A radiant sun prompted us to an early rise and, after an excellent homemade breakfast, we still had time to hose our motorcycles in the farm’s stables, kindly made available by the owner.
The motorcycles were once again shinning as new when we left the inn, among friendly waves of goodbye.
We continued following the fabulous alpine mountain route, mostly made between the 3.300 and the 6.500 feet (1.000 and the 2.000 metres) of altitude, stopping several times to enjoy the beautiful scenery and register it with our cameras. Of the six of us, only my sister and my brother-in-law, Manuel Carreiro, had already toured the Austrian Alps, some ten years before, and even so they couldn’t stop praising such a superb and imposing panorama.
We arrived at the Italian border close to noon. After the border, we rode down another beautiful mountain road, with a wonderful tar coverage, that wound around a huge escarp and that took us to the picturesque Italian town of Cleulis. It was the first time I crossed tunnels, dug in the escarp, curbing almost 180 º. I made sure to enjoy the adrenaline rush to its full extent ...
That day we had lunch at the La Perla hotel, Italian "retro" style, in the spectacular Northern Italy alpine region – the Dolomites. It was during this lunch that I decided to order the new FJR AS, and I ended up closing the deal, over the phone, with the Yamaha dealership in Ponta Delgada.
Back on the road and due to a misinterpretation of the GPS, we ended up leaving our planned course and, again due to works in a tunnel had to return to Austria via the same road we had used that morning, later re-entering our initially planned route, after crossing the Italian border. On our way to the peaceful town of "Weissensee", where we would spend this second night, we started seeing signs indicating the mountain range of "Grossglockner", one of our trip’s high points, the greatness of which we could already perceive in the horizon, further raising the expectations for the third day of our journey through the Alps.
At the end of the afternoon, we arrived to the small town of "Weissensee", which overlooked a vast and tranquil lake of the same name, just in time to choose an hotel and get settled in. We ended up choosing the "Hotel Kolbitsch", another small and welcoming three stars family-run unit, quite comfortable and with an excellent price (25 euros per person for each night, breakfast included), with the room’s balconies facing the lake, that faithfully mirrored the outlines of the surrounding mountains. Unquestionably a dreamy place that deserved a more prolonged stay, were it not for the somewhat tight schedule of our journey.
Since it was a day to be marked, we celebrated the birthday of my brother-in-law, Manuel Carreiro, with a dinner in the terrace of the hotel that also overlooked the lake. We sang “Happy Birthday”, and after he blew out the candle on the improvised birthday cake, the evening stretched out pleasantly.

Day 8 – 22.06.2006 – 3rd day in the Alps – the "Grossglockner" – 167 mi (268 km)

Since the expectation over visiting the famous "Grossglockner" was great, we rose early, taking advantage of another radiant morning for a walk around lake "Weissensee", strolling by the many wooden piers, that had little rowing boats anchored, reflected in the clear water. It was an extremely calm and quiet scenery interrupted only by the occasional fish jumping out of the water. By this time, we had completely surrendered to the incomparable beauty of Austria, as well as to the great hospitality, warmth and civic spirit of its people. Still, it was time to return to the hotel for breakfast and to head, finally for "Grossglokner", where we arrived at around 10:30. On the way, we crossed paths with many other bikers, equally headed for one of the most beautiful European shrines of motorcycle tourism, also known as "The Motorcycle Heaven".
After paying a toll of 17 € and receiving a set of maps, leaflets and even stickers, we made our way to the top of the mountain, without stopping for a coffee at one of the many bars and restaurants, all with the yellow plaque "Bikers welcome". As we were driving up the mountain, along many other bikers, that almost made us feel like we were in a meeting, the snowy patches that speckled the mountain became larger, although the temperature was pleasant and the air clear and fresh. Following the direction in the map we’d been given, we headed first for the "Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe Visitors Centre", with many stops along the way to enjoy the fabulous mountain scenery, among breathtaking cascades, lakes and streams. When we arrived at the "Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe Visitors", we parked our motorcycles in the huge lot, where there were already hundreds of others, to enjoy the majestic view over the highest mountain in Austria, the "Grossglockner", with 12.460 feet (3.798 metres) of altitude, where, through one of the slopes, runs the longest and most imposing glacier in the Alps, the "Pazterze". A dazzling and unique landscape, which we enjoyed for a long time. We were back on the road, headed for "Hochtor", at 8.212 feet (2.503 metres) of altitude, one of the highest parts of the route, from where we once again enjoyed the magnificent view over the surrounding mountain range, as we wound our way through one of the most beautiful roads we’d ever crossed, an with excellent pavement too!
Next, we drove by the beautiful lake of "Fuscher" and stopped once again at "Edelweißspitze", the highest point of this alpine circuit, at 8.435 feet (2.571 metres) of altitude.
Satisfied with so much beauty, I took advantage of the winding descent to the "Grossglockner" east tollgate to ride with some of the faster bikers. Once we had arrived at the tollgate, we had to wait some time for our travelling companions, who had chosen to make the descent at a more tranquil pace…
We had lunch in the terrace of a pleasant restaurant, located in Ferleiten, just after the tollgate, with a superb view over the mountain. On that day, it was Carlos Paz Ferreira’s turn to close a deal with Motomil on the purchase of a new BMW K1200GT, he had been admiring for a long time, in exchange for his Honda Pan-European ST 1300. Our tour of the Alps was beginning to seem more like a business trip than a leisurely journey ...
As we were finishing our lunch, the "Grossglockner" mountain fell under the cover of dense black clouds, a sign familiar to the waiter who advised us to get back on the road and attempt to escape the bad weather that was approaching rapidly. We only managed to go a few kilometres, towards Hallstatt, the village where we would spend the night, before a diluvian rain fell upon us. We tried to take cover under a bridge but, since the copious rain would not stop, we had to proceed to Hallstatt under the most difficult weather conditions we had ever faced. We could barely see the road and our suits were completely drenched. The rain was so intense that, due to the spray projected by a large truck, the Paz Ferreira couple lost sight of us, having to resort to the GPS to find the way to Hallstatt, a narrow and winding road, in the midst of a dense forest, which made the thunderstorm even more frightening. In one of the many curbs, my FJR left the road, going into a pasture. It took an emergency manoeuvre and a bit of luck with it to get the motorcycle back on the road without falling. Still, the motorcycle kept behaving in a rather strange way, over the wet tarmac, its back tire slipping repeatedly. I thought it was Elisa moving in the back seat that was causing it, but she insisted that she was still ...
Finally arriving at Hallstatt, completly drenched as we were, all we wanted was to find lodgings quickly. We stopped at the first fuel station we could find and asked the employee to direct us to the nearest lodgings. After a few phone calls, we ended up staying at a nearby inn, the "Gasthof Hirlatz", that had only one fault: an unbearable smell of fritters (I had enough of those Austrian breaded steaks!). But, what we really wanted was to take off our wet suits and boots, and recover from that troubled afternoon. The rain was so intense that the ABS system of the Honda Goldwing stopped working, water got into one of the trunks of the Pan European and even my sister’s cell phone, stored inside her coat was beyond repair.
Since the rain kept falling heavily into the night and the weather reports we saw on the web were anything but favourable, we started equating the possibility of cancelling the last day of our tour of the Alps and avoid the bad weather, going through the south of Germany. Little did I know that, on the following day I would be forced, for other reasons to cut the journey short ...

Day 9 – 23.06.2006 – Abandoning our journey through the Alps – 376 mi (605 km)

On the following morning, it was a torment to put our gear back on. It was still damp, though it had been hanging in our balconies. While we were checking the motorcycles, I found out my rear tire was worn to the wires in an extension of about 20 centimetres. This explained, in the worst way possible, the strange behaviour the motorcycle had exhibited on the previous day. I had planned on substituting the tire upon our arrival in Ibiza, near the end of our trip, but the excesses committed on the fabulous alpine roads had left visible marks. Since I always put together a travel folder, which among other information includes the contacts of Yamaha dealerships on the areas I’ll be travelling through, all it took was a phone call to Motorpoint, in the nearby city of Munich, for the tire replacement to be arranged.
Though the morning was dark, with some light rain, we still visited the historical centre of the magnificent ancient city of Hallstatt, located by the lake of the same name. It’s a very beautiful city, a must see. Not even a few low clouds could spoil the dazzling panorama.
We headed for Munich, on the highway, at a moderate speed due to the condition my tire was in.
We arrived at Motorpoint, in the outskirts of Munich, close to noon, and had lunch while they replaced my rear tire, as well as that of Carlos Paz Ferreira’s Pan-European, as a matter of caution, since it too showed clear signs of wear. In truth, these were the most expensive tires we ever paid for, due, naturally, to the need and the lack of opportunity. Still, we learnt our lesson!
In the afternoon, we followed the highway to the Austrian border, passing near Dornbirn, where we had started our alpine journey, then following to Switzerland and stopping, late afternoon, at the hotel Ibis in Rothrist, some 30 mi (48 km) away from Berne.

Still with the majestic scenery of the Alps etched into our retinas and surrendered to the kindness, hospitality and politeness of the Austrian people, it was time to head once again for the Iberian peninsula for the usual week at the beach to end the holidays, again in Ibiza for the Paz Ferreira couple and us, and in the South of Spain for my sister and my brother-in-law, Manuel Carreiro.
Fortunately, the weather was fair, with a pleasant temperature, and that made it easier for us to cover several hundred kilometres, first headed for Perpignan, in the South of France. We then decided to stretch the day’s journey to Barcelona, in a total of 656 mi (1.056 Km). The day was marked by an unexpected sidetracking at lunch time, caused by the intense weekend traffic in the French highways, so that the crew of the imposing Goldwing ate lunch alone, later meeting with the rest of us in a nearby service area; and also by a troubled arrival at the Ibis Hotel, in the outskirts of Barcelona, located near the "Circuito de Catalunya" which, because it had been recently built, was not yet marked in our GPS's. Nevertheless, after many twists and turns, we finally arrived at our destination for a well-earned rest.

From Barcelona onward, and as it had happened already in the beginning of our journey, "the three magnificent" would go their separate ways. While the Paz Ferreira couple and we went to Valencia to board the 15:00 Acciona Transmediterranea ferry for Ibiza, my sister and my brother-in-law headed directly to the South of Spain.
After arriving in Ibiza, we crossed the island, towards Santo António, to stay at our favourite hotel in the island – the "Blau Park" hotel – which has an excellent rate, free covered parking and a splendid beach front location.
As it had been the rule, we once again came upon extensive road work, with a lot of police vigilance.

These were another six excellent and relaxing days spent in this magnificent Mediterranean island that pleases us so much, not only for the beautiful welcoming beaches, but also for its cosmopolitan nightlife, both in the euphoric centre of Ibiza and in a recently constructed bar area, by the famous "Café del Mar", facing the sea, in Santo António, where you can enjoy excellent bars, with restaurant and swimming pools, and with direct access to the sea and nautical sports, allowing you to savour a fine dinner, having a flaming and romantic sunset as background, for instance at the Coastline Café.
In the city of Ibiza, dinner in the castle area and a daytime climb to the top of the walls, from which you can view practically the whole island, are a must.
Since we changed beaches nearly every day, we covered yet another 671 mi (1.080 km), which is quite a lot in an island with an area of merely 221 square miles (572,6 km2).
Since all that is good must come to an end, on Friday, June the 30th, it was time to pack once again and board the Baleária 20:00 ferry, for Denia, a harbour located at 62 mi (100 km) from Valencia, where we would spend the night before returning to Lisbon.
Except that, due to the "32nd America's Cup" and other events taking place in Valencia we could only find a hotel with vacancies at 2 in the morning: the Express By Holiday Inn Valencia-Bonaire, near the airport, on the way to Madrid.

Since we wanted to be in Lisbon to watch the match between Portugal and England for the Football World Cup, we slept only 5 hours and, at 8 in the morning, we were already riding our motorcycles, on our way home. It was a hard, but not impossible, marathon, of about 620 mi (1.000 km), to be covered in less than 8 hours (considering the time difference between Spain and Portugal, which played in our favour).
The weather stayed fine, with a mild temperature, which made the return journey much easier. As it had been the hallmark of this journey, when we were reaching Madrid, we once again came upon roadwork, nothing a motorcycle couldn’t overtake with a certain ease, but that did just the same slow down our progress. We stopped only for quickly refuels and for a few "jámon" sandwiches, already in Estremadura, in a filthy roadside bar. The great quality of the Spanish "jámon" was the only thing it ...
We continued our marathon, with strong complaints from our passengers, who were getting tired from the intense rhythm we had imposed on our machines, that day. Once again, the motorcycles proved their great quality on the road, not registering any technical problems thoughout the whole journey. We travelled 609 mi (980,6 km) in just 8:32 hours (7:22 hours driving), which corresponded to an effective average of 83 miles per hour (133 km/h). We finally crossed the Vasco da Gama Bridge at around 15:00, Lisbon time, arriving at the apartments, in Olaias, around 15:15, just in time to have a shower, after the usual family celebration of our arrival, and to watch the football match, as was our purpose. And it was certainly worth the effort watching the great victory of our national team over England!
On the following day, I could still find the energy to take part in the 3rd FJR 1300 PT lunch, that took place in Rio de Moinhos, in Alto Alentejo. I travelled another 220 mi (354 km) in the always pleasant and fun company of other 52 fellow FJR owners, thus closing with a golden key my memorable 2006 journey through Europe.

Austria Road-book (download)
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