Eastern Europe on a GSA | Ep 2 | Through the Black Forest and into Austria | The Halloween Hotel!

Eastern Europe on a GSA | Ep 2 | Through the Black Forest and into Austria | The Halloween Hotel!

Greetings, YouTube, and welcome back to my channel. The forecast is supposed to be good for today, so happy days. Um, there is bits of blue sky up there, as you can see. And I have the most fantastic riding day ahead of me. I’ve had a good night here in Strasburg, France, and the bike is safe and sound. I have, according to Google Maps, an 8 and 1/2 hour ride ahead of me. There are no motorways in sight. It’s all B- roads. I’m crossing through the Black Forest on the way to Austria. I’m going to be staying in Kstein tonight in Austria, which is amongst all the ski resorts. I have some mountain passes to do, providing they’re still open. It is late October. There may be snow. I don’t know. We will find out. Can’t wait for today. You lot are invited. Hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already. Share, like, notifications bell, all that kind of stuff. Let’s have it. Well, just look at that beautiful, beautiful sunshine. So sadly missed yesterday. I think yesterday’s inclement weather, all 13 hours of it, 555 miles, I think that kind of added to the the difficulty of finding the rhythm of the road yesterday. I kind of was a bit unsettled when I arrived and didn’t feel at ease. Sometimes that’s always the way at the start of a tour. No matter how many tours I’ve done, I always take a day or two to settle into them. But this morning, everything seems ticky boo. It does. The sun is shining. I know it’s not going to stay shining all day, but you know what can you do? It is October, almost November. Um, and I’ve got a really, really long day ahead of me, but I don’t care. I’m on the bike. And as I was saying to Mera before I left and and when she was saying, “Do you really want to go when the weather’s going to be rubbish?” Like, you know, setting off knowing that there was a storm and that, I said, “Well, it’s a bit like that. that saying you have that a bad a bad day on the golf course is still better than a good day in the office. And I think you know a bad day on the bike if it’s bad weather. It’s still a good day. I’m sure you know what I mean. Anyway, I’m looking forward to getting away from the town. I probably should have filled up with petrol there. Never mind. We’ll do it in a bit. What have I got? 158 km. Got loads. Um I’m looking forward to getting away from the town and out into the countryside. It’s going to be nice to cross the Black Forest again. Be a different vibe yet again to when I was there with Ben cuz we had that 30° and amazing sunshine and blue skies for a few days and then torrential rain for a few more. The tours there, if you want to watch that one, was nice. First tour with my son that was successful. Yeah, I think a bit of trying to settle into yesterday’s ride um took a bit longer because I couldn’t chat to you guys. I always find just nattering away to you lot as I’m riding makes me feel like I’ve got company and uh it’s a bit lonely when I’m riding and not talking and I didn’t plug any of the audio equipment in yesterday because of the heavy heavy rain. Um, I have tried a suggestion that my good friend Arch in Japan said about getting hold of an old set of headphones and modifying them and using the using the microphone part and then not trashing a decent microphone if it gets ruined in the rain. But I didn’t have a lot of success with that. Um, you should check out Archie’s channel, um, Arch Japan Moto Vlogs. Lovely guy riding a GS1300 around Japan. I didn’t realize I wanted to visit Japan until I saw his channel. It is such a fab place. One day, mate, I will get myself over and we’ll go for a ride together. So, yeah, not being able to chat to you yesterday made it feel a bit more a bit more lonely. But today, I’m back to my old ways of inane bubble. I can see mountains in the distance. That’s only going to get more mountainous as the day goes on. Well, I am just about to reenter Germany. So, welcome back to Germany. Hello, Deutseland again. That makes me happy seeing those hills, that dense forest. Yeah, happy memories of the summer just gone. Hopefully make some new memories all be it by myself today as we pass through that lot. Lovely. Somewhere there is going to be a rainbow. Well, this is going to be spectacular. I hadn’t really banked on the the change of the color of the leaves with it being autumn. My memory of the Black Forest was, you know, green. But this is stunning. Beautiful. And yes, these are the roads I remember from riding here with Ben a few months back. Absolutely cracking. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh my gosh, that looks amazing. Oh, I’ve just stopped for a moment to swap batteries in the in the GoPros to connect the mic again cuz it seems to have stopped raining. But the wind, oh my gosh, it’s so cold. That’ll be all the snowy mountains behind me. Oh yes, it is chilly. Says 7°, but it feels much colder. Right. I have a warning light on my dashboard now. A moment ago, the bike said that the SOS function was partially unavailable and to seek help from an authorized workshop. Um, so that’s something to think about when I get back. It will need service again. Servicing again when I get back. It was serviced not very long ago, but I’ll have racked up another 6,000 miles. That seems to be the way. It’s nice that the sun’s out. I stopped a little while ago as well and had a coffee and a bite to eat. What’s it say? 2 and 1/2 hours. I should arrive at 6:00, so it’ll just be getting dark. And I think there’s a mountain pass or two between me and my destination, but I don’t know for sure. It looks like it on the Google Maps. See if they’re even open because earlier when it was 3° and I was in the the Black Forest, it was trying to snow. There was kind of a bit of sleep in the air. All we need is the temperature to be around zero up on a mountain pass and the clouds to be there and it could be a whole interesting ball game. I’m a bit shivery now having stood there. Put the heated grips on full. I might stick my heated gloves on as well, although I’m kind of trying to save them for later. I think I’m going to need them later. Lots of signs saying ice and there’s lots of snow poles as I ride around. So, we can’t be very far away from this area, disappearing beneath a blanket of white. But at the moment, those colors are just stunning. Well, we’re getting pretty close to the mountains now. I’ve got an hour left to go. I am quite cold. I’m going to be ready to get there. 10 hours in the saddle. I can only imagine how harsh it would be living here in a month or two’s time. But oh my gosh, what a beautiful place. beautiful building. In fact, plural. I’m really, really hoping that I manage to get to the hotel before it gets dark. Sun’s pretty low in the sky now, and I think the second it goes down, the temperature is going to plummet. And I’m already a bit shivery. Plus, if it is a mountain pass that I’m coming over to get to the final destination, and I’m not actually sure if it is. Just looks like it on Google Maps and it says the word pass as well. So, I don’t know. Um, if it is, I’d rather not be doing that in the dark. We’ll see. Just stunning. Absolutely beautiful. Maybe this road that I think is a mountain pass actually runs through the valley between the mountains like this cuz I got 45 km to go and it says 47 minutes. So that’s that’s pretty fast going if it’s a a gnarly switchback kind of a road. But I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be like this, which probably is just as well. Although the GoPro doesn’t show it, it always flattens everything out. We are climbing quite quite steadily and the temperature is dropping as the elevation rises. 4° now, almost as cold as it was at one stage earlier. I think it’s just going to keep dropping now. Beautiful, beautiful valley. Well, I just saw a sign that said Kushstein, 24 km. It’s 35 km to my digs. So, if a road is going to take me up over some stuff, it’ll be this one, I think. At the minute, we’re still in the valley. It’s just absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful greens, trees, and uh the leaves just everywhere are turning the most gorgeous colors. What a stunning place to live. The snow poles are well and truly in place. They pop those orange ones into the uh the white things, black and white things. So, they’re obviously expecting loads and I’m sure unlike unlike back home in the UK, they get tons of snow and they manage to keep the roads open, unlike us where it all comes to a standstill when a snowflake lands on a street in London. Anyway, 3° now. Got to be a bit careful. The roads are wet. If they start freezing, it’s going to be interesting. Oh, it’s bitterly cold, but very, very fresh. That’s the mist or cloud that’s just emerging from the trees. It’s beautiful. The snowy mountains on my right. It’s cold. Well, I’m just entering Austria. and it’s chilly. So, welcome to Austria, folks. This is the first time I’ve ridden a motorcycle in Austria. Not the first time I’ve been to Austria, but certainly the first time I’ve ridden a bike over here. And what was encouraging was there was a barrier that could have been going across the road a second ago, you know, blocking it off and it was up. So that tells me this road is open. So I’m not looking at turning around and doing an extra 2 or 3 hours to get to where I was heading. I’m getting a bit shivery now. By the time this uh this video will have come out, I’ll have reviewed a load of heated gear from uh Ride Iron. They’re the people who made these gloves. Uh and I wish I had it already. I haven’t. It’s just the way the order that the videos are going to come out. I’ll have reviewed it and released it before this lot comes out. But uh I wish I had some a heated vest on now and heated heated leggings, but it is what it is. The irony is I was thinking I was going to head away to have like a last gasp of summer and some sunshine and uh I’ll be in a couple of days time I’ll be riding down the Croatian coast by the Adriatic and uh I was figuring it’d be about 20° and sunshine. That’s what I was looking forward to. But the forecast at the minute for the two days that I’m going to be riding down the coast is thunderstorms, heavy rain, and eight degrees. However, then when I’ve moved on and headed up into Montenegro, back into the mountains, uh the Croatian coast has got 18° and sunshine. All sounds a bit typical to me, but I don’t care. I’ll take it as it comes. What I like is the fact I’m away and riding my bike, going to places I’ve never been to before. I’ve never been to Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Hungary. The list goes on. Be ticking all those boxes as this tour evolves. Oh, it’s just beautiful. All the red leaves on the ground add to the beauty but make me a bit wary on the corners. Can remember being in the Yorkshire DS a few years ago in February I think it was and the leaves were just over all over the road and wet and soggy and disgusting and the road was like an ice rink. So very very wary of wet leaves on damp corners. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Another wow. I’ve kind of run out of objectives and superlatives. It’s just all too amazing. Well, there’s the first hairpin bend of my journey. I’m guessing there’s going to be a few before the tour is over. Love it. There are few things in life that give me as much joy as riding a good road on a motorcycle. Obviously, there are things that are more joyful, but this is its very own special kind of wonderful, even if it is ters. It’s not quite time yet, but there’s snow on top of that mountain. And the skiing run, ski run is green still, but it’s not going to be long and that’s all going to be covered. And people will be coming and having their winter adventures. See the ski lift. You won’t be able to see it on the footage, but the ski lift going up the mountain. It’s stationary at the moment, as you’d expect. I’ll give that a clean before tomorrow. Looking a bit grubby. I’m nearly there. It says 2 minutes. Oh, look at those mountains in the sunlight over there. That is beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. So, just coming to the end of a 10-hour riding day, and it’s been a very chilly 10-hour riding day, I got to say. But really enjoyable. The Black Forest delivered with all the colors, the autoutuminal colors, and then Austria has just been wow from the moment moment we got here. Now, I really hope this is the right address. I may have a little cry if it’s not. Hotel Bhoff is what I’m looking for. That might be it. Covered in the Halloween stuff. That’ll be a very large pumpkin. Needs to clear his windscreen. Goodness. Hotel Burkoff. There we go. Well, clearly the Austrians like Halloween then I will not be partaking in any in any Halloween nonsense. I will literally just be parking the bike and heading in. There’s park up there. You have arrived. What a day that’s been. Well, I am in. And a very nice room it is, too. It is a completely mad hotel. The whole hotel is Halloween themed. Even in the in the elevator just now, the floor has got a picture of Penny Wise from it holding a balloon looking rather menacing at me. Um, yeah, this will do for the night. I can get warm. I can already feel myself thoring out. I’m going to be having a nice hot shower in there. It then says something here. or your bathroes. It then says to attach these to your bathrobe so that it doesn’t get exchanged in the sauna. H I may have to check that out. That will definitely thaw me out. Anyway, get myself sorted and I’ll get back to you. Well, my friends, that was quite a long day and despite the weather, the heavy rain at times and the cold, uh it’s been a fantastic day. 10 hours on the bike. Really, really good. Um, I’ll show you roughly where I’ve been and uh what I might plan to do tomorrow as well. So, let’s just get this in place for you. It’s on my phone, I’m afraid, because uh I haven’t got a map for this. So, yesterday worked my way across top of France to Strasburg. And then today I’ve worked my way along this route here. It’s saying 7 hours 19 at the moment. Obviously there’s less traffic. It was uh 8 hours 30 today. And then I’ve ended up here just outside of Kstone in Austria. Tomorrow I’m going to work my way down to Slovenia. I’m going to have a late lunch I think at Lake Bled, which is somewhere around here. There we go. There. And then I’m going to work my way down to Ljubljana for the evening. I’ve literally just spent probably I don’t know hour and a half looking online trying to find um a hotel or an Airbnb or anything that I could afford in the Ljubljana area and and oh my gosh it’s so expensive you know just think of a number double it and add an all basically for a night. Uh, so I’ve got something that’s a little bit out of town, about 10 km out, but uh, it’s, you know, 55 quid plus the taxes and that 63. So, um, far more than I’d want to spend. Like I mentioned earlier somewhere in today’s video, I’d probably been hoping to spend about £30 for some accommodation, but uh, it is what it is. Um, I just, you know, not eat instead. That’s fine. Anyway, my plan is to have breakfast here at the hotel and then head uh as I said to Lake Bled for a late lunch and then make my way to Ljubljana tomorrow. Hoping the weather’s going to be a bit better. It looks like when I make my way down the Croatian coast, which is uh in a couple of days time, I’m going to do the Adriatic Highway. Um and in a couple of days time, by the time I get to Dravnik, it will just be starting to get a bit nicer. Um, and we might get a touch of 18 20 degrees and some sunshine if I time it just right. So, I hope you enjoyed today’s video. If you did, please give it a like, subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already, um, share, hit the notification thing, hype it if I’ve set that up by now. It’s something I’m looking into. And I will see you in the next one. Bye-bye. Heat. Heat.

Greetings YouTube! Hit that subscribe button and join me as I leave France and ride through the beautiful Black Forest en route to Austria. Autumn colours have taken hold and as heavy rain gives way to frosty temperatures, it can only mean one thing: I’m heading to the mountains… There’s snow on them there hills! Let’s ‘ave it!