The Bikes Showed Up in Olching
Bavarian flags, a patio full of BMWs, then the first real valley
This was my first tour with Beach’s Motorcycle Adventures: their Dolomite Domination, an eight-day motorcycle loop that starts and ends in Olching, west of Munich. You ride south into Austria, over the Grossglockner, spend a couple of nights in the Dolomites at Arabba, work west to the Stelvio, drop into the Engadin for a night, then come back through Imst. Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland. A lot of alpine passes in a week, and you ride them at your own pace.
Two nights in Olching. The BMWs were already lined up on the patio when I got there. Walked the canal at the edge of town, then up Hohenpeißenberg for a wooden picture frame and the Alps smeared across the horizon. On the 31st we finally rode south. Fusch sits at the foot of the Grossglockner road. You can feel the trip change as soon as the valley opens up.
