25 September 2011

This is the 113th Turkey motorcycle tour blog entry. Unlucky for some, but at least I made it past the century. Just to be sure I will do another blog before getting on the bike again. Not that I’m superstitious.

I ended up stopping for the night just outside of Hermagor, Austria. Just by chance I passed a nice guesthouse (Biedermeier Schlössl Lerchenhof); it looked inviting so I invited myself in to see if they had a room. They did, and also a nice restaurant where I spent most of the evening.

After breakfast, I continued the long haul west. I’d planned my route the night before but would split the 414 miles over two days. This gave me time to traverse the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse.

I’d been on this road before as part of a tour to Austria. But it was worth another visit.

Enroute I enjoyed an exchange of pleasantries from an Austrian motorcycle policeman. I’d been fairly belting along at well over the speed limit and pulled over for some photos.

He pulled up along side and advised me of the speed limits before asking me to take it easy and enjoy the scenery. All in perfect English. Maybe these guys could provide some training to the policemen in Turkey?

I continued in the fashion he had advised towards the Grossglockner. It is a private road and a substantial toll (19 euros) is payable on entry, with toll booths at either side of the pass.

But the Grossglockner is simply great and worth every cent. It was even better than I’d remembered, probably because I was not so scared about dropping the bike.

I went to the pass first then backtracked to the glacier before going over the pass and onto the Edelweiss Spitze (just shy of 2,600 metres) before heading back down the mountain to Fusch.

Here are some of my best photos of the Grossglockner.

From here to my overnight stay in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (just over the border in Germany) was relatively straightforward, although I did ride for a while with a couple of guys on Goldwings (boy could these guys ride – good fun!).

My Turkey motorcycle tour would continue west towards Switzerland tomorrow morning.

 

Distance travelled today 230 miles (370km), cumulative 9,268 miles (14,915km).