I shall also make a few more additions from my experience.

1.People follow rules to the book. That itself makes it so much more enjoyable & stress free. In my whole trip I only used my horn twice- Once while fumbling with my glove I accidentally hit the horn and Second at a signal the driver in front of me was on his cell phone & didnt see the light turn green. This is a true fact & I am not exaggerating. So no constant blaring of horns like in our country.

2. In the unfortunate event of an accident, when a few crucial moments will make a difference between life & death, they are very well prepared. If required they will even air-lift you by helicopter.

3. Male & female toilets along the way are very very neat & clean

4. Roads & vehicles are well maintained & well marked.

5. Drivers in general are always courteous to other road users. Besides, almost all of the bikers you come across would have undergone some sort of safety riding course and know how to ride their bikes slow or fast following all the road rules.

6. Pedestrians have the right of way on zebra crossings, but you wont find them dreaming about something & suddenly crossing the road like animals.

7. In all our routes, we found a lot of cyclists (with riding gear) climbing steep passes in the dolomites etc and they also ride by the book. So naturally there is mutual respect.

8. You would not find a local politician or heavyweight bull dozing thru traffic etc.

9. And BTW, the cops are also trained to be very friendly & polite unless you mess with them.

Thats what makes touring all the more enjoyable there

However, every thing is so much systematic and goes by the rule that if something goes wrong, its takes ages to sort those things out coz what ever they do, they again follow set of protocols for any accident management and sometimes cops/highway patrol here in UK are blamed for doing their job too slow, too cautiously. Next thing you know they are stopping busy 3 lane motorway traffic just because someone's' side mirror felled off his car.

Hi Haroon,
Have been in Austria since sunday. Had two huge rides in the Alps - start at 9 am and end at 7 pm. Must have done over 1500 hair pin bends already. Persisted with the GS 800 as I have ridden it extensively while off roading in England. The roads are like glass , the hills are amazing, snow is still melting , the rivers and streams are bubbling.
Amazing landscape , amazinng riding. The amount of bikers on the road is huge - predominantly BMW but all others can be seen.
Tomorrow its off to another pass located at about 2500 m above sea level, there is a S 1000 R for the taking but its wide turn radius does not make it the bike for the Alps. Perhaps, on Friday when there is a road run planned , lets see.
Your miniature collection should qualify for the Guiness book, sure.
Best Wishes,
Prashant

Tomorrow its off to another pass located at about 2500 m above sea level, there is a S 1000 R for the taking but its wide turn radius does not make it the bike for the Alps.
Prashant

Wonderful again! I hope we dont have to many Lost in Translation problems in Italy!