Day - 15, Maranello to Muhl

Once again you’ll find 2 posts together, due to the lack of wifi, so if you’ve not read about the ride to Maranello, read that first. Apologies.

Day 15 started early, as we had a long day ahead. First stop was the breakfast room. Besides a chocolate croissant and a yoghurt, I had some French toasts with jam. I wasn’t in the mood for toasting the bread on offer. It looked dry enough.

We were on the road by 8:30 and our first stop was for fuel. Next up, a coffee stop. Phil had been talking last night about taking the motorway, to save us 3 hours travelling. Besides not wanting to pay tolls, there were 2 things that I had built into the route that I wanted to see. The outcome, we split at the coffee stop, around 11:15. Riding solo doesn’t bother me, it frees me up from always watching whoever is following, be it Phil or Grizzly, however, I was a bit disappointed Phil chose to go it alone, given I have no phone and that only yesterday when he wanted to go to Motorrad, I said we stick together. He’d never pass the SAS course, eh?

I cracked on. Sometimes it seemed that as soon as I got a clear bit of road, a lorry would appear. If not, it was a tractor. Nevertheless, there were long periods where I could really get a move on and overall the ride was really good. The scenery was great and the weather, until the latter part very warm. There were castles, tiny chapels and probably best of all, the Forst brewery building. So ornate, it was more like a castle or stately home.

I had 3 more stops, the first being a large memorial to Italian fallen of the Great War. A very large structure, circular in design, with 3 large feet and 3 separate walls bearing the names of the dead.

The second stop was at a lake to see a clock tower standing in the water. A plaque to some chap, tells you that when the valley was flooded, he was responsible for saving the clock tower of the 14^th century St Catherine’s Church. It looks strange but was certainly worth the stop. If only I had a camera!  Some bikers were taking photos of their bikes with the tower in the background.

My final stop was for more fuel. I was expecting it to be expensive in Austria, especially as the chosen station was a BP one but I was pleasantly surprised to find it cheaper than we’d paid in Italy.

From that point, I still had about 50 miles to go taking me into the heart of the Tyrol. It was noticeably cooler now and the sun had gone behind clouds, so it wasn’t going to get any warmer.

I arrived at the hotel at 17:40 and saw Phil’s bike in the car park. I imagined he’d been there for hours, at least 3 but turned out he’d only arrived at 16:00. He seemed happy with his motorway ride, just as well, it’s pretty much all motorway tomorrow.

The Gasthaus is pretty naff. No wifi, a room at the top of the place with a sink and a shared toilet/shower at the other end of the hallway. Not sure what possessed me to book this. The restaurant isn’t open either, so we popped down the road to a food truck, where I had currywurst, fries and a Kaiser beer. I’ll leave you to guess what Phil had.

Tomorrow we shall end up in Luxembourg, having polished off Austria and Germany during the day.

Bye for now.