Day 4 To Mieming to meet tour

Very quick blog this morning. Robyn and I stayed up way to late last night excited about our first day of riding and sorting what we should take on the bike tomorrow and what we should send in the van. Not a big deal I know but it is something new. 

The flight to Innsbruck was uneventful only to say the Vienna Airport was much busier than we had expected and, as Anna described it, disorganised. In Innsbruck we were met by transport that Anna had booked and so we had a person with an Anna Hopper sign waiting for Us as we came out. Felt very important. The drive to Mieming opened up the Alps feel that will be the next few days. Although is was drizzling rain and the tops of the mountain disappeared in to the cloud, the valleys we could see were filled with small communities with the regular church on a hill. 

Our hotel is clearly a ski lodge most of the time. We booked in but our room was not ready and as we waited we started to meet the other members of our tour. 

First was Terry and Pam- they run a building business in New Zealand. They have been and done an Edelweiss tour before

Next we was Angus, a New Zealand VET who works in a animal pathology business from Fiji, and his son, Hamish, a business adviser who works in Auckland. 

Then Ramon and Marly, a couple from Brazil.  He works in logistics and Marly is a teacher. There was three others who had come earlier and were out doing the training course. Hervey and Connor, from Seattle, and a Dutch man, Wouter. They did not get back in until 4pm with the news that Wouter had binned his Multistrada. Lost it crossing a cattle grid. Bad news was that we had a spare bike, now we don’t. 

 It was with the first guys we had lunch. The funny part was that  Ramon spoke Portueguese, Spanish, French and English. The NZers and us spoken English the waitress spoke English and Slovakian. The menu was new yesterday in Germany and none of us had no idea what it said. So we tried stuff and turns out the best deal was the soup. 

At 5 we had our briefing. Axis and Jonas, our guides, took us through the briefing which had the effect of frighten the hell out of me about riding the switchbacks of Stelvio pass. Next the bit we had been waiting for and had the effect of over taking our concerns, was meeting our bike. Robyn and I got the Triumph Explorer, as we and asked.  It is the brand new version, the first one I have seen. I don’t think you can buy this bike in Australia yet. And Anna, the 950 Multistrada she had asked for. The next challenge was working out how to make them work and how to set them up for us which kept Anna and I busy until dinner. 

The welcome dinner was just eating and yarning with the group. We are pretty happy with group. Apparently it is a pretty large group so we will see how we go.  We start today with the most challenge day, the famous Stelvio pass.