turn into motorway for short stretches of tunnel or bridge. Satnav ignored this and tried to clock me a huge fine. Ignore satnav, follow the road signs and take the slow road through towns. There always appears to be a way through without hitting motorway but you need to work it out.

The road west to interlaken was quiet, fast, hot and dry. The perfect combination. South of interlaken, once we rode into the valley, the skies turned black. By the time we reached the campsite it was pouring down. We paid for camping but then we (Louby) changed our mind. There's a hotel on site, but it was full. They recommended a couple of places in town - a hostel and a hotel. We got our money back from campsite reception then checked into hotel glacier.

They have two types of rooms - north facing and south facing. All are identical with baths, showers and balconies. South facing is more expensive, but your balcony faces the eiger. Except tonight, when the girl on reception convinced us that the view is the same from all rooms. Mist and cloud and rain.

We ran a bath and laid soaking, marvelling at how modern this place must have been in the 70s. The bed side radio was a big impressive brick with huge functional buttons and switches. The place did us just fine. Louby didn't realise that one our windows opened on to next doors balcony and treated the chaps next door to a cheeky flash.

We ate in the restaurant and laughed at the fools camping below us in thunder and lightning. We ate from either the kids menu or the light bites menu. We're not sure, but it was very good. Louby had a huge vol-au-vont stuff with something undescript but tasty and surrounded by various salads. I had sausage and potato salad. Both were excellent and were washed down with a bottle of fizz. As you do.


152 miles

Day 3 - Bitche to Titisee

Took a 10 minute stroll to the bakery in Baerenthal for croissants. The almond croissant didn't really taste of almonds but the pain au chocolat was a much better effort. Baerenthal is incredibly pretty. Lots of rustic houses and shaky old barns.

Rode to the Rheinmunster ferry and stopped briefly to say goodbye to France. We let the ferry do it's magic for a couple of trips then rolled on and sailed across the border into Germany.

We wanted to pick up the B500 black forest highroad from Baden Baden, ever so slightly north of Rheinmunster. There's a little loop that took us east, crossing over the B500 then back north west again to Baden Baden. It's an amazing road, easily as good as the B500 itself and full of bikes. We stopped to pick up a cheeky ice cream from a kiosk by a dam, then pressed on.

The B500 is still as perfect as i remember it. My concerns that it would be heavily policed, given that it's Sunday and scorching hot, were completely unnecessary.

Pulled in to mummelsee. Didn't see the mermaid or monster, but did try on some silly hats and see lots of cuckoo clocks. Didn't buy either.

Finished off the B500 in freudenstadt then continued south to Titisee. The weather and road was perfect all the way. I forgot how good some of the southern roads are in the black forest so was pleasantly surprised.

Looked at a couple of campsites in Titisee,  fancying a change from the last one i used here. Rode straight past a no motorcycles sign to the campsite with a beach at south of the lake. The chap at reception suggested that we may have noticed the prohibited sign. We told him we did but ignored it, and we were politely turned away.

We returned to the site I've used before with Catherine. It's on the lake and was surprisingly quiet, although it had more than it's fair share of big friendly silly dogs.

There were just two other bikers in the tent pitches so we had plenty of space.

The free showers were excellent, the shop was well stocked (although the next morning's delivery from the bakery never did arrive, and we didn't leave early), and the restaurant was perfectly acceptable. I had a very nice bowl of wild boar with spetzl and red cabbage. Louby had a slightly soggy pizza, but it filled a gap. We finished with another glug of yesterdays wine but it was an unnecessary nightcap as we were both spent so we capped it yet once more and called it a night. This bottle of red would eventually come to survive three nights with us, which must be a new rather sorry record.


170 miles

Day 2 - Zebrugge to Bitche

Steady night on the ferry last night. Got chatting to three local scooter boys from Wheldrake and Pock who are heading down to Davos for an international scooter meet next weekend. They're pretty much carrying an entire bikes worth of spares. What'll do mister? Apparent, about 85, but not for very long. 70 is bearable though, for both rider and bike.

One of them is a massive British Sea Power fan who has coincidentally been to the same last two gigs as us. It sounds like he's actually been to every one of their gigs.

Loads of bikes on the ferry, but I guess that's weekend crossings for you. We were all packed tightly up on the ramps. Tie-downs provided again. Thank you P&O.

Usual ride down to Luxembourg this morning. Forecast for the Mosel was cool and showery. Forecast for the black forest was super toasty, so that formed the basics of our rather sketchy plan.

Bored of motorway by Luxembourg, and fancying a change of pace and scenery, we left Luxembourg to the East rather than South towards Metz. Michelin have painted an interesting looking green route on their map so we went to investigate. It was a great call. It's a fast scenic road, and vastly more entertaining than motorway.

We headed to Bitche, ticking off four countries on the first day. There is a municipal campsite south of Bitche in Baerenthal called Camping Ramstein. Lake and beach and pool and decent free showers all present and correct. It's a great site with lots of well loved little holiday homes. I'll mark in on the map for future reference.

We chanced the restaurant and it filled a gap. We both went for somewhat random salads, both contained a dubious selection of meats. Mine included pork pie - that traditional French classic. Louby's included an incredibly rude looking and unappealing sausage. We'd left a bottle of wine breathing back at the tent, but two beers after 300+ miles on the bike finished us off so we had a cheeky nightcap then screwed the cap back on.

Germany were playing tonight. Football does nothing for me, but it was obvious from the celebrations on the site that they were doing ok.

As expected, Louby was perfectly settled on the navigator's seat today. She was happy enough enjoying the scenery and a bit of quiet time. Within half an hour of leaving Zebrugge she was delighted to see some pretty Belgian cows and a donkey. Thankfully, being easily pleased is the only thing i expect from anyone daft enough to come on holiday with me.


311 miles

Day 1 - York to Hull

You'll have to make do with a short and sweet blog this year - I've not found or made the time to keep on top of this. We're now half way through the first week and I'm back tracking to try and catch up with myself.

Suffice to say, we made it across the pond safe and we're currently deep in the Swiss alps...


63 miles