May 10 -- 14

May 10

We said good-bye to our Tralala hotel in Montreux and headed for Heidelberg. Our room was one of the two rooms with a balcony.
It was a beautiful day and the last leg of our journey.

Montreux is a tourist town in Switzerland. It is famous for the Montreux Jazz festival but is really a music festival. Artists like Santana, Paul Simon, Sting, Liza Minelli, B B King, Dr John and on will show up this year. Took the clog train up to the mountains. Kind of like Kirkland WA where you might get a ticket if you don't look good or your clothes are not color coordinated.

Beverly, at a fabulous Italian dinner in Heidelberg, showing off that she does have dinner clothes...kind of. We met the Italian chef at this restaruant and he fed us of the menu. Tis guy could cook.

May 11

We move to Knopf tours property. It was perfectly set up for bikers. We are storing our bike at Stephan's place. His business is catering to bikers who tour Europe. It was perfect for what we needed. Hope to do another trip in the fall and everything is there waiting for us.

Jake was heading out on an extended trip of 4 months on his KLR. We made a day trip together in the Black Forest hills. Jake is an engineering student from New York who is using his summer vacation travelling around eastern Europe and Russia.

Beverly and Stephan

Thanks Stefan.

May 14

We flew from Frankfert to Dallas and stayed overnight. Thought it was a waste of en evening but we fell asleep at 8:00. Flew to Seattle the next morning and had a surprise waiting for us at the airport.

What a wonderful surprise and a beautiful sight to to be greeted by Lisa with Jacquline and Bridget




What a great trip. Makes us want to go again.

May 9 Montreux Switzerland

The view from our motel room at the Tralala, a motel suggested by the bellman at the Casino when we couldn't find a reasonable priced room. Although still expensive, this was a great mid-priced room.

Montreux: famous for an annual music festival. Here is Deep Purple. Sorry, not live. This is the art in our hotel room.

A train-ride up the mountain was a beautiful adventure for the afternoon.

We were treated to some hang-gliders at the top of the mountain.

May 8 The Alps

May 8 in the Alps





What a gorgeous day to head into the French Alps. The mountains are spectacular. 360 degrees of neverending fabulous views. Here are a few of them.

A short stop in Grenoble

Beautiful views around every corner.

Is this for real?! We stopped to buy stickers in Mont Blanc for the bike and there were guns in the display case in this tourist shop...complete with silencers.

Freddy Mercury of the band Queen is represented by a statue in Montreux, one of his favorite hang outs.

Beverly and Mike enjoy the sunset on Lake Geneva in Montreux Switzerland.

May 6 - 7 Tour De France routes

Riding the Tour De France routes.


May 6

One of the things we wanted to do was ride some of the tour de France routed. It might be fun to see a place we have been when we watch it on TV this summer but more so because they seemed to be good riding roads. Stage 15 is Limoux to Montpellier.

The hotel in Limoux was right in the town square. The tour stage starts a block from here. We woke up to a big market day. bought some bungy cords.

The ride was through the vinyards and little 1000 year old towns with castles

The vinyards were nice but the terrain is flat so we cheated and didn't finish in Montpillier. We headed for Sete which is a small town on the French Riveria. Some beach time and a Three hour French meal.

May 7 St Paul Trois-Chateaux to Gap

We went to the tourist info site to get the exact route. This one of Lance Armstrong's yellow jerseys that he signed and gave to Claude. Took off from the starting point toward Gap.

The road started a bit flat then turned into perhaps my new favorite road. Route N94 from Nyons to Serres was incredible.

Drove through many charming French Villages. They are very nice but seen one - - well you know. Getting spoiled now.

On the route we stopped at a vinyard. This caused a cricsis. Seemed to be lots of locals comming and going. On checking it out, Beverly asked if she could taste the table wine. The woman filled her glass from a nozzle. It was pretty good. We decided to buy a bottle but it was only available in 5 litre jugs at 95 cents a litre. Beverly started to figure if she could live without her shoes and jacket to make room. We had to buy an upscale bottle for 4.50. She questioned that decision for days.



Arrived in Gap and enjoyed the town. It feels like a party place. Good jazz band playing in the square and really good cheap wine

Still in the high Alps. Tomorrow headed for Mt Blanc and Montreux Switzerland