Tom and Linda’s 2008 Europe Trip

Sub-Index

Because this page covers a whole week, I'm adding an index for it here. At the end of each section there will be a "Back to Top" link that will bring you back here.

Day 1 – Munich to Bozen (Bolzano, Italy)
Day 2 – Bozen to Riva
Day 3 – Riva to Bologna
Day 4 – Bologna
Day 5 – Bologna to Trento (Trient)
Day 6 – Dolomites
Day 7 – Grossglockner

Getting Started

Arrival in Munich

After a fairly rainy train trip, we got to Munich Main Station early Saturday afternoon, worried about our gear. The last word we’d heard was that we needed to get to the hotel as early as we could to try to get it resolved.

North to Ehrding

So we decided to save time and grab a cab. The Hotel Henry is in Ehrding, which turned out to be quite a ways north of Munich, and the cab cost us €65, which is about $100.

We arrived to find that our gear was stuck in customs, and they were closed for the weekend. There was no way we could get to it before Monday morning, and the tour was leaving on Sunday. How frustrating!

Edelweiss Bike Tours

Edelweiss Tours did what they could. Turns out their European headquarters is just around the corner from the hotel. Their upper management got involved and found gear to loan us. It fit badly, but at least we didn’t have to ride in our street clothes and we had helmets and water-proof boots.

Guides

So we met our guides under stress - the ones in the red shirts. The first to greet us was Peter, on the left here. Ursula is sitting at the table in the back, and Marco is holding the map. Manuel was still out leading a riding course. All great guides.

Maps

The maps provided by Edelweiss were very good. Unfortunately, ours were with our gear, but they found an old one to loan us for the first days.

On the back of the road map was this beautiful 3-D map that gives a better idea of what we would be riding through.

Our route for the first two days is on this map, beginning in Munich at the top center and ending at the north end of Lake Garda, at the bottom left. And we would not be riding the main highway!

Mapping the Route

Saturday evening we had our first meeting with our guides (German and Austrian) and fellow travelers (mostly American). And we did the Map Dance for the first time.

Each bike had a set of maps, and it was the rider's responsibility to copy the route from the master map. This usually happened in the morning after breakfast, but on this first day it was in the evening.

I took on the Navigator role, and responsibility for knowing the route.

Route Overview

Each day, the guides would give us an overview of the main and alternate routes, including cultural information about the area we'd be traveling through.

Groups traveling these two routes would be led by guides, but we always had the option to strike out on our own or in unguided groups, as long as we showed up at the right hotel in time for dinner.

This map actually shows the entire week-long trip, but there's more about that later.

The first day took us south from Munich, through the thin end of Austria and down into Italy, ending in Bolzano.

Bike Assignment

The bikes were all in the garage under the hotel. This was the biggest tour Edelweiss had done - 40 riders and 30 bikes. That's why they assigned 4 guides - they usually only have 2.

Because we were such a big group, and the company had several other groups out as well, they ran out their stable and actually had to rent some bikes.

Ours was one of the rentals and didn't arrive until late. It finally came through and was Tom's first choice for the trip. It's that blue BMW F-800-ST in the back.

This is BMW's new sport touring twin - a little less comfortable than the big road bikes, especially for the passenger, but much more nimble in the curves. And we expected to see some curves.

Each bike was equipped with saddle bags and a tank bag with map pocket, and some had a trunk as well. We had the option of leaving any of these behind. Our luggage would all be handled by Edelweiss, so we just needed room for whatever we wanted to carry with us during the day.

Celebrity Rider

This was a Rider Magazine tour, and we were accompanied by writer Clement Salvadori whose columns Tom had been reading for many years. He was a tremendous resource of information, both for bikes and for Italy.

Forming Friendships

Dinner that first evening was mostly Octoberfest food, according to Ursula – pork knuckles and dumplings and such.

She and Peter both sat at the same table we did, and we got to talk to her quite a bit. Told her about our adventures so far, and she was impressed – told us we didn’t travel like other Americans.

So we told her about Rick Steves. Since we didn’t need it for the bike-tour part of the trip, I loaned her “The Best of Europe” to look through.

She enjoyed it a great deal. Being a guide herself for some of the places in the book, she was impressed with the information and little local secrets Rick knew as well as she did.

Photo Op with Clement

There's something about the grey facial hair... Tom left his beret at home so people on the tour wouldn't get the two of them confused. They could handle that on their own.

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Day 1 – Munich to Bozen (Bolzano, Italy)

Morning Briefing

Day 1 started with a riding-safety class from Marco. On most rides they split this up, but we expected to be in serious mountains on the first day, so did it all at once. Part of the reason we did the Map Dance the evening before.

Also, the weather report was not good; rain expected for a large part of the day, and colder than normal. For this reason, we all needed to be up on our road safety skills and group-riding etiquette.

They also gave us careful directions to the hotel in case anyone got split up or decided to go it alone. That was mostly following the sign to the city center (“Centro, centro, centro,” says Ursula) and then a few turns out from there.

Following Ursula

We looked at the two routes and decided to take the short ride with Ursula. This was partly to start out a little gently, partly because of the borrowed gear, partly because of the weather report, and partly to make it to Bozen in time to see the Ice Man.

Her yellow bike and red helmet were easy to spot.

Rain and More Rain

It rained pretty much the whole day, and it was cold. Face shields fogged up and we didn't get much of a view when they were clear.

Coffee Stop

We didn’t stop much for the view because there wasn’t much to see, but we did make several warm-up stops.

Coffee and soup were the order of the day.

Fog in the Alps

The road was largely fogged in as we crossed the Alps. Still, somehow, we moved too slowly – maybe took too long at coffee stops to warm up, but we really needed them.

Autobahn

We finally decided to get off the little roads to make time. The process of getting a string of bikes through the toll booths of the Autobahn and back together again is a bit complicated, but it allowed us to make up some time.

It was a miserable day, and we still didn’t make it to Bozen before the Ice Man Museum closed. Yuk. There was evidence along the way of a beautiful ride, but it was only glimpses through the fog.

The hotel was a bit fancy for our taste, but it was certainly welcome. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, except for my frozen hands, I was not wet under the borrowed gear, just very cold. Yeah! Our room had a bathtub that I soaked in for quite a while, just trying to get warm again.

After dinner, Marco took us on a little walking tour around town.

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Day 2 – Bozen to Riva

Renegade Group

After that rainy Sunday, Monday was another story altogether. Our ultimate goal was Riva, at the north end of Lake Garda.

It started out cloudy, but cleared as the day went, and turned out beautiful. Except there were tales of snow in the high passes.

The big attraction of the day had been the Stelvio pass, but the official route through it was cancelled due to weather and all the guides took the short route.

As always, we had the option to strike out on our own. We ended up in a group of seven bikes that went to try for the Stelvio by circling around and coming at it from the south. We were led by Clement Salvadori. Here are some of us.

I started wearing this blue silk pario to keep my neck warm, and it became a sort of signature.

Mendelpass

Our route took us through a series of ever-higher passes. Mendelpass was the first.

All the signs in this northern part of Italy are in both Italian (Passo Mendola)and German (Mendelpass)

Apples and Photos

We were traveling through a major apple-growing region. The trees are severely trimmed, and staked like wine grapes to yield a lot more fruit and fewer leaves. This was the height of the season, as you can see here, and the smell was delicious - something that might be missed traveling this route by car.

Every time we stopped there was lots of photography going on.

Alps!

And this is why!

Passo Tonale Warm-up

We met other riders occasionally along the route, but were soon away from the rest of our tour.

Hairpin Turns

It was quite a ride, and I think Tom gained skill with switchbacks. There were a lot of them - like that little bit of road in the lower right corner of this shot. The roads were in excellent condition.

It was a sunny and clear day, with some amazing views, but not much opportunity to stop for pics. Tom managed to take a few shots on the go.

Passo di Gavia

We went through a couple of lower passes, then almost to the top of the Gavia, which immediately precedes the Stelvio from our direction.

The road narrowed to one lane and the turns got tighter, then once in a while there was a straight stretch through a high valley.

This side road leads to a lake and a restaurant, there on the left, that was closed.

Time to Turn Around

Nearing the top, Clement found a car spinning its wheels on the road. Afraid of black ice and other such things, he turned back, and we all followed.

We had made it through the Gavia, but not the famous Stelvio. Word from Clement's wife Susan was that the Gavia is actually a more difficult ride, but I suppose we'll never know.

Italian Lunch!

It was after noon as we headed down, and we stopped at the first place we found open on the way. Clement, who speaks Italian, tried to help us order, but the hostess, standing in the back corner here, just said she’d take care of us. She discussed amounts with Clement, counted drinks, and headed for the kitchen.

The food was amazing: polenta, mushrooms, tagliatelli with a couple different sauces, gnocchi, some mushroom-based pasta. Clement said they wouldn’t let us leave until we’d eaten it all and we made a good go of it.

We had a little coffee (pretty much straight espresso) but passed on the offered sweets. They overcharged us a little, according to Clem, but the food was good and the service was above and beyond.

Riva del Garda

Back down the pass, we took a cutoff and a different road on down to Riva. Somewhere along the way we got split up, but we had good directions to the hotel (centro, centro, centro) and found it easily.

Parking was under the Hotel de Lac du Parc and we were the last group to arrive. The hotel was huge and sprawling, on large and lovely grounds that led to the lake. There were bungalows in the back that I could see being used for celebrity retreats.

There were a couple swimming pools on the grounds and one inside, as well as a health spa. The lake is a water-sports destination. It was quite impressive.

Dinner was delicious and quite formal. Marco sat at our table, so we got to know him and a few other riders a little better.

Got Our Gear!

And the best news of all - our gear had arrived! Driven down from Munich by someone from Edelweiss. Yeah!

We had bought new gear for the trip – very flexible gear that would be good for all different kinds of weather, helmets that fit us well and boots that we could walk in as well as ride. It was great to be able to use it!

In the morning we went downstairs for breakfast looking like serious riders.

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Day 3 – Riva to Bologna

Morning Briefing

Today we were headed for Bologna, with a planned stop at the Ferrari Museum on the way and a promised guided tour in English. About half the day would be in mountains and half in the sprawling flatlands of the Po Valley around Bologna.

This is our morning-briefing directions to the hotel in Bologna - a little more complex than the first two. That little target circle means "centro".

Traffic Jams

We started the day on the short ride with Manuel, down along the west side of Lake Garda. But it was a frustrating ride with a lot of traffic.

There were lovely lake views here and there, but no chance to stop and capture them as we struggled to stay with the group. We couldn't split off without telling Manuel, or he'd have to come looking for us.

Off On Our Own

At the first break stop, we finally got the chance to talk to Manuel and tell him we were splitting off.

We pored over the map and found a road that would join us in to the stretch of road listed as the best part of the long ride – the road down the mountain back to the south end of the lake.

The connecting road turned out to be a little hard to find. We got a bit lost, but managed to ask for and get directions through the language barrier. We still ended up on narrow, winding, cliff-side roads. They were mostly the right ones.

Getting Lost

At one point it looked like we were in someone’s driveway, but the little road snaked on through, around the construction lorry parked in front of the garage. We asked for directions there from a guy who spoke a little English, then turned around and went back the way we’d come.

It was all very confusing, but certainly an adventure. The ride got quite warm as we traveled down out of the mountains, and we shed layers as we went. Appreciated our mesh jackets for this weather!

Back on the right road

We did finally find our way to the long-route road, which was all much better and more recently paved than the roads we’d been on most of the morning.

Mountain Views

This ride was certainly worth getting a little bit lost for.

Beautiful Lake Garda

And we finally made it back down to the southern end of Lake Garda.

We ended up rushed, didn’t take a lunch break (or many other breaks for that matter) and resorted to the autobahn for the last bit.

And we still missed the Ferrari Tour time by an hour. Then we turned the wrong way off the autobahn and missed the Ferrari Museum altogether. Oh well.

Bologna

Arrival in Bologna was a mess. Very hard to navigate and very busy, not enough street signs, lots of one-way streets, and what was probably rush-hour traffic.

After many U-turns, I suddenly spotted Marco standing outside a parking garage. Those red guide shirts come in handy! We made an illegal turn in, but we got there.

The parking garage was an adventure in itself. This only shows the main area - they put the bikes way in the back in little caverns, through ancient stone arches, all built or blasted out under the big central city park.

The hotel was an 800-meter walk away, and we opted not to wait for the shuttle. It was good to walk out the riding kinks.

Piazza Magiori

Lots of riders in this part of the world. This is the edge of the main square in Bologna.

Two nights in Bologna – we could settle in a little. Our room in the Grand Hotel looked out on the Via d’Independenza, one of the first two streets in town.

Dinner was fantastic. The green lasagna was creamy and rich and crunchy on top – the first bite almost had me swooning!

Neptune

What a strange fountain! Cherubs pissing and mermaids lactating?

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Day 4 – Bologna

Exploring Town

On our day off we walked around town a bit. There’s a lot of history of conflict here, and we were right in the middle of town.

Saw lots of commemorative plaques from the city’s history. Their declaration of independence, including vote count, is carved in stone on this courtyard wall.

We ran into Clem and Susan in this concrete courtyard living room, and had a chat,

then walked around the city’s archeological museum.

Stopped at a book store and bought a book of walking tours of Bologna, which gave us more information about what we were seeing.

Luigi Galvani

Statue of an early explorer of electricity. He lent his name to the Galvanic cell and to the process of Galvanizing.

Ducati Factory Tour

Tom here. In the afternoon, I rode with a group to Borgo Panigale, a suburb of Bologna, to tour the Ducati Museum and Factory.

Linda passed on the tour, but before we left, we walked to the cave-garage and stopped along the way for some gelato, the wonderful Italian ice cream. If you haven't had Italian ice cream, you haven't really had ice cream!

Our group squeezed their bikes into the few available spaces in the Ducati employees parking lot. Wanna guess what most of them ride?

Before we toured the museum and factory, we were given ample time to spend money in their gift shop. The clothes and other Ducati paraphernalia were tempting, but the price tags helped us resist.

Heading into the factory, we passed the loading dock with finished bikes heading out to meet their new owners. I didn't notice at the time, but the closest bike in this trailer is the new model Monster I hadn't seen.

Much of the current Ducati Product Line was on display.

Our tour guide tells us about the Cucciolo, the motorized bicycle that was the first Ducati.

Clem Salvadori checks out the legendary Mike Hailwood Ducati that won so many races.

Ducati has brought home more than its share of trophies over the years.

These are some of the bikes that won them.

Right after this we had a fairly extensive tour of the factory. I was not pleased, but also not surprised, when I learned that no photos were allowed inside. Still, it was a great tour of an impressive place. It was nice to see where three of my bikes had been built.

All too soon it was time to suit up and head our bikes back to the hotel parking cave.

City Park

Linda here again. I was glad to be off the bike for a day and wanted to see more of the city.

I walked around the big city park above the garage, the Giardini Pubblici Montagnola. The city is full of sculpture, some of it historical, some of it mythological, and most of it missing its noses.

Strange Fountain

The main steps up to the big park feature a fountain with a horse and woman being attacked by a giant squid

Old and Ancient

Beside the park with the sculptures that are hundreds of years old were some ancient ruins that might have been connected with the old aquaduct. It makes everything here seem so temporary.

Ubiquitous Art

The side of a post. What an artistic outlet!

I walked around the streets, looked through shops and bought a purple turtleneck on sale, anticipating a cold ride the next day.

People-Watching

Had lunch on the Piazza Magiori and people-watched for a while – toddlers running around leading their parents in the pigeon-chase, a guy juggling for tips, a group of women discussing their families at a table nearby, two guys having an argument in sign language. Or maybe it was just normal passionate Italian.

Who's taking whom for a walk?

Easy Good Food

My lunch was a hot mozzarella and tomato sandwich, and a Coke with actual ice!

Later, after I met Tom back at the room, we walked back out for great street-side pizza by the slice. The pizzas were big and square and cut into smaller squares, coming out of the ovens every few minutes. Hot and fresh and delicious, and inexpensive.

We decided to a pass on the McDonalds, even though they advertised cappuccino and croissants.

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Day 5 – Bologna to Trento (Trient)

Back on the Road

Thursday morning we headed back north, choosing the long route with the good riding rather than the romantic route through Verona with Ursula. We followed Marco out of the cave and through the crowded streets of Bologna, headed for Trento. We were the last group out, since Marco had to pay the shuttle and the garage.

The roads were fairly straight and fast to start with. We stopped at Ferrara to look at its 10th-century city walls and 13th-century castle. The city was crowded and we had to park several blocks away from the castle.

In fact, Peter’s groups was just leaving when we got there, so we took their parking places. It was a good walk over, and one of our group found a backpack he’d been looking for in a shop along the way. Another was looking for a charger for his Blackberry, and Marco directed him to a shop down a narrow street to look.

We just walked around the outside of the Castello Estense and looked at the moat and such.

Marco had planned to stop at the oldest pub in the world, but it was closed and we opted to just go on.

Lunch was in Montagnana, which has a nearly-intact city wall and gates still standing. Lots of interesting brick work and gate-towers of many designs.

Mountain-side Coffee Stop

After lunch the road turned into mountains, and the cultural stops were done. From here it was just riding on some good road and fun turns.

We stopped at this cafe for a break on the way up.

Top-of-pass photo op.

Trento

The group broke up a little coming into heavy traffic in Trento, and Marco had to chase a couple of us down. But, again, we had good directions to the hotel and would have been OK. It was “centro, centro, centro,” then find the train station and you’re almost there. Much better parking than in Bologna – a garage under the hotel again.

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Day 6 – The Dolomites

Interesting Terrain

The ride for Friday was Marco’s favorite of the trip, and now ours as well. It was the ride through the Dolomites, and the views were great.

This 3-D map gives you some idea of our ride - many passes, lots of hairpins, interesting rock formations.

On Our Own Again

We opted for the more interesting short route. Started out with Peter’s group, but told him we’d probably drop back and go on our own so we could stop when we wanted to take pictures.

We did that fairly early. It was a beautiful, mostly clear day and the route was easy to follow. We were in and around the two guided groups all day.

Into the Country

We rode through villages and rolling countryside. This was our first real glimpse of the white towering Dolomites.

If you look closely, you can see one of our riding groups on that road.

Hang Gliders

At one point we looked up to see a few brightly-colored hang gliders. They certainly looked like they were having a great time.

Dolomites!

This is the true shape of the Dolomites - tall, white and craggy. At one point Tom joked that the pass we were headed for was between those two peaks in the distance. Turns out that if he was wrong, it wasn't by much.

This was our lunch stop - a little road-side schnitzel. This far-northern part of Italy has often been part of Austria. A lot of the people here only speak German.

Friends Met Along the Way

Clem and Susan were traveling on their own as well, and we crossed paths with them several times along the way. There's some chance we might show up in the pages of Rider magazine, as Clem searched for someone new to put in his photos.

I think this was a timed shot with Tom's camera balanced on the saddle.

Thanks to Susan for snapping this one!

High Valleys

Goats in the Passes

This herd of cute little goats was hanging around the cliff around the top of the Sella Pass. They were pretty much irresistible, especially the kids, which were about the size of a house cat.

Pass-top Photo Op

We met up with a lot of our fellow riders at the top of the Sella, and got one of them to take our picture.

This is the view just a little to the right of the one above. Cold and exhilarating

That's Where We're Heading

The road signs generally tell you the pass you're heading for as well as the town. They were fairly easy to follow.

Higher and Higher

Great Curves

We finally reached the top and started back down again. This is the road ahead, not much different from the road behind but all in view at once. Doesn't it look like fun? It was!

Our youngest guide, Manuel, with our oldest rider, Clyde Warner. Clyde's got a lot of miles under his belt.

And here we are, poised to head down it. Tom, put your helmet on and let's go!

So we did. And the Dolomites slowly disappear behind.

Inheritance

The story of this area is that the laws of inheritance gave the whole farm to the first son. The younger sons had the option of working for their older brothers or finding their own way in the world.

Quite often, they took the option of moving up the hill and clearing their own farms. So the farms in the bottom land are the oldest, original farms, with younger siblings working their way up.

Of course, the farms at the bottom eventually turned into the villages.

The Navigator

Sillian

The day ended just over the border from Italy into Austria, in a little ski town called Sillian – our only small-town hotel.

The castle on the hill across the road was in private hands and not open to the public. Too bad.

Welcome from Clement

We were among the last to arrive, but still had time to relax before dinner.

We changed into the robes provided and explored the spa in the bottom floor of the hotel. We looked in vain for a hot tub or whirlpool. They did have a swimming pool, a steam room and dry sauna and it warmed us up..

Window View

There was at least one other Edelweiss tour staying here and the parking lot was full of bikes and luggage vans and trailers.

At dinner, with other riders in the room next to us, Marco passed out commemorative T-shirts and the new Edelweiss catalog, fresh off the presses. It was a fun end to a glorious riding day!

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Day 7 - Grossglockner

Into the Alps Again

This last day of our tour started out a little misty, but cleared as the day went.

The route included the famous Grossglockner Pass at 12000 feet. All three riding guides went that way, with Marco doing van duty. We chose to go with Ursula – I liked the way she leads.

Unfortunately, we did get stuck behind a fairly timid rider who didn’t handle curves or passing very well. It was a little frustrating, but also made it easier to slow or stop a minute to take a photo, and then catch up with the group again.

Once we got out of this valley, it was along a twisting road with little chance for photos.

The pass has a toll - €18 per bike - paid at the booth near the bottom. It was a little awkward getting us all through the booth and back together on the other side, so Ursula pulled over to the side of the toll plaza to wait. One bike in our group – Randy and Allison, I think – had a battery problem leaving the toll plaza and couldn’t get started.

We were the only bike still there to let Ursula know. We rushed to catch up with the group, and then to overtake Ursula. Finally, with some help from the observant and helpful Craig, we got her to stop.

Coffee Stop

Ursula went back to help them, leaving us with instructions to lead the group to the coffee stop 7km ahead.

We almost stopped in the wrong place, but are glad we went on - it was a doozy!

Off to the right you'll see the Gletcherbahn where the mountain train brings tourists, and to the left is the huge parking garage. this is a popular destination.

Franz Josef Glacier

The restaurants had panoramic windows overlooking the huge Franz Josef Glacier – what a view! And yes, we're back in Austria with its beloved last emperor.

It's interesting that we had visited the other "Franz Joseph Glacier" in the Southern Alps of New Zealand last year.

The glacier is surrounded by very interesting snow-covered peaks. We spent quite a while there, warming up and taking pictures. Ursula got there with Randy and Allison – they’d had to bump-start the bike, with some help from Manuel who came through with his group while they were trying.

Lots of tourists around and we all joined in, taking pictures and buying souvenirs and warming up in the cafe. It was a bit of a problem gathering our group back together to head on up the pass.

This is a group of kids gathered together in a model boat that sat in the courtyard.

Into the Clouds

We finally all got together again, although it turns out Craig was still in the gift shop flirting with the cashier. Not anything special there – he flirts with all the women.

We headed back down the mountain a little way to pick up the road up to the pass. As we pulled out, we watched clouds pouring over the ridge into the glacier valley. Minutes later we were in the clouds.

The temperature was 0°C at the glacier stop, and dropped rapidly as we climbed. It was another 700m of elevation to the pass itself with a predicted temp of -4°C, but I think it was colder than that.

World Closing In

We rode slowly, each bike enclosed in a small white world, surrounded by frost-covered crags and grass, following a single red taillight in front of us. Tom took this picture before visibility reached its worst.

We passed several big trikes on the way up that were apparently having a problem with the grade.

I watched the frost bloom on the back of Tom’s jacket in front of me.

We all had to ride with face shields up to avoid frost-over, so the ice formed inside our helmets as well.

I found I could leave my shield up just a notch and pull my scarf just over my nose and mouth My face stayed surprisingly warm and my shield tolerably clear. Cheeks and eyes got quite cold.

Although some folks grumbled about not seeing anything, I thought it was quite an adventure!

Down the Other Side

A little way back down from the top, back below the clouds, we pulled into a restaurant for lunch but found it closed.

Some of the trikes came in as we were leaving.

Warm-up

So we went on down to the bottom of the pass, stopped just the other side of the toll plaza and got mixed in with Manuel’s group, which Craig had joined. He gave Ursula a hard time for leaving without him.

And Lunch

The place was comfortable and the soup was great.

Just as we were leaving Randy had another problem starting his bike. It jumped unexpectedly and he dropped it. Several people were immediately off their bikes and picking them back up. The bike did start, so we went on.

Parasails Circling

As we rode along the winding roads we started seeing the parasailers again– sometimes 20 or 30 of them in the sky all at once. Tom tried to get some shots on the fly.

Parasails, Tile and Sod Roofs and Firewood

We were back on a flat road between hills with farms built up them. Stopped for coffee again with Manuel’s group.

Randy’s bike was still giving him problems, so he switched with Manuel. Ursula agreed to follow his group in case he had a problem, Unfortunately, that meant making a fuel stop with them, after we’d already made our own. Still over 100 km to go.

An hour or so down the road, Manuel’s group long since pulled ahead (with some of ours mixed in), we found another 2-up bike from our group on the roadside. They were having bike problems.

Ursula got them started and they rode with us, limping along, to the next town. She called Marco to bring the van for them and their bike, and we left them to wait 2 hours at a coffee shop. Not too bad a wait, apparently.

Dinner Photo 1

Left to right around the table:
Joanne and Mike Sutton,
Janean Spurlin,
Tom McMillin

Dinner Photo 2

Left to right around the table:

Sandy Pitroski,
Sue Gragg ,
C, D,
Susan and Clement Salvadori

Dinner Photo 3

Left to right around the table:
Lisa Hall (?),
Betty Staab (?),
Alison Meyer,
Neal & Kathy Wegner
F, G,
Steve O'Leary,
Clyde Warner

Dinner Photo 4

Ursula and Manuel

Dinner Photo 2

Standing: Marco and Dennis LeVine

Seated: Vicki Hunt

Farewell to Our Guides

Ursula Peter,
Manuel Taschner,
Marco Bauer
and Peter Zangerle.

Great job, guys! Hope to ride with you again some day.

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