During check in, I usually scan the cost of a seat upgrade because I don't like economy class seats. And there it was a Polaris class business class seat in a good location for about $650. I asked Linda look at this and it is ok? She says yes, great so I buy it. The leg from Spokane to didn't have a first class seat available. Whatever I could complete the hour and a half flight to Denver, no problem.
So about 1.5 hours after checking I get an email from United saying I get a refund on my flight between Spokane and Denver for $240. What???? My ticket was still listed on the web page AND the app, yes I am anal. Still I want to know why so I call United an waited for 45 minutes because I can't push #1 for a callback. I am told that it was a refund for the first class bit of the ticket Spokane to Denver.
So lets do the math. $650-240-50 is $360. The $50 is for bag check. So I got a first class seat on a 789-9 Dreamliner between Denver and Munich a 9.5 hour flight for $360. I am living large. The development of this airplane was a nightmare. Boeing completely lost control of the suppliers, product development and spent billions in cost overruns and the airplane was so late to market it is was just shocking to any long time veteran employee. This was all due to McDonnell Douglas Management taking over the front office after McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing's money. Today Boeing seems on the mend. The 787 is a fine airplane and is serving the airlines very well.
My bags the day of departure.
The big bag was a gift from Beach's Motorcycle Tours whom I will spend the last week of my trip with. Providing a monogrammed, distinctive bag to all the tour participants is a nice touch and if everyone has the same bag it all fits in the chase truck much better. Win Win.
I arrive at the airport and am assigned to boarding group 5. This is nuts because I am in seat 8C on the 737-MAX, right behind first class. the flight is sold out so the overhead bin space will be full. My helmet is in the green back and is carry on. There is no way I am checking that. So I join boarding group 2 and skipped the line and nary was there a complaint as I scanned my ticket. Glad I did because I got the last overhead slot in three rows around me. What drives me nut is folks with three modular bags that when all hooked together are bigger than most suitcases and they qualify unhooked as carry on. Three bags. BS I say. Ban those so flying more enjoyable for all.
Here is what it looks like on the jet way when you have a first class ticket. The pampering starts right away.
My seat if you can call it that is terrific.
A 17 inch screen with plenty of leg room an comfort.
It was a nice flight a bit bumpy and a bit noisy but my Bose Headphones created a nice quite space along with some Cool Jazz.
The pampering and food was first class too. I even slept a couple of hours.
I was raining on arrival in Munich.
It was pretty easy clearing customs, just a 20 minute line in a warm room and a welcome to Germany.
My signature bag was waiting for me at baggage claim. This was great news!
In the airport was this at a themed bar.
It even had the VW emblem logo. Those used to be stolen back in the day.
My son, Nick, is not a morning person. At the train station in Paris his train was changed to another slot and he didn't notice. Once corrected he arrived at the airport and his plane was long departed so a plane switch meant he arrived in Munich the same time I did.
While in Munich Nick until later in the morning. I am jet lagged so I get up early to go shopping for cuckoo clocks. My wife and I were on a Rick Steves' tour the Best of Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2019 and had a blast. We bought an authentic German cuckoo clock but it is a bit small for the space it it in.
So I thought it would be fun to replace it. There are lot to choose from. These days you can buy an electric one but then it sounds electric too. No bellows and tinning sounding mean no go.
More choices.
Now we are talking.
I call my wife and say it will cost between x and y for one of these and we agree, I was cuckoo, and it wasn't a shared dream to replace the cockoo clock, no the clock, not me. With that we pivot to high quality German Kitchen knives. Hey this all started by wanting to bring something back for her. So I did my research and decided on this knife brand.
I got to handle them. It is what you are supposed to do. They felt good.
This is something Linda wants, yet it s not a surprise, so I pick out three other things she didn't have on her mind. Next I say to the salesperson, who was very helpful, ship it to the USA please. They check into it and say they can't do that anymore. I check with another store and they can't either. I say I am sorry to the folks at each store and some other sympathetic comments.
This sucks and I am bummed.
My son and I walk to a park with a canal and surfer's. Here are a few canal photos.
Later we walk by the central downtown area know as Marienplatz.
Then it was on to dinner where we split this but could not finish it. Pork knuckle and other meats and starch. Not my thing anymore.
Nick and and I went on a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria who wanted to extract himself from the Munich scene as he preferred a life of extreme solitude. The castle was themed in honor of composer Richard Wagner. My son made the observation his life would make for a great movie. He's right cause you can't make this stuff up.
Neuschwanstein Castle
My son Nick stand on a bridge overlooking the castle.
Houston we have found that confounded bridge.
Closeups of the Castle.
Hohenschwangau Castle in the background. King Ludwig's grew up here and because of his complex relationship with his father wanted a bigger better castle.
One of the tourist on this tour didn't make it back to the bus. The guide spend about 40 minutes trying to find/contact her before she was left behind. We still don't know her fate.
The next stop was the Linderhof Place another place King Ludwig lived. The grounds were beautiful.
We were lucky to be there while the fountain was operating.
We ate at the biergarten that night because I could get a salad.
Later we had a final goodbye night cap at a place with live music.
My son and I had a enjoyable time together and now it was time to ride.
Riding Day One
You don't know what you don't know.
It was a clear morning as I took a cab cab to BTS BMW to pick up a BMW 900XR. It is in the same class as my new Triumph Sport 800. I arrived to just before opening with 12 people in a line outside the door.
It took about two hours to get the bike, do the paperwork, get unpacked, pack the bike and gear on. I asked for a taller seat and one was offered. It was a bit tall. They gave me what I asked for. I failed to ask for the options or a comfort seat. Big mistake. Over the next week I came to hate the seat. The handlebars where much to low, the seat an inch too high. This cause me to reach down to the bars causing trouble as the week went along. This was the biggest you don't know until you know today. More was to come.
As soon as I left the parking lot it started to rain, hard at times. After driving through Munich I was in the Bavarian countryside where the rain dissipated on my way to Obergurl.
It is beautiful here in the Bavarian countryside. The skies had cleared and riding was very good.
As this were shot with my cellphone the image location was recorded. It says I stopped in Mittenwald Germany. Can't argue with that.
I ordered this and sat down at a table nearby.
The waitress walks up and introduces and says hello. She continues firmly you must order something to use the this table and she suggest a latte. I say ok!
So add a latte.
The evening I have some trout for dinner.
The reason my destination was Obergurl is the Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum is about 10 minutes away and it was on my bucket list of things to see because I like old iron.
It was a good day but that was about to change.
Motorcycling Day Two
You don't know what you don't know. What didn't I know? Anything about riding or driving in Europe. I have been to Europe several times, enough to know I like something better than economy seats on a long haul airplane flight. I know MPC allows skipping the passport control line when coming back on the US.
I didn't know a sign saying entering a town means slow down to 50kph, no speed limit sign required. I didn't know there are different driving habits here to increase the traffic flow on narrow roads. This means free space around you shrinks - - - - big time. Riders should use the right side of the lane not the left. It means driver will use some of "your" lane to filter by bicycles or cars while passing and expect you to give way. Black signs with a circle and a slash mean the 50kph speed limit is no longer enforced and drivers can resume the normal speed, whatever normal is, generally 80, 90 or 100kph. I had to learn to adjust and adapt on the fly.
Here is today's route.
On the way up to Timmelsjoch Pass. First order of the day is to visit the Top Motorcycle Museum. The drive up is great. I am there when it opens at 10:00am.
Livestock near the road.
I buy a ticket for the Top Motorcycle Museum. Rather than post of bunch of my photos here is the Top Museum web site.. The entrance page is just a good if not better than my pictures. It took about one hour to slowly walk through the museum. Each motorcycle has a plaque with the brand model and year. What is missing is a paragraph of the historical significance of brand and model, pity.
The cars vehicles coming at you will move over into your lane, but your lane is not your lane in Europe and it is considered bad manners to ride in the left lane and one sure way to spot an American!
There is no time for relaxing here folks. It is intense riding. Up, down, left or right, a straight bit of pavement is rare.
This is consider a wide stretch of pavement though a village. After all the structures preceded the road.
This ain't Florida.
Approaching the Dolomites.
A common sight.
Coming into a village. The quintessential view in the Alps.
Here is a nice bit on the geology of the Dolomites. For a more technical yet still approachable description of how the Dolomites differ from the other areas in the Alps see this.
Yes it is crowded here. Most of the passes were jammed with cars.
The mountains are remarkable.
NCAA Basketball Powerhouse Gonzaga University campus is located in downtown Spokane Washington, USA. The Bulldogs have been a force in the NCAA for years built on culture and program guided by Coach Mark Few who inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Coach Few lives less than I mile from my house and occasionally we see him at the local coffee shop where nobody bothers him include me. Spokane and Eastern Washington are Zags crazy!
So I had to stop of this photo. Gonzaga University is named after St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a 16th-century Italian Jesuit saint. The university was founded in 1887 by Father Joseph Cataldo, who thought it fitting to honor a fellow Jesuit and Italian.
I remember driving through Val Gardena a famous ski resort community and I was tired. I kept looking at how many kilometers to go and it didn't shrink fast enough. How can it be there is only 30km to go and it will take an hour?
So I arrived in Arabba Italy, my home for the next 4 nights, to learned there is no gas station in Arabba but there is fuel nearby. I had 1/3 of a tank left but uncharacteristically I didn't fill up for tonight. After checking into my room I searched Google Maps for restaurants. What I didn't know was the good restaurants inside the hotels are not listed in Google Maps. Ah ha, more of you don't know what you don't know. So that night I was stuck eating pizza in Italy.
Why did I say stuck? Pizza in Italy is not cut and I had a bread knife and fork to eat the lukewarm pizza. Republic Pi near home has much better pizza in a warmer more inviting space. Linda and I go there often. When I tell people my son lives in Paris France their eyes go all loopy and think it is all lovely. The stereotype of the City of Light or enlightenment and romance. For instance French women will not date anybody but a French man. How enlightened is that?
Day 3 of My Ride in Europe.
By this time, I had all but given up documenting as I normally do because I was overwhelmed.
Here is the route for today.
I don't know what the lower leg is I don't remember and it was off to Cordova to get fuel. The twisted roads started right out of the box and the weather was wonderful.
Whatever the negatives, the scenery isn't one of them.
This was a pullout with a parking lot. Whoo hoo.
The road at the sign above.
Cortina.
Kurviger built this route for me, +1 for Kurviger. Honestly when I when through Corvara, I immediately regretted staying on Arabba. Carvara was much busier, filled with tourists and I liked the vibe. You don't know what you don't know the theme of this report.
This is at a little down and back on the map above after Cortina Italy sight of the 2026 Winter Olympics. There was a lake at the top of the pass. It is a rotten photo but it hard to find a place to park or drive one handed and take a photo. Very scenic nonetheless.
This is a wash, the left overs of gravel and sand, that came from the mountain gap in the background. Wow!
We are not in Spokane anymore.
Another village scene. The only reason I didn't get a speeding ticket from the fixed speed camera's in every village is the speed limit is 50kph and I did 40kph because it seemed right.
I waved to this guy with my camera in my left hand.
We have switchbacks.
We have traffic too.
This bit is just the road south of Brunico Italy. You have two choices, the city or this one lane road with turnouts in farm land above Brunico. And I bet the farmer's aren't too keen on widening the road.
End of Day 3 Riding.
Day 4 Riding.
The menu at the Olympia Hotel from the night before. I was thrilled to figure out Google Maps was useless for finding restaurants in hotels.
The weather forecast changed from wonderful the rest of the week to questionable for day four inside of 12 hours. Ok. So I came up with a new ride to head south to avoid weather. Here is the route.
Kurviger worked great, mostly. What was not so great is transferring the route to a GPS. Kurviger has its own algorithm for creating a route then imported the the GPS, Garmin will sometime modify the route using it own algorithm. The result is not what Kurviger created but subtle differences. There are ways to work around it with Basecamp something I learned a bit later. The real world result was short down and backs plus U turns. All in all it worked well because Kurviger found the good roads. I just whipped this weather avoidance route up on the fly and I was ready to go the next day.
I bought an eSim from Orange Travel because it included a European phone number. They mostly use What's App over there a Meta company. I used to use What's App until Meta bought it then I went to Signal and uber privacy app. I don't want Mr. Zuckerburg's company digging around in my phone. I don't use Facebook either. Anyway I bought way too much gigs of service but it was better then not having enough. With Verizon you are screwed in Europe, I mean it is expensive. So I got turned my Verison eSim off when I flew out of Denver to Munich and turned on the Orange eSim when I landed in Munich. This worked great and I had service EVERYWHERE and it was high speed too. Amazing. In the US you go to small town America you your lucky service at all. You don't know what you don't know. I'd to this again just buy less gigs.
It was a cloudy day but not very cold. Here are some images. It may have rained a bit. My gear did the job but the camera didn't so not many photos today.
Another hairpin.
The speed limit sign 50kph is not universally shown on entering a town.
After this day I was physically and mentally tired. My core muscle where sore. Later I learned the low handlebars contributed this because I could not lean on them to keep my body from moving forward during deceleration. The constant on off throttle and brakes didn't help. This has never happened to me while riding, anywhere, even on backcountry routes on the DR where I get tired but not like this. A complete surprise. I think of myself as being reasonable shape. I can bicycle 25 miles on a mostly flat paved trail and returned to downhill skiing this year, skiing all day on a conventional lift, not high speed, and managed 21,000 feet of vertical in a day on groomed runs, it was great and I didn't feel worse for the experience. You don't know what you don't know. I needed a break. I was in pain and this was not fun.
From the evening of Day four.
Day 5 on the bloody BMW with the too high seat.
Out of the ashes of day four I created a rough idea of my next three days on this ill fitting and most uncomfortable motorcycle. Overall I liked the BMW 900 XR. It makes good power, linear power band and good suspension (that says a lot coming from me). The display was easy to read and I didn't mess with it much. It threw and idiot light that went away two days later - not my bike and I don't care.
Interestingly enough the General warning shows up not only on the bike display but the GPS too. So I push the warning on the GPS and a dialog box appears. It informs me there is an General Warning light on the bike display. Well I didn't know Captain Obvious was part of the NAV 6 programming. Or in the Rolling Stone's song Far Away Eyes there is the bit "....well, I was so pleased to be informed of this that I ran twenty red lights in His honor Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord."
Here is the route for Day 5.
It wasn't ambitious, as my ambition was Running on Empty (Jackson Brown). The goal was simple to have lunch at Chiosco Bar da Silver a recommendation from a friend.
The skies had cleared so even though I was on some roads I had been on previously, like yesterday for instance, I got to see the mountains. Unfortunately, rubber necking time is minimal, so riding the same roads twice is not a negative.
Passo Duran is a 1.5 lane twisty bit. Stay on your toes.
I arrived at the Chiosco Bar da Silver where I enjoyed a latte, bottled water, a panini and a salad.
A view with your food and what a view.
The BMW.
After the day 5 ride I pulled into a better place, the Olympia Hotel in Arabba as three nights at the other place had run up. I choose Arabba because because there was some good riding here and it was a reasonable day ride from the Top Motorcycle Museum.
End of motorcycle Day 5.
Day 6 and 7 Motorcycling
I took one photo all day long. I road the Autobahn a bit and I was happy to do so. It was relaxing. I recall riding down along hill into Innsbruck Austria and the speed limit sign confused me. It had 40kph then below it it said truck on a slope with something I didn't understand. Anyway it meant trucks 40kph on the downhill slope. Ah one more thing I learned today.
It was a humid day and the sky had a humid haze. Not great for mountain top viewing and that along with the $100 US price of the tram ride, the location of my hotel relative to the tram ride and need for some rest dissuaded me from the tram ride.
Here is the one photo.
Day 7.
Today is the last day on this rental bike. I created a more interesting route than the day before.
Here is the route.
I enjoyed riding the Bavarian Countryside as it was more relaxing, not as intense and enjoyable so I was looking forward to this day.
I stopped at a McDonald's along the way to have a breakfast sandwich and coffee. It was great!
The BMW outside the MickyD's.
When I arrive at BTS cycle where I rented the BMW one of the fellows who was inline when I arrived was inline once again. This time he was filling out an accident report form and getting instructions to file a police report.
Shrimp scampi that night at an Italian Place a short walk from the Schiller Hotel where the Beach's tour participants where meeting. It was yummie! I learned that a dry gin martini is not a universal drink. Hummmmm.
Day 8 and 9.
Theses were off bike days for me to recover. There is no seat height adjustment the BMW 900XR. Instead there are 4 different seats. Low, Standard, Comfort and High. So I sat on a Standard seat when I returned the rental bike yesterday and I know it was standard because I asked them. I installed my own gas tank bag, the small Wolfman, I use on the mighty DR650, which way is more comfortable than the BMW with the comfort seat. I also had them install an SD card in the GPS has it required a Phillips Jeweler screw driver. I will come to regret not bringing my own screw driver. I also had them rotate the handlebars forward to a more upright position so I could push off on them. Fortunately I ended up with a comfort seat which was much better than the high seat but not comfortable for the long haul.
I was genuinely concerned about riding six days in a row. So I decided to pace myself each day. I didn't have an idea if the seat and handlebar changes would help reduce fatigue. It turns out they did.
I guess this is as good a place to talk about the BMW as any other place since these two days are light on material and photos. For me it needs a custom saddle and handlebar risers. The foot pegs are too far back for an old man or a spoiled brat - you pick.
The stock windscreen did a good job even at speed. Rob Beach the owner said the XRs are fine motorcycles when they are in tune, suggesting keeping them in tune was a chore. One day I smelled exhaust for a couple of hours riding along. I thought it was the bike but the tech guy on tour Stephan said this wasn't a known issue. Still the next day with the bike at idle, not moving I smelled the same smell. I believe the engine was a bit rich on the bike I used while on tour. Regardless of the BMW model for the tour, folks who had aftermarket seats on their personal bikes, didn't like the BMW seats at all. I rented a stock BMW 2008 RT and went 525 miles in a day 18 years ago, in perfect comfort. How BMW regressed to the seats they have today is amazing.
The XR has fine suspension and handled very well. The rear brake is rubbish the fronts are good, but too grippy on initial bite and they are not linked. I like to trail brake so for me this worked out well but the rear brake pedal had to much movement and the engagement point was low.
That night we had an introductory dinner along with a good talk on the rules of the rode. Oh I was a sponge. I wished I know this stuff a week earlier.
The first day of the tour was a loop ride, designed to get your feet wet and if baggage was delayed, offer a slop day for recovery. Doyle and I opted out and instead we when to old Town Munich. He was jet lagged. The idea was to go shopping for my wife and to the Biergarten.
It was Sunday and I was shocked to find most everything was closed. Even the Beirgarten. We found enough places to make it worth our while. The Hofbräuhaus, a 3-floor beer hall dating back to the 16th century, was open and they had a band playing. Fun.
Max Krug a place to buy authentic German gifts was open.
I bought Linda a nutcracker and a this refrigerator magnet. The pendulum moves.
Tomorrow we ride. On the Beach's Dolomite Domination Tour although I had no illusions of dominated the Dolomite. Mother Nature always wins.
Day 10 Motorcycling - Olching to Fusch
Today was what I called a moving day, the idea to get to someplace you are to where you'd rather be. It was 5 hours and 260km. Nobody every beat the 5 hours either.
Here is the route.
Under way I decided to follow the Spokane riders but lost touch due to traffic in the residential area we traveled through.
The BMW I was riding. I liked the saddle bags, except they took both hands to open, an annoying feature for I usually have gear on one hand and the free hand to open the bag.
Photos along the route.
We were thrilled to have blue skies!
I didn't see the group I started with the rest of the day. Stephan the Beach's co-leader asked were I was and Doyle said don't worry about him he know how to use a GPS. By now you are seeing a pattern here, I am self sufficient and I a proud of that. And to a point I can adapt but only to a point. And you know what at nearly 71 I don't give a damn.
Looking back Kurviger could have created a better route.
Somewhere along the way, I think it was near Gerlos Pass I stopped and the three behind me stopped as well for a break. The young fellow in the group missed breakfast and I wasn't inclined to stop for lunch nor be the ride leader any longer so I bid them adieu and rode of on with my 2356 songs on my SD card installed on the GPS to keep me company. It was time to Move on Down the Road - Canned Heat.
The seat was a pain in the ass but I was doing alright on this bike.
The Krimml Waterfalls. I waited for the tour bus to leave.
The idea of going to Hotel Wasserfall in Fusch was terrific as were were just a few miles from the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. Why was it terrific? Because you could ride the pass or in the morning before traffic. Good for you and good for Beach's.
I am sitting here trying to remember this day and then it struck me, it started off great going over Grossglockner High Alpine Road but then the memory faded so I whipped out my Google Maps timeline and my Garmin inReach Map to figure our the where I had been. I get by with the help of my friends, The Beattles.
On this day Eric, Doyle and Stan joined me on the ride.
[Rant]
One of the things that drove me bat nuts was Beach's routes. The GPS where set to curvy road rather than fasted route. I don't know if the route was the problem or if the the GPS' setting took us through these small towns with brick pavement. Here is a for instance. Instead of going an extra 2 miles on a decent road to on the outskirts of towns, the route took us into the town on one way or one lane road with brick, the route directions failed taking us to a dead end and I was lost 30 minutes until I stopped the route turned on the track to get from point A to B. Utter baloney. It is challenging enough being point for 3 others without having to fight the route. Kurviger could have done better. An Rob Beach on the night of the GPS introduction talk spoke for 10 minutes on the importance of using North Up. ACK! I disregarded this advice because I am not willing to translate left and ride on the fly. Route up please. Geez...
[/Rant]
The day's images have uploaded....
Doyle on his bike.
The image is blown out but illustrates the next object.....
Clearly these photos are not in the order taken but they are at least on the same day taken. The trouble is using two cameras, failing set the time on the Canon camera and editing Canon shot on the Samsung phone. I used the phone to edit the shots because the HDR fix was terrific.
Doyle and Eric from the Spokane group I ride with at the Kaiser-Franz Josefs-Hone part of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road
Erik.
Here is my one of my favorite photos of the trip. It was from Day 11 motorcycling. I like this photo because it captures a of lot of this trip in a single shot. A picturesque village, the mountains and countryside. It seems to be framed well too.
Back in Arabba. See a prior post how that I screwed up and based my personal ride in the same town as the tour's free day. My Garmin inReach Messenger says I road the same route a few days ago. Well roughly. The route from the first time around was created by Kurviger and the second time the route was from Beach's GPS. There are subtle differences, pros and cons but with a 10 inReach's minute interval the difference are minuscule. What is different is today is a blue sky day! Could it be a positive note for once? I can hear the cheering from the peanut gallery!
Day 12 route.
Today Eric, Stan and Doyle joined me on this ride. I led all day despite asking (pleading) if anybody else wanted to lead. Nobody offered. Nuts.
This is the day is I got hung up in a little town and had to turn off the route, enable the track on the GPS and find my why out of town when a better way would have been to spend 5 minutes avoiding the town all together by taking bypass road. Nuts! We all regrouped just outside of town. Thanks for waiting guys!
We rode 9 passes on this day.
A lone tree.
Entering a village.
Even I can read Italian!
The Spokane inmates.
I shot this photo from a turn out as a unknown motorcyclists drove by.
Stan is the Director of the Coeur d'Alene Big Band and the band's trombone player. I added the upcoming events it into my Calendar.
The pointy peaks remind me of Liberty Bell in the North Cascade Mountains. Different type of rocks though.
An improvement thanks to AI so says the image.
Any subtle slope has a village.
Not blue skies all day but good enough.
And this photos is a great way to wrap up this day.
Day 13, on a motorcycle, Arabba to Trafoi Italy. It is Zeptember 3rd.
Here is the approximate route, certainly not the route in the GPS, but close enough. I would have rather taken this route rather than Beaches route in the GPS. Why? Too many Goat Trails. It is like riding with a bunch of Alpha Males who love to impress with their knowledge of every little by pass road available from point A to B. Except the Alpha Male is embedded in the GPS route. I can disrupt that and I did. More on that later.
Out of Arabba we rode Passo Pordio and Passo Sella. After that it was another moving day, a need to get from point A to B.
I believe this was the day where there was a bicycle race at one of the passes, it was hard to tell cause I didn't see any bib numbers and with so much traffic there was zero photo opportunities so you only get to see the "good" stuff.
Check out that side car rig. I think it was a scooter set up with a side car. I slowed down to get this shot.
After this one we have 26 more turns to go.
We stopped for a break.
I am not sure where it was or what day even but I recall seeing the motorcycle Edelweiss Bike Travel group. What caught my attention was the guy riding had a vest on, and it said Edelweiss Sweeper. Ok I got the picture. They have a designated sweeper riding in the group and he is wearing a vest announcing this. Upon seeing this I was thrilled to be on the Beach's Tour where I could avoid rigid organization and do my own thing.
Here is something I found on the web about guided tours. "Over the past year, interest in structured European riding adventures...." Hard stop. The author just used the words structured and adventures in the same sentence. OMG. And if you read the 5 star reviews for Edelweiss the word structured and super organized appears often. ACK! And imagine the person who has never been there, who is reading this considering going there. Will it connect or not? Clearly I was in the not group.
A photo of Doyle in this little spectacular little gorge road. We took a break here, water and removed a layer. It was warming up.
Where we stopped was this:
After this we ended up on a valley, the valley of apple production on a large scale. The Beach's route took us on all the one lane crop roads in a westward direction back and forth on a goat trail. This went on for an hour and I said to Doyle ah do you want to drop this and just take the direct route. Negative. An hour later he said let drop this. It took three stops to find a pay in person gas station. We had trouble figuring out the self pay machines and in Italy lunch runs from noon to 4:00pm so finding pay in person place was tedious.
We arrive at the Hotel at the foot of Stevio Pass. Literally. This was brilliant for the morning we would be at the top in 20 minutes with little traffic. Good for us and good for Beach's.
I took a few pictures at the Berhhotel Franzenshohe. (the hotel)
The road on the side of the hill.
Kind of fun play with the camera.
A haul truck with a RV on it. This was going to be expensive and fun to watch. The truck towing the trailer broke down.
The driver had to back up to get around this hairpin.
The car backed down.
Doyle having beer.
End of Day 13.
Day 14 of the Motorcycle ride - Zeptember 4th - Trafoi Italy to Chinous-chel Switzerland
Here is the route for today.
We are heading up there for coffee. There is the tiny little overlook at the skyline near the notch.
There wasn't much traffic on the road. Yet..... that would come later. I road up without issue. The technique was look up for oncoming traffic, enter the turn feathering the clutch, make the turn and accelerate out. This may not be the proper technique but it worked for me.
As we come up to the left of the tourist shops was a bit of a road going to the overlook where we bought a coffee.
I bought a tee shirt and a hat.
My memory came back. This is the pass where there was a little race. It was rather crowded even by prior standards. A bit of web research says we rode through the the ICON Xtreme Triathlon. Peachy.
The camera stayed in the tank bag as we dipped and dodged all the traffic on the way down the mountain. It thinned out eventually.
The scenery is quite impressive everywhere.
It is quite impressive here too, near home.
Just north of Revelstoke an easy two day ride from home.
Or near Roger's Pass.
Or in BC on a Dual Sport ride one day away from home.
I got it pretty darn good within two days of home. What the hell I am doing a third of the way across the world? Yeah it is different and is beautiful but there are so many more challenges and these are the kind of challenges I don't need. And beauty is subjective.
This:
Or this, a lot closer to home:
I have been playing in the mountains my entire life, lucky me, so it has an impact on my point of view. In the mid 70's I was backpacking in the Washington Cascades to the High Alpine Lakes. We were fortunate enough to hike the Enchanments in 1974. These days there is a lottery to obtain a permit and it darn near impossible. This is the Stuart Range and it is not part of the Cascade Mountains volcanism story but rather these rock are made of granite and made there way here from Baja and it is called by some the Baja BC story. A larch tree is in the foreground. We have a few of those in the Spokane area.
The Enchantments near Leavenworth Washington.
Back to Europe.
Doyle.
End of the day 14.
Day 15 on the motorcycle - Cinous-chel Switzerland to Imst Austria - Zeptember 5, 2026.
Here is the route for the day.
Doyle and I rode together today. we were on Ofenpass, Rechenpass, Nobertshone Pass, Arlbergpass, Flexenpass and Hahntenjoch Pass.
We are out of the high alpine area because there are trees!
A lake in the distance.
A little better.
While having a beer after the ride Doyle said he wanted to go see an old castle, not a newer palace so we found a route for the next day. I wasn't quite on the route but close enough so I decided to update one of Beach route's on Basecamp, to add the Castle stop, a decision I would come to regret.
End of Day 15.
Day 16 on the Motorcycle - Imst Austria to Olching, Germany, just north east of downtown Munich.
Sorry about the low energy post for Day 15, that is about to change with the final post of this tomb. This will be much more interesting.
Here is the route but that is not what this post is about today.
Doyle and I went directly to the Ehrenberg Castle for a little sight seeing. This was Doyle's idea and it was a great one. I created a route on Basecamp chop up a bit of a Beach's route to get there and loaded it to the SD card on the GPS. That was a dumb move. I should have just updated the route on the GPS instead.
From the parking lot a tram take you to the first platform. We bought tickets for the tram and the suspension bridge walkway. Upon arriving at the second tram to the top we learned we need a ticket for that too. This took a while for a couple of English speaking only dummies to figure this out. It was expensive but worth it.
The tram track, suspension bridge and view.
We toured the ruins. There are two castles here. One higher than another. The lower castle is older of the two and it had armaments on the side they expected an attack to come from. The backside, where the quarters were was not defended and across the way was a higher hill and was just a hill as the new castle has not been built yet. The enemy lugged 4 cannons, at great effort, to the hill above the old castle and fired away until the castle occupants surrendered.
From the valley below we could hear festive live music and barely make out a gathering crowd enjoying a blue sky day.
We found the confounded bridge!
Doyle on the bridge.
After touring the castles and bridge we continue on and found a coffee spot. Our GPS didn't agree on the route and I decide my route was messed up. I only wanted modify the route to the castle but the transfer process included a bunch of other stuff so we used bluetooth and transfered the Beach route from Doyle's GPS to mine. That worked great and we are on the same page (route) again.
After a nice stop along the way on a Sunday morning we found ourselves at this church.
This mirror permits a view of the ornate ceiling.
And that was all the photos I took and this day.
So why was modifying Beach's route a bad idea. This is wording from AI because I am too angry to write anything appropriate but I agree with every word.
"At the final group dinner—a celebratory occasion—Rob Beach approached me, returned my SD card, and asked in front of other guests whether I had copied his routes. I initially said no, because I had forgotten that I had briefly tried to modify one route in Garmin BaseCamp so I could visit an old castle. (it became clear during this conversation he scanned my SD card and found my failed modified route.)
His approach and tone made me feel as though I was being publicly accused of stealing the company’s routes. I found that unnecessary and embarrassing, particularly at the final dinner. If he had concerns about route files or their use, I would have been completely willing to discuss them privately and directly. (I will add this. I would have been willing to show him all the file on my PC and my Basecamp Library.)
I understand that a tour company may want to protect its route planning. However, the handling of this situation felt disproportionate and unprofessional. The tour materials included a route book, and modern GPS devices can record or transfer tracks in several ways (including connecting a laptop to PC) so confronting a customer publicly over an SD card seemed (not seemed it was) a poor way to address the concern.
Rob said he was “not impressed” and walked away. I was not impressed either. Whatever the merits of the tour itself, this interaction left a sour final impression and did not reflect the level of customer service I would expect from a premium motorcycle-tour operator."
As I didn't have a jewelry screw driver I had to rely on Rob Beach to remove the SD card and he did so after I returned the GPS and returned the SD card later but clearly he scanned the SD and found the route I modified on the SD card. Rather than taking me aside he just accused me of theft in front of my friends. I will never consider traveling on a Beachs' tour again. I found Rob lacking in people skills and a bit crass, certainly not something one should expect from a professional tour guide.
Epilouge
I caught a cold on the trip from Munich to Spokane. The folks who build environmental systems on aircraft like to tell you the air is filtered to the same level as an office environment. That may be so but that is a deflection of because the number of people per cubic foot is much higher in a an airplane. So people get sick and I have had a dilly of a head cold for about a week.
Yesterday I finally felt a bit better and went to Cycle Gear to pickup my new Shoei RF-1400 helmet. It is quieter than the Arai I had and the pancake speakers fit much better in the helmet. I went for 160 mile ride yesterday to try out the bucket and my readjusted Legendary Best Saddle. Both are an improvement. More testing is required so today I am heading out again on the Two Ferries ride so named because it involved to free ferries on the Columbia River. I will likely cue up some Black Sabbath, yep Fairies Where Boots.
Yesterday two things struck. How much I love being home and riding around the Spokane area were I can just relax. Oh WOW it is fun.
Last year's adventure ride in the Kootenay's was much more fun as was my trip to Lamar Valley in Yellowstone or the ride in Nakups on 2025. or just riding to the Palouse Caboose for TACO Tuesday where I can get two street Taco's for $5.
At a deeper level, in their famous song Dreams, Fleetwood Mac sings
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
And what you lost.
In the same way a person leaves another I left prime time motorcycling season around home for the unknown. Also I missed the opportunity to ride the mighty DR650 on a Adventure Route on Vancouver Island and Canadian Okanogon Backcountry routes. Huge disappointment.
What you had
And what you lost
Part of what I am loosing is time to ride this season and time to ride before I can't. I hate wasting it.
The End
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