After rainy night the streets started to dry slowly. Year ago we were riding the Schwarzwald in very wet conditions -I really hoped it would not be the same again!
Just before we turned to this famous B500 -road we stopped in very nice gas station with service!
Then we were riding the Schwarzwald -and the road was dry!! There’s one BIG problem with this road… They have added the 70km/h speed limit signs! So it is not possible to enjoy the fast sweepers as you like…. But we almost did because we didn’t accept the speed limit!
From Badenbaden we continued to Rastatt and the ferry over Rhein river in Neuburg am Rhein. This was a nice short break to watch this ferry “fighting” in a river!
On the westside of Rhein we choose more bigger roads and Autobahn to reach our next destination and hotel in a small city of Eibelshausen. We did make a short visit to the Castle of Braunfels but you had to pay to actually visit inside so we didn’t go. But it was easy to find and enter with bikes… only 200 meters walking distance from the parking area!
My parking in the castle was like this:
The route of the day was like this:
GoZa Mite
motorcycling, Adventure riding, Trans Euro Trail updates, travelling
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We will leave the alps today… Kind of makes me sad but actually we’ve had so much nice alpineroads that I’m waiting for everything that is about to come…
We started riding from our hotel in Davos and filled the tank in Davos Wolfgang (it’s a kind of mountain pass near Davos).
Then we took the road 28 to west and finally arrived to Maienfeld. From there we took the nice road (St. Lutzisteigpass) to Lichtenstein.
We took a short break there in a gas-station and then we continued back to Switzerland.
The route we took is not possible to put in the google map, but it was a nice ride! A very narrow road through mountain-countryside in the westside of Grabs (if you just look the map you’ll get the idea!).
Then after some more riding to west it was time for our last mountainpass: Schwägalppass -This road doesn’t have too tight hairpin corners and for the locals it really was the route to check the limits of the bike and the rider!
But not us, we were ridig easy and smooth…
After Schwägalp it was about riding the countryside roads first in Switzerland then in Germany. And just about 50km’s left we got some heavy rain too… But even before we found the place to stay for the nigh (In Hotel Gut Lauterbad near Freudenstadt) the roads were already dry.
This hotel and restaurant is very much recommended for those who are very hungry!! The portions were huge!! This is for 2…
The route for the day was about like this (Google maps will not show the route on the westside of Grabs)
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This means we had to leave Lago di Garda! What a pitty! But ok there was some dam good roads ride. First to Lago di Valvestino…
You couldn’t much see the lake because it’s so far away below… and the walls are steep! We also stopped for awhile in the beach of Lago d’Idro. This is smaller than Garda but it looked very beautiful!! We also saw the small boat taking passengers from the pier so we only hoped there was time to go onboard! But we had to go on riding! First here’s a Finnish language joke: (Kuvassa on Kauko -niminen kaveri rannalla eli se on Kaukoranta!)
In Lago d’Idro: From the north corner of this lake started the first mountain pass: Croce Domini. This is one of the best mountain passes for me ever! I really liked it!
After this 40 km’s of mountain road we took the SS42 in the valley to get us to Bormio but there was one more mountain road to ride before this “famous city”. Passo del Mortirolo.
The hairpins in the southside of this road are very steep and tight, you can see it in the video from 06:00! We had a short break enjoying the mountainviews and atmosphere in the cafeteria up in the summit of Mortirolo. This was like wisiting someone’s home! Very nice cafeteria!
I also enjoyed the road down from Mortirolo… there was some pretty nice views!
After Mortirolo it was time for Stelvio!
Up in the Summit of Stelvio it was still like +20… So we’re lucky to have this very nice weather today!! But we were not the first Finns here this summer!! Here is “Prätkällä Töihin 2017” Sticker in Stelvio!
Then down with “Umbrail Pass” to Val Mustair and Ofenpass.
And finally for the end of the day the beautiful and fast Flüela Pass.
There’s not too many hairpincorners when you ride up to Fluela… It’s more about having fun and enjoying riding!
Our hotel was in Davos. We had the dinner in one of the most fine hotel-restaurants in the centrum of Davos: Hotel Seehof Davos. The service (and food) was excellent! This was one of the best days in our trip…. Thank You Kauko, Salla, Marko and Maria for sharing it with me!! Here’s the route for day 11:
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This was about to come one of the hottest days in our tour so it was definately right decision to ride north via Autostrada! And after 2 hours of riding we’re already northside of Milano and riding the shores of Lago di Garda!
In Autostrada we only took short breaks to fill the tanks and riders…
In Garda we had 1 route to ride… The very special “Caveroad of Tremosine” in the westside of the lake. This was amazing short route where the road was sweeping inside the mountain. Here you can see the video of the ride:
And one photo too:
We needed to ride few more miles before our destination…
The Hotel is very much recommended by me and the whole group! (Hotel Residence Panorama di Forca)
The weather was so hot that you couldn’t see the Garda Lake… only some blurry/ foggy view.
But in the night the situation was better!
Also the restaurant in this hotel is very good!
Route for day 10 was like his:
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We would leave this beautiful island… oh yes. It would be wise to stay for example 1 week but we want to spend more time those roads in Europe! So early in the morning it’s time to choose same route back to Bastia -harbour. And then take the boat-trip to the mainland (Savona this time). One last picture from Corsica:
This is from this here. We’re riding so early we actually had time to have some kind of breakfast in the cafe near the harbour before the check-in to the boat.
But the trip takes more than 6 hours this time… so definately if you don’t want to put all day to your boat trip it’s better to choose Livorno – Bastia route.
We will be in Italy mainland about 6 a’clock in the afternoon… And the food is not cheap i the boat!
Then from Savona we had a nice ride through countryside… Lots of nice twisty small roads with nice scenery every now and then.
The hotel was in Ovada… Pretty nice hotel with garage but without restaurant.
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This day is impossible to show in the map! Googlemap doesn’t simply show any routes that follows D81b (From Galeria to Calvi) but this is the route we took and we really enjoyed it!!
First we stopped for a swim in the lonely beach! There were other people too but really not too many! Then we kind of separated… I found a castle that was very interesting!
There was a group of tourists listening on a guy who was talking and talking… But finally I got some information that this was a castle of Pierre Bonaparte who was a “ruler” of a Corsica for awhile.
Little bit north from this castle there was also a Chapel in a very beautiful area. There was also a beautiful road to this chapel with a huge helmet!
Besides these the road D81b offered very beautiful views to the sea in many places!!
In Calvi we chose pizzeria to eat something -it was one of the best pizzas is this tour. In the evening we choose a restaurant near our hotel -it was a beautiful place but for me the salad was very bad choice! (Restaurant Grill Ponte Vecchiu is recommended by my friends but not by me!)
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We’re in the paradise island. What should we do? Go to the beach? Go to have some summer activities? Jet Ski maybe? No… Lets go ride a motorcycle!
I made a route almost 300km’s long and we started riding that. First south from Galeria: These parts are so nice ride with magnificant views to the sea almost all the time. And finally the Col de Palmarella with sensational views to the both sides of the island! Southside from Golfe de Porto we found the the rock-formations of Les Calanques de Piana. But as excepted this area is quite full of people!
We only stopped for awhile to take some pictures and we continued more south towards Col de Vergio. This is the highest mountain pass in Corsica island (With altitude of 1477m).
It was very funny to ride these areas of Corsica! The road was sweeping nicely through Pinetree-forest and the forest was full of pigs! For some reason you don’t see the pigs in my video because they stay at the shadows but here is one pic…
The eastside of Vergio is actually a very beautiful (and dangerous) Canyonroad with very narrow places and tight/ steep corners!
In Ponte Leccia we tried to find a place to eat…. But not a very good success! We found only Panini and waitress dropped one of them to my lapp and then she pushed her fingers to Maria’s (or Salla’s) Cola! Not a very good day for her I guess? Here’s the route for day 7:
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Our accomodation was in the heart of Livorno, bikes in the big parking-garage. We needed to wake up very early to reach the ferry from Livorno to Bastia (in Corsica).
They just left the Bags and gear in the street?? Ok, I was watching them while they picked up the bikes from the garage.
This is Moby Lines “Moby Vincent” from Livorno to Bastia.
And here’s some professional protection to keep the bike up in the waves of Mediterranean! I think you need a very good insurance to cover some possible damage if this doesn’t hold… Then it was about the sea for the next 4,5 hours! Here I see the island for the first time… Looks like there’s lots of mountains! In Bastia the first thing that happened was that the Ducati Monster was out of gasoline!! It was only about +30 and I went to pick up some… First gas-station was closed second station didn’t exist, luckily the third station (about 3km’s away) was ok and I got some gas! Then we pushed the Ducati to start it (once again) and rode to this same station to fill all the other tanks too. And pushed the Ducati to start it again!
But after these minor delays we were finally riding in Corsica island… And what a beautiful island it is!!After Frecciasca, Santa Maria and Tettola villages we arrived to the nice city of Saint Florent and from there we started to climb to the desert Les Agriates. This part of the the D81 -road is full of tight corners!!! Such an amazing road!
After very tight corners we had to ride through the cities on the north shores of the island. Luckily the traffic was not bad and in some parts the route was nicely giving some views to the sea! Then for the last we had the part of D81-road from Calvi airoprt to our hotel. This road was in excellent condition! In the Hotel there was swimming pool waiting!!!
The route for the day was like this:
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Unfortunately we didn’t have time to get to know the city of Ravenna -I bet it would’ve been beautiful!
We took the big road to south and San Marino. The streets of San Marino are full with very expensive cars! We stopped on the “Other side of the mountain” when we saw some possible places to park the bikes. But there was no cafe or even a grocery store!
The roads on the westside of San Marino… OMG! They are nice! There’s a corner after corner, twist after twist and some very nice views all the time!
Ducati Monster went straight to Ducati service in Ravenna. They couldn’t fix the starter but they did fix the rear brake! (Not the brakedisc though…)
From motocaching we marked “as found” these:
San Marino from southwest, Passo dei Mandrioli and SR70 Consuma
But the whole route from San Marino to Livorno is excellent riding!! There’s not much traffic, the scenery and views are great and you will certainly enjoy riding! I really recommend these roads!
The pink decorations are there because it was the 100th Giro d’Italia this may.
Video compilation of the day 5:
This was the route for the day 5:
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Now we’re getting in the business! We’re in the middle of the mountains and at least half of the days route is mountain passes! Videocamera was on many times. First time was already from the yard of our guesthouse… this was very narrow and twisty road down to Tristach village like this:
After few kilometers there was also police checking the speed before we were in Italy and one of us got the ticket (35€ for speeding 94@80)! Then after the country changed to Italy we had nothing but mountains ahaed!
Lake Misurina, Passo Tri Croci, Passo Giau… Here’s compilation of these rides:
Ducati Monster rearbrakes are getting quite hot… in 02:30 -Check it!
Finally in the top of Passo Giau we had some time to enjoy the views:
We still had some very nice rides to do! Passo Staulanza (it was raining while we’re riding this) and Passo Duran.
Up in Duran there was a bar with a fireplace inside… We could make ourselves cozy and warm!
The previous video ends in a roadwork that we couldn’t ride through. But after waiting few minutes the workingmen said that there is detour so we can continue without waiting… And we found this detour (or a shortcut)!
Then we had only the very beautiful route of Lago di Mis and then mountains were gone… and our day had just begun!
Couple hours later in the village of Castagnole the Ducati Monster didn’t start anymore!! The starter engine was broken! Also my BMW had problems with the temperature, it went easily over 105-107 degrees and that is not ok!!
We try to figure out what to do with Ducati and there was some local who called to some guy who had a mc-service. And finally Ducati was pushed to start it and it went alone to this service.
My BMW’s overheating was worse all the time since it was about 5 in the afternoon and the traffic in Italy is very slow! If you really don’t have to ride the small roads in the north side of Venice… it’s better to choose autostrada!!
Soon I said that lets go straight to autostrada so we will not waist more time… I also said that everyone can ride their own speed and tempo but I saw other bikes many times in the way to Ravenna (except the Monster wich was in the service).
Finally about 9pm I was in the hotel in Ravenna (about 12 hours of riding!) and in 5 minutes all the other bikes were there too! Also the Monster arrived because it had chosen the fastest possible route to Ravenna. After this evening we had to push to start the Monster everytime! (They couldn’t fix the starter in the service)
The route for the day was supposed to be like this… But depending on a bike it was probably different.
GoZa Mite 