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| August 2013 | Louisiana MSTA Newsletter | Page 1 |
No actual MSTA ride activity to report for August so this issue will consist of Part One of Bob and Stacie's Europe tour. I have been struggling to sort out all the wonderful memories and get the highlights down but the tour was so action packed it is not easy to remember what happened where and when. Next time I will try to take notes!
At least I have lots lots of pictures, many of which were graciously shared by other members of the tour. The following report is written with those who have not been to Europe and/or done an Edelweiss tour in mind. For us first timers it has truly been a wonderful and eye opening experience. I hope the rest of you will enjoy it as well.
By Bob Chappuis
We have talked about touring Europe by bike (motorcycle) for years, probably soon after out first STAR together, 1999 in Ohio or at least 2000 in Avon, Colorado. By that time we knew we both loved touring by bike and that we were very compatible riding together for weeks at a time. The mountains are always a top motorcycle touring destination and Europe and the Alps may be the pinnacle. So when I retired it was decided that as soon as sufficient dollar$ were saved up we would go. I had read about Edelweiss tours for years and through MSTA I had made a few acquaintances who had actually done it and they all recommended them highly. We booked the Best of Europe August 2013 tour in February and Delta tickets were purchased soon after. In addition to the 7 day bike tour through Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria we booked an all day tour of central Munich.
Days 1 and 2 Tuesday & Wednesday Aug 6 & 7
Our flights from Baton Rouge to Munich would take a total of about 12 hours flying time. The little Canadair CRJ left Baton Rouge 10 minutes late around 11:50 but we had a two hour layover in Atlanta, plenty of time to get some Euros and lunch. We knew it was cheaper to get Euros in Europe but we did not want to be without cash when we landed. Lunch was two slices of pizza and beers for $30. We boarded the Boeing 767 around two pm and settled in for the long haul. The 767 has an audio/video console for each passenger and one of the screens is a "flight tracker" like a GPS for the jet showing our flight path plus speed, eta and weather data. I was amazed to see a 126 mph tail wind had us going almost 700 mph at one point. But we were losing 6 hours as we arced across the Atlantic Ocean, basically losing a whole night's sleep. We spread out on some empty seats but I struggled to find a comfortable position and maybe got 45 minutes sleep at best. I think 5'3&1/2" Stacie fared better. We arrived in Munich around 8:00 am on Wed August 7 a bit stiff and bleary eyed. We claimed our luggage and soon Rolf, the do-it-all guy at Hotel Henry picked us up and took us to our hotel in Erding, 15 miles east of Munich Airport. Rolf informed us that Germany was having a very unusual heat wave but was expected to cool off in a couple days. It was comfortable enough outdoors but generally hot inside all buildings as there was no AC anywhere.
The base Hotel for our Edelweiss tours is just a few blocks from downtown Erding which has numerous open air biergartens and cafes and shops. After a much needed nap we walked downtown and looked around and had a couple beers and lunch. Every decent sized town in Germany has its own brewery and each brewery provides it own beer glasses with it's name and logo printed on it to the local cafes or biergartens as well as colorful tents to cover the outdoor tables that are always present.We found that beer was relatively inexpensive all over Germany and the Germans drink it all day long. Sitting down for lunch we had a hard time figuring out what to order (a problem our tour guides would help with the rest of the trip). I was expecting too see bratwurst but no luck. The only word we recognized was "hamburger" and we noticed many of the locals were eating them so we gave it a try. Oddly, all the locals were using a fork and knife to cut up and eat their hamburgers! The burgers were just so-so. After walking around some more we returned to the hotel to meet Gottfried, our tour guide for our Thursday Munich tour, along with several other tour members for a welcominmg dinner at the hotel. The second ride tour guide Alan was also there as well as Angela, Alps riding class instructor. Tony from Vancouver, CA would be on our ride tour and was there a day early to take the riding class. Robert, from Quebec, Robert and Diana from Ontario, Robert and Carolyn from California and Mike and Kim from texas completed the Munich group. There would be three Roberts and three Mikes on tour!
Day 3 Thursday Munich City Tour
Rolf drove us all to the train station a few blocks from the hotel and we caught the train for the 15 minute ride to the center of Munich. Then we were on foot. The city center is behind the 800 year old walls of the old city and we entered through one of the main gates. Our first stop was at the Viktualienmarkt: an open air market where an amazing abundance of all types of produce, souvenirs and gifts are on display for sale. Next we visited St. Peter’s church, Munich’s oldest and climbed the ancient wooden steps of the clock tower to the viewing platform, 180 feet above street level for a great view of all of Munich. Our next stop was for lunch at the Augustiner Brauerei, established in 1328, for a beer and famous Weisswurst, or white sausage. Augustiner is the best beer in Bavaria according to Gottfried and the brew pub also makes some of the best Weisswurst. The sausage is made of finely ground veal and pork and is indeed white. It has a texture similar to Vienna Sausage and a slightly sweet taste. From the Marienplatz, the city center, we waled down the Fußgängerzone, the super-busy all pedestrian shopping street. Coming to the end of the street we then took a tour of the oldest Renaissance church north of the Alps, including the crypt that contains the tomb of Ludwig II, mad king of Bavaria. Next was Munich’s most famous landmark, the Frauenkirche Cathedral that includes both the devil's footprint on its floor and the eye of God in the ceiling.
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We returned to Hotel Henry for dinner with the rest of the tour group. Then after a pre-ride briefing and handing over of the motorcycle keys and papers Gottfried briefed me on operation of our almost new BMW R1200RT and Alan helped me install a mount for my GPS. And we were good to go!
Day 4 Friday Erding to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. 153 miles.
The daily routine for the riding tour was breakfast at 7:30, luggage downstairs to the van at 8:15, route briefing at 8:30 ride at 9:00. The route briefing was a summary of our planned stops and final destination plus any potential traffic/road condition alerts. At nine sharp Gottfried led us northeast out of Erding at a moderate pace through some tidy city streets and then scenic farmland, slowing for the many pretty little towns every several miles. I was in awe - here I was riding in Bavaria! We stop soon to sight-see and chat with local farmers at a farm that had a big May-Pole, a common sight in the region and then after a few more miles another stop for coffee at a nice outdoor cafe in Au in der Hallertau. Stacie and I were surprised at the frequent stops. Easy riding with frequent stops this first day the Edelweiss brochure says "to get us accustomed to the local roads and traffic" but I think it is more to let Gottfried evaluate our riding skill levels. Gottfried is a real "mother hen" of a guide and wears a bright orange helmet that you can't miss making him easy to follow. We quickly felt comfortable with Gottfried in the lead.
We continued on a winding path northeast through Ingolstadt then stopped in Eichstätt for lunch in the old castle of Willibaldsburg before working our way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a medieval walled city surrounding a castle with narrow cobblestone streets and origins dating back to 1070. The name "Rothenburg ob der Tauber" in German means "Red fortress above the Tauber" [River]. The main buildings of our hotel, the Reichs-Küchenmeister, were built in the 12th century as a restuarant and later developed into rooms. We parked the bikes in a tiny cover garage and checked into our rooms and then gathered in the town square for the famous Night Watchman Tour. In medieval times a night watchman would make the rounds of the city after dark to insure that all the gates were locked and secure. Now the Night Watchman is very informative and entertaining tour guide who has built a career for himself working for tips.
After the tour we enjoyed our best meal of the trip, Franconian style Schaeufele Huge roast pork shoulders and with a side of potatoe dumpling and a fantastic salad. (Every meal in Europe seems to come with a fantastic salad). After dinner we enjoyed some drinks at the bar.
The weekend we were in Rothenburg coincided with Das Taubertal-Festival a weekend german rock festival with 18 thousand attendees camping outside the city for three nights of live music.The festival was sold out 6 months in advance or we might have tried to get in. You could hear pretty well from the northern wall of the city but we were dead tired and turned in to try to get some sleep in the still warm air. Wee had to sleep with the windows open and I could faintly hear the drums playing all night long. The music finally stopped at dawn, at which time the nearby clock tower chimed it's 6 o'clock wakeup chime! Not much sleep this night!
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Day 5 Saturday Rothenburg to Heidelberg 111 miles
We loaded up the bikes and wound our way over the cobblestones to the city gate and headed east, crossing the Tauber. A coffee stop in Langenburg then a stop for a guided tour of Kloster Schontal, originally built in 1157. Kloster is German for monastery or abbey and was the home of the Cistercian order of monks. The abbey is one of the most impressive examples Baroque architecture in the region. The Cistercians split off from the Bendictines who they felt were too self indulgent. The emphasis of Cistercian life was on manual labour and self-sufficiency, and they supported themselves through agriculture and brewing ales. To me the interior of the abbey seemed incredibly rich and luxuriant for any monastery! The abbey buildings are now used by the Diocese of Rothenburg-Stuttgart for conferences, retreats and training, as well as the town hall of the community of Schöntal.
Next we were due to stop for lunch at Hirshborn am Neckar. A castle built on top of a rock, we had planned to eat lunch there but the restaurant was closed for a wedding. We were able to climb the 121 steps to the top of the castle tower for a panoramic view of the surrounding hills and river. Back on the bikes we followed the River Neckar to Heidelberg.
We parked at a bike only parking lot on the river next to a landmark bridge and walked two blocks to our hotel in the middle of pedestrian only downtown Heidelberg. The Hotel Zum Ritter St. Georg was built in 1592 - "The architectonic beauty and elegance of the Renaissance building make the Hotel Zum Ritter St. Georg the finest historical and most artistically valuable town house in Heidelberg" according to their own brochure. According to our guide it is the only building to have survived a massive fire in the 1600's.
While Stacie was resting I walked back down to the river and across the old brick bridge. There were many tourists doing the same. There were sightseeing boats full of tourists on the river as well. On each of the bridge bulwarks there were many colorful padlocks secured to iron rings each with a couple's names inscribed, a local lovers tradition. Next I walked to the large town square a couple blocks from our hotel where a free rock concert was going on. There was a German band playing a Reggae music and they sounded good! There were vendor booths set up selling bratwurst and beer and even cocktails. After 3 days of drinking local German Dunkel and Weisbeir I was ready for some of favorite Bourbon. I did not recognize any of the cocktail names but spotted one called "Jacky Cola". Sure enough it was JD and Coke! In the regions we toured ice is optional with mixed drinks and our server usually asked "how many cubes". Even at the outdoor concert cocktails and beers were all sold in the usual fancy glassware which you returned for a 2 euro deposit. I kept my glass which had a cool etching of a howling wolf as a souvenir!
Back at the Zum Ritter some o the group enjoyed a delicious dinner of roasted fillet of "pike-perch" with a wine and mushroom sauce. Stacie and some others opted for some home made raviolli which was also delicious. Pike-Perch is a favorite in Europe. The salad was again outstanding. The numerous fresh toppings were hidden UNDER a bed of crisp fresh greens of many varieties. Dessert tonight was Viennese style apple strudel with Bourbon vanilla ice cream, almonds and whipped cream. Best dessert of the trip.
After dinner Alan and Gottfried guided us to an outside cafe near the river where we had a beer or 2 and waited for the 11:00 PM fireworks show. The show went on for nearly 30 minutes and was by far the most impressive display of fireworks Stacie and I have seen.
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Day 6 Sunday Heidelberg to Ribeuaville 204 miles Sunday was our longest riding day but did not seem so because the pace was hectic and the roads got real interesting! We headed southeast out of Heidelberg for a few miles and got on the A5 Autobahn, heading south for 30 miles to Ettlingen then working our way south through the Black Forest on winding twisty roads as we saw our first real mountains. The Black Forest is laced with twisty roads and we meandered back and forth on some great ones. We passed through many small towns, there was rarely a long stretch between them but the terrain was mountainous and the roads just kept twisting between the houses. It seemed nearly every intersection was a round-about so we rarely had to stop and soon learned to treat the round-abouts as chicanes with a quick right-left flick of the bike: fun! Near Gutach we finally started heading east following the Elz river, a tributary of the Rhine, and headed for northeastern France. We crossed the Rhine near Markolsheim and parked at a tourist area overlooking the locks below the bridge and took some photos.
Back on the road we soon rolled into Ribeauville, about 50 miles south of Strasbourg. We parked in the courtyard of our home for the next two nights, the Hotel De La Tour. Ribeauville, called Rathaldovilare or Rappoltsweiler until the 19th century dates back to at least the 8th century and has numerous medieval buildings.It is located within the Alsace region which is famous for its vineyards and cuisine. Alsace is also the home of my great great grandfather on my father's side, Etienne Chappuis. The Hotel De La Tour was another delightful stay with our third floor room overlooking the town square.
For supper the group walked a few blocks to a restaurant on the east end of town. This turned out to be our least favorite of our evening meals. We had only one choice, chicken stew with some weird bread like macaroni as a side. The chicken stew was fine but tasted just like my mom used to make. I guess we were expecting something unique in France and were slightly disappointed as we walked back to the hotel. As if to make up for the lackluster meal, our tour guides invited us to walk to the west end of town to a quaint bar for some (several) late night drinks. This place had Chimay, one of my favorite beers! I think we all got a bit soused. The next day was a so called rest day - we would ride but not until 10:00 and only 98 miles.
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Hope you enjoyed this issue!.
Keep riding & smiling
Bob Chappuis, Editor
