Save my marriage!! Ok...I'm exagerating, but...here's the deal: I want to take a Rick Steves tour; my husband wants to tour Europe on the motorcycles. Has anyone ever used Rick's guidebooks for a "self-guided" tour? Would you recommend it? Pros or Cons?
Pssst....Rick! How about putting together some trips for us bikers?? We're not all THAT bad ;>)
Self-guided using Rick's books is what we always do. Touring on bikes is a great idea, although in some cities like Rome, Paris, Vienna, etc. it would be a better idea to park the bikes at the hotel and use public transport. The bikes should be great for the countryside and small villages.
Brenda, biking is huge in Germany where freeways have no general speed limits and where there are plenty of picturesque overland and mountain roads. You may want to open www.johanniskreuz.de thru babelfish.yahoo.com (enter German URL into translate a webpage). Also every weekend there are plenty of sponsored and organised biking tours thru the mountains outside of Frankfurt...
Here's some motorcycle info that a person from this board posted for me - hope it helps:
We have rented several times from Motocenter Thun, in Thun Switzerland, from Bruno, good company. They will hold your extra bags for you. About $100 per day and that includes insurance. Don't get a Harley, those are for freeways, get a bike that can take the corners a BMW is good, the Alps are all about switch backs and that is where you will be. The best time is August or start of Sept. as that is low rain and lots of sun in the Alps (July is high rain). Stay in Murren/Lauterbrunnen Valley for a few days, take the train to Thun to get the bike and travel the several passes the next 2 or 3 days, returning to LB Valley. Susten Pass (spelling?) is my favorite, it's just beautiful. I have routes thru France - Switzerland, Austria, and onto Bled. Italian Alps are great. John Hermans book is good, but his top rated roads are above the tree line on the moon type views, I perfer green mountains.
Thanks to all for your advise and input - I'm looking forward to our trip!!
