Alps done- some tips for others and next time.

Let me start with the tips in no particular order

1. Organised tours like to are a very good way to go. A good tour will take you places you may not have known about. Or would have missed on your own. A road a coffee shop or a lunch. All this things are researched and not left to chance. If we had traveled on our own we would have missed all of these. 

2. They are expensive - well they are when you live in Australia and want to tour in Europe. On Edelweiss Tour they say this is what is covered and you pay for everything else. We paid for fuel, coffee and lunch stops except two days on this tour where they provided a very nice picnic. We paid for dinner on the rest night. Other evening meals were included as was a full breakfast. Your do have to pay for your drinks including water in some places. Accomdation for all nights was included, including the night before we start riding and the night after we finish. All the food was outstanding. I think food in Europe is outstanding. It is not possible to get accomdation and food as good as this as consistently when traveling in Australia or the USA. That is the limit of our travel experience on other continatents. If we work on the price of a cappaciono. In Italy it is about AU$4 in Switzerland AU$ 6-8 Austria AU$ 5. In an airport AU$10. Meat meals like steak is expensive but pasta and pizza are about the same price as eating the same in a restruarnt in Australia they just taste better. Switzerland is about 1.5 times. 

3. Edelweiss Tour includes an option of zero excess insurance - take it. It is a small additional change in the scheme of the whole cost. 

4. Riding in the European Alps is not like anything you have experienced in Australia or the USA. We both have our share on winding roads. We can make riding that wind all day. But in the European Alps we rode 8 days all of them as good or more challenging than anything we have in Australia or the USA. And after 8 days we could go back and do that at least two time over and hardly cover the same roads. 

5. Stevios Pass is the most challenging sealed road I am every likly to ride. I am happy I have done it but it is unlikely I would do it again. It is not a great motorcycle road the corners are so tight and steep you must work the clutch to get the bike around. Car have to stop in some corners and make like a three point turn to make it. It is difficult enough on a bike if all you have to do is ride up it. But that is not all you have to do. There are other bikes, cars and buses going up and down it at the same time each one with drivers or riders with varying skill levels that you cannot control. It is in the tour because it is famous and people would not do an Alps Tour if it was not included. For me I have done it once and I am still alive and us harmed. It is not reasonable to expect God to protect me again. That said the back side the road we went down is not as bad as the one in the picture of the past and I might consider going up and down that side again. 

6. If you choose to do this and not as part of a tour go to the Dolomites. There are a number of smaller ski resort towns there where you could stay and base camp. You can get a Dolomites Passport. The little book looks like a passport but lists all the passes in the Dolomites so you can mark them off as you go. I think they are aimed at those crazy cyclist but could work for motorcyclists too. If you decided to do this please let me know, I might consider coming too. 

7 If you intend to go to Europe to ride work out all your travel times on 40km/h. I enjoying my riding in Australia at about 500km per day max. About 6 hrs a day on the bike. In the European Alps 250 is a big day. We did some 350 days we started at 9am and when pretty solidly only stopping for two or three rest/coffee stops and lunch. We arrived at our accomdation at 7pm. It is 10hrs of phyical riding. It took a while for my body to adjust. 

It will be much more enjoyable if you do not over estimate your ability. We choose the Ultimate Alps Tour  because it lined up with school holidays. For your first trip I think the Best of Europe or the Dolomites and Tuscany may be better  choices.

8. Bring enough clothes for the whole trip. There is nowhere to wash. Hotels have laundry services where you pay some one to do your washing but most like you would be gone before it was done. So enough for a change every day. The temperature on the ride got up to 32 degrees in the low valleys, so you were sweating it out there it then got down 8 degrees as you went over the passes some with snow on the side of the road.