7/29/05
This morning woke up bright and early to get my stuff packed up and get on the road. My luggage once again looked someone had stuffed a small explosive inside my panniers and scattered my stuff throughout the room. Thomas and I had breakfast at a small café by their house before saying goodbye till we meet up for Africa. I poked my head into a little bookstore next to where I parked my bike and sure enough they had the new Harry Potter book sitting on the shelf. So for 25 euros, like the author isnt rich enough does she really need to charge this much for the damn book, I walked out of the bookstore with my new book.
Todays plan is to try to find a route called Stella Alpina through the Italian Alps. So I headed north enjoying some really great roads and amazing scenery. I thought I was making good distance, my odometer read about 140 miles, not bad, then I checked my GPS and as the crow flies I really only made it about 40 miles, so you can see the roads were pretty curvy. And well I was nowhere near where Stella was supposed to begin but that is OK, one thing I seem to have is plenty of time.
Todays Specs
Weather: 80 F, Cloudy
Distance: 140 miles Bar Sur Loup to campground
7/30/05
Today was some more curvy roads, no shortage of getting the pegs down on some sharp left hand turns. Some reason I can lean further on the left than the right, mental block I guess. I made it into Italy about 1:00 and started heading north for a town called Bardoneccia which is were the Stella is supposed to be close to. So after grabbing lunch I headed out to find the famous road, well it turns out it isnt as famous as I had hoped, nobody had ever heard of this thing. So I spent the next 10 hours back tracking, driving in circles, quite happily cause the scenery was absolutely amazing. The elevation changes were very dramatic, one minute I was heading up these switchbacks and the GPS would read over 8000ft and then the next thing I was heading back down another set of switchbacks and the GPS would read 3000ft. So after a day of riding and asking every biker I met if they new of the Stella I threw in the towel and started heading east. Campgrounds were not as plentiful in Italy as they were in France, as I almost resigned to setting up my tent in a cornfield I came across a dumpy campground where I spent the night.
Todays Specs
Weather: 80 F, Cloudy/Sunny
Distance: 145 miles campground in France to campground in Torino Italy
7/31/05
Today I set out heading East looking at the GPS I saw that Milan was not to far so I figured maybe I would swing by and scoop up a supermodel for a ride. Well I got to Milan and was quite unimpressed, quite an ugly city. I did manage to wink a skinny american model, I think she thought I had dirt in my eye or something cause she just kept on walking, though in hindsight it might have been the bugs in my teeth from the morning ride, owell her loss. I was positive today was Monday but after several people informed me it was actually Sunday I realized that Moto GP was on. I thought it would be great to find a pub full of Italian people to watch the race with. Well I found a great pub full of old men arguing about racing, it is quite popular in Italy, but unfortunately I missed the race by 15 minutes. But I several animated descriptions of the race in Italian, the only thing I could tell is that Rossi had won again. Quite bummed out that I had missed the race I was on the road again.
As I headed east I came across quite a big lake that looked like it was kinda a tourist spot for Italians. So I found a campground and set up camp. I headed to the beach and layed out for a few hours quite enjoying life. Life seemed pretty good, pretty women everywhere, a good book, and lots of sun.
At about 7:00 I headed back to the campground to make some dinner and more relaxation. At the campground I had some new neighbors who were constructing the largest tent I have ever seen. Well the guy was going about it quite logically but it was too big for one person and his wife was not about to help, she actually looked like she was going to get in the Toyota and leave him. He was struggling to say the least, so three drunk old Italian men started helping and had the best of intentions but werent getting much further, so I decided to impart my tent expertise. So after another 20 minutes myself and my 3 new drunk Italian friends had saved a marriage and built a tent/house. The 3 Italian men were quite excited about the motorcycle and me being from California so before I knew it I was sitting in their campsite with their wives and kids and grandchildren drinking Italian espresso and Grappa, not really my drink but when in Rome well actually Italy. So the Italians are quite interesting people and quite different from the French, the most obvious difference is the language, the French can be yelling and cursing you out and it sounds like they are your best friend but Italian is the opposite you really dont have a clue if they telling you to F-off or inviting you for a drink, quite confusing. The Italians are extremely friendly too, dont get me wrong the French once past the language barrier were very friendly too but the Italians didnt care about language they just seem genuinely excited about life and people. The Italians also seem a little crazy in a good way.
Todays Specs
Weather: 90 F, Sunny
Distance: 130 miles campground in Torino to Desenzano Del Garda
8/1/05
Well today is the month number 3 on the road. Not that long but really it is over 90 days.
I decided to stay in Desenzano Del Garda for another day. Today was mainly laying on the beach and finishing the Harry Potter book. I cant believe the ending.
Todays Specs
Weather: 90 F, Sunny
Distance: 0 miles campground in Desenzano Del Garda
8/2/05
This morning I headed out to Venice where I was thinking I would spend a couple days. It was only about 100 miles away so I made pretty good time. I stopped for gas and met one of the most enthusiastic Hungarians I have ever met, well I guess really the only Hungarian but he was quite excited to see the California license plate. He couldnt show me his California ID and a picture of his motorycle quick enough. Turns out he lived in California for a few years and wanted to share the story with me. So my gas stop turned out to be an hour long. As we said goodbye he insisted that if in Hungary I must come and visit him for at least 1 week. So if I make it to Hungary I have a place to stay.
Well I made it to Venice and drove across the bridge to a massive parking area where tourists left there cars/tour busses and were filed into the city. Can you hear the contempt in my voice.
So after I parked my bike I was informed by a guy pulling in that this was parking for police officers only and I would get a ticket, he had his head out the window of the car as he was jockeying his way into the parking spot next to my bike. As he was doing this he slowly drug the side of his new Volvo across my aluminum panniers leaving a nice scratch on his new car. He didnt seem to worried about that more worried about me parking here and getting a ticket, the Italians go figure. I saw the ticket officer and he said he wouldnt ticket me for at least 30 minutes, not that it really mattered. So off I went to the tourist office to figure out how much parking and a hostel would be for the night. Well after a little research hostel and parking would be almost 50euros so I opted for a campground just across the bridge which had busses every 20 minutes for 12 euros.
Well I was a little disappointed with Venice, I heard more English and Japanese than I did Italian. The place was a huge tourist exhibit, down to feeding pigeons in the square for a dollar. Pay a dollar for bird seed to feed flying rats, I will pass. The only thing I could think of is that I love the idea of what Venice once was but I am disappointed with what it is. It was very clean and didnt smell at all (some people told me it would smell from the water). There were a ton of great hand crafted masks for the masquerade parties, my sister would have loved these shops. Some of the Masquerade Masks were going for over a 1000 euros, quite amazing.
So after an evening in Venice I decided one night was enough.
Todays Specs
Weather: 90 F, Sunny
Distance: 100 miles campground in Desenzano Del Garda to Venice
8/3/05
I had planned on spending two days in Venice but after being here I really couldnt find a reason to spend two days. Got the been there done that t-shirt so I decided to pack up camp and make my way towards Croatia. Once I was on the road I looked to the horizon and saw some of the ugliest blackest clouds I have ever seen, oh this cant be good I thought. So I pulled over zipped up all the vents on my jacket double checked the panniers made sure they were all sealed up and headed into the oncoming storm. At first it wasnt the quanity of the drops but the velocity of them that made me think this is going to be bad, I could literally feel the drops through all my gear and it sounded like someone doing a hello McFly on my helmet. Then it really started to rain, after about 5 minutes of driving and guessing what lane I was drinving in I finally pulled over and decided to wait it out at a roadside café. When I walked in the door it was like a scene from an old west movie where the piano player stops playing and everybody goes quite and looks at the gunslinger who just walked, well that may be a small exageration but it was something close that I will tell you. The lady at the counter looked at me then at the puddle that was forming around me then back at me then to the puddle then back to me, this went on for a few more secs, while I just stood there with a smile on my face ear to ear happy to be out of the rain. As I peeled my gear off the lady came around the counter with a mop to mop around the door, for a second I thought she was going to mop me up. So as I waited out the storm I enjoyed horrible pastry and a box of peach nectar. She was actually very friendly and after some small talk the rain subsided and I said I had to be on my way.
The rest of the day was a slow drizzle so I never really dried out. About 2:30 I stopped for lunch, I really didnt have a choice since at this point the bike was running of fumes and the gas stations close from 12:00 to 3:00 and I really couldnt go any further without fear of having to push.
So one of the joys I have had in Italy is ordering pizza and trying to substitute things on their pizzas. For example today I wanted garlic instead of Mushroom, well I got extra mushrooms and I think parsley instead of garlic. But the waiter was so excited and with out a doubt the best waiter I have had since in Europe that I just smiled enthusiastically and ate my pizza. I have tried this technique a couple times of substituting items on pizzas and never is it what I ordered, quite fun and gives me the opportunity to try new things. I have come to enjoy the taste of bell peppers which are actually called pepperoni here, or so the guy told me when they came out on my pizza.
Well after a full belly and a full gas tank I made it Trieste where I decided a one star hotel would well be worth the extra 10 euros compared to sleeping in a tent with my wet motorcycle gear. So I checked into a truly dumpy hotel that allowed me to park my bike inside the building and called it a night after a short exploration of the city.
Todays Specs
Weather: 75 F, Down pouring rain then a steady drizzle
Distance: 100 miles campground in Venice to Trieste
