Pyrenees and Alps - 9 days, 4350 miles, 1 bike, 1 (female) rider

[Roxyy]

Hello!

I'm not long back from my solo european trip to Pyrenees and Alps so I thought I'd share it on here...

In summary:

- route: Glasgow - Dover - Calais - Pyrenees - a little bit of Spain - south of France - Alps (French and Swiss) - got as far as Stelvio - from Switzerland back to Calais - Dover - Glasgow

- 4350 miles in total

- 1 bike (GSX650F restricted as I'm still on A2 licence!)

- 1 rider

At first I was planning of going about a month and half earlier. A night before the morning I was planning to set off I couldn't find my passport at first, found it after an hour (my sister had it...) then as she was handing me it she said 'By the way, your passport expired' !!! So cancelled my holidays at work and took them after I got new one.

When setting off I didn't have any plan, routes, didn't know where exactly I was going - my whole plan was Pyrenees and maybe a bit of Alps, just had some ideas of places worth going to. Booked the ferry from Dover to Calais an evening before setting off.

Set off in the morning, had a long boring way to go, all the way from Glasgow to Dover. Got to Calais late evening. Still had loads of motorway miles to go, all the way from Calais to Pyrenees, so decided to not sleep first night and just keep going to get as close to Pyrenees as possible. Next day was just riding in Pyrenees, got as far as Andorra. Following day also riding in Pyrenees, took a route from Andorra to Tarragona, went to Barcelona then it started raining so decided to move on and follow the sun. So then went to Bridge in the sky and started heading towards Alps, did Verdon Gorge and French and Swiss Alps. Detailed route and map below.

Once I got closer to Alps I started planning a bit more. Got to Alps earlier than I thought (it was Monday I think) - at first when I was setting off I didn't think I'd get as far as Stelvio on this trip, but I still had full week off so at that point I knew I could get as far as Stelvio and head back on Thursday, get home Friday.. only problem was that the forecast for the next couple days wasn't so good - Tuesday rain in most places where I was thinking of going, Wednesday the same. On Tuesday I did Nufenen, Grimsel and Furka passes - all were amazing but cause it was cloudy and raining every now and then, once I got higher up all I could see were clouds and could only see like couple meters in front of me. So at that point I started thinking if it's worth spending next few days riding in similar conditions or head back... Decided to keep going and it was totally worth it, on Tuesday weather got better later on and Wednesday was amazing, there was not a single cloud on the sky and dry everywhere. Started heading back on Thursday. It was 35 degrees all the way through France so decided to take jacket off... still peeling sunburn off my arms...

Was sleeping in hotels or bnbs, every afternoon/evening was trying to google the cheapest place in the area to stay. Funnily enough the cheapest one was a 4 star hotel in Andorra (they had some deal on). The nicest once was a bnb in Amden, Switzerland - had to ride up the hill for about 5 miles to get there, then there was a view onto mountains and a lake, was amazing.

On the way back set off from Amden in the morning and rode all the way back to Glasgow on one go (for some reason I don't like stopping on the way) so did about 1100 miles and got home around 5am.

I wasn't sure how my bike will do, so bought european breakdown cover just in case. Did the service and got new tyres just before I left. Bike did fine, only apart from when I was in Nice and was stopping on the traffic lights a lot in temperature almost 30 degrees, it started overheating and pissing the coolant. Luckily enough I was on my way to bike garage in Nice anyway as I was running out of chain lube and cleaner, and it started pissing the coolant only when I was about one mile away from the garage. Got chain lube and cleaner and coolant refilled and was good to go.

Can't believe my bike has almost 50k miles on the clock now, when I passed my A2 test nearly 2 years ago (1 month to go till 2 years are over) that bike only had 7.5k miles on the clock...

I have put together a short video of best moments of each part of the trip below (don't know how I managed to squeeze 128 gb of videos in 4 and half minutes... will upload full videos of each part of the trip later)

https://youtu.be/Kbg5Rygj1eA

Full route:

Glasgow - Dover - Calais - Paris - Pau - Gavarnie - Col des Tentes - Vielha - Sort - Andorra - Tarragona - Barcelona - Girona - Beziers - Bridge in the Sky (Viaduc de Millau) - Verdon Gorge - Cagnes-sur-Mer - Nice - Col de Turini - Col de la Bonette - Col du Mont-Cenis - Bourg-Saint-Maurice - Little Saint Bernard Pass- Mont Blanc and the tunnel - Nufenen pass - Grimsel pass - Furka pass - Oberalp pass - Malvaglia - San Bernardino pass - Bernina pass - Gavia pass - Stelvio pass - Umbrail pass - Fuorn pass - Fluela pass - Amden - Calais - Dover - Glasgow

map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SVEyaNnY6UYwsDjYOvtrUQ9448U&usp=sharing

that's about it

[Six30]

Sounds like you enjoyed it that's some serious mileage you done in a couple of years .

[Bonniebird]

Wow that's really impressive - no way could I handle that sort of mileage!

Sounds like its a trip that will never be forgotten

[JRH]

Stunning would love to do those roads. Not sure I could do those mileage though. We'll do everything.

You need to enter the return mileage in

http://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60277&p=942377#p942377" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Roxyy]

You need to enter the return mileage in

http://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60277&p=942377#p942377" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

Done

[rennie]

That's a proper trip! respect!

[Hoggs]

Wow looks amazing top stuff

[funinacup]

Good effort for doing that alone. I like company too much and get bored of my own quickly!

Where in Glasgow are you? I'm from Glasgow although living in Edinburgh.

[Tango]

Nice one Roxyy. ...... bit of an epic trip.......wish I'd done that kind of thing when I was younger. My dad did trip through Europe to Italy in the mid 1950's with a couple of mates on their BSA's........

[Paul-Kent]

That's something to be very proud of, I'm quite jealous!!!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Guest]

Averaged out... thats almost 500 miles a day... every day.

oh. em. gee.

[Guest]

There are some amazing views in your video, looks like a fantastic trip

[rob m]

Fantastic stuff

[Ricky]

That's pretty darn amazing!

Mucho respect and the views look beautiful

[Throttled]

You must be shattered! But so worth it.

[Guest]

Sounds like a right adventure.

Just curious, how much did you budget for it?

Fuel spend?

Accommodation?

[nicklucey]

Looks like an awesome trip, feeling very jealous and inspired!

Pretty impressed that you powered through the night, i would have been after a nap by lunchtime on the first day

[Roxyy]

Just curious, how much did you budget for it?

Fuel spend?

Accommodation?

 

Ended up spending a lot more than I originally thought, but also didn't think I would go as far as Stelvio, I thought I would probably get no further than French Alps.

So ended up spending at least £1000 all together, don't know how much exactly, I would say something between £1000 - 1300.

Bought 500 euros before I set off but was using my card a lot too, was paying for petrol in the UK with a card and when booking hotels and bnbs online was using card mostly too.

Can't tell how much I spent on fuel alone as at first I was paying for everything I could with cash and couldn't be bothered writing it down how much I was spending for what, and kept loosing the receipts lol.

Hotels and bnbs were usually around £30-35 a night, the cheapest one was £20 which was 4 star hotel, the rest was closer to £35.

Motorway tolls in France between 100 and 150 euros (did a lot of miles in France), Vignette in Switzerland around 40 euros.

Tried to save on food so was mostly eating supermarket food apart from one night where there was a nice restaurant with a hotel and couldn't resist ordering the dinner there.

Then spent about 70 euros in bike garage as had to get more chain lube and chain cleaner and get coolant refilled.

Also european breakdown cover which was around £40 or 50

Ferry from Dover to Calais around £30 as booked a night before, on the way back I booked it few hours before I got on the ferry so that was about £45.

There were a lot small things that all added together ended up costing me quite a lot but ah well was worth it in the end and can't wait to go for another trip.

[adriansk]

Amazing!

[Bigralphie]

Brilliant ,you cant beat just setting off and winging it

[Guest]

Just curious, how much did you budget for it?

Fuel spend?

Accommodation?

 

Ended up spending a lot more than I originally thought, but also didn't think I would go as far as Stelvio, I thought I would probably get no further than French Alps.....

 

Nice, that's not too bad at all.

Cheers for the breakdown

[Roxyy]

Just finished uploading all videos, here's the link to the playlist if anyone is interested:

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Next trip in 12 days if all goes well

[NearOn]

Wow, what a great thing to do! Incredibly views you will never forget, very jealous! I'll be doing a trip next year, nothing like the scale of yours but thanks for the inspiration. Look forward to seeing your next trip

[Guest]

Some of these places are astonishing! Thanks for sharing

[V1ncevrs]

Sounds like a great route!! I seen the google maps you posted.

I'm particularly interested in the section between Monaco and Mont Blanc.

Any nice places to stay overnight you would recommend?