Hospice Angels European Tour 2011

Crew: Mike, Andy, Witek, Kinsey, Ken, John & Bill
30th August to 13th September.

England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein

Day 1 Tuesday 30th August:

Mike & Witek meet up and set of from Grosmont, Ken and Andy at Kens place John and I at Aston Down near Stroud with a rendezvous at Membury services on the M4 Kinsey is to catch us up in a couple of days probably in Ljubljana.
Set of from Membury at about 9.30am a bit later than planned, we have a dry run down to Dover for a 12.40pm sailing to Calais we dock in Calais at approximately 3.00pm local time.
Off the ferry and take the fastest route down to the Formula 1 Hotel at Charleville Mesieres arriving at about 7.30pm, these are basic hotels economically priced and ideal for a stopover when travelling usually with a place nearby to eat, we get into the room change and out to eat then bed.

Approx 385mls.

 Day 2 Wednesday 31st August:

Up at 8.00am for the usual delightful Formula 1 breakfast of cereals, bread, butter jam & yoghurt and as much coffee as you can drink. We set of at about 9.00am a bit of a stint on the auto route first then onto some more enjoyable roads through lovely countryside. Back onto an autoroute for 100mls to take us down to Strasbourg with a busy ride through the town.
After Strasbourg, we take a more scenic route on nice country roads, across the border to Germany heading for Meersburg alongside Lake Konstance, which is bordered by Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
We get to the Hotel Eden, which I have way pointed on my Sat Nav to find they have no vacancies so we try several other hotels in the vicinity only to find the same thing, so we decide to press on with the route and try a few more places. We stop at another hotel and ask again, the chef comes out and tells us that there is a big pushbike rally in the area and all the hotels are fully booked.
We press on towards Landau at the far end of the lake, stopping at a tourist office which has a display board outside showing available hotels with a direct phone line to hotels in the town, unfortunately it doesn’t work we see from the map that one is just along the road so we ride on but cant find it.
We then decide to get right away from the lake we cross into Austria and get down to Feldkirch pulling up outside a Best Western Hotel to find that full. We check out a few places on the Sat Nav and ring up Gastehaus Rommelspacher, which has rooms at a reasonable rate and is about 5 miles up the road we arrive park up the bikes and into the room to change then out for a pizza, pint and bed.

Approx 375mls

Day 3 Thursday 1st September:

We breakfast at 8.30am and set of about 9.30am heading up the A14 autoroute towards Innsbruck passing through quite a few long tunnels it is raining lightly. We turn of about 30mls before Innsbruck to go up and over the Timmelsjoch pass to Italy. As we get up near the top it is getting quite misty, wet and cold we stop at the tollbooth for a coffee but unfortunately the snack bar is closed quite a few bikes congregate here as it is a great viewpoint but the cloud cover has put pay to that.
We carry on up to the summit which is covered in snow I think we are now totally covered in cloud, cars and bikes are stopping all over the place cause they can’t see where they are going. There is a restaurant at the top but you cannot even see the turn of into it. The ride down the other side is usually fantastic but the cloud puts the mockers on that, we all regroup for a coffee and soup near the bottom.
We ride on down in lovely blue sky and a definite increase in temperature to Merano, then onto an auto route towards Trento we pull off in a service area and are just about to get off the bikes only to see Andy go sailing by. We have to pull out of the services to catch him up hoping he does not ride to quick thinking he has to catch us up after a few miles we find him on the side of the autoroute phoning to see where we are. We regroup then carry on to the next service area and stop for coffee.
We decide to take the motorway all the way to Venice but after half an hour decide to pull off the motorway after Trento. We then fight our way though a town called Roverto (its difficult to keep 6 people together on bikes in a city) eventually finding ourselves on a lovely road running along the side of a beautiful valley running through pretty unspoilt villages we finally get to the bottom of the valley. We then pick up with the motorway into Venice the Sat Nav takes us to the Hotel Vienna in the suburbs we check if they have availability and they have a room with 2 double beds for 100 euro’s and a room with 2 single beds for 70euros which we take. Settle in the room (we are quickly realising that Mike is very adept at bagging the best room to avoid the snorers). We shower and out to eat at a local restaurant 100yards up the road the restaurant is very busy and extremely noisy but good, we eventually get to bed about midnight I do not sleep well and get bitten by mosquitoes.

Approx 285mls

Day 4 Friday 2nd September:

Up at 8.00am and breakfast at the hotel check out of the rooms and arrange to leave the bikes and kit at the hotel and catch a bus into Venice for half a days sight seeing. Walking around the side streets in sweltering heat, eventually getting to the Rialto Bridge.  From there we go on to the St Marks Square discovering we have lost Mike on the way we all split up to look for him looking for his funny white hat that only Englishmen wear. When we eventually find him we walk round to the Bridge of Sighs after that, we get on a water taxi back to the bus station. We get back to the hotel at about 2.30pm and have a sit down to cool off before getting kitted up for the run to Ljubljana. 
We set off at about 3.30pm but don’t get very far Witek stalls his bike and it wont start again we go back to the hotel and bump it, not the best thing to do in the heat. We eventually get going again but unfortunately, we lose Ken, John & Andy on a massive very busy roundabout probably about seven exits. The rest off us wait on the slip road to the motorway for about 10 minutes we ring Andy and tell him to get on the autoroute to Trieste and we will stop on the first service area. We all meet up there about 15 minutes later.
Off we jolly well go again the route to Ljubljana  is mostly motorway  I have Simon & Karen’s house way marked on the Sat Nav from when John & I stopped there last year so we drive straight there. We pull into the front drive and get the bikes all parked up. Nobody comes out and we look at the cars parked on the drive, which have German Plates, and the cars are not the model they are supposed to be, eventually a German woman comes out and tells us that Simon & Karen moved into town about a year ago. We enter the address in the Sat Nav and set of again to the place about 10miles away only to find the address is correct but they are not there again somebody comes out and tells us we want the same address but in actual Ljubljana not in the suburb we are in. So third time lucky we head back into the city to the right place. The next hurdle is the apartment is eight floors up and no lift so we have to lug all the kit up. When we get settled in and freshened up, we walk into town for a couple of beers then a couple more in the Russian bar on the way back to the apartment a late night again.

Approx 140mls

Day 5 Saturday 3rd September:

Out for a walk about around the town centre seems like a nice city very clean and tidy a real cafe culture by the riverside. We wander around the market then stop for an ice cream by the river then wander some more before going up to the top of an office block for a rooftop beer splendid views over the city and to the mountains and Bled to the north.
We then go back to the apartment to wait for Kinsey to arrive get a message to say he should be here at about 6.00pm, which he does. We go out at about 9.00pm to a bar, which sells a local brew called Human Fish Beer. Then on to a bar with street seating and try some very nice traditional food. After this, we call in at the Russian bar where the proprietor says we can have a drink as long as we come inside and are quiet because he is not supposed to be serving this late, have a couple then back to the apartment to solve the problems of the world till 3.00am before retiring.

Day 6 Sunday 4th September:

Up at 8.30am feeling reasonably alright considering,  have breakfast and pack up the kit and get it back down to the bikes. Today we are leaving the city and going up to Simon and Karen’s house in the country near Maribor by the Austrian and Hungarian borders. Karen & Lucy are going to lead us there in a car we stop at a supermarket on the way to get provisions. When we get there we settle in Mike does his usual and grabs the best bedroom. Karen and Lucy say there goodbyes and head on back to Ljubljana.  We have to put Witek’s battery on charge as it is still playing up. Once we are settled John and Witek get going on preparing salad, I am elected to do the meat on a barbeque.  We seem to have way to much meat Sausages, Pork, Kebabs and Chicken after the feast we walk up to the local bar about half a mile away for a couple of beers then back to the house for more beer  before eventually going to bed. I have a rubbish night’s sleep and end up downstairs on the settee at about 5.00am.

Approx 100mls

Day 7 Monday 5th September:

Up early and out for a walk down the fields and woods below the house, before breakfast, after breakfast Ken investigates Witek’s bike and concludes that the battery is knackered. Witek has European breakdown cover so he rings them up asking them if they can bring a battery, but they really want to milk the situation and recover the bike to a dealership. While we are waiting for them we decide to try and locate a battery locally we find one in the BMW dealership in Maribor about 25mls away and they say it can be charged up and ready by 4.00pm John & I set off into Maribor my phone is up in the room so I take Kens. The Sat Nav takes us to the address we have for the dealership unfortunately it is a dead end with no shops. We try to ring back to base, unfortunately, the only number on Ken’s phone for anyone in the group is Andy but it is his home number not his mobile. We went passed a Yamaha dealership on the way in so we decide to go back there and ask if they know where the BMW dealership is. As we are riding back, we spot the dealership on the other side of the carriageway. We do a u-turn at the next possible chance and get back there and pick up the battery. They have just finished charging it, so we head back to the house the Sat Nav has other ideas and when we are in the region of the house sends us dirt tracking into farmyards and all over the place. Ken fits the battery and all seems fine, dinner beer and bed.

Day 8 Tuesday 6th September:

Early start from Simon's place heading down to Maribor. Then across into Austria through Klagenfurt heading north via Scheifling Murau, Mauterndorf, Pongau, Bad Ischl and on to lake Traunkirchen a lovely spot east of Salzburg from here we head up around the lake to a place called Grunau im Almtal and the Tree House backpacker place  Recommended by some friends of Johns. Nice rooms simple food a few beers then bed. 

Approx 286mls

Day 9 Wednesday 7th September:

The weather is damp but not really raining, we have a short ride up to Cesky Krumlov as we get nearer it starts to rain lightly, we ride on some real twisty roads following the river into Cesky. We find our way to the 99 Backpacker Hostel which is very close to the centre of the town and very reasonably priced at 14euro/person the room is actually over one of the Gates through the city wall. Lug the kit up some steep stairs to a basic three-bedded room. Then we take the bikes down to a locked compound in the car park, back up to the rooms settle in then out for a wander around the town. This is the third time I have been here and it always impresses me, the river almost completely encircles the centre with a great towering fortress on the outside of the river we walk up to the top of the fortress then around through the gardens and lake. We discover that the Czech Republic is not in the euro and they cane you with the exchange rate. We go to the central square to get a meal the local speciality is pork knee so Witek, Ken and I try that, me thinking it will be a small meal when it comes out it is massive with tons of meat on it. Witek has a bit of a dispute with the waiter over the freshness of the horseradish. After the meal we wander back up to the hostel have a beer outside then inside as its bit cold after a couple more beers. Some are going to bed but the stalwarts (Ken, Andy, Kinsey and me) decide to wander back down to the town for a beer down there but it is dead so we just have one and go back to bed.

Approx 100mls

Day 10 Thursday 8th September Day:

Andy says last night was like sleeping in a room with a herd of Wildebeest It is damp again in the morning we go for breakfast over the road in a small cafe, pack up the kit on the bikes then wait for the reception to open up so they we can settle the bill. Witek plots a route on his Sat Nav avoiding motorways and I copy it to mine. The plan is to get to the Gross Glockner pass and stop somewhere near there. Somewhere along the way I am leading with John just behind me, we are following a car towing a trailer with a trailer on the trailer as I get closer to it I look at the on board trailer and I think did the top cover just lift up a bit. The next minute the lid goes right up and of the trailer and the tailgate comes flying off. The tailgate lands on the deck just in front of me and I hit it, which skews me slightly, but I manage to hold onto the bike if I had hit it in the air god knows what would have happened.  Meanwhile the lid of the trailer lands on the road stood upright in front of John he manages to swerve around it. I chase the car beeping my horn and he looks in his mirror realising what has happened and pulls up. Fortunately, everybody else is back clear of this, the car driver is wetting himself and realising how lucky he is that nobody was hurt. We stop for 5mins and calm down before pressing on we get to Zell am See and try to find a hotel but they are all to expensive. We head towards the Gross Glockner and follow the road around the lake. We come across a campsite and go in to see if they have any cabins no joy, but he does recommend a Gasthoff just along the road. We try that and they have rooms at a reasonable rate but we cannot move in for an hour, so they say they will do us a meal and the rooms will be ready by the time we have eaten. Ken and I have an apartment across the yard, which is ready. We bung our kit in, I dive in shower and change then over to eat. Mike bags a single room, John and Kinsey throw their bags in a room as do Andy and Witek, John and Kinsey cause uproar with the rest of the guests as they have put their bags in somebody else's room, they have to go up and retrieve them and change rooms. After the meal, Witek announces he is to return directly home tomorrow due to family problems. Then the proprietor and his son come out into the restaurant with a couple of squeeze boxes and start playing typical Austrian music, Witek on his return from the toilet stands out in the hall doing a very animated dance to the music, a couple more beers and of to bed.

Approx 215mls

Day 11 Friday 9th September:

Get up leisurely and have a nice breakfast pack up the kit on the bikes Witek falls off his bike in the car park while getting ready to go. We do not rush to leave, as the weather although dry, is not particularly good there is a lot of low cloud and we are hoping it is going to lift before we go over the Gross Glockner pass. We leave Witek at the Gasthoff and go down into Zell am See stopping at a roadside hotel for a cup of coffee. Mike goes into the hotel for a pee through a door which has a small picture of  an Alsatian dog on it which he has obviously not seen as he opened the door and is halfway through it when he here's a very ferocious sounding bark and Mike very rapidly reverses out of the door much to everybody else amusement.
The weather seems to be clearing so we set for the Gross Glockner pass it seems to take forever to get to the top but it's worth it for the views which are fantastic with the cloud lifted we stop at the viewpoint at the top the weather has improved to the point where it is actually very warm. We head on down the other side about a quarter of the way down we come to a roundabout John and I go left in what we thought was full view of the others but after about half a mile realise they are not with us. We stop and wait for a while but nobody appears so John rides back to the roundabout they are not there so he goes up the other exit and eventually finds them. They are going to go up to the glacier, which I had not realised, was there he then comes back for me and we all meet up at the glacier stopping for lunch.
When we leave here, we head towards the Stelvio pass but I do not think we will get there today, as it happens we get as far as a small village called Percha. I have stayed here several times before we try the Sonnblick hotel he does not have any rooms but he does have an apartment up behind the hotel after a bit of negotiating by John we get it down to 40euro’s per person including breakfast and evening meal. We follow the patron up to the apartment and into the underground car park, lug the kit up to the apartment. It seems new and fitted out to quite a high standard, settle in then down to the supermarket to stock up with a few beers for after the meal then go over to the hotel for our evening meal, which is excellent. We wander back up the hill to the apartment sit outside drinking beer then bed. Have I have real good nights sleep but wake quite early.

Approx 110mls

Day 12 Saturday 10th September:

We set off reasonably early for the Stelvio pass on the way we go over the Jauken pass which is quite spectacular there are hundreds of bikes around quite a few young crazies. We stop at a viewpoint at the top, which is crammed full of bikes, then on down the other side. The road meets the bottom of the Timmelsjoch pass. From here, we follow the road, which we have been along before on the way down into Merrano, then on to the Stelvio pass this road winds up the hill hairpin after hairpin, we stop at a viewpoint just below the summit where you could see the road almost going up a rock face to the top. The hairpin bends going up the hill are very scary as you have to swing wide to get round the bend at the same time trying to look up to the road coming down to make sure nothing is coming your way. We get to the top and stop for a hotdog & coffee before going down the other side to Bormio. The roads wind around the mountains so we have to head south before we can turn north. We are heading towards St Moritz in Switzerland but time is marching on. We stop for a break and to look at the map. Then decide that St Moritz is too far and will be too expensive so we turn off back into Italy to the ski resort of Livigno. We stop at a hotel out-of-town but decided it is to expensive so go into town to check out other hotels and fortunately they are all full or expensive so go back to the original hotel and book in there. We have a couple of expensive beers then dinner and then bed.

Approx 182mls

Day 13 Sunday 11th September:

After breakfast in Livigno, we head up North on superb roads alongside the lake we reach a tunnel, which has a toll and is traffic light controlled and wait for about 15 min for vehicles to come through the other way not sure how long it is but it seems to take forever to get through. We then follow some more superb roads and passes going through the ski resorts of Davos and Klosters then on briefly passing through Liechtenstein stopping near Vaduz for a coffee. From here, we go up to the south side of Lake Constance (Switzerland) Then on into southern Germany quite quickly crossing the border into France heading for the Formula One hotel in Colmar. We get to the F1 check-in and a quick spruce up before going over the road to a nearby restaurant for some  expensive food and beer, then we have an early night for a change.

Approx 268mls

Day 14 Monday 12th September:

Up for F1 breakfast, the original intention was to get to the F1 hotel in Mauberge, which is an easy ride to Calais for the ferry home. We had a discussion the night before and decided to gun it straight up to Calais and try to get an early ferry back.  We leave Colmar and head up into the hills on some excellent roads with brilliant scenery; we can see a few ski lifts around. This is a part of France I have not travelled through before. We drop down out of the hills then head up through rural France. Kinsey has decided he wants to go and view some sites not on the route we are taking so he splits off on his own. The route we take mainly avoiding auto route’s is via Epinal, St Diziers, we stop off  for lunch at a supermarket realising that these restaurants in supermarkets are good value for money, then on to  Reims and Saint Quentin eventually arriving at Calais late afternoon. Some of us are getting quite low on fuel but we drive straight to the ferry port to see about an early ferry. Apparently, there has been a lot of disruption of the service due to high winds. The cost to change to a sailing today is too much so we decide to get in the Formula One hotel, we follow the Sat Nav to a fuel station my fuel gauge is showing about 3 miles left in the tank as we pull into a filling station. We all fuel up then follow the Sat Nav to the F1 hotel just as we get there are two coach loads of Eastern Europeans checking into the hotel check if they have any rooms and fortunately had three cancellations so were are in. Settle into the rooms then out to a supermarket around the corner for evening meal somewhere on the way acquiring a box of wine and a few beers. After the meal, we wander back to the hotel and proceed to demolish the beer and wine most people drift off to bed leaving the stalwarts Andy Ken and I to finish up late to bed.

Approx 396mls

Day 15 Tuesday 13th September:

Up a bit late in the morning feeling a bit sluggish everybody else has eaten. Have a quick breakfast and then we get on the bikes and ride out the ferry port. We manage to get on a ferry at about 10:30am, Kinsey appears in the queue for the ferry, the wind is still blowing well and it looks like it could be a bit rough but it's not actually as bad as you think it should be, dock at Dover. Then set off on the boring motorway ride back to Stroud and Hereford. John wants us to pull in at Clackett Lane services which we do and he says he can't face a long boring motorway ride all the way back so he is to split and go down to the south coast. We carry on around the M25 turning off onto the M3 and then cutting across through Bracknell to pick up with the M4 just a blast down the M4 now, Mike and Kinsey carry straight on the M4 at Swindon while the rest of us turn off. Then I peel off at Cirencester while the remaining two carry on to Tarrington and that is the end of that.

Approx 220mls

Total Distance approx 3250mls