BMW 1200GSA in the ALPS – Two Up.

A two week trip to Europe riding in the French and Italian Alps on our 2013 BMW r 1200 GS Adventure.

Okay so here we are on the 8th of September 2023 just setting off on our European trip we’re all a bit in trepidation this is the first time that we’ve been on our own but uh here we go just starting Up there we go next time I film in I’ll see you at [Applause] coacher It’s all right just a picture would be fine yeah R8 that’s what I want 98 that’s it tricky isn’t it yeah yeah yeah got you I remember this to you should I leave it here all right this will do Us [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] w [Applause] [Applause] Y can’t do it’s uh Monday the 11th of September we’re just leaving langr however it’s pronounced this is the hotel de Laos that we stayed in last night and it’s the one we stayed in in 2016 we’re heading now to Anese and we’ve booked a hotel in there so we’re all ready

To yeah it’s not one way is it yeah yeah blink it was yeah but the Saab is telling me which way to go out so that’s good according to the saav we have to go to the left yes we don’t want to go through a brick wall really We are there we go there we go this looks like us I don’t think so kid unless we’re down below Yes Start Trash here we are again Cole de melan 2023 beautiful day we’ve done well weatherwise it’s been not quite so painfully hot today but uh War still warm had all the vents open on the jackets and things and trousers so very nice and here we are at top of the CER

Melan with uh Blueberry Hill so we’re going to go and have a drink and I don’t know maybe treat ourselves to a bit of blueberry we See Yeah yeah you you’ve not done this one you know this isn’t you haven’t I don’t I don’t think you have might have but I know one year 15 I think it was GL look at that um came with clarky and I know we parked all the bikes up what is now on the

Right under an arch and uh Well Ellis did I didn’t Yeah no but just give it a little bit longer I think you might see something in a second we’ve got to uh stop in 150 Ys so just might be worth a look going to turn left I think okay right uh there we are per latte that’s where we wanted can you see

Behind over your shoulder we clear give it a Second And here we go folks look at this this is where Sue and I canoed yesterday I can’t believe it looking at it from up here amazing the river ardes and the ardesh Gorge look at that a fantastic Road this is as well the d29 I think it is we’re heading away from valon Pont dark and we’re heading towards Bard here today so we’ll see we’ve got an erand Goat 72 Folks this is the d94 what a cracking bit of Road this has been and it looks like it might be getting even better but up to now it’s just been fast and flowing and uh very enjoyable nice open curves to B see what’s coming if anything really

Nice looks like it’s going to get a bit twistier Now What the Helmet P my head sometimes fine now just the ligament or tendon inside the joint you Know yes it is isn’t it yeah let me concentrate now cuz this is a bit tricky that must have been the hotel where we stayed or had the meal yeah yeah that’s fine thank you we’re just leaving gardenia this morning today Saturday the 16th of September

2023 been pretty good weather up to now I’ve had one day where it was wet today’s similar in terms of it being wet and you can see from the clouds in the distance I think we’re going to see very little when we start climbing up we’re heading towards brianton at the moment

Where we will refuel and then we will do the CER isad and uh and eventually go down the C agell through to S Pare and then I’m hoping to do the ELA pass um down eventually into venardo my only concern is that uh the last few times I’ve done the ELA pass there’s

Been a rout baret so we shall have to see if uh if it’s open or not if not we should just have to set the out enough to take us directly to vardia and not not do the route that I’ve planned but uh bit damp bit gray but uh

Pleasantly warm still it was 17 when we set off from the hotel from the smia it’s now down to 4 14 so we’ve got our togs on our waterproof togs on as you can probably see around the fleece and things and I’ve got my waterproof rain gloves on so I’m just

Hoping that uh we’re togged up properly now feels right interesting bit of Road this this is where they’ve had to divert the original Road from behind these shallal on the right you can see up on the backside there they’ve been doing some reinforcements I think the the road originally collapsed because of the

Landslide and so uh they’ve had to divert the road round a little bit this is a bit of a round the ring route oops bumpy bumpy testing the suspension all right look at this folks what a beautiful view just dropping down out of what we call Jelly Stone

Park and we’re heading towards Bron but that uh that’s lovely have to get past this Panda now Susie I think coming into Branson and you can see some of the the reinforced buildings battle BS whatever you want to call them coming up to the uh Virgin Mary shrine at the top of

The co the s or seree we’ve been climbing a lot through mist and fog as it is but look at that what an impressive view that is wow okay let’s continue onwards and uh okay leave it running a bit the camera cuz if you look there’s the

Shrine can you see it between the trees on your right there yeah two big Christmas trees yeah okay here we go yeah yes just going to pull off to the side Al Martino had hits in the charts didn’t he oh no that was Sam Martino back there

Sorry game next up uh this is now Sunday Sunday the 17th of September we’re at venardo we just stopped the night at the hotel liour and we’re now heading for barcel Linette and uh we’ got a quite a short day it says it’s only 128 mil and we should

Arrive at the hotel at something like 104 1 but we’ll have a good few stops on the way and then uh let’s just hope this weather stays dry right let’s uh get down to the bottom of the road and set off BL me this is steep

Okay right there look but yeah we’re on the SP 255 just come out of the clouds actually it’s been a bit um Misty and foggy and cloudy and not very nice for riding and you couldn’t see anything but we’ve just come out of the cloud and got these fabulous

Views quite a lot of cars and a few motorbikes going up on this road today I don’t know if that makes a difference that it’s suay but uh wouldn’t have expected this road to have been quite so popular yes that’s right that’s the cloud we came through all right definitely

Finishes well no it said it was a dead end but actually it isn’t according to the uh satav so okay we’re heading back down the road now uh that we just come up part because we missed a turn we might be able to just pick out the turn down there but

What a view down that Valley with all that cloud look how the Sun is just catching the top section the absolute L bit of the cloud Amazing N Hope be waits for Me okay that’s where we’re going right this is uh Isola 2000 and uh we’ve just come down off the CUA Lombardi beautiful beautiful views and scenery and nice twisty Road it’s been absolutely great but I think it’s time for a coffee stop good d29 I think it is a nice Road you’re right

This is uh coming down from bule b e u i l and uh it’s been well it’s been quicker and wider and more flowing than this little bit but overall very entertaining not demanding just got the entertainment value without having to work hard but we’ve been struck by The Rock

Structures uh something beginning with e ENT trapment yeah oh it’s signpost in barcel on that that’s it oh sorry yeah British B there drive for Tiger this is Monday Monday there is it the 18th today I think uh of September and uh we’ve left or we are leaving barel lyette and uh

It’s a forecast for a wet day today so we’re togged up with all the waterproofs and we’re thinking that uh we’re going to get some wet stuff and we’re heading for Branson to begin with and then we’re going to go over the cig galier and drop

To valoir now we’re going to make it a short day we think today because today’s forecast is for a lot of rain whereas tomorrow Tuesday and Wednesday are good days so what we thought was it seems silly to go through nice Scenic Countryside when the weather’s horrible

Makes sense to just do a Shore today day in the poor weather and then wait till the nicer weather and do the last couple of days of the nice weather in Nice Scenic mountainous Countryside so uh yeah that’s the plan WEA it pans out like that remains to be seen valir we haven’t

Booked any accommodation for yet we thought we’d see how the day goes couple of very nice hotels there don’t think it’d be a problem but uh as you can to be fair I mean it did on the BBC forecast last night when we were looking at this

Morning it said that now it should be raining well it isn’t as you can see so this is a bonus really damp Road Yes actually raining no I think it probably will at some point so that’s why I’m completely covered with waterproof jacket waterproof trousers waterproof gloves waterproof boots waterproof helmet waterproof skin

Yeah should be be all right but um you can see ahead it’s it’s it’s it’s not physically raining as far as I can see so maybe uh maybe we’ll be lucky and get away with it who knows but it’s um it’s what is it 16

16.5 de C so it’s not a cold day it’s Pleasant let’s just uh settle for this I think yeah yeah yeah that’s fine well I don’t know how well you can see out There it’s absolutely chucking it down with rain we uh we motorcycled from barcelet to venardo to not venardo barcelet to valir today and uh it was pretty miserable so we said look there’s a cracking h tell there why don’t we stop up to valir and do a short day so we did

That and actually I’ll just show you around the room look there there’s a wife drunk drunk yeah I’ll explain why she’s drunk in a minute that’s just uh and it’s only 5 yeah barely half plus 5 and she’s plased rubbish so uh there we go there

You can see our bits and pieces all stacked up I have to say this this hotel’s done well because there’s lots of places to put stuff as a motorcyclist and I like that uh toilet and shower is great room itself is lovely it’s I think it’s cost us 86 EOS tonight so

That’s less in pounds but what it has done is it’s given us the option to um just have an easy day so what we’ve what we decided is we’re going to have an easy day of it today we we were here for quter 1 something like that and uh we

Just basically gave up on the day we said let’s let’s rock up here get on pack get into the room we had a bit of a snooze we plant some roots for tomorrow and the day after we’ve had some a couple of drinks and it’s been really

Nice I mean and we’ve met up with some austrians who are also mot cyclists so what we’ve done is we’ve planned for tomorrow and what we said is tomorrow we’ll go from here which is valir which is near to the called the gbia we’ll then do from here A A winding route and

We’ll go through to a place called St Claude which is near to Geneva I’ve stopped there before and actually s a soup we’ll have a there in the hotel and the next day then we’ll make our way up to langr again now langr is where we stopped on the way down after

Cal we found uh that the hotel that we stopped in before is available again at a good price we’ll stop there it’s got a swimming pool so that’s a bonus and then we’ll go from langr back up to Cal we’ll use the same Hotel again there cuz the

Price is good and it’s literally 5 minutes from the channel Tunnel crossing so we’ll do that uh on Friday morning we’ll get up early at the hotel in Cal we’ll then go through the channel tunnel get out at folon and then make our way back up to To good morning today is Tuesday Tuesday the 19th of September it is about 9:00 setting off from valir it’s a beautiful day just had to change the battery on the camera which is why I’m stopped here fiddling about but um we’re heading today for St Claude which is not very far from

Geneva quite a nice ride we’re going to do the quad fur and a couple of other bits and Bobs and uh it’s 170 Mi and we’re due to arrive at about 3:00 this afternoon you okay hey you want to go okay Madam wants to go so so better get it fired up I

Suppose it’s cool today 8.5 de so I’ve got my rain gloves on to keep my hands warm not to keep them dry and uh I’ve got the heated grips on as well but it’s absolutely fabulous this morning compared to yesterday goodness me what a wet day yesterday was when we sat in the

Hotel bar we just sat probably for a couple of hours I should think just watching the rain chucking it down it really was but this morning is the complete opposite and the forecast for today and for tomorrow is good so we think we did the right thing by

Not doing very many miles yesterday we’ve we’ve stayed in the ncer area scenery wise and uh off to the right here kid and so we’ve got nice weather to do nice scen is uh the climb up to the colda quad defur and uh it’s very Pretty we did this the two of us uh 2016 we were on our way to ponton royans and this got dialed in somehow and it it sort of slowed us down quite quite a bit but I remember it was a lovely road it’s got not lots of nice twists and turns in

It without being too difficult and uh not too busy either there’s very little traffic on this road so it’s been great and what a beautiful day it’s turned out to be as well just coming up to the the summit of the quader yeah yeah it’s got to be

Empty do you want me to stop yes let’s stop Yeah got another one coming up by being back in Leak this is a tough one Suzie Yeah uh this is Wednesday morning we’re on our way now to langr we’re leaving St CLA having spent a night at St Claude we’re now going to fill up with fuel set off a lras it’s going to be somewhere around 4 and a half hours we

Think and uh it’s cool this morning I think it’s probably about 10° but it’s nice and bright and clear blue sky so I think it’ll be uh a lovely day well not especially no uh we’ve left um St Claude we’ve done 15 miles the weather has just got better

And better oh I think we’re going to do a left and a right here soon and we’ve done some nice little roads climbing up into the mountain not seriously high or uh difficult just you know nice little roads like this really and uh because we’ve got the sun behind us a

Bit all the trees and scenery is really nicely illuminated no Can’t well we’re finished folks this is uh Friday I I know is it 22nd today 21st 22nd 22nd I think and uh we’re just leaving the hotel at C the IIs carfair hotel at car Cal and we’re heading off now to get the channel tunnel across to

Folon and then uh set off on a very boring Journey got the M20 then the M25 and then an even more boring And1 now which one can I get Su off First okay kid when you’re ready I’m going to get off as well all right now going to push it here we go gently does it gently does it bit more lovely Roger That so that’s the end of that trip then 2,662 Mi since we left home and we’re back to typical British weather aren’t we but uh yes that was I suppose 13 nights away 14 days we went on the Saturday we’re coming back today on the Friday and

Uh it’s been a heck of a trip it’s been really good but we’ve had enough now we stopped up at services on the M1 and that was probably 3 hours ago and we’ve come all the way without stopping and it’s taking us a long time because of traffic jamps

Of goodness knows what on the on the motorway so it’s been a bit of a a test of endurance but we’re back now and uh ready to plan the next trip I suppose so uh yeah get down to the bottom of here and that’s us done back to Good Old English weather

Just do that okay kid I think we can switch it [Applause] [Applause] off [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] all [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause]