#3 The first big tour with the Road Glide Ultra to Saint Tropez for the Euro Festival
part 3
It started on May 10th, a fresh 6 degree wind blowing around your ears, but it's bearable on the big tourer and it's foreseeable when you're heading south that it'll get warmer at some point. And that's how it was, at Cologne it was already 15 degrees.
My first stop is between Cologne and Frankfurt, where I will do the first inspection of the Road Glide Ultra. After driving 1,600 kilometers you should change the oil. For the first few kilometers there is still a special running-in oil in the engine and this needs to be replaced.
The plan is to spend a nice evening with friends in Stuttgart and continue driving the next day. In total I will drive 1,800 kilometers to Saint Tropez, an overnight stay after 800 kilometers and the remaining 1,000 will go in one go.
From Stuttgart I head towards Switzerland, the route will take me via Zurich, a great route awaits me there, real mountains on the left and right, that's something special for a northern German.
What's not so great is the journey through the Gotthard Tunnel, which has turned into an adventure in itself, just before the tunnel it was 19 degrees, in the tunnel it goes up to 33 degrees and after the tunnel the thermometer drops to 9 That's something like a Kneipp tour.
THE GOTTHARD TUNNEL HAS SOMETHING OF A KNEIPT TOUR
The tunnel is around 17 kilometers long, so I wouldn't be surprised if one or two people fall off their feet in the summer.
It's not nice, but the pass road isn't open yet in May, so you have no other choice. In Switzerland you need a toll vignette, which costs €36.50 and is valid for 1 year.
The mountains appear to the left and right and I slowly approach the beautiful town of Lugano, along the Lake Lugano I take in beautiful images .
The Swiss Harley Days place here, also an ideal location for bikers. The area does have something, unfortunately the weather isn't great, but that's nothing new this year.
These are exactly the moments when you can appreciate the fairing of the Road Glide Ultra, the ventilation flaps all closed and hidden behind the high window.
IN SWITZERLAND A FUEL CONSUMPTION OF ONLY 5.49L PER 100 KM
Switzerland is a place where you can set consumption records, I used 13 liters on a 237 kilometer stage, that's 5.49 liters per 100km, with a fully loaded Road Glide Ultra.
But this consumption is nothing special; I often didn't use more than 6 liters per 100 km when driving quickly. The Milwaukee-Eight engine is very economical; a range of over 400 kilometers is not utopia.
My journey continues, at some point I reach Italy, the beautiful city of Milan can only inspire me for a short time, the sun slowly sets and I have arrived in France.
First I come across the Principality of Monaco, a very special city-state that I will visit later, and then Nice lies in front of me, shining in the evening light, which is a great sight.
Again and again I drive right along the sea, it's just fantastic, even when it's already dark. Cannes is once again such a special place of film stars and glitter, but I don't have time for that right now.
I'm drawn along the French Mediterranean coast towards Saint Tropez and I'm getting closer and closer to my destination, that's what not only the navigation on the BoomBox , but also my nose!
The Côte d'Azur smells like a herb garden!
The scent on the Côte d'Azur is unique, Provence smells like a herb garden, that's really something very special, I'm already really looking forward to what awaits me the next day.
And how could it be otherwise, I arrive at my friends' house in Saint Maxime in the middle of the night, and the cold welcome beer is already waiting for me.
This is the beginning of a really great time with a really big Harley-Davidson on the Côte d'Azur in France! Good night!
