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May - June 2024
The plan which might change as I go is to ride the BMW from the UK first to Malta via several Balkan countries. Then swap bikes to the 59 Velo for a few days with the classic bike club of Malta to Sicily. Then ride the BMW to Portugal. Read more
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  • Peter SprotEurope
    11
    Day 9

    Synchronicity

    May 16 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    This entry is being written while I wait to sail on the ferry from Pozzallo southern Sicily to Malta. The journey takes less than two hours. It is a very fast catamaran.
    Breakfast at the hotel this morning was the best so far and included with the room cost of 46 euros.
    I was on the road by 9.30. the first hour was on country roads, slow and bumpy. I wasn't in a hurry and the scenery was lovely. This far south you know you are in the Mediterranean. Palm trees and cacti everywhere.
    I joined the motorway and set the cruise control slower than usual as I was not in a hurry.
    About ten kilometres from the Villa San Giovanni ferry a motorcycle similar to mine overtook me quite fast and I saw the letter M for Malta on his plate so I sped up and stayed with him. When I saw the sign for petrol and coffee I pulled along side and signalled "drink". He followed me in and a few minutes later two of his friends joined us. We chatted for a while then I said I'm going in for coffee. While I waited for them to arrive I messaged Pierre in Malta saying I met some Maltese men on bikes. He replied. Is one of them riding a 500 Honda. Yes I said. Pierre asked if he was called Mario. Yes came the reply. Pierre said he was sitting in an office with his brother.
    Photos were exchanged and we all had a good laugh. (Malta has a population of over half a million).
    We traveled the last few kilometres to the ferry and I went to buy a ticket. When I came out I joined the wrong queue of vehicles and ended up back on the motorway. By the time I returned the ferry had sailed so I got the next one half an hour later.
    I wanted to get to Pozzallo before 5pm as I needed to collect and pay for my ticket. I arrived at 4.15 and was told I'm booked in the 9.30 ferry so I went to the office and they changed it. I also booked the next journey to leave Malta on the 2nd June.
    I can't wait to get to Malta.
    I'm looking forward to the short ride from the ferry to the house which has me smiling every time.    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 10

    Birgu Malta

    May 17 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    The ferry to Malta was quick and I noticed an amazing car near my bike so I used Google lens to find out about it. It is a Mc Laren Senna. They sell for almost a million dollars. I prefer my bike.
    I'm not going to end this Find penguins adventure as coming to Malta is only the start. I'm having a few days rest here in which I have friends visiting from Kazakhstan.
    On Friday I'm going for a few days to Sicily on my Velocette with the Maltese classic bike club.    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 17–21

    Ragusa district Sicily

    May 24 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    At 5am on Friday morning the alarm woke me. I had packed and prepared the 1959 Velocette the day before so I was dressed and had the bike outside ready with its saddle bags within twenty minutes.
    It's only a 10-minute ride to the ferry and when I arrived I thought it was the first one but they waved me on board and saw that there were already quite a few bikes from the historic motorcycle club of Malta on board. 15 of us were travelling together to join a group of Italians for a rally around Ragusa area.
    The crossing was smooth and uneventful but when we arrived in Sicily the weather was very hot and after about 40 minutes riding on beautiful country roads we started to climb a hill that was over 8 km long and my engine started to get very hot. It was my fault. I was labouring it and not thinking about what I was doing. It got so hot that I had to stop and there was a strange rattle from the engine and let it cool and even after 10 minutes I burned my finger when I pressed the button on the carburettor to put more fuel in but it started and it sounded fine. So I continued this time in a lower gear and the ignition retarded a little bit. I had no further problems. We stopped for lunch. It's a nice little restaurant that was next to a castle so I had to look around the castle and its grounds before we set off for another hour to the hotel.
    The hotel is magnificent four-star and quite cheap for 2 days and several meals. Friday night we were the guests of the Ragusa motorcycle club for another massive meal. We went in a 1968 fiat bus. It was great fun.
    Saturday we went for a ride for about an hour and a half and ended up in the free municipal consortium of Syracuse we had to walk around and into two beautiful churches. Their whole town is a UNESCO Heritage site. The churches were very nice. Then we went for a meal of about five courses. I've eaten so much on this trip. I think I'll explode. I knew that rain was forecast for 4:00 and of course the meal went on and on. So by the time we came out it was already raining and the rain turned into thunder and lightning and really heavy. So we just waited and sheltered somewhere until the worst of it was over and then we put on our waterproof clothing and I watched my friend Martin scooping hailstones out of his sidecar before we began the journey home.
    Some of the riders didn't have waterproof clothing so they found some refuse sacks and cut the holes and wore them. I had waterproof over trousers and jacket but I still got damp.
    By the time we got to the hotel. It was sunny
    All in all a good day.

    Tomorrow we have breakfast. We ride around a bit. We have lunch. We ride around a bit more and then we go towards the ferry back to Malta    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 19

    Ragusa district club ride

    May 26 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Last night another banquet with countless courses all part of one cost.
    This morning I thought it was just the Maltese club. I was wrong, the rally wasn't over. Our police escorts arrived to stop the traffic for us and we were joined by many Italians on beautiful old Italian motorcycles. I dashed off early to get fuel but I didn't really need it as I'd used only 5 litres on Saturday as we went so slowly. Today was no different so I had time to enjoy the beautiful countryside.
    I heard a touching story of one rider. A girl who was riding her father's very small 90cc old I think it was Benelli. It was in his memory as he died not long ago. Unfortunately the bike has no first gear from three so everyone helped to get her up the hills, her tenancy and stubborn determination got her all the way around.
    We stopped at a historic site for a look at europes biggest collection of Anfora's or Urns. It was at a beautiful location overlooking the sea not far from Scoglitti.
    After that a half hour ride to the beach front for the last multi course meal.
    The food in Sicily is outstanding in volume and quality.
    I'm writing this on the ferry as we leave Sicily for Malta.
    One bike had it's chain snap a few minutes from the ferry. Everyone jumped to help so he still got on board.
    I'm exhausted and happy at meeting many new friends and seeing some lovely sites in great company with everyone on historic motorcycles.

    https://www.facebook.com/share/p/upaCtx8HpVF9gftn/    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 23

    I nearly sold my ride! 😱

    May 30 in Malta ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    I am in Malta and I was talking to my friends in the old bike club and telling them that when I get back to the UK I may sell the BMW because I can't see myself using it again this year and next year I'll probably go with the MG on a trip with Mandy. So rather than watch it depreciate it would be the sensible thing to sell it and then buy another one for the next trip.
    I heard of a man in Malta who was looking for such a bike so I invited him to come and have a look. He liked it and he was pleased with what I thought was the value And he seemed happy to fly to the UK in July and pick it up from there.
    We agreed that he should contact customs people to see what is involved if he should buy it and they told him there would be a registration fee of $3,500 and then vat on top of that so it made it an absolutely ridiculous proposition.
    I'm pleased that he did not proceed because I like the bike and want to finish this journey which I resume tomorrow Sunday when I catch the very early ferry out of Malta to Sicily and then head north to somewhere just south of the Amalfi coast where I will stay the night and then continue to Civitavecchia which is just north of Rome where I catch the ferry to Barcelona on Monday night.    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 26

    A long day

    June 2 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    I couldn't get to sleep last night thinking about the long day ahead of me. The alarm was set for 4:30 but it was already wide awake. I was at the ferry to Sicily at 5:00 a.m it was already loading. After tying the bike, I went upstairs, found a seat and fell asleep. We arrived in Sicily at 8:15 and I had 650 km ahead of me and another ferry from Sicily to Italy. The ride was uneventful. I had a little bit of rain in Sicily but not enough to get wet. I think Italy must have the same rule as France in that no trucks are allowed on the roads on Sunday because I didn't find any at all today The ferry to Italy arrived just as I got there so I didn't have to wait and then it was a long monotonous motorway until I got about 1 hour from my destination when I came on to a bikers road. It was a great twisty road. Lots of bikes around great fun and my hotel was just off that road so tomorrow morning I will continue down it.
    Tonight's hotel is a farm stay so the food should be good and it's in a very quiet setting. Tomorrow I have four and a half hours to ride to the ferry which will take me to Barcelona.    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 27

    Civitavecchia Italy

    June 3 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    I was the only guest at the hotel and last night's dinner was so unbelievably good.
    This morning's breakfast was also nice. Once again, Google translate came to the rescue. After breakfast the lady from the hotel brought me a nice cloth and said this is for you to clean your motorcycle. She was so nice. It did need to be cleaned because it rained last night.
    Because I had plenty of time spare today, I decided to go to a viewpoint which was up a mountain. It was in one of those quaint Italian villages The roads were so steep that I was scared on the BMW because one slight mistake and I would have dropped it. I was in first gear and some of the hairpin bends were so tight and so steep. It was scary. The roads were also very narrow, so only the tiniest of cars could get round.
    After three stops on the motorway for a coffee or just to sit for a while, I've now reached the ferry and I'm sailing towards Barcelona. There are about 200 motorbikes on board because there was a Harley-Davidson rally somewhere near here last weekend    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 27

    Grimaldi ferry

    June 3, Western Mediterranean ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    I had pre-booked but still had to stand for 45 minutes in a queue to get my room key and a meaningless sticker for the bike. Then all the bikers were made to wait until all the trucks were loaded. It took 90 minutes. We noticed the bikes could have gone any time as they were on another level.
    The food could be best described as service station quality served by underpaid grumpy staff. I prepaid breakfast and didn't realise until I came to the checkout that only the bread bun and coffee were prepaid. Grrr
    About 15 hours into the voyage the lights went out, the engines shut down and we stopped. After a minute the lights came on but it took about half an hour to restart the engines during which no announcements at all were made.
    I feel I should say something nice about the 17 year old ship. The public spaces, bars, restaurants, decks and my room were nicely fitted with the exception of my bathroom which showed its age.
    Everyone was asked to vacate the cabins two hours before we reached the port so they could prepare to upset the next passengers.
    As expected all the bikers where told to go to the bikes then made to wait an hour in a hot car deck while the trucks were unloaded.
    My feeling towards this ferry company is in its name..

    Now I'm in Barcelona. More about that in the next entry.    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    Day 29

    Barcelona

    June 5 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Never before has the work of one man had such an effect not only on myself in seeing the result but on the city as a whole and architecture around the world. His work has and continues to inspire architects and artists to this day even though he died in 1926 at the age of 73. Antoni Gaudi took such a radical and different approach to whatever he designed and his attention to detail was endless. I'll give you one tiny example. The door handles within Casa Milã are an odd shape. He took a short rod of clay and gently squeezed it. The imprint became the mould for the handles. It works.
    We visited the most famous Sagrada Familia which was breathtakingly beautiful, Casa Milã, Casa Vincens and Park Güell. Others were seen only from the outside.
    We also visited the cathedral which had nothing to do with Gaudi but was also beautiful.
    I'll never forget Barcelona not only for these buildings but for the clean efficient way the city runs. The roads are clean the transport system is efficient and spotless the food if a bit expensive is on the whole very nice. It has a nice feel to the place. I'm sure I'll return.    Read more

  • Peter SprotEurope
    1
    Day 32

    Cable car, Funicular rail, Miló museum.

    June 8 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 26 °C

    From the hotel we needed 7 stops on the lovely clean quiet underground train then change to the funicular train which climbs and climbs then onto a cable car for outstanding views climbing again to a castle and a museum with works dedicated to Miló. If you like modernist art it is a must. I'm not a fan but the views from the terrace are worth the entry fee.
    Tomorrow I leave at around 8am and ride south. Not sure how far yet. Depends how I feel. I haven't booked accommodation.    Read more

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