I left my luxury hotel in Bolzano in light rain and headed North towards Innsbruck, a city I thought I had been to in an earlier life. Getting to Innsbruck proved a bit of a test, as the temperature, which had been hovering in the high 50'sF now started down as I started up into the mountains again. I passed several motorcyclists on the way up, and then noticed I was alone on the road. The rain, light and no factor now turned into a pretty good snow fall. The road was just wet, as it was not really very cold, but visibility was reduced to about 10 feet, and I was not having a great ride at 10kph. The road started down and I had a challenging ride down to the valley floor, again. Finally, I made Innsbruck, with heavy rain falling. It was lunchtime, and too early to stop for the day. After dodging the slippery wet tram tracks for a few minutes I parked the bike in downtown bustling Innsbruck and had a great hot lunch in a beautiful (of course) restaurant, where my soaked riding clothes and boots left huge puddles on the seat and floor.
After lunch, unable to see a reasonably priced hotel nearby, I headed out of Innsbruck towards Salzberg, Austria - last visited in 1997 on my Euro MC tour of the Alps with Beach Adventures.
It rained, very hard, all the way to Salzberg. I stayed on the autobahn to maximize the terror of riding with huge trucks and crazy Austrians in Mercedes. I made it to Salzberg, and took the first hotel I came to, at the airport. Turned out to be a classy place and they only had a suite available, so I took it for $85 Euros and had beer and pizza at the bar before turning in to my luxurious room.
The rain must have been too much, because next morning, I checked out, hoped on the Autobahn and drove all day back to Heidelberg, where Stefan at Knopf Tours put me up for two nights while I unpacked and cleaned up the bike and changed my ticket for an early return to NY.
Friday morning, a month after arriving in Heidelberg, I was shuttled to Frankfurt airport and onto a plane for Zurich and eventually JFK. A short train to a taxi and I was home for dinner with the family the same, long day.
One week later I am adjusted to the NY time and rested from my travels and planning my return!
Gut Fahrt,
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
After Bilboa, Spain
From Bilbao to Porto, stayed in great Parador on the way. Bilboa beautiful. Ibis hotel downtown. Roast chicken late at night while the town partied all night on wine and tapas.
Porto, Portugal - hated it, one night is a bad hotel. City is huge, dirty, poor, run down, ugly, old. People seem unhappy and surly. Beggar girl harassed me relentlessly. Long walk made me tired and hurt my feet. Nuke this town.
Ride across Spain for two nights in ETAP/Ibis cheap hotel 10 km from Barcelona, stayed in another OK Parador en route- got a haircut and walked to Sagrada Familglia and art museum, exhausted. Autoroutes in Portugal had tolls every 10 km. All electronic, so I didn't pay and drove 130 kph! After Spanish border, waved over my caribinieri for routine stop, asked for papers, gave license, asked where I was from, amazed - move along. Worst truck traffic ever seen on long no passing through the Spanish desert 4 hours from Barcelona. Nothing is Spain worth seeing between coasts.
Ride back to France, Nimes, Mediocre Ibis hotel in suburbs, with broken elevator. Nimes sightseeing next day.
Ride towards Chamonix, through wine country, passed through Chateauneuf du Pape region, through Val d'Isere, fantastic Alpine roads. Stayed in Combleux, at Arvis Hotel per tourist office info, quiet place needs work but nice people. All these fancy towns are ski resorts, dead in summer, except for bicyclists and hikers, lots of them. Most shops closed. Still too early for heavy tourists.
Into Chamonix/Mount Blanc next morning then on into Alps, across Col du Grand St Bernard, lunch on Italian side, dropped bike in parking lot after a bad idea beer. Rode all the way to Milan suburbs, night in motel with food trapdoors. Rained all night.
Got parts to repair drop damage in Navarro at FrideMoto, a great BMW dealer with a very helpful service and parts department, rode North and East no good roads, lots of traffic to Bolzano, Hotel Alpi (shabby town, expensive hotel). Rain at night. Dinner was a kebab and beer. Saw one hundred caribinieri traffic cops pulling over cars and trucks everywhere. Looks like a revenue thing. Italian drivers the worst tailgaters. Too much truck traffic on small roads. Tiring drive. Two small passes.
Plan to go North to Innsbruck, Austria tomorrow.
Porto, Portugal - hated it, one night is a bad hotel. City is huge, dirty, poor, run down, ugly, old. People seem unhappy and surly. Beggar girl harassed me relentlessly. Long walk made me tired and hurt my feet. Nuke this town.
Ride across Spain for two nights in ETAP/Ibis cheap hotel 10 km from Barcelona, stayed in another OK Parador en route- got a haircut and walked to Sagrada Familglia and art museum, exhausted. Autoroutes in Portugal had tolls every 10 km. All electronic, so I didn't pay and drove 130 kph! After Spanish border, waved over my caribinieri for routine stop, asked for papers, gave license, asked where I was from, amazed - move along. Worst truck traffic ever seen on long no passing through the Spanish desert 4 hours from Barcelona. Nothing is Spain worth seeing between coasts.
Ride back to France, Nimes, Mediocre Ibis hotel in suburbs, with broken elevator. Nimes sightseeing next day.
Ride towards Chamonix, through wine country, passed through Chateauneuf du Pape region, through Val d'Isere, fantastic Alpine roads. Stayed in Combleux, at Arvis Hotel per tourist office info, quiet place needs work but nice people. All these fancy towns are ski resorts, dead in summer, except for bicyclists and hikers, lots of them. Most shops closed. Still too early for heavy tourists.
Into Chamonix/Mount Blanc next morning then on into Alps, across Col du Grand St Bernard, lunch on Italian side, dropped bike in parking lot after a bad idea beer. Rode all the way to Milan suburbs, night in motel with food trapdoors. Rained all night.
Got parts to repair drop damage in Navarro at FrideMoto, a great BMW dealer with a very helpful service and parts department, rode North and East no good roads, lots of traffic to Bolzano, Hotel Alpi (shabby town, expensive hotel). Rain at night. Dinner was a kebab and beer. Saw one hundred caribinieri traffic cops pulling over cars and trucks everywhere. Looks like a revenue thing. Italian drivers the worst tailgaters. Too much truck traffic on small roads. Tiring drive. Two small passes.
Plan to go North to Innsbruck, Austria tomorrow.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Andorra-Spain-France-Spain
I am in the Pyrenees. From Andorra, I wind through mountain roads all day, really getting a workout hauling the bike around all the turns. I stop only to eat and pee. An AdvRider advised me to go to the area around Pau, France - so that is my target. After a great ride in the mountains, I arrive in Pau and there is no there - there. Pau has little to offer for me, and I feel I have ridden too far North into France when I really should have headed into Spain, but I did get to ride the mountains.
The next day I leave Pau, and head for San Sebastian via Pamplona. I don't spend any time in Pamplona - a much bigger city than I imagined, as I am aiming for San Sebastian, where I find a camp site in the hills that overlook the Atlantic Ocean. The campsite is geared to RV's - with small sites very close together. The family next to me (Dad, Mom and two teens) are German and the boy likes to play electronic music on his computer - I want to kill him.
The facilities are terrific - hot showers, and a laundry, a bar and restaurant where I get a burger and beer for dinner. The washing machine takes two hours to wash my clothes. I had to take the time as my fancy Rukka pants were really stinky. Euro 5 for wash, Euro 2 for dryer - and the pants were still wet.
I have perfected the technique of strapping my wet laundry on the back of the bike to air dry as I ride. Very scenic.
Next day I head for Bilbao, site of the Guggenheim museum. I have an expensive lunch at a cafe (exquisite food) and take a room at an IBIS hotel with underground parking. That evening, out of food in my room and wanting to see some people, I wander out to a nearby square, and see that the place is really alive, lots of families hanging out at cafe's with kids running and screaming. Everyone is having red wine and tapas on the street. I find a place that sells roasted chicken, and try to order, but lost in translation I end up with a whole roast chicken to take back to my room. I am able to eat half, and the rest is wasted. Worse, I realize that this isolation behavior is not healthy. There is a lot of activity out there, and I am not participating by hiding in my room. I feel self conscious eating alone, and the language barrier is real for me. My actual experiences with Europeans while limited, have been OK.
The next day I leave Pau, and head for San Sebastian via Pamplona. I don't spend any time in Pamplona - a much bigger city than I imagined, as I am aiming for San Sebastian, where I find a camp site in the hills that overlook the Atlantic Ocean. The campsite is geared to RV's - with small sites very close together. The family next to me (Dad, Mom and two teens) are German and the boy likes to play electronic music on his computer - I want to kill him.
The facilities are terrific - hot showers, and a laundry, a bar and restaurant where I get a burger and beer for dinner. The washing machine takes two hours to wash my clothes. I had to take the time as my fancy Rukka pants were really stinky. Euro 5 for wash, Euro 2 for dryer - and the pants were still wet.
I have perfected the technique of strapping my wet laundry on the back of the bike to air dry as I ride. Very scenic.
Next day I head for Bilbao, site of the Guggenheim museum. I have an expensive lunch at a cafe (exquisite food) and take a room at an IBIS hotel with underground parking. That evening, out of food in my room and wanting to see some people, I wander out to a nearby square, and see that the place is really alive, lots of families hanging out at cafe's with kids running and screaming. Everyone is having red wine and tapas on the street. I find a place that sells roasted chicken, and try to order, but lost in translation I end up with a whole roast chicken to take back to my room. I am able to eat half, and the rest is wasted. Worse, I realize that this isolation behavior is not healthy. There is a lot of activity out there, and I am not participating by hiding in my room. I feel self conscious eating alone, and the language barrier is real for me. My actual experiences with Europeans while limited, have been OK.
Heading South Again
In an effort to get to warmer fair weather, I left Barcelonnette, France and headed South - and back to my 'old' camping site at Aix-en-Provence. While I was able to get my old campsite, the experience was not the same as last time as I had more neighbors - a full family group with lots of noisy children. Another group joined them and they partied until 11PM or so, but the worst noise came from a disco club a few miles away. The music blasted out of that club all night. I put in my motorcycle ear plugs, and wore my stereo speaker-headset, but it was not peaceful. And, there was no Lilith from the Netherlands to share tea with.
Regarding the damaged GPS, I decided to get a new one, as using the iPhone is working, but it is very exposed out there on the handlebars and if it rains or bounces out of the mount I am screwed. I went online to the AdvRider Community for advice, and got some responses, very helpful, regarding finding a motorcycle GPS while in Europe.
I went shopping in Aix at Carrefour and FNAC - wasted the morning as the retail stores do not have this specialized gear, and FNAC was closed anyway because it was a French national holiday!
I decided to wait until I get near Spain, and head into the shopping country/city that is Andorra, a tax free haven to see if I could find a Zumo 660 GPS.
Later, I stopped into Aix Centro and had a cafe Au Lait at a sidewalk place in town (Euro 10!) and then got on the road headed towards the Spanish border. It was a grueling ride to Perpignon, France, past some not so scenic areas. In one area between Narbonne and Perpignon there were prostitutes sitting in lawn chairs along the road, waiting patiently for customers to ride in. Such is the state of the economy in this part of the country. I fear unemployment and outright poverty is much worse than I feared.
On this part of the trip I am using motels in a chain called Formula 1, an Accor subsidiary (they own Motel 6 in the US). The rooms are basic, and the shower and toilet are shared in the hall. The rooms are air conditioned, bullet proof, and very functional. Nice an quiet, and free internet. In order to keep prices down, the motels are located in industrial areas. Sometimes this is scary, as the neighborhoods are dodgy, and the only food is kebab and pizza, but it all worked out for me, and I slept well.
After camping in a tent and sleeping bag it is good to have a bed, but the campsites have been quite spectacular for the most part. The higher end hotels are luxurious, but expensive and at $80+ Euros per night the budget will not tolerate too many of these. The campsites are averaging $13 Euros. Food is expensive (Average Euro 5 Breakfast, Euro 10 Lunch and Euro 20 Dinner) Fuel for the bike is very expensive, but I am only using one tank per day, spending maybe $50US, as I am getting 45 mpg, and only driving 200-300 miles per day.
After Perpignon, I decided to go for Andorra and get a new GPS, and after a long ride, I crossed the "border" and entered this shopping zone. Luck held, and I soon saw a motorcycle accessory store. I was able to buy both a new face shield for my Shoei helmet, which was scratched in my cow shit slip incident in France, and a new Garmin Zumo 660 GPS for about Euro 529, or USD$ 689. This blows my budget, but living without a real GPS seems like trouble for such a big trip. I will get the Zumo 550 repaired by Garmin, maybe post it too them so I don't have to carry it all over Europe (another USD $150 for out of warranty repair).
After the motorcycle store, Andorra developed into a huge city of stores, restaurants and traffic. I stopped at a McD's for lunch and planned to head into the Pyrenees, but the weather started to close in and I was tired, so I took a room at an IBIS hotel just out of town, in a complex that included a luxury car dealership, but no restaurant! The hotel was clean and efficient, but expensive. I was able to get a Paella in the bar, but it was chicken wings over rice and not so great. My low end restaurant experiences have not been encouraging so far.
Regarding the damaged GPS, I decided to get a new one, as using the iPhone is working, but it is very exposed out there on the handlebars and if it rains or bounces out of the mount I am screwed. I went online to the AdvRider Community for advice, and got some responses, very helpful, regarding finding a motorcycle GPS while in Europe.
I went shopping in Aix at Carrefour and FNAC - wasted the morning as the retail stores do not have this specialized gear, and FNAC was closed anyway because it was a French national holiday!
I decided to wait until I get near Spain, and head into the shopping country/city that is Andorra, a tax free haven to see if I could find a Zumo 660 GPS.
Later, I stopped into Aix Centro and had a cafe Au Lait at a sidewalk place in town (Euro 10!) and then got on the road headed towards the Spanish border. It was a grueling ride to Perpignon, France, past some not so scenic areas. In one area between Narbonne and Perpignon there were prostitutes sitting in lawn chairs along the road, waiting patiently for customers to ride in. Such is the state of the economy in this part of the country. I fear unemployment and outright poverty is much worse than I feared.
On this part of the trip I am using motels in a chain called Formula 1, an Accor subsidiary (they own Motel 6 in the US). The rooms are basic, and the shower and toilet are shared in the hall. The rooms are air conditioned, bullet proof, and very functional. Nice an quiet, and free internet. In order to keep prices down, the motels are located in industrial areas. Sometimes this is scary, as the neighborhoods are dodgy, and the only food is kebab and pizza, but it all worked out for me, and I slept well.
After camping in a tent and sleeping bag it is good to have a bed, but the campsites have been quite spectacular for the most part. The higher end hotels are luxurious, but expensive and at $80+ Euros per night the budget will not tolerate too many of these. The campsites are averaging $13 Euros. Food is expensive (Average Euro 5 Breakfast, Euro 10 Lunch and Euro 20 Dinner) Fuel for the bike is very expensive, but I am only using one tank per day, spending maybe $50US, as I am getting 45 mpg, and only driving 200-300 miles per day.
After Perpignon, I decided to go for Andorra and get a new GPS, and after a long ride, I crossed the "border" and entered this shopping zone. Luck held, and I soon saw a motorcycle accessory store. I was able to buy both a new face shield for my Shoei helmet, which was scratched in my cow shit slip incident in France, and a new Garmin Zumo 660 GPS for about Euro 529, or USD$ 689. This blows my budget, but living without a real GPS seems like trouble for such a big trip. I will get the Zumo 550 repaired by Garmin, maybe post it too them so I don't have to carry it all over Europe (another USD $150 for out of warranty repair).
After the motorcycle store, Andorra developed into a huge city of stores, restaurants and traffic. I stopped at a McD's for lunch and planned to head into the Pyrenees, but the weather started to close in and I was tired, so I took a room at an IBIS hotel just out of town, in a complex that included a luxury car dealership, but no restaurant! The hotel was clean and efficient, but expensive. I was able to get a Paella in the bar, but it was chicken wings over rice and not so great. My low end restaurant experiences have not been encouraging so far.
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