For the 13th consecutive year more than 100,000 gathered in Austria’s most southern province of Carinthia in the village of Faak am See to celebrate Europe’s largest motorcycle events of its kind, European Bike Week. Once again, the entire area was saturated with motorcycles, with most of them being Harley Davidson, and just about everything else that goes along with a very successful European biker event. They rode in most every country on the European continent and a few countries from other continents.

For those who didn’t yet own a Harley or owned another brand motorcycle, and wanted to test ride a 2012 year HD, the Harley Demo team had most models available. The normal annual around clock parties, music, and entertainment started on Wednesday, the official rally kickoff date, and continued through Sunday, the last day of the event.

Every biker has his or her own personal interests at any motorcycle event, and so does who watch from the sidelines. For the locals and many non-motorcyclists, they enjoy most all aspects of the event, but they get most of their thrills from the big motorcycle parade. At high noon on Saturday, thousands of motorcycles start one of the biggest motorcycle parades in Europe. Thousands of noisy motorcycles rumble the winding roads through the towns, villages, and around the lakes of southern Austria. Every inch of both sides of the streets is lined with people wanting to feel the spirit of motorcycling as the heavily chromed out machines roll by. “We own and operate the Familie Petschnig Pensions and the Bienenhütte restaurant, so we are very busy the entire European Bike Week, but we take a break to cheer and wave when the big motorcycle parade passes by,” said Brigitte.

Stay tuned for part two.