The much awaited date of June 13th having finally arrived, it was time to pack, take a last look at the check-list to make sure nothing was missing and head out for the João Paulo II airport to board the last Sata flight for Lisbon in the company of the Paz Ferreira couple. Despite the of this new tour through Europe, we took advantage of the flight time to arrange the final details of this promising journey, which would take us on a 4 day round of the Austrian Alps, in a mountain route kindly prepared and given to us by my colleague , from the FJR Austria group.
Since departure from Lisbon was scheduled for Thursday, July 15th, I used the morning of our first day in the city for the usual last minute shopping at , followed by a cheerful lunch with the 26 Azorean bikers who had arrived in Lisbon on that day to take part in the .
In the afternoon, and in spite of the rain that fell over Lisbon, while the headed north, towards Barcelos, where the rally would begin on the following day, I went to the facilities of , in Alfragide, to test-drive the new 2006 Yamaha FJR 1300/A and also to test the new AS model (electronic clutch). On the way there, in the IC 19, I ran into my friend , from the FJR 1300 PT Group, who had arranged to meet me in Alfragide along with a surprise friend. While I was chatting with Gonçalo, already at the Yamaha Portugal facilities, I was pleased to see arrive my illustrious biker friend and former deputy Rodrigo Ribeiro, in his faithful Yamaha Tenéré. The chat was so pleasant and lively, namely about the last great , of which Rodrigo had been one of the organizers, that I almost forgot the reason that had taken me to Alfragide – test-driving the FJR. Finally, I tested the two new FJR’s: first the conventional model, with a clutch, and then the new FJR AS, with no clutch. If the first test had already left me with a strongly positive impression as to the great evolution registered in the 2006 model, after the first rather confused minutes of not knowing which of the gear selectors to choose – whether the new hand system or the conventional foot operated one – the new AS quickly made me yield to the charms of the new YCCS technology. So much so that, upon returning to the Yamaha Portugal facilities, I said: "this is the one I’ll be buying when I return from Austria!"
After having a few last words with the salesman and saying goodbye to my pleasant friends, Gonçalo and Rodrigo, I returned to Lisbon, always under light and uncomfortable rain.
After the traditional pre-journey family dinner, at the "Marisqueira Ramiro", it was time to return to our children’s apartments to finish packing and to try and get enough sleep so that we could be in good shape for another long adventure through Europe.
Day 1 – 15.06.2006 – Lisbon / Toledo – 401 mi (645 km) 
Thursday morning was clouded but with a mild temperature. Nothing better for the beginning of our journey, around 10:30, towards Toledo.
With our GPS’s duly programmed and after saying goodbye to our children, we headed for Badajoz, at a leisurely pace, since this year’s trip had shorter stages, for a lesser physical effort. Still, after having lunch, at around 15:00, near Madrid, and when we were already on the road to Toledo, which was under repair work (an almost constant sight on this year’s journey), I was almost betrayed by the weariness. On a tight turn, where the road went from two to four tracks, divided by a central rail, I misread the GPS and I would’ve been going against the traffic were it not for the timely horn of a truck driver that alerted me to the huge mistake I was about to make. Even so, I was forced to break hard, in a dirty area, and only the ABS prevented us from bumping against the central rail. Still not completely recovered from the scare, we arrived in around 18.00, in time to settle in the , located in a rather central area of this beautiful medieval Spanish city.
Before dinner there was some heavy rainfall over the city, accompanied by a thunderstorm. Little did we know this would be another warning sign for what this year’s journey had in store for us.
After the storm cleared, we went on a sightseeing walk across this magnificent city, which was festooned for the celebration of "Corpus Christi", with beautiful bedspreads and magnificent floral arrangements decking the window sills, along the streets through which, during the day, the procession had passed. Our first day into this journey couldn’t have had a more pleasant finale.
Day 2 – 16.06.2006 – Toledo / Barcelona – 478 mi (769 km) 
The morning of the second day was radiant and we took advantage of it to see a bit more of the fair city of Toledo, before heading out to Barcelona, around 10:00, going through Cuenca and Valencia. Up until lunchtime and under a radiant sun, we crossed the beautiful Cuenca range, in a mountain road with excellent pavement and dazzling vistas over the central Spanish plateau. Near Teruel, where we stopped for lunch, the weather changed suddenly. The sky darkened quickly and after we’d had lunch and were back on the road, we were surprised by heavy rain that caused us to loose sight of each other as we were leaving the city. It was nothing the GPS couldn’t solve and we ended up meeting further ahead, under a bridge where I had taken cover, on the way to the highway for Valencia.
Further ahead, we once again came upon road works and an endless white trace and heavy police control forced us to follow a long and slow line of vehicles almost all the way to Valencia.
It was then that one of the visor holders on Elisa’s helmet broke, one of the sides of the visor coming loose. On our next stop, I called our son, André, so he would search the Web for retailers in Barcelona, but we didn’t arrive in time to find the stores open. Since the following day was a Saturday, we would only be able to solve the problem in Italy.
Thanks to the improvement in the weather conditions and the excellent highway between Valencia and Barcelona, we managed to make up for lost time and were in Barcelona by 18:30. There, waiting for us, were my sister, Ani, and my brother-in-law, Manuel Carreiro, who had left Lisbon a few days before in their Honda Goldwing GL 1800, to enjoy a few days in the beaches of Southern Spain. It was only thanks to luck and the pleasantness of the manager of the that we were able to get rooms in the same hotel. I didn’t remember that, on that weekend, the MotoGP of Catalonia took place, until we were overtook by hundreds of bikers, many of them travelling at high speed, in the highway between Valencia and Barcelona. By then, it was too late to make reservations.
After an invigorating shower we all went out for dinner in the centre of , where we had an excellent paella and walked through the broad and crowded "ramblas" (avenues), enjoying the city’s frantic nightlife.
Day 3 – 17.06.2006 – Visiting Barcelona
As planned, this Saturday was occupied with a lengthy bus tour of the beautiful and spacious city of Barcelona, through which we had already passed several times but which we had never properly visited. A radiant but not too hot sun made even more pleasant the visit among the wide avenues and the majestic monuments of Barcelona, many of each built by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi, for instance the unfinished . It was a wonderful day.
Upon returning to the hotel, we had dinner and waited until close to midnight before heading out to the harbour and boarding the luxurious ferry headed for Italy, more precisely for the harbour of .
Day 4 – 18.06.2006 – Ferry trip through the Mediterranean
This day was entirely spent aboard the ferry, "Fantastic", enjoying the swimming pool and the tanning beds. In spite of some wind, the day was magnificent, allowing us a comfortable and peaceful trip to Genoa, where we went ashore around 20:00 of this Sunday.
We programmed our GPS's and headed for the Iris, a three star hotel, once again without having made any reservations. This time, though, we were not as lucky as in Barcelona. The hotel was full and all we could do was to look for another hotel. We ended up staying at a four star hotel of the "AC Hotels" chain, by the highway, at a lower rate. Sometimes, it’s all for the best! Since it was getting late and the hotel’s restaurant was closing, the receptionist directed us to a very homely pub in a narrow close to the hotel. Dinner was served on the covered terrace of the "O'Connors Pub", in a rather cool and informal ambiance, typically Italian, to which was added the infectious good disposition and charm of the waiters, who insisted in filling the glasses with a delicious "Chianti" wine. It was a party marked by joy and happiness!
Day 5 – 19.06.2006 – Heading for the Austrian Alps – 291 mi (468 km)
After a well-slept night at , it was to head into Austria, more precisely for , the picturesque hometown of our friend Stephan Rissi, starting point for our much awaited journey through the Austrian Alps. The day was radiant and, around 10:30, we were leaving for Milan, the first stop of the day, so we could finally acquire a new visor for Elisa’s helmet. So we did and, around noon, my Garmin left us right outside a Schuberth distributor, on the outskirts of Milan.
The visor replaced, we took once again to the road for Dorbirn, which forced us to cross part of Switzerland. Surprisingly and for the first time, we were forced to acquire, at the border, a 30 euro stamp for circulation within the country, an exorbitant price considering the few kilometres we travelled through Switzerland. Furthermore, close to the Austrian border, we came upon another ample stretch of road under repairs, with huge lines of traffic, mostly buses and trucks, which we overtook in succession until we were free of the infernal and polluting jam. Around 14:30, already in Austrian territory, we stopped for lunch at the first city we came upon. We were quite hungry but, unfortunately, we could only get some sandwiches and cakes at a cafeteria because, in Austria, outside the larger cities, restaurants close early.
Back on the road, we arrived in Dorbirn around 16:30, going directly to the , a small family-run mountain hotel, on the outskirts of the city, that had been recommended by our Greek colleague John Salakidis, also visiting the Austrian Alps, and who would join us and Stephan Rissi for dinner that night. While we were awaiting his arrival, we made use of the time to get some rest, delighting in the tranquil scenario that the hotel’s generous balconies, profusely decked with flowers, offered of the mountains. We could’ve hardly found a better calling card to begin our alpine journey!
John Salakidis and his wife, in their grey FJR, didn’t arrive at the hotel until 20:00, also coming from Switzerland and, around 21:00, we all met with Stephan Rissi – the nicest of people – for an excellent and lively dinner at an Asian restaurant in then centre of Dornbirn, our common passion for motorcycles being the main topic of conversation. I also ended up accepting Stephen’s kind invitation to join the , of which he is a co-organizer, in the company of other 154 FJR-owning bikers from 10 European countries. The meeting, to be held in June of next year, promises to be a great celebration!
Having said our goodbyes, we returned to the hotel, eager to begin, on the following day, our long awaited tour of the Alps.
Day 6 – 20.06.2006 – Beginning our Alpine journey – 303 mi (487 km)
After a delicious home-cooked breakfast, served in the terrace of the hotel’s restaurant, we left Dorbirn around 9:30, headed for the Alps, thus beginning the 4 day and about 1.243 mi (2.000 km) course, kindly prepared by Stephan Rissi. The weather was magnificent, with mild temperatures, ideal for motorcycling. After refuelling the motorcycles, checking the tires and the oil, and programming our route in the GPS, as we were leaving Dorbirn, we immediately came upon magnificent and sometimes narrow mountain roads, that were surrounded by luxurious vegetation and that, once in a while, crossed small rural villages, well-preserved and flowery, always built around a chapel or church, with high and beautiful gothic towers, lost among sumptuous valleys and mountains, in a breathtaking landscape, that became increasingly beautiful and imposing with the altitude. Around this time, we were crossing paths with several other bikers, that were equally touring the Alps and whom we would invariably salute the biker way.
Since the daily stage went little over the 280 mi (450 km), we had enough time to stop at the more interesting places and enjoy the majestic alpine landscape, with snow covered summits and mountainsides intersected by graceful waterfalls that would swell the many small rivers that we crossed by passing over beautiful traditional bridges, many of which still built out of wood.
Already knowing about the meal times in Austria, we stopped shortly after noon at a roadside restaurant, where we exchanged our first feelings about the trip. We had only travelled the first 124 mi (200 km) and we were already entranced with the beauty of the Alps, which surpassed our best expectations!
Unfortunately, the afternoon wasn’t as pleasant, once again due to roadwork, namely in a tunnel that crossed an enormous mountain range, which we painstakingly managed to go around with the help of the GPS, forcing us none the less to an incursion through Southern Germany, in a total of 62 additional miles (100 km) that made us waste a lot of time. Because of this, we decided, mid-afternoon, to follow the highway directly to our destiny for the day, passing near Innsbruck, where we had already been in 2002. Already on the road that would take us to , in Mittersill, we stopped for dinner in a small mountain town. Back on the road, night was falling when a thunderstorm and heavy rainfall surprised us. We were not too startled since we had been warned about these sudden weather changes in the Alps by a group of Italian bikers that had boarded with us in Barcelona. When they heard that the Alps were our destination, to our dismay, they said: "oh, you should take your rain suites..."
Having arrived at our destination, and after an invigorating shower, we spent the remaining of the evening fraternizing, in the common room, with the pleasant family of farmers, owners of the inn, that Stephan had indicated to us, as well as with two other German bikers, son and father-in-law, who were also touring the Alps.
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