Motorcycle Tour

Corsetour Day 13

Posted by gozamite on 25.8.2017
Posted in: adventure, BMW motorrad, Ducati, Moottoripyöräily, motocaching, Motorcycle Tour, motorcycling, motorrad, S1000XR. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

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!
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Just before we turned to this famous B500 -road we stopped in very nice gas station with service!
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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!
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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!
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My parking in the castle was like this:
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The route of the day was like this:

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Åland/ Aland/ Ahvenanmaa

Posted by gozamite on 31.5.2017
Posted in: adventure, BMW, BMW motorrad, Ducati, helmetcamera, Moottoripyöräily, motocaching, motorcycle, Motorcycle Tour, motorcycling, nature, S1000XR, Travel. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

With motorcycle

This was a dream come true finally for me! I’ve been to Åland few times with a car (last time was 17 years ago!) but now I got there with my motorcycle. This is the 4 days trip to Åland (Swedish)/ Aland (English)/ Ahvenanmaa (Finnish).
Åland is here and to get there with a motorcycle you need to take a ferry from Stockholm, Helsinki or Turku… Or a small ferry from Korppoo (Galtby) or from Kustavi (Vuosnainen). If you use these ferries the idea is to spend the night in some small islands before you go to the main island -and that’s what we did.
But before we took the boat from Korppoo we spent the night there in Faffas. They had a very nice cabin near the sea!
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And then 10am it was time for a boat (ferry). This trip (to Föglö island) takes 4 hours!
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In Föglö we had lot of time to get to know the island. It’s not very big! There’s actually only 1 road that goes through the island, and because of beautiful scenery and some nice curves it is also in motocaching.net: (Road in Föglö).

But there is also a very beautiful church and quite interesting hiking path in this island. Our accomodation in Föglö was Degerby Mat & Cafe.
Next morning the ferry to the main island left the Föglö at 9am. This was 30min trip.
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And the first route was a detour from the mainroad to some villages in Högskär.
Then we rode to the southside of the “capitol of Åland” (Mariehamn), this was a beautiful road through islands.
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After this road we rode to the eastside of the main island. First we had this very nice road with some nice bends and then we visited the fire station museum (but it was closed).
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Then sun was shining so brightly and weather was too hot (about +13 celsius) so I had to go swimming! Did it here. Water was maybe +8… (You can also see a picture of me going swimming here!) We took a short break in Käringsund.
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Then we visited Sålis Batteri, this is some fortifications that Russians built even they should not do it. Åland was a demilitarized already 50-60 years before!
From the east parts of the main island we moved to north with this road.
In the north we visited the Getaberget (and the tower), Havsvidden (with some nice views too) -this place had a great road!

And finally visited the Stallhagen Brewery and I bought 2 bottles of beer.
This was the first day on the main island of Åland, we spent the night is Strandnäs Hotel.
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Next morning I took a short tour in Mariehamn (This city has about 11500 inhabitants).
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Then we started the ride of the day. First we rode to north (again) because there was still few places to visit. First there was Road of Tjudö -this is maybe the best road (for motorcycling) in Åland! It’s definately worth riding!
Then we rode to one small harbour again. This was Hamnsundet with small cafeteria (not yet open).
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After this we took the most famous cafeteria in the island (Uffe På Berget). The altitude in the top of the tower is more than 50 meters above sealevel!
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And then we went to the castle! There is only 1 middleage castle in Åland, it’s called Kastelholma.
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This took about 1 hour to walk through the museum and there was some very interesting stories about the people who lived here (or were prisoners). After castle we rode this road: Road of Sund. This was with 2km’s of gravel.
And for the last place we visited Bomarsund fortress. This has very interesting story which ends with Ålands demilitarization in 1856 (In Treaty of Paris).
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Then we took the ferry to Kumlinge island at 5pm and we stay the night in Kumlinge Stugor. Next morning we visited Kumlinge church, Kumlinge mountain (Vårholmsböte) and rode the best motorcycle road in Kumlinge…

The ferry took us to Brändö islands (4-5 islands in group) and there you have to ride through these beautiful landscapes of the archipelago sea. What a road this is!

Our trip in Åland ended about 3pm when the ferry arrived in Vuosnainen in the north side of Turku. (But there is still 1 more ferry after this!).

You can ride the most beautiful places in the main island of Åland in 1 day. But I really recommend that you take your time at least in Kastelholma castle and in Bomarsund fortress. So it should be at least 2 days. And if you have the possibility to visit the small islands too… Then you’ll really know what is it all about! ********* (Gotta go there again some day!)

PV TouRinki Day 20

Posted by gozamite on 19.9.2016
Posted in: adventure, BMW, BMW motorrad, Ducati, Make life a ride!, motocaching, Motorcycle Tour, motorcycling. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

After rainy Day 19 this was easy! And it was about this:
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We had 520 km’s to ride and the route was like this. It was raining every now and then but it didn’t bother much because they were only short showers. This day we had mostly only the “bigger roads” and even some new highway (with roadtull).
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It was abaout 1,7€ to ride 30km’s in that highway. Luckily we also had some quite nice road from Olsztynek to Szczytno. It’s road number 58 and it’s a very good choice after many boring roads in Poland!

Here’s a short clip from that road.
We arrived in our accommodation quite early so we had plenty of time to take a walk in a beautiful city of Mrągowo and we had a dinner in Mercure Mrągowo Resort&Spa.

PV TouRinki Day 17

Posted by gozamite on 12.9.2016
Posted in: adventure, Ducati, helmetcamera, motocaching, Motorcycle Tour, motorcycling, S1000XR. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

This day was riding from Lörrach to Aystetten like this. The weather forecast didn’t promise too much (but the rain) but actually it was like the first half of the day there was no rain and then the rest… yes it was raining. And now it was only me and Maria.
Pretty soon after we started from Lörrach we found the Wehra valley and the road L148. What an amazing road it was!! It’s like from a fairytale…
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Some might say that the corners are not too tight here… But I don’t think you can ride like a crazy! Some of them are pretty tight and with no visibility at all!
On the north side of Bannwald Wehratal the landscape was still very nice all around and the road was interesting and not boring at all!

This area has a lot of nature and forestpaths to visit and see very beautiful areas of Germany!
As we continued to east we didn’t know what to expect. So what we found next was a total surprise for both of us!
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It was just a small city (called Zwiefalten) among many others and I stopped there to have a break. Then we noticed a very big building on the other side of the square and we started to walk closer. Then we thought “Let’s go inside…” -And there was the surprise!
I’ve never ever seen anything like this before!
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It was an old abbey and this was the church hall. It had German Baroque style interior that looked very expensive with gold (looked like gold!?) all around! I was totally speechless.
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There was 4 side-altars on the both sides of the church-hall. Then there was the “second altar” (here in the picture) and behind the fence and 2 gates was the first altar. I was thinking to myself “After seeing this I can’t imagine what St. Peter’s Basilica looks like from the inside!! This abbey in the middle of south Germany was already something beyond my imagination!”
When we came out from this amazing abbey/ church it was raining. Finally after 3 hours of riding in the rain we arrived in the small city of Aystetten and we had a room in a small (and outmoded) Hotel that I cannot recommend (Hotel Sohnel).

PV TouRinki Day 9

Posted by gozamite on 8.8.2016
Posted in: adventure, BMW motorrad, Ducati, Honda, Moottoripyöräily, motocaching, Motorcycle Tour, motorcycling, S1000XR, Serpentine. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This was the day when we finally entered the Alps and the route that I planned this whole trip (Route des Grandes Alpes). But before we actually got to ride the endless hairpin corners… we visited the Les Gorges du Pont du Diable.
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This is a place where the river has been “digging” the limestone for millions of years. It’s not a cave but almost… The hole is 40 meters deep. It costs 6,10€ to take a 40 minutes tour with a guide and it really is worth every penny!!
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It is amazing place! And it’s only 20 minutes from Thonon Les Bains.
Then the first climb we took was Col de la Colombiere which is 1614 meters high mountain pass near Cluses. Then we climbed Col des Aravis, it’s still not very high but it offers one of the best views to Mt. Blanc!
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You can see the highest mountain in Europe from many places if you’re driving south of Col des Aravis.
Then we had Cormet de Roselend, which is almost 2000 meters (1968 meters), this offered already very spectacular views from the top!! Especially the Lake Roselend with the clear turquoise water is really worth to make a break and admire the view!
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And finally we had the highest mountain pass in Europe in the afternoon: Col d’Iseran (2764 meters). The summit is still a lonely place! There’s no restaurant or no souvenir-shop just an old chapel made of stone… and I think they don’t even use that anymore!
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There’s still old meters in the sign… It has been checked few years ago that the real hight is few meters lower!
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When we rode down to Val d’Isere it started to get cloudy. We had one more climb to make since we had our accommodation in Italy (Moncenisio). We did see a little bit of of the Lake Mt Cenis, but after we crossed the border we had no visibility anymore! We’re riding in the clouds! And the road to the amazing Chalet Sul Lago was extremely narrow with the branches of the trees coming very low… it felt like a scene from a horror movie!! And finally when we found the place… it had a very pleasant surprise for us!
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No, it is not a Michelin restaurant with any stars… But it is mentioned in the Michelin quite many times (as you can see!) -And yes the food was good!
Here is the route for the day 9.

PV TouRinki Day 8

Posted by gozamite on 31.7.2016
Posted in: adventure, BMW, Ducati, Honda, Moottoripyöräily, motocaching, Motorcycle Tour, motorcycling, S1000XR, Serpentine. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

After breakfast it was time to start riding again. My Tomtom Rider 410 showed us the way to the nearest gas station in Weil am Rhein… but what I didn’t remember in that point that in highway in Switzerland you’ll need the Vignette! And the nearest Shell was AFTER the border checkpoint in autobahn/ highway with only possible direction to Switzerland… Oops! (We decided that we are not going to buy the expensive Vignette -we would rather ride the small roads in Switzerland area).
After a short discussion with customs officer we were able to make nice move to the other side of the customs area and ride back to Germany… and soon after that ride through the city of Basel. That took about 1 hour! In the southside of Basel we actually got our first real mountain hairpin corners when we climbed to Passwang Pass (elevation 1204 meters). And we had the first break in the “summit cafeteria” (http://www.alpenblick-passwang.ch/).
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The view to valley was amazing.
Then we had Grenchenberg! What an amazing ride it was! The road is so narrow (climb from the north) that it is simply impossible to overtake a car. And I was so kind that I stopped and wait for the other 2 riders… and we had to drive behind a car for a long time.

Just before the summit there was a place with lots of cars, tents and people… I don’t know if there was a some kind of special meeting or a camp(?) but it looked very strange! (In video 09:00). We had a nice break in the summit restaurant.
The southside road of Grenchenberg is not that narrow, there are even some busses driving… Then we entered Bern.
I was actually quite scared about riding through Bern! But it was Sunday early afternoon and there was not that much traffic. We did see the city center terminal of Bern and it was quite easy to ride through. From Bern we choose the road beside (and under) the highway to west as we headed to Lake Geneva. In the way we got some pretty nice views to the Lake of Gruyère (a reservoir).
Also the view to the Lake Geneva was amazing! I had planned the route to the beach Boulevard of Vevey, Clarens and Montreux… And that was a big mistake! There was annual Jazz Festival of Montreux going on… it took about 2 hours to ride that boulevard! (But we learned to do some nice splitting!) We did see the tents! And we heard some music! So I guess we can say that we were at the festival!
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Finally after a long day we arrived in Thonon-Les-baines. It’s a city in French side of the Lake Geneva.
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The route for this day was like this.