Euro tour 2023 Final part

 We left Mandello amd headed due North on the SS36, the Lake always glistening on the Left of us, what a fantastic vista it is for a factory, and once again we were sadly leaving Italy, the people, the food, the wine,  the architecture we will miss but not the crazy driving. Heading for Chiavenna and heading North on the SS36 to the Spuglia Pass, we ended up in a bit of a convoy with motorhomes and some locals which wasn't great so we stopped off at the side of the road for a break before joining a quieter section, the obligatory stop at the top for the photo and the sign is totally covered with stickers now, seems to be a "thing" 

A nice ride down into Switzerland towards Splugen and then via a service station to get royally ripped off for gas and for our Vingettes for both bikes, over 40 Euros per bike use their roads, time we started reciprocal charging. We stopped at the Romantically named Chur (reminded me of sick)  and found the very busy campsite, 40 Euros for our tent but they did have nice toilets and an on site cafe where we got royally ripped off again, don't you just love the Swiss, bankers to the whole (corrupt) world and still manage to maintain a superior attitude over the rest of us, thats why you get ripped off, we are the poor people and have to pay to see and contribute to their wealth, the country who's sole contribution to world peace has been the Swiss Army Knife, anyhow it was nice but the 12 euros for a dash of Bannantines stuck in my throat a bit. 

The following morning we packed up and headed into much cheaper Germany, the Black forest to be precise to the very nice town of  Gengenbach which turned out to be a gem. Reasonable prices and a hotel suite the same size as my house, people were great and it was good to spend a day off the bike looking around

Friday started well and before long we were wrestling with the traffic on the Autobahn past Frankfurt before stopping with our friends Tomas and Andrea for the night, as always with then there was a small party! Great fun and great people which like many we only met through our live of Motorcycling. Saturday we left and had the day of hell through the crazy roadworks through Koln and Dusseldorf, lots of filtering, diversions and a never ending feel of being lost but after a very stressful day we found our digs for the night  in the small town of Wesel, just North of the roadworks from hell and on the German side of the Dutch border before Arnhem. An excellent choice by Fiona, nice people, good food and a nice place to stay.

Sunday we rode through Holland, the roads are limited to 60mph even though they have some 6 lane motorways, cleverly on a Sunday because there are no trucks on the road they close the outside two lanes just to make it feel busy, looks like the politicians are mental everywhere. We made it to the boat and that was the end of another adventure!

The Italian side of the pass before the top

Here we are again

Atmospheric

Atmospheric Fiona

Riding into Switzerland

Looking for a swiss army knife

At ease

Expensive beer, lucky we brought our own Dominos

Getting organised in the morning

Opposite our Hotel

Gengenbach, overcast but warm

City centre

Quaint

Toon hall on the right

Roadworks on the left

Coffee time

Nice

And again

Saw this Spanish bike, well used, looked for him in the square but didn't find him

Very orderly

A Black forest?

Tomas has got a sidecar now

Andrea and Fi

Tomas

Crazy thunderstorm but managed  to miss the lightning

A break from the madness

another welcome break

Ijmuiden

And Fi explaining stuff to some other Bikers