A plan that was nearly 10 years in the making, finally came to fruition. No kidding, ever since we my friend had moved to the Netherlands for his graduate degree in 2008 and had sent pics of the great roads and the awesome destinations, we had been planning a motorcycle ride to the Alps. Years went by and our careers and personal life took us in different directions, away from the Alps. Then in 2015, we came across this travelogue:
https://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/...omplished.html
which just spurred us even more to plan such an epic ride but like most things in life, good things in life come to people who wait for them. Finally, in 2018 we were able to get all the variables in the equation in place and get all the things in place for an epic ride.
In the meanwhile, we were able to get one of our German friends along for the ride and being a local, he was able to provide us with a wealth of information which was crucial to make the ride a flawless success.
Our initial plan was to ride south of Germany, towards Swiss, cover some of the famous Alp passes, head into the Dolomites and then make our way back up to Germany. We would be riding rental bikes as I have not yet bought a bike and anyway, my friend visiting from India would have to rent a bike. We looked around for some good deals and finally settled for some motorcycles from
https://www.limbaecher.de/. Little did we know that the weather Gods had something totally different for us
Our German friend had advised us against booking any accommodation as the weather in the Alps is very unpredictable and also, since we had planned the trip in April, there was a high chance that many of the mountain passes would be still closed on account of snow and ice. This was very different from our motorcycle rides in India, where we would plan our accommodation in advance, to avoid any last minute hibijibes. He had also told us to keep our options open regarding the places we wanted to visit, for the aforementioned reasons and boy! was he right. One thing was was certain though, which ever route we picked, would be kickass
One day before we commenced our ride, our German friend and his girlfriend joined us in Stuttgart all the way from Berlin. As we were discussing our plans for the forthcoming week, we looked at the weather and were in for a rude shock. Most of the mountain passes in Swiss were going to be wet and cold, with rain almost throughout the day. The Dolomites were equally bad, weather wise. Then using this app:
https://www.ventusky.com/, we were able to get a very accurate map of where the rain was going and we planned our route as just the opposite of it. So, our plan now was to head south of Stuttgart, but more eastwardly, towards Austria. How we would go from there was totally undecided, the weather would be guide.
Starting with Day1: We headed out to pick up our motorcycles. We had decided on a Kawasaki Z650 for me and a Honda CB500 for my friend.
Limbaecher Stuttgart is probably the biggest motorcycle dealer in the region, claiming to have more than 1400+ bikes,new ones, used ones. Visiting Limbaecher is truly like candyland for motorcycle lovers; pretty much all brands under one roof and accessories and riding gear included
Quickly got done with the paper work ( it's important to have the IDP when renting from place in Europe, though the rental company might not ask for it. Their advice is that you should have one, in case the Police ask you to produce it) and the bikes were ready, waiting for us
Loaded our luggage on them and we were on our way! Our German friend would meet us on the way down South.
Some amazing roads on the way
The first lunch stop for the day:
After lunch, we decided to head towards the Disney Castle in Schwangau
Sadly, we were too late to visit the castle and decided to look for a place to crash for the night. Our friend looked up a truly kick-ass place in Austria which was only a couple of hours' ride away. By night fall, which is nearly 21:00 owing to the longs days in summer, we reached our first pitstop
![To the Alps & beyond...on motorcycles!-32459407_10156920072554714_1121724507141177344_o.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/travelogues/1779282d1690040170t-alps-beyond-motorcycles-32459407_10156920072554714_1121724507141177344_o.jpg)