Planning an Epic Trip to Europe

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Let me apologize first of all for posting a huge amount of text. The idea is that some of you might find it useful for your own ride planning at some future stage.

If the Mods think it's too much copy, please delete it and I'll pass on the information to Skooter G by e-mail. No hard feelings

Southern German section

From Heidelberg, take a day trip down the Neckar River to Marbach and return to base.
Depart Heidelberg head south on the Autobahn but leave the A5 at Offenburg and ride the Black Forest backroads, to rejoin the freeway system at Staufen (you might want to overnight here. Check out the Goethe Hotel)).
Take the Autobahn through the Swiss border into Basel, then head SW on A1 to Geneva and on to Grenoble (France) on A41. You might want to spend the night in beautiful Grenoble.

Southern France section

From Grenoble to the French Riviera take the historic Route Napoleon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_Napol%C3%A9on), one of the best riding roads in Europe. At Castellane, take a detour and visit the Verdon Canyon.
You might want to end the day before hitting the seashore and choose to stay in Grasse, the perfume capital of France. Your SO will be thankful.

Pyrenees Loop

Here is where you head west on the French freeway system to Aix-en-Provence, Arles (worth an overnight stop) and Montpellier. Proceed to Perpignan and cross into Spain.
Exit the freeway fifteen minutes later at Figueres and head for Besalù. You’re at the eastern end of the Pyrenees. This is where you might want to insert an extension (1, 2 days) into Barcelona and back.

From Besalù ride on to Ripoll, then head north to Puigcerda and continue briefly through France until you reach Andorra at Pas de la Casa. (elevation 8,000 ft.). Ride through Andorra La Vella and into Spain again. Head for La Seu d’Urgell, Rialp, proceed north to Vielha and into France (Bagnéres de Luchon). By now, you’ve had a good taste of the Pyrenees and might want to head back east via Toulouse and Narbonne and the French coastal freeway you rode on earlier in your trip.
If you want to do more Pyrenees, from Vielha head south to Viuet, then west on N-260 though Noales, Castejon, Ainsa, Arresa. Here you can head north to Torla, where several hotel options are available on account of a national park being located where the road ends. Check out the Hotel Bujaruelo, with views on the majestic Monte Perdido.
South of Torla, you can rejoin the N-260 heading west to Biescas, then south to Sabinanigo and west again to Jaca As you head west to Pamplona, you’ll have several opportunities to cross into France and hit the freeways back to Narbonne and in the direction of Italy. If you do this, make sure you spend a half day in Carcassonne, the walled city, which you’ll find on your way east to Narbonne.
Head back to Grasse, where the whole Pyrenees sideshow started.

On to Italy section

From Grasse, take the A8 to Frejus, then hit the coast at St. Raphael and proceed east on D559. At Le Dramont you’ll see a US landing craft on the side of the road. That marks the spot where US troops landed on Aug. 15, 1944. Continue west on D559 through what is known as the Corniche de l’Esterel, one of the most beautiful coastal roads in Europe. (Avoid doing it on weekends).
Once in Cannes, follow the coast east and stop at any (or all) of the famous towns you come across (Antibes, Nice, Monaco).
At some stage, you’ll want to ride on. To leave the waterside congestion behind, take the A8 northeast and soon you’ll come to the exit to Sospel and Tende (D2566).
Here you’ll be carving canyons again climbing to reach the Italian border (I intentionally avoided the coastal border crossing).
After the mountain resort of Limone, you’ll find the town of Cuneo and soon you’ll be on a freeway headed north-east to Milan.

Milan as your regional hub

Milan is central to several amazing riding routes. Apart from the Alps and the Lakes, from there you can quickly reach La Spezia on the western coast of Italy and the famed Cinque Terre.
In Le Grazie, near Portovenere, I recommend Locanda Nardini, a no-frills establishment I’ve been staying at since the early Eighties. They only have 8 rooms, so a timely reservation is essential.
From Milan, as I said, you can plan one- or two-day sorties into the French and the Swiss Alps, or as far east as the Grossglockner in Austria.
You can plan a high-speed train sortie into Paris, or even riding the FJR there but the latter will eat up almost a week.
You can certainly also ride to the Ferrari Museum near Modena and be back in the evening, or make that part of your trip to Eastern Europe, so from Modena you continue north to the Brenner Pass and into Tyrol (Austria) to visit Neuschwannstein Castle, Salzburg, and points east.

Leaving Italy


As I said above, your best route for leaving Italy goes through the Brenner Pass. Once in Innsbruck (Austria), you can head north to Rosenheim (Germany) and visit Fuessen (Neuschwannstein Castle), which lies 2 hours to the west.
Back in Rosenheim, you can ride east to Salzburg in one hour, and Vienna in three more hours. (BTW, Hallstatt is 50 miles SE from Salzburg. You could make it a waypoint on your way to Vienna. Total ride time, just over 4 hours.
From Vienna, you can be in Prague in 3-4 hours (and if you have time, you can hit Budapest in less than 3).
I would recommend doing Budapest first. Then return to Vienna on your way to Prague.
In case you decide to go to Hungary, check out the Klebelsberg Kastély, an old stately home converted to hotel, and located in a quiet, leafy neighborhood 15 minutes from the city center.
If you don’t want to ride your bike into Budapest, it’s a 10 Euro ride by cab.

Back to Frankfurt

Prague to Frankfurt is a 5-hour ride. You might want to stop in Pilsen and make that your yearly pilgrimage to the Mecca of beer. Another place worth a visit is Nuremberg.

 
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Envy and jealousy. Your girlfriend must be loaded.

Visited Madrid, Barcelona, and Sevilla on my June honeymoon last year. All three were magnificent, although Sevilla was the only one that felt 'Spanish'. Others were merely 'Euro cosmopolitan', which is to say: "So cool as to be off the chart."

We made this vow: each night before turning in, we walked to a nearby bar and had a cocktail. Sort of immerses you into the local culture .... yeah, that's the ticket!

It will be quite warm in Spain in June, but you're from AZ so probably will need a jacket liner.

 
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teerex51 - thank you for the detailed post. I am sure there are many of us that will be following because we have the same goal to do this in a few years too.

 
Thanks Stef!!! I'll be busy a while plotting your recommendations with many questions to follow!

This epic adventure is all Stef's fault!!!

Some of you old timers might remember that in 2008 I took a family vacation to Florence, Italy. Well that bastard Stef *made* me come up to Milan to see him. *Made* me dress up in his Village People leathers. *Made* me ride his extra FJR. And *made* me go riding for a day with him in the Italian and Swiss Alps. Ever since that day, which was one of the best of my life, I have dreamed of returning to Europe and exploring as much of it as I can on two wheels. It's taken a while - there were a couple of false starts. But I am finally going to get to this dream adventure!

 
Dreamed about it years ago but now to old and to broke. If skooter will take me with him and cover my food along with shipping my bike. I'll swap him my low mile 04 FJR .
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Scooter, any chance you'll be occasionally posting here during your trip? I know this is a trip between you and your gal, but it would be fun to follow along to some extent.

 
My recommendation is that you get yourself the name of lawyer to extricate you from the many mishaps your sorry ass will invariably get dragged into during your two month frolic and detour, including but not limited to:

- that time you insult the cooking skills of a Scottish chef by referring to his family Haggis recipe as those salty intestines

- when you mistakenly grab the butt of what you thought was a bar wench in Bavaria but which turns out to be a merchant marine named Lars, out on shore leave

- your repeated failure to adequately tip the valet

- that time you thought you could out drink the French nun

Lucky for you I know the name of a lawyer. Unlucky for you, he may not be that smart, as he is known to frequent this forum.

 
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Envy and jealousy. Your girlfriend must be loaded.
Hud, that's rude. We don't even know if she drinks.

So many of those high points listed above are in cities maybe better seen on foot. I don't think you'll love riding too much in a lot of the big Euro cities. If you guys get tired of the saddle, or if the weather report for the next few days looks bad, go someplace on a train for a break. Train travel between cities is reasonable and super convenient, especially compared to ANY inter-city travel in the states. But you might just fall in love with the way they split lanes all over Europe, though.

 
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I see #2 happening several times Hud.. Plus he's going to get busted wiping a booger on something.

Should we start a go fund me page to help with his defense fund?

 
You are a lucky man!! Enjoy every minute of that trip!!

The opposite direction you are heading, Northern Sweden. Been there a few times and wished it was on a bike, some great roads up there and traffic is pretty light. Go during Mid-Summer time frame and you will be riding in day-light pretty much all the time.

 
SkooterG, enjoy the ride, your company and the food. As for the cities, after you visit a few you will realize they are very similar only the languages spoken are different. I've traveled to many and have taken many photos, when I got home to review them, I couldn't tell from which city or country the majority of them were taken?!

 
I've traveled to many and have taken many photos, when I got home to review them, I couldn't tell from which city or country the majority of them were taken?!
Ah, but here's a few fun facts that can help you overcome Europe's unbearable sameness.

  • Both Paris and Pisa have a tower, but the one in Pisa is leaning.
  • Both Vienna and London have a Ferris Wheel, but the London Eye is twice as tall as Vienna's Riesenrad.
  • Rome, Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Berlin all have famous rivers running through them. Vienna, Belgrade and Budapest even share the same one, which makes it very hard to tell them apart. I feel your pain.
  • Stockholm has been dubbed "Venice of the North", but Venice is not known as "Stockholm of the South". Go figure.
Hope this helps
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Good points ^ ^ ^ And did you know that in Paris you can go to a McDonalds, but if you want a Quarter Pounder with cheese, you have to ask for a Royale with cheese.

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Germany has beer, France has wine, Spain has cava, and Italy has pasta, wine, and beer. Austria and Switzerland are pretty much entirely mountains. Belgium and the Netherlands are low, flat, and full of flowers and such. (Belgium also has good beer.) England speaks English, kind of, and eats American food, kind of, but Scotland does neither.

There. All you need to know about Western Europe. I've only been behind the Iron Curtain to the German part, although I may soon succumb to the seductress call from Prague.

 
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Girlfriend? I dont believe you have a girlfriend without some pictures.

Were not talking about some old square dancing parters, but a real girlfriend, right?

If so, Im very happy for you. I assume that she knows how to ride an FJR like she just stole it, right? In that case she must be hawt as hell!

 
Jim and I are following this post. :)

We are looking to go in August of 2020.

Many helpful posts here!

Ive been to Germany 8 times; never on a mc though. Ive always dreamed about this.

Skooter, have a great time!! Post up a RR sometime if you have time.

 
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