Day 9
The next morning I set off along the D133 in the direction of Gap and at last the sun was out, it was warm and the bike was running well. En route to Gap I passed through the town of Grignan which had a large fortress type building dominating the skyline above the town and so I stopped to take a photo.
One of the curious things that I have noticed during my riding through France is that the road numbers can suddenly change without warning. For example the D133 that I started on changed mysteriously after about 10 miles and became the D541. Unless one keeps a close eye on this it can get very confusing. Yes, I know a Sat Nav would make this point irrelevant but that’s the way I like to travel. Riding further East towards Gap I could see the mountains start to rise in the distance. It had been several years since I had ridden over any Alpine passes and I was looking forward to it but by now the sun was strong, it was very warm, and the scenery forced me to stop, not only to capture its beauty and grandeur but also to pause and soak it all up over a cup of coffee or two.
After my well earned coffee and cigar breakfast, I rode on through the town of Gap in the direction of Briacon along the N94. I rode up through the mountains on snake like roads with multiple hairpin turns and spectacular views
and up then over the Little St Bernard pass
and then over in to Italy where the descent on the other side of the pass was just as good as the climb up.
Once over the pass and in the valley I headed for Aosta where I found a very nice hotel on the outskirts of town to spend the night in. It turned out that the guy who ran the hotel was also a biker and he had never seen a Himalayan before so after removing the luggage I gave him the keys and he took it for a spin along a road behind the hotel. When he returned the broad grin on his face told me all I needed to know. In the dining room of his hotel the owner had this bike on display.
A stunning example of 1952 Gilera Nettono Sport 250
Day 10
The next morning I awoke to find the valley in which the town of Aosta sits, covered in low cloud so I packed the bike and headed for the Great Saint Bernard pass hoping that the cloud would break before I got to it.
As I climbed up the mountain side the temperature dropped and once in the low cloud it was cold and damp. At some points the visibility was under 30 yards and I kept climbing upwards, hoping to break through the clouds, but it was to no avail. As I reached the fork in the road between the tunnel through the mountain or the high road over the pass I made the decision to take the tunnel. This was not what I wanted but the terrible visibility combined with the cold, wet road made the decision for me. On entering the tunnel I had to pay just over 15 Euros and under 3 miles later, I emerged from the tunnel and in to the bright sunshine of Switzerland. As I was on the North side of the mountains I was initially in the shade and the temperature was still in single figures, however as I rode down in to the valley below and continued North in the direction of Martigney I eventually entered the sunlit part of the road and the temperature started to rise.
I don’t usually have a schedule to adhere to but on this day I had, so once in Martigney I had to take the motorway up past Motreux on the shores of Lake Geneva, by this time the temperature had risen in to double figures and although I dislike travelling on motorways, the Swiss versions were relatively good. One thing that has to be borne in mind when travelling in Switzerland is not only do they have their own currency but it is a very expensive place to travel in. With this in mind, because I neither wanted to exchange Euros for Swiss Francs only to then have to change them back in to Euros when I arrived in Germany, nor buy super expensive service station coffee, I decided to make my only stop in a rest area for a quick cigar and a bottle of water.
Having fuelled up in Aosta I knew that the range of the bike was good enough to get me out of Switzerland before I needed any super expensive Swiss petrol, so I rode on past Bern and Zurich, finally getting the shores of Lake Konstance by mid afternoon. The ferry crossing across lake Konstance in to Germany was relatively inexpensive at around 7 Euros and very calm due to the fine weather.
A hour or so later I arrived at my destination for the evening, Ravensburg. After settling in at the hotel that evening, I met up with a friend who happened to be living there for a short time and then I had a wander around the town. I stayed at a relatively inexpensive hotel that I had found online the day before for a reasonable 25 Euros.
Day 11
The next morning I set off East along the roads number 82, number 32 and number 12 in the direction of Kempten, then the number 472 to Rosenheim, then North on the number 15 to Wasserburg, then East on the number 304. Eventually using the number 299 and a little stretch of the Autobahn number 94 I found my way to the number 12 that took me North to the Czech border at the town of Philippsreut. The countryside in this part of the world is very pleasant to ride through on a bike, if at times a little slow, due to encountering a town every few miles. As a result, by the time I had reached the Czech border it was already late afternoon. The minute I entered the Czech republic the roads deteriorated very quickly but the bike took it all in its stride with no issues. It skimmed over the sometimes broken and gravel strewn road surfaces without loosing grip and a couple of hours later I has reached my destination for my last evening on this part of my trip from Spain to Poland, the Czech city of Ceske Budijovice.
Day 12
On arising on this last day of my journey to Poland, I packed the bike in a bright but cool morning and headed East towards Trebon, then to Jindrichuv and on to the motorway number 23 towards Brno. Brno was much larger than I thought it to be, I stopped in the centre of the city for a coffee and then pushed on East, unfortunately, the only main route out of the city was the motorway and after about 15 miles of motorway travel I exited it when found the number E462 which took me the rest of the way to the Polish border at the town of Cieszyn. From Cieszyn it was a straight road to Krakow where I would be staying over the winter.