The BigUn Part One

Part One

The lads travel from Rotterdam – 1,100 miles via the Black Forest, Lake Konstanz, the Alps and the Dolomite, reaching the Austro-Italian border on day 6.

Part Two

The lads meet up with Steve the Pilot for a 6-day romp around Slovenia and Croatia, travelling down the beautiful Istrian coast, visiting Zadar, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Lake Bled and the amazing Vrsic pass … oh, and a secret cold-war airbase en route.

Part Three

The lads continue valiantly across Italy and France, visiting San Remo, Florence, Pisa, Seborga, Nimes and Carcassonne along the way, and passing through the Gorges du Verdon, the Route des Cretes and Mont Ventoux … amongst others.

Part Four

The final leg of our odessy takes the lads through Andorra to the Pyrenees, crossing between France and Spain and visiting Pamplona on the way to the wonderful Picos mountains, before heading back to the UK and the Isle of Man by ferry.

The BigUn is a bucket-list tour of Europe – 20 nations in 5 weeks, over 5,000 miles. Part One see Mike and the Manx Rider journey from Rotterdam, down through central Europe to the Alps and across the Dolomites, ready to meet up with our pal Steve the Pilot in Croatia.

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[Music] [Music] 60 is an interesting age I’m fine physically but old enough to realize that good health can’t be taken for granted as I hit that key Milestone I was determined to embrace the crazy a little do something out of my comfort zone a grand gesture welcome to the bigan i’ got my permission slip signed a bunch of travel books and even my all weather riding gear I guess all I needed now was a rout and a riding mate this was going to be a long trip so I needed someone who could take a month or so off work would put in the miles reliably and above all would have my back if anything were to go sideways Q my good mate Mike and his sturdy Steed a Kawasaki 1400 GTR it’s so big it has its own postcode we just call it the housing estate we’ allowed ourselves 30 days to start with but we didn’t yet have a map I’d always wanted to visit Slovenia and Croatia and Mike wanted to go to Italy so at least we had a starting point and then I had a great idea the best combination of biking roads and great scenery are to be found in the mountains so it was time to change the map using a topographical map I could draw a line through the High bits and make up a route from there this was a great starting point but it took many weeks to arrive at a workable route dividing the trip up into ridable days and booking a bunch of hotels to get us started we ended up with the 30 nights we had planned plus a few days contingency and a route of around 42,000 Mi oh and I also set a Target just for fun of visiting 20 Nations along the way I had to include a few principalities but hey my game my rules if you’re planning your own trip there’s plenty here that you can take and reuse or you can just enjoy watching some old fellas pushing themselves a bit too hard it’s time to mount up kicking off on Monday morning headed for Luxembourg from Rotterdam when via a fluke of fate or my up on the satav we ended up doing a little bit of a tour of Rotterdam and pretty much going back to where we started yes and then we started head off it was just Motorway wasn’t it really for a all your Carriage away most of the day was Motorway plotting and I knew it was going to be a hard one right from the start the motorway section around 200 Mi running from Rotterdam to Baston in Belgium was pretty tough it was the kind of route that numbed your bum and your brain in equal measure I was hot and tired and so bored that occasional homicidal Maneuvers from inattentive motorists came as welcome distractions I just began to wonder whether I’d done the right thing whether I was actually capable of managing this huge tour 5 weeks on the road fortunately and just in the nick of time we ran out of Motorway the flowing Country Roads leading Eastward across Northern Luxembourg where we were surrounded by beautiful scenery and glorious Sunshine couldn’t have come at any better time for the first time that day I had a big grin on my face and even though another wrong turning added a little to IR mileage it just didn’t matter as the roads gave us a much needed energy boost we pitched up at our hotel in Deer rather late in the day we had time though to walk into town to get some grub and still make a fairly early night of it as day two was also going to be quite heavy so yeah that was that was what was keeping me going the whole day yeah was getting to some really nice roads yeah before we ended up in dek in Luxembourg at the hotel D Park yes that’s right nice gentleman couple of yeah yeah well and it was very hot when we got there yes and sticky and we were we were na good so that was your excuse for a couple of beers was it yeah okay early debate and up on the Tuesday Morning where we were headed for the hotel Russell well and that was in doble doble which was build as the gateway to the north of the Black Forest that’s right contining our quest to put our Motorway miles behind us Mike and I made an early start from our base in Northern Luxembourg by late morning we’ made our way onto flowing a roads which for me were engaging but at the same time relaxing certainly more relaxing than the endless SES of overly straight carriageways we suffered earlier our destination was the hotel Russell in doble Village we made good progress and with time in hand I decided to make a stop off on the way the village of marxel just a few miles from doel is home to a particularly eclectic ult Museum and I was intrigued to take a look Mike was a bit hot and bothered at this stage and somewhat reluctant to become even hotter wandering around inside a museum and at marxel was the Auto House Museum oh before we got to the S that’s right yes yeah very very very hot and sticky as see you remember at that time little bit reluctant to go in was it air conditioned I don’t know and when we got in it wasn’t really air conditioned it was a bit cooler wasn’t it it was a lot cooler in certain places but as as we came down the lower down you you came within the building the cooler it got and when we went down into the cellar where he had his water wheel spinning his own uh hydroelectric plant yeah um it was very cool down there what a place well absolutely I mean a museum with everything from sewing machines to bits of Telecom equipment to to a helicopter I don’t think we were not and and then we wandered around all the exhibits and and it was just Gob smacking I think there was the little pumps and there were like zillions of them and propane burners and minces Ms yes meat mince meat Ms you can never have too many meat minc meat Ms I can’t even say but you can never have too many of them it’s day three and today we run south through the Black Forest this area featur is a famous Road the b500 or schwartzel Haw straser the Black Forest High Road to give it its full name this road has an enviable reputation for its great scenery and for providing an extended route full of flowing bends however it’s been rather a victim of its own success the sheer volume of enthusiastic drivers and Riders enjoying the route prompted complaints from the locals in response the authorities have drastically reduced speed limits throughout and the area is heavily policed for both speed and Noise infractions We built a little of the b500 into our route so that we could experience the changes for ourselves the overall effect of the speed limit changes is indeed quite dramatic whilst the roads are in good condition the route is now anything but flowing and whilst the surroundings might be Scenic it’s difficult to appreciate that when your attention is continually focused on your speed up trying to make sure that you don’t exceed the very slow limits typically the speed limit on the v500 is around 40 mph or slower and it’s further reduced on some bends and Junctions that really does feel artificially slow luckily I’d also built into our route some alternative roads in the same area for contrast these included the s370 the l92 and l93 Road you could enjoy at a reasonable Speed without suffering from Speedo paranoia if I will making a return trip I’d love to visit the Black Forest roads in better weather but would give the b500 a skip for the most [Music] part it’s day four and so far over 3 days we’ve covered 600 miles and have visited four European countries with another two to be added today today’s Journey takes us south of Lake constants and down to lanart near Davos in Switzerland this will be the start of our assault on six mountain passes on day five we found our way down to the big water a rhy f that which couldn’t decide really whether it was in Switzerland or Germany or maybe both it was well there was a lot of Swiss Flags about yeah and what gave it away was the instructions in the Lop you had to behave appropriately so it must have been in switzland and you don’t have much choice but to behave appropriately in Switzerland particularly when you’re driving as their police are quite hot on noise and speed infractions we were very careful going through the towns and Villages but even so I believe I was flashed once even though I was going exactly on the speed limit and then we found our way down the south side of constant headed for lonstein lonstein yes and on the way we stopped at the Bowden Cafe and realized we’re making such good times yes yes on the banks of Lake conon absolutely that we built in an extra 100 miles of country riding just because we could even in Switzerland M and actually it was great fun when we saw the chance we turned off from the main road south of constant and headed out into the country looking for some front roads that could be enjoyed within the 50 m hour National speed limit the day held a number of surprises not the least of which was that the 50 mph limits weren’t too restrictive if you found the right kind of Roads watch was wasn’t a surprise was that a tractor kicking out manure across the fields smelt pretty bad not everyone seem to take the speed lims too seriously here’s a local who came flying past us in a 50k speed limit and yes he’s wearing shorts and sandals Mike and I stuck to the speed limits though because no one wants to get a nasty surprise on a holiday and it was a good job too as just up the road we came across a mass Gathering of police presumably on the lookout for Speeders bikes traveling in the other direction would have no warning about this lot overall our ride around the Swiss Countryside was great fun but I particularly enjoyed the Run downhill from lonstein bathing in a little coolness by association as I followed a dude on a Harley bagger day five our big assault on no less than six mountain passes started off wet and warm and then grew wet and cold pretty quickly and on the way over the florella pass Mike had a bit of a moment I a momentary lapse of concentration and then it suddenly occurred to me because I was going along think we got past thing we got P some coaches and bits and pieces the the visibility was poor the road conditions were soaking wet it was damp it was cold it was horrible and and I just forgot myself and then as I was approaching a corner it occurred to me this could be a hairpin and I’m going rather fast hit the brakes and tried to bring scrub some speed off and immediately thought what’s what what sort of grip level I got on this road and and naturally panicked put my left foot down for whatever good that was going to do with that was that was going to save 500 kilos of bike and you yeah absolutely yeah and in a moment of total irony I missed my special moment because my GoPro froze just like the pair of us had done earlier we made it over the florella pass with temperatures dropping to 6° which was pretty uncomfortable down the other side we found our way on to the fuan pass much more reasonable temperatures and nice flowing roads that was the day that we did we’ done the warf gang pass already we didn’t even notice we did the Flor pass FL umra or umra which I found a bit scary frankly there was one corner on there particularly that had me yes concentrating more than anyone should have to concentrate on the corner and it wasn’t just that the corners were were severe they they all are on those passes it was also the fact that the roads were quite narrow and there was a lot of traffic on them comparatively no barriers and no barriers but when you were going up on the tight right handers going up on the right hand is you had to try and stay as close to your side of the road as possible cuz coming down the other way with bikes push bikes coaches Camp fans cars everything you could think of the cor all of whom were going to cut the corner when they came down and around that way so you couldn’t really afford to go out to W no the corner I was thinking of had a kind of 1 in three one in four gradiant and burm in the middle yeah was so tight it was much tighter than you have to do for a bike test and I my only thought was if I have to stop in the middle cuz some idiot is in my Lane yeah the bike is going over the omell pass was certainly the most challenging pass so far at a height of 2 and 1 12,000 M it shortly afterwards just as we reached Italy I made a little mistake it was at this moment that he knew he up doing a u-turn on a steep narrow Mountain Road was never going to be easy this wasn’t the time to be demonstrated my turn on a six routine in short I wimped out up here my super careful U-turn completed it was time to head for the great stelvio a fall Ro everywhere compared to umra I found the stelvio really easy and very enjoyable lots of fast flowing downhill tight hair pins and great scenery the stelvio a rare sight indeed snow in July set against the Stark gray of the Granite I had to remind myself to look at the road not the scenery I was so enjoying the ride that I even forgot about feeling cold even though it never really warmed up from the flu past earlier in the day the temperature gauge never really got above 90 bre or so just short of 2,800 M the stelvio is by a very small margin the second highest mountain pass in Europe and probably the most famous others have even borrowed the name both aerus and Central portal each have their own stelvio and even Gran Canary has a mini version finally we made it to the giovo pass the roads were fantastic and the scenery was taken Straight Out of The Sound of Music as we were relaxing in the last few miles the locals had other ideas check out my left mirror [Music] all i’ to see that road race there I was somewhat concerned that Mike might have a red Miss moment and chase after the Porsche but we’ only got a short distance left to our hotel and he let it go and what a hotel it was a brilliant location high up in the mountains at San Leonardo in Pia great food and even better views set us up for our final day on this first leg of our bigun tour headed for the austrial Italian border and ready for our assault on Slovenia and Croatia busy roads with few overtaking opportunities were a little frustrating but these gave way eventually to a quieter twisty section that allowed us to stretch our legs a little however it was our morning ride that was the true Delight setting out from the Poo Prolo it was exciting from the get-go I’ve saved the best till last and we’ll finish with a 2-minute tribute to the area if you made it this far into our tour video you want to catch our other episodes don’t forget to subscribe and be notified so you don’t miss out oh and making these videos takes a long time and no one gets paid for them if you enjoyed the footage drop us a like as it Spurs us on to do more [Music] he [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] [Music] heyyy hey [Music] hey [Music] n