Some questions on a Europe trip, and motorcycle shipping...

I prefer the chassis on the right.

Anyone been on the Romantic Road in Germany? I'm considering this route south after collecting my bike from Lufthansa in FRA and heading for Andermatt. I'm open to alternative routing south if someone has a suggestion.

In 1981 in a car with a wife and 2 small (2 & 3 years) children.

A pleasant drive - nothing spectacular. Rothenburg was a nice visit - not crowded at all. I suspect that's changed, though.

Among other things.

In 1979 as an FNG E-5 stationed in Mannheim I was sent to be an umpire for REFORGER. Had no idea where I was, had a meal in a gasthaus and remember the iconic clock tower. 30 years later I see the same on a poster and only then knew that I had my bivouac set up in Rothenburg.

On our first trip over, we made the mistake fo taking the car train from Frankfurt to Alexandria Italy.


We realized after the fact it Hwas for us a mistake, we thought it would help us with jet lag. We never slept waited around for hours at both ends and ended up spending two days recovering because we couldn't sleep ion the train and we had a suite.

We now pick up the bike , ride as far as we want and go to bed.We also now take sleeping pills on the train.

Nice helmet on the Harley.

I think this is the video of the guy taking a shortcut...

Which Rothenburg? Rothenburg ob der Tauber or the other ones?

ob der Tauber, in my case.

It ALL depends on what one likes...Romantic Road Wiki (EN)


Some stats:
15million tourist-beds sold per year
Additionally 60-75million day-visitors per year
15.000 full time jobs generated
Source = Romantische Strasse Wiki (DE)
Busier than the Blue Ridge Parkway...
...and, essentially, a continuous string of towns, cities, industrial areas and traffic conditions to suit.


Not too romantic in my book, I'd rather take the A7 from Wuerzburg and zip south in a hurry.
Then start to get into the good stuff past Immenstadt/ Sonthofen.

I've seen loaded Goldwings, 2-up! cruising the Assietta with EASE... as well as G650GS's/ DR650s piloted by well-versed dirt-riders, struggling considerably.
Different years, different times of year, different preceding weather events.
Same for the Panoramica.
It's gravel/ dirt and mountainous....and therefore changes from easy to rough to easy again in no time flat and very much according to the weather conditions/seasons etc.
That's simply the nature of the beast!!
Get there and it's smooth and easy...enjoy. Get there when it's crappy and it can be hell.
Those are little-maintained local roads, not federal autobahns.
ALL of those roads are notorious for rock-falls and lengthy closures/ repairs, particularly those along the southern slopes of the eastern alps like the Mangart (which was closed on+off for years due to rock-avalanches), the southern ramp of the Nassfeld, Forcella Laverdet, Stranigeralpe, Zoufplan, Monte Paularo, Panoramica, Casson di Lanza and dozens of others in that area.

Many were consequently closed for good as there was no economic sense in throwing $$ at maintenance (like the Stol in SLO, the Val Collina High Road and quite a few others).
Thankfully some are getting re-opened (if ONLY for the Lycra-Bandits/ bicyclists).

Rothenburg ob der Tauber for me also. On the video the is a stream of bikes coming downhill and traffic going up stops, who has the right of way, uphill or downhill?

Glitch, thanks for those tidbits regarding the Romantic Road, a bit to touristy sounding for me. Maybe a quick blast down a motorway makes the most sense.

Glitch is wise, if you read about it all over the internet, it's probably a good place to avoid. I have criss cross sections of it to get to better roads

Rothenburg o.d.T - blessed with two(!) Käthe Wohlfart stores (with more Christmas stuff than is safe to be viewed at any time of the year). At least the McDonald's "M" is cleverly disguised to look medieval.

Agreed about [something] Roads - generally better in concept than practice. For example, the German Alpine Road seems like a winner. Until you follow it on a map.

Compared to the Panoramica...the Grimsel really is a semi-interstate/ autobahn.
While a barge like that might not be a lot of fun to punt up to the top, it's still not that hard (if stoopid, though, agreed)

Ok, you may be very surprised now, but: In Germany and also Austria, this isn't regulated.
In Switzerland and France, if it is the same kind of vehicle, the one going uphill has the right of way.
In Italy, public-transport busses have the right of way.

While the Romantic road may be touristic, the alternatives - the A5 direct from FFM south can be very busy, but at least most of the widening works are seemingly complete. Or the A3 to Wurzburg then the A7 south are probably the most boring roads to ever receive asphalt.

In Germany, huge amount of the budget has been spent on the Autobahns. While the local roads are in many parts well surfaced and graded (in the old West German parts at least) they did not often build by-passes or other congestion avoidance measures. You go through the towns and villages, where people just stop to have a chat, and that's it, traffic halted.
The route to my BiL's vineyard in Heppenheim takes 30 minutes from Sachenhausen via motorway, and over an hour on the back roads. The Bergstrasse and the Odenwald area are full of great places to ride and look at though.
There are few to none helpful signs, any direction boards will be via Autobahn or to the next village - but with "everyone" with a strap-on gps, I guess that doesn't matter. I just enjoy mooching and getting lost. I go on holiday to have a good time and maximised riding pleasure, not a series of ticks on a check list or corners turned in a guide book.

That's not saying much (the BRP is one of my "local" roads). Most of the time I ride it I rarely see another vehicle. There may be one a half mile ahead and another a half mile behind, but if I can't see them, they don't exist.

Weekends during the fall leaf season is another matter entirely - but that's seasonal and a very brief season at that.

The old road through the Val Cellina from Barcis to Montereale Val Cellina "suffered" that fate. Carved into the mountainside much like the French gorges, but much rawer. Now replaced by a lovely series of tunnels - much like the Grands Goulets in the Vercours. Sigh...

Some pics of the old Val Cellina road found on the internet. This was my main Go Skiing road between Aviano and Cortina in the '70s.

Consider them conveyor belts to get from here to there in a hurry. Except on rush weekends.

True dat.

Again, true dat.

What wines does BiL produce?

Really. I assumed that in the summer all the RV's can make a hash of the road. We went through there in April and still got caught behind the occasion RV. Gngh...