Germany
I always knew at some point we would go back to Germany and Europe for a ride but I didn't know it would take 10 years. I traveled to Germany multiple times a year, and Steve even came one time in 2010 where we really did things up nicely but without riding. This was our year to ride. I researched as best I could for the best place to rent and landed on a place outside of Heidelberg. This particular place had older bikes to rent so the cost seemed reasonable. The place rented bikes but also stored bikes for folks wanting to ride when they came from other areas and countries. There were rooms where people stayed and it seemed like a nice tightly knit community. We rented two RTs; one was a 2004 and the other was a 2003. The 2003 was pretty much an exact copy of my RT including the color so I ended grabbing that one. Both of the bikes had 90k+ on them so they were well broken in.
Day One
We started riding by 9:30 and headed south. We were riding through the Black Forest and staying away from the Autobahn. The roads were really nice and riding through the small towns was also very nice and kept our heads on a swivel. We stopped in Freudenstadt for a quick look around in the city center. We stayed primarily on route 500 and the B33. We rode through Triberg and saw many shops selling cuckoo clocks as I believe this is the most famous place in Germany to buy them. The great riding continued pretty much all day. Once we crossed over into Switzerland and moved close to Lucerne we began riding on the autobahn and reached our destination without incident. We had decided to stay in Lucerne, and we were very happy with our choice as we walked around the city visiting the historical sites and walking the Chapel Bridge. Having been on the world's longest covered bridge in Canada we felt it appropriate to visit the world's oldest covered bridge. This one dates to 1325, and although it suffered a severe fire in 1993 a good portion is still original. Dinner was great and we went to bed feeling very fulfilled.
Day Two
The second day would turn out to be a very momentous one and one that was 90% great but the remaining 10% was pretty terrible. We started the day by heading towards Interlaken and the Brienzersee. I wanted to see the hotel on the lake that was used in the filming of Band of Brothers. In the series it was supposed to have been in Austria but really it sits in Switzerland. In addition to seeing the beautiful hotel, nearby we were able to see the Giessbach Waterfalls. Next we started our attack on the mountain passes. We started with Susten Pass and immediately knew we were in for a great day. We followed that with Furka Pass and Grimsel Pass before eating some lunch in Munster. We were loving every minute and almost didn't want to stop for lunch. We were amazed at the skill level of everyone riding the mountain passes. Normally we are flying around everyone, but here we were getting passed more often than we were passing others. Going down Susten I was passed by someone riding two up; it was a little embarrassing and I certainly wasn't going slow. The roads are much narrower then we are accustomed to and as the day went on we were getting more and more comfortable and increasing our speed. We were planning to spend the night in Bormio Italy which would put us near Stelvio Pass which we planned to conquer the next morning. So after our lunch and some more mountain riding we were on the A2 just outside of Biasca and Steve told me to pull over as something was wrong with his bike. It turned out his fuel pump had gone bad and we were stranded on the side of the road with no ability to do anything. We tried calling the rental place, but the owner who was the only one capable of speaking English was gone, and calling the emergency number which was in Italy was of no help either, and to top off everything else it was Sunday which in Europe means not much gets done. After many frustrating calls we finally got someone to come and pick up the bike and take it to Lugano. We had to ride two up on my RT 33 miles to Lugano where we spent the night. The night in Lugano was really quite nice. We had a nice dinner and walked around Lake Lugano and really just soaked it all in after a great day of riding followed by a couple of hours of frustration.
Day Three
The owner of the bikes took care of us for the most part. He paid for our hotel in Bormio but we paid for our night in Lugano which was a little less expensive. He offered a train ticket back to Heidelberg which meant one of us would ride back alone but after some pressuring he allowed us to pick up another bike from a dealership in Lugano and then he would return it on his trailer which he uses on a regular basis going to Lugano. Anyway, I rode a K1600GTL on the way back which made the whole episode better, but we would miss a lot of good riding. Since we didn't have our Garmins with us we had to map our way back and we took a more direct route which meant more time on the autobahn than we would have liked. We rode mostly on the A2 jumping off to run along Lake Lucerne and stopping in Beckenried for a mid morning snack. We got back on the A2 and crossed over into Germany and exited again to run through the Black Forest stopping in Baden Baden for a late lunch. We made the most of a bad situation and still enjoyed ourselves. Steve stayed in Frankfort at the airport to make an early departure, and I had business in Mannheim.