Saturday, May 26, 2012 - Into The Southern Alps - Barcelonnette

Yesterdays stressful ride led to a good nights sleep from 9PM to 6 AM, then laying about waiting for the sky to clear and the temps to rise into the riding zone. Packed up and out to a sunny morning, and continuing on towards Barcelonnette, yesterdays goal. I find that the GPS is not working, and this can probably be attributed to the rain, which seems to damage the GPS mount, as it has happened before. I am forced to mount the iPhone and use a navigation application that I loaded as a backup. It works, but the voice guidance is not right, so I will have to work on that soon. As for the Garmin GPS, it will probably require a repair service, and I'm not sure how to do that from Europe, so maybe a new unit is in order but not really in the budget.

I am now approaching the Southern Alps region, and the roads are getting more exciting. Stopped for a breather in a small town and talked for 15 minutes with a French man who rides a Harley, very nice conversation, and he tipped me to a likely storm today in the afternoon. (he was right, but it was later).

On to Castellane for an ATM cash reload (500 Euros), and then St Andre to the Col de Allos (2400 meters) over increasingly tight mountain roads, getting Alpine here. Finally into Barcelonnette, park the bike and direct to lunch, la menu of lasagna, salad, desert, a beer for 17 Euros and a great crowd of bikers and bicyclists. Feeling very Euro here.

Located a nice luxury hotel for 78 Euros (Azteca) near the center of town, with good parking for the bike and a great room with private bath.

Needed to get an AC plug adapter so I can charge the laptop and toys, and got a lead at the Office de Tourism, to an electronics store, where a customer told me about a hardware store (Bricolage) in next town, so off I go using the iPhone GPS to find the town, and voila! I have power again. Now, not to lose the adapter again (I bought two, one is grounded for the MacBook charger)

Able to Skype video call home and had a nice conversation with Kathy and Mom, who seem to be doing well.

I do not have a plan for tomorrow, calling for some rain later in day.

Friday, May 25 – St. Tropez for Lunch, Terrifying Storm for Dinner

Start: Grasse, Camping Panoramic

Left Grasse campsite at 10:40 am and headed Southwest. The plan was to ride to St. Tropez and have lunch and then head Northeast to Barcelonnette up towards the Italian border and into the beginning of some mountains without getting to high into the Alps.

Arrived St. Tropez after a great ride through the twisty mountain roads leading down to the Med. The approach to St Tropez is very beautiful, the town itself was pretty, very crowded even this early in the season. Beautiful people. A man stopped me in a bakery/patisserie (expensive), where I was buying bread and pastries, and asked in French if my bike was from America. He had little English and I have so little French, but he shook my hands twice and seemed quite impressed that I had ridden all this way, and I know I was. The weather was wonderful, sunny and 86F.

It is now pouring down rain, and booming with thunder and lightening. I am near small town, Le Bourguet (Sp?). The lights have gone out in the hotel room I have taken, as I had to get off the road at 5PM because of the stormy conditions. Riding through the switchbacks in rain is terrifying. I was late changing into my waterproof suit, so got quite wet, at least in the pants, as rain rain went through the vented pants and down into my boots. The jacket worked very well. The vented pants are great in the heat, not so good when it cools off or rains. I think I'll stick to the Rukka waterproof gear unless it is very hot.

I stumbled across the hotel and managed to get a room, after marching around looking for a reception desk or anyone to talk to. A little French man finally appeared like the wizard of OZ and spoke no english, but we communicated with sign language and for 60 Euros I had a dry room on the third floor of the most romantic hotel you can imagine. I plan to have quite a date with myself tonight, unless I get a headache.

It seems the lights are on a timer, so I am not sitting in the dark in France, in a hotel, in the rain getting depressed anymore.To save energy the lights shut themselves off after 2 hours, not a bad idea, much like the water in the campsites, which stays on long enough to soap up or rinse off.

There is no internet access, and the phone is not getting a reliable signal. This would be a great place to bring a date or a good book, or both.

There is a lovely restaurant downstairs, deserted and like something out of a 1930's movie. I gave up most of my Euro cash, so I said no to dinner and will live off my road snacks and supermarket bounty tonight.

Tomorrow I can look for a cash machine to reload my wallet, and I still need an AC adapter. I was able to charge the laptop on the bike, but it takes a DC/AC inverter and a bit of creative wiring and I don't like it. I do charge the iPhone and iPad every day as I ride. The iPhone for communication (text and email), and the iPad so I can read myself to sleep if I am not collapsing after a long ride.

I will outline my travels here for the next few days to capture the route, and fill in details as I can in a few days, as I am riding all day and sleeping all night, and have not had enough internet access to work on this blog.

Rothenberg, Germany to Lausanne, Switzerland on very small roads, minor crash on mud and cow shit, cafe of motorcyclists and then some highway into a very busy Lausanne. Spent the night in a E107 IBIS luxury hotel.

Lausanne into France and then camping in Switzerland, at a mobile home park where the bike fell over in the mud and a Russian woman cooked me a dinner of ravioli. E30 to camp and eat.

Into France to Lyon in all day rain, over mountains, cold, with faster cars pressuring me, lunch in McDonalds, F1 hotel E38, Kebab for dinner.

Lyon to Avignon, through the small streets, camped in a municipal campsite across river, sandwich at park cafe, E13. Some rain overnight

Avignon to Arles, then on to Aix-en-Provence, beautiful warmer weather, lunch $$$$ at cafe on square, then to campsite just out of town, E14. Talked to nice girl over tea she made us, Lilith from Netherlands,.

No luck yet getting data SIM for iPhone prepaid.
Should consider spending more time in one place, off bike, walking and seeing sights.

Let the Adventure Begin

Arrived Frankfurt on Thursday this week, and spent the rest of the morning getting to Heidelberg by train. After three trains and a bus I was warmly welcomed by Stefan Knopf at his motorcycle B&B and touring facility in the suburbs of beautiful Heidelberg.

Exhausted from the trip over, and the jet lag and time difference, so a short day, and off to bed on Thursday night. I did manage to pack most of my gear into the aluminum cases and soft bags to put on the bike. Dinner was at Perpperoni, a Stefan recommendation, and I had a plate of Doner, which is a kebab meat made from poultry with nice yoghurt/dill sauce and salad. Tasty and filling and not expensive at all.

Friday morning dawned with gray skies and some rain sprinkles, which are normal for my motorcycle trips. I left Knopf headquarters and got a fast lesson on driving in Germany as I worked my way out of Heidelberg in light traffic. Lots of new rules to absorb, and I only had 100 or so close calls in the first few hours.

My only plan was to head in a Southerly direction, with a possible goal of seeing the ancient town of Rothenberg ab Tauber, a walled town that is a major tourist attraction.

I made it to Rothenberg, getting lost a few times, but with a nice ride in German countryside, along the Neckar Valley, stopping in Neckarsulm to see a great motorcycle museum and to have a cup of coffee and cake, the first of many stops.

Rothenberg was crawling with tourists, but well behaved tourists. I had a pizza and coke at a cafe off the town square. Everyone is Europe smokes.

I headed out to Detwang, 5 minutes from Rothenberg, and found my campsite, the Romantishe Camping. Not romantic at all, just a lot of cute recreational vehicles convention. Some friendly family types, but the language barrier makes it hard for some to make contact. Too bad, as I really enjoyed talking to the ones who tried.

I got a bit depressed being alone, as everyone was paired up, and mostly with kids. Took a long walk feeling sorry for myself and then back to the tent, for a decent nights sleep. It rained overnight, but I was snug in the tent. Cold enough to wear full clothes to sleep in though.

Tomorrow I am off further South across the rest of Germany and into Switzerland.....

How to Have a Great Trip

Traveling by motorcycle in Europe sounds like a great idea, but I want to take a look at this adventure before I start it, and do everything I can to ensure I experience as much as I can. On some of my past trips across America and elsewhere, I have raced along for days, without very much of what I was passing through. The temptation is to select a far away place and then see how fast I can get there, often on boring highways. Lonely nights in motels, eating alone in restaurants, or fast food eaten on a bed ended each day, and back on the road to repeat it all in the morning.

This trip will be different. I plan to camp when possible, and hope to meet others doing the same. I plan to have breakfast and then ride to a nearby village or town, or extraordinary attraction and get off the bike! That's right, after a few hours riding, I want to be moving around off the bike, interacting with people. An hour or two at an outdoor cafe, people watching - or strolling through a market buying bread and cheese for a picnic lunch. Find an interesting place in town to spend some time. Maybe move on to another location in the early afternoon and then pick a place to spend the night, getting off the road early to avoid the dreaded fear of "no place to rest"

One thought is to stay at hostels once in a while. With shared dorm style accommodations I am sure to meet some folks to talk to or share a meal.

Another strategy is to find a central town in an interesting area and spend a few nights on one place. With a room as a base of operations, I can get off the bike and spend time really getting to know an area (a big city like Paris for example) without having to worry about the bike and gear all day.

I also plan to attend a number of events on this trip, The 24 Hours of Le Mans car race for one, and a motorcycle adventurer rally in the UK.