Like most big adventures it started innocently enough. This spring my riding buddy and regular in this blog (Pork Chop) Michael forwarded me an e-mail from a tour company in Germany, Beach’s tours. They were advertising a fall trip starting in Munich, Germany and riding a loop through Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, northern Italy and back to Munich. All in just over two weeks. Michael had toured with this company 20 years ago and vouched for the quality of their organization and tours.

We decided to let the idea ferment while we did some research and looked at the logistics of flights and timing. Over the course of the next few weeks, we discussed it from time to time, and Deby and I decided to go for it and send in our deposits. I sent the tour link to a couple of members of the Northwest Norton Owners  to see if anyone else wanted to join us exploring that part of Europe. By the end of Spring, we had two takers, our club Treasurer, Steve Craig and PNW expat Chuck Peter. My friend Michael the instigator? He dropped out with some excuse about a wedding he was required to attend. On September 15^th the four of us in full jet lag mode met at the Shiller’s Hotel in Olching, Germany ready to start our adventure.

Here is an interactive map with the route we ended up taking:

On the morning of day one, jet lagged and tired, we dragged ourselves to a conference room to meet the rest of 17 riders who would be joining us on the trip.  The day started with GPS training school where we were given our GPS units and taught how to use the pre-programmed tracks to find our way around Europe on carefully curated motorcycle roads. We came to know these roads as “Rob’s Roads.” Rob Beach, the proprietor of Beach’s must have spent great effort finding the smallest, remote, winding roads through tiny villages and past historic sites. It seemed like there were almost full days when we never shifted out of 3^rd gear working our way through the backways and alleys of Europe. We were told some of the paths dated back to the Roman empire and were only wide enough for a horse cart. Many times we were glad to be on motorcycles when oncoming traffic approached.

Before turning us loose with his fleet of nearly new BMW adventure motorcycles Rob and his crew took us to a large nearby parking lot to get familiar with the machines. I thought this was a great idea as they had us practice panic braking and small radius turns. It was a great way to get familiar with the bikes, but I had half a feeling that they were making notes of our riding skills and whom they should pay special attention to. I’m glad to say that the four Nortoneers passed the skills test with flying colors, and we were deemed free to ride at will.

Evaluating our motorcycle riding skills

Beach’s tour philosophy is to give everyone the GPS routes and let us ride our own ride. We were free to ride alone or with a small group. We could follow the suggested route or make our own.  Some people in the group chose to ride with one of the two guides on motorcycles who were along and helpful with navigation, language issues, knowledge of the best places to stop for food and the best historical sites to visit. There was also a chase truck transporting our luggage to the next hotel and they even had a backup motorcycle stashed away for emergency use.

Motorcycles lined up at the hotel ready to ride.

The four of us decided to stick together for the whole trip since we all had about the same riding style that was just slightly faster than legal but slower than dangerous. Well, mostly..

Two weeks might sound like a long time on a motorcycle in Europe but for us I think it was just about right. Each day we had our choice of three routes. There was usually a longer, shorter and medium length route. Inevitably we chose the longer routes so we could maximize our miles and fun.

Our first night was in Rothenburg ob del Tauber, a small and exceptionally well-preserved medieval town with city walls and cobblestone streets. Just riding into the center of town to our hotel was an adventure through the city wall.

We arrived early enough to get checked into our hotel and then meet the group for a highly entertaining walking tour of the city arranged by Beach’s tours.

We were looking forward to visiting the Czech Republic and Prague where we would have a day off to explore. On our way we spent a night at a fantastic rural hotel nestled on a lake in Fichtelberg before continuing the next day to Prague.

On our way to Prague we ran into our first and only mechanical issue. South of Altenstadt an der Waldnaab (say that three times fast) we came across a closed road for construction. Checking the GPS units there was a long detour we could have used or….  if we zoomed in a little there was a dirt road over the mountain which would save us some time and distance. The four of us ventured off down a two-track logging road that got smaller and smaller as we climbed the wooded mountain.

Steve wondering why he was following me down the obviously dead end road.

We felt strangely at home riding what was obvious a logging road with the tell-tale slash piles and logging truck tracks. I was thinking we had this when the path ended. Ok, maybe we missed a turn? The four of us stopped to consult our magic GPS boxes for a route when Deby said she was getting a low tire pressure warning on her TFT dash. I wasn’t immediately concerned thinking it might be down just a pound or two until I walked over and could hear the air rushing out and visibly watch the back of the bike sinking down. Now what. With no tools except for a multi tool and some zip ties our only option was to call the emergency phone number they gave us. Fortunately, the call went through from our remote location, and we were told help was on its way.

We didn’t think the rescue truck would make it up the narrow logging road so we concluded the best option was for Deby to ride the couple of miles down the steep mountain road with the totally flat rear tire. Sounds easy? Not. Deby was a good sport and carefully and with all her skill made it down with the back end of the bike wobbling and wanting to circle around with every bit of braking trying not to gain too much speed down the bumpy path. If the bead came off it would be very difficult to plug the tire and set the bead so we were careful not to push it too much.

Chuck jumped into action with the plug kit.

Finally, after reaching the pavement, we found a parking lot and accessed the damage as we waited for the support truck. The truck never came but one of the guides who was on a bike arrived to help. We had diagnosed not a nail but a split in the tire. It didn’t look like it could be plugged but that was our only option. The guide had a plug kit but only two CO2 cartridges and admitted he had never used either. Did we know what to do? Fortunately for us we’ve seen this type of problem more than enough times and ended up using four plugs and both cartridges to get enough air to continue.

Would four plugs hold?

We didn’t get far before the Tire Pressure Sensor reading showed a steady loss of pressure, so we decided to pull into a small gas station and leave the bike for the tour company to worry about. Without luggage it was easy for Deby to ride pillion on my BMW into Prague. She was disappointed to miss a day of great riding but glad that we had an off day in Prague that would give the tour company a chance to sort out the tire. This time we were glad to be with a tour group, on our own we would have lost at least a day or maybe more trying to get it fixed.

Pizza stop on the way to Prague. Left to right: Chuck, Deby and Steve.

I learned that Prague is in the historical region of Bohemia. Bohemia is no longer an independent country but it’s name remains in common use. Beach’s had a scheduled day off for us to be Bohemians for a day to explore the city. One of the highlights of our day off was an optional guided scooter tour of the city.

Donn, Deby, Steve and Chuck. Ready to ride on the “Scrooser” tour of Prague.

Chuck acting Badass on his Scrooser.

Deby hoping no more flats for the day.

Admiring the views above the city.

We were put up in the very high brow Aria Hotel where us dirty bikers were asked to put on our best button up shirts for a five star rooftop group dinner. I’m glad we were told in advance to bring at least one nice set of clothes so I didn’t have to show up in my Norton sweatshirt. Deby and I could have spent more time in Prague and made a note to return again when we could visit on our terms. For now, we had to tour to ride.

Rooftop group dinner at the high end Aria Hotel.

The Aria Hotel was amazing. It was packed with original art from significant European artists that even I had heard of. Above our table in the hotel lounge was an original by Marc Chagall.

Marc Chagall – Lovers 1951

A lot of original work by Salvador Dali

Dali, Destroyed Civilization. 1973

The hotel lobby and common areas were like a high end art gallery and fun to explore.

On our day off we walked around the city and explored the historic parts of town. Hey, I didn’t know we were in Bohemia!

We crossed the Charles Bridge and paid a few Czech Korunas to climb a tower for a better view.

Here is the tower we climbed, lots of tourists but an absolutely beautiful day for walking around and exploring.

Some really good looking street food.

An interesting cloud formation as the sun was dropping down. A gazelle?

Charles Bridge at night.

We strolled well into the evening exploring the city, an awesome place to visit. We really hope to return.

We came across this guy jamming out on the bridge – way cool!

This seems like a good place for a break. I promise more will be coming soon. Thanks for following along.

Donn and Deby