Zeebrugge to Bolonga
 

We are planning to ride to Bolonga in August, one of us is a bit of a novice so don't want to sicken him on his first outing :) we are thinking 3-4 days to get down to Bolonga where our wives will fly in to meet us. The thinking is cross Belgium then night in Germany ( have a friend in bingen so maybe stay there) next day to Innsbruck then down to Vicenza.
Has anybody done this route or something similar ? Any good b&bs ? Any place we must make time for ?
Return route is undecided so any suggestions welcome

Hi Doosey:

The most direct route between Zeebrugge and Bologna won't take you anywhere as far east as Austria - it is more or less a straight line that intersects Luxumbourg, Basel Switzerland, and Milan Italy.

That route is 770 miles, which should certainly not be too much for a new rider to accomplish over 4 days.

My suggestions for your consideration, based on having traveled between those two regions before, are as follows:

1) Be aware that you won't make especially good time through Netherlands and Belgium, simply because those countries are pretty densely settled. So don't set too ambitious a distance target for the first day.

2) Try to get into Germany at the earliest possible opportunity (in other words, exit Belgium into Germany), first because Germany has an excellent free-of-charge road network, and second because if you go into France, all of you will be spending lots and lots of money on tolls to use the controlled access highways in France.

Riding around the north-east corner of France (via Karlsruhe) in Germany will add maybe 50 miles to your trip compared to taking the shortest possible route through France a little bit to the west, but it will take you less time to go through Germany, and be less stressful for all. Cheaper, too, because there are no tolls in Germany.

If you wish, you could divert off the autobahn near Baden-Baden or Lahr, and then ride the secondary roads through the Black Forest of Germany... that is motorcycle heaven, on par with some of the best mountain riding available in Switzerland. Be aware that there are lots of motorcycle-specific guest houses along the Black Forest route - a little internet research might help you find an inexpensive and sociable place to stay overnight.

3) Don't be tempted to divert into Luxumbourg just because the petrol is cheap there - motorcycles don't have very big tanks, you might save a couple of ₤ per person on the fill-up, but if you waste 2 hours to do that, it's false economy.

4) The biggest safety risk for your novice rider will be the no speed limit portions of the German autobahn. If your novice gets tempted to wick it out and see what high speed riding is like, and then takes a tumble when some Porsche goes by him at Mach .92 and startles him, it will ruin your trip. So make a promise amongst yourselves that you will all stay in the slow lane (the truck lane) on the autobahn, except perhaps if you have to pass an especially slow-moving truck. Otherwise, the experienced riders will want to travel at 160 km/h, and that might be beyond the ability of the novice... but he will be reluctant to tell you (and reluctant to fall behind), and might get killed as a result.

5) It will cost you CHF 40 (about ₤25) to buy a vignette (sticker) that permits you to use the Swiss motorways, but it is money well spent. The Swiss roads are exquisitely maintained, and the scenery is beautiful. Buy the stickers at one of the German gas stations along the way before you enter Switzerland. Be aware that petrol is significantly cheaper in Switzerland that in either Germany or Italy, so plan your fuel stops to take advantage of this.

6) Swiss youth hostels are great places to overnight, you don't need to be a youth to stay there, and most of them have some provision for free secure parking (not that you have to worry much about bike theft in Switzerland).

7) Once you cross the Alps and get into Italy, you're in the third world. Road conditions will be much worse than Northern Europe, and the drivers will be quite undisciplined. Expect big oil patches on the ground where you have to stop and pay the tolls on the road, stuff like that. The portion of the trip on the Eye-talian motorways from Milan to Bologna will not be very interesting, but the trip through Switzerland (that got you to Milan) will have been outstanding, and will more than make up for the last 3 hours of the ride in Italy being boring.

Hope this helps and gives you food for thought.

Michael

Hi Michael
Thanks for the advice, there's a good point in going via Baden-Baden but this is kind of the route I'm thinking for the way home, I will definitely be avoiding France this trip ( nothing against France and know there are fantastic roads there) I've done a lot of Europe but mainly in a truck or in the dead of night heading between projects so one of the reasons for going out as Far East towards Austria is to actually stop in some of the place I hadn't been able to in the past ( plus benefit of friends in Bingen and Ulm )
Target destination has changed to Verona and as flights are easier for the wives there's not so much rush now so maybe 4-5 days to get there.
Just trying to get as many miles under my newbie mates belt between now and then lol

Compare pricing for the ferry routes - North Shields to Amsterdam can be cheaper and you would then miss out Belgium as well as France.

En route to Innsbruck check out Oberammergau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Consider the Sud Tyrol, which is very much first world, where the Italians speak more in German than Italian - there is more than enough there for the time you have; go east to the Dolomites?