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My European motorbike odyssey
  • MF's travel blog
Jul – Oct 2016

My European motorbike odyssey

A 81-day adventure by MF's travel blog Read more
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  • MF's travel blogTravelerMy European motorbike odyssey

    Romania - Timisaora

    September 2, 2016 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Crossed the border into Romania without a hitch. I went through a very quiet border crossing without any waiting at all. The border guards were so viligent I offered to take my helmet off, so they could make sure the passport was mine, but no need...stamped my passport and just waived me through.....didn't take my helmet off so couldn't even say it was my good looks or honest face.

    Stopped at a cute little town (Sinnicolai-Mare) and sat down for lunch, at the town square with the locsls, who ordered for me when they saw me struggling with the menu just how did they know I wanted a meat (beef?) skewer and a bottle of mineral water. Sat and ate with an older couple (well older than me) and we had a pleasant conversation (with plenty of miming) that I'm sure none of us understood.

    I stayed at the hotel Perla (damn good hotels are cheap in some parts of Europe). Perla by name and a Perla by nature, huge room with a sitting area/couch, minibar and a spa bath...yep I had a good long soak probably needed it, had a feeling I might have been a bit on the nose (ask me one day and I'll tell you how many days you can really go with one set of clothes).

    Tomorrow riding onto Craiova - still in Romania    Read more

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    Craiova - I'm still in Romania

    September 3, 2016 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Most of the ride down from Timisoara was fairly flat, straight and predictable. Predictable that is until you come over a rise, around a corner and a beautiful lake, bordered by a cute little town) comes into view - not something I was expecting (see the pic below). Well, as it turns out, wasn't actually a lake, apparently that reasonably famous river, the DANUBE runs down this way!!! I took a pic of a statue at a pull-off on the river, the statue is kewl, but it also seems as if there are some in Europe welcoming of refugees 👍.

    Stayed at a Ramada in Craiova, I'm starting to enjoy the luxury.

    Beautiful city with the obligatory large square where the local families gather to eat and drink.......I think we could do with one at Eatons Hill.

    I'm off the Serbi    Read more

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    2 days in Belgrade

    September 4, 2016 in Serbia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    MADE IT TO serbia (just). I've purposely stayed off toL roads and motorways just so I could see more of the country, villages, people etc. It often takes twice as long to go from place to place because your constantly slowing down for villages, the roads are as good, you have to do more distance,and there is any manner of farm machinery and animals on the road. Country roads in Romania are country roads!!!!I I passed through villages where families spend their Sunday drying and husking hand picked corn cobs, manually cutting and stacking hay and moving it all around with a horse and dray.

    Something that is exciting is coming around a corner, at reasonable speed, to find a slow moving horse cart on your side of the road and 2 or 3 of the biggest softest freshest cow pads you have ever seen on the other side. I now know for a fact that fresh cow shit is slippperier than oil on a road. I went around the dray more than slightly sideways when the rear wheel let go. The farmer's surprised look was nothing compared to mine. For the next 2 or 3 kms all I could smell was fresh shit, I didn't want to stop and check under the bike in case it was clean and the smell was coming from somewhere else 😨.

    Crossing into Serbia was something else. Bridge across the DANUBE, through the border check post ("welcome to Serbia, we don't get many Australians coming through on a motorbike - good luck!!!, hey, what's that smell?"). Then follow the Daube for about 40 kms of absolutely beautiful motorbike roads. The river cuts deep through valleys and the road follows it, sometime at river level, sometimes what seems a coiple of hundred meters higher. Best bit of road so far.....

    I had put the hotel address into my GPS and was expecting to get to Belgrade around 3.30pm. Was staying in the middle of the city so wanted to miss the rush hour. My navigation skills have always been a bit suspect and I ended up 65 kms from Belgrade in a small broken down village in front of a dilapidated hay shed - about $75 a night, you gotta be kidding. As I was riding in I kept thinking, Belgrade pretty small for the capital of Serbia.

    Got to the hotel at 5.30 pm in the middle of rush hour (and there is no rush hour like a Serbian rush hour!!!) To find the hotel was on a one way street and it and all the surrounding streets had been blocked of by police (had the farmer rung ahead to say that an idiot on a motorbike had killed his horse by scaring it to death?). After an hour of trying to get to the hotel I did what L the Serb drivers were doing - I rode around the barricade, upon to the footpath and then the wrong way down a one way street. I checked into the hotel (receptionist asked how I got through as no one had been able to book in for the last 3 hours) and asked if there was somewhere I could hide my motorbike - mission accomplished.

    Belgrade is a big fairly Industrial town with a bit of greenery - I saw a chipmunk, or rat..one or the other.

    Ok, had a rest, I'm off to Croatia    Read more

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    Croatia - Slavonski Brod

    September 6, 2016 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Packed and headed off with my trusty GPS showing me the way to my next stop in Croatia.Stopped at a petrol station to fill up and have a hot chocolate. No hot chocolate!!!! I'm forced to drink a herbal tea - primrose or something, just horrible. That will teach you to go to Europe and not drink coffee or alcohol😢.

    A guy struck up a conversation....so where are you off to? Croatia I say, staying overnight at Slavonski Brod. Ohh, I'm a truck driver and know the roads well, you'll be crossing into Bosnia & Herzegovina the border comes up close to Slavonski Brod and the road goes through there. Are you sure? (Up very close to me, gets right face to face, but friendly) Yes, have driven many times before....2 border crossings for you my new Australian friend. Okay thanks, you don't happen to have any more garlic sandwiches by chance? Or have you just eaten them all? I have a look at the map and the border is pretty close, now I'm not really sure any more.

    Hope on bike and head-off. Get to a border crossing, leave Serbia and enter another country. The border crossing says welcome to "Republic of Hrvatska". Great now there's a 3rd country thrown into the mix. Where am I? Did I head in the wrong direction (pretty sure I never saw that on a map!!! Now I've been lost before, wrong house, wrong street, even wrong town, but have never been in the wrong country 😲. I look at my passport...yep the stamp says Hrvatska, is that how they say/spell Herzegovina? It doesn't look remotely like the word Croatia!!! I say to the crossing guard (pretty stern looking guy with tazer and gun) - this might sound funny, but what country am I in? He looks at me, then laughs and says "2nd Australia today making same joke - go people waiting behind you". Great, well at least there's another dumb Aussie wandering around whatever country this is, maybe we can meet up and be lost together. I head off and then stop out of the guard's sight and have a look at Google maps (am a bit worried now, if this is B & H my vodafone roaming won't cover me and this might cost a fortune!!!). Well it says I'm in Croatia...whew, Croatia is called Republica of Hrvatska. It's their country, guess they can call it what they want.

    Got to Slavonski Brod, found the hotel car park, and put the bike up on the side stand. Am still thinking, "the border was the first time language and really given me any issue". Spot the hotel and see three women come out of a hotel room door and walk up towards the reception area. Quick as a flash I'm across the road up the stairs and follow them in and close the door behind me. It didn't look like a normal reception, but it had a bar/counter and a lounge so after shutting the door I just sat and waited my turn. The women then realised I'd followed them in and shut the door behind me. First there were 3 blank stares with jaws sorta hanging loose, then a bit of talking between themselves rising in crescendo, a bit of backing away, then a bit of shouting. I offered to wait my turn to book in, then, hmm, took me a few long seconds to work out that this isn't a hotel. Actually, it's someone's house (that happens to be opposite the hotel car park) and these three women (I'd guess grandmother, mother and daughter) had a bearded bike sitting in the lounge room between them and a closed door leading to safety. Eventually we all managed to work out what had happened, we had a bit of a laugh, and I was on my way to the hotel about 40 or 60 metres up the road. True story - I took a pick of the house (first pic), it looks like a hotel doesn't it? Remember some of the hotels are converted houses - you could have easily you made the same mistake.

    The hotel (Garten) turned out to be a quirky little place with room extensions running off everywhere, a restaurant full of old "stuff" and an exceptionally nice owner who, despite my protestations, gave me a home collected jar of her own honey when I left. She even put up a shade umberella to park my bike under in case it rained. Even the three women waived me good bye in the morning 😆

    Okay..Zargreb next hopefully without any navigation problems.    Read more

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    3 nights in Zargreb

    September 9, 2016 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    The ride here from SlavonskI Brod was uneventful, pleasant country side and towns/villages to pass through. All anyone seems to do here is eat and drink - was trying to work out how they seem to stay relatively fit looking and not overweight. I finally worked out absolutely everyone smokes, and I mean chain smokes (not many restrictions s here you can pretty much smoke where you like). If it wasn't for the side effects of smoking it would be perfect for weight control !!!!

    Nice city, and the centrum (middle) is pretty compact. They have amazing pedestrian crossing here, at T intersection there are 3 crossings that lead to the middle of the intersection, you simply walk there, wait in the missing middle as cars, trucks and bikes etc cross and then when there is a gap in traffic you just walk though to the side you want to get to. No traffic lights and 2-way tram lines. Seems to work but I'm not sure what the casualty rate is. First time I tried it I got stuck in the middle for a while!!!

    Got a mini-service on the bike while I could. BMW fitted me in because I was travelling through - normally a 2 week wait.

    After picking up the bike I took a ride up the mountain range behind the city - only about 10 kms fromm the Centrum. Have a look at the pic from Google maps (that's only a small section that I could fit in a pic) it's just very steep switchbacks one after another. It was hard work going up (climb about 1000 metres in a short space) and it was only on the way back I realised a good part of it is one-way. Was stuffed by the time I got back.

    Food continues to be great and cheap. Deboned stuffed pork cutlet, bread, salad litre bottle of mineral water for under $20 !!!

    Nice relaxing 3 days.

    Next stop Slovenia    Read more

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    Dolosko 1st night in Slovenia

    September 10, 2016 in Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Beautiful little country. Stayed in a hotel just outside the capital (Ljubljana - try and pronounce that) that was the friendliest I've ever been to. Owners just couldn't do enough. It was well after lunch when I arrived and asked if there was something light I could have from the kitchen - ended up with a veal roast, vegatbles, salad and the obligatory bread I couldn't jump over. Kept asking me if it was alright so I was obliged to eat the lot 😨. I had to settle for a fruit dinner in case I exploded.

    Slovenia was designed by a god that loves motorbikes - beautiful scenery and fantastic roads. I'll post pics in my next footprint for Kranjska Gora. In the meantime I'll leave you with a pic of a little church and some food.

    Ohh, a lot of the hotels are pet friendly....pretty much whatever pet you want to travel with. A small compact car pulled up for an overnight stay - mum, dad 2 kids, 2 huge dogs and a smaller one. No idea how they fited them in the car, or their room!!!!    Read more

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    Kranska Gora - an Alpine town

    September 11, 2016 in Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    I thought that mountain road behind Zargreb had some twists and turns. The roads and scenery to this Alpine resort town are just fantastic. Lots of people visiting tjough nothing like during the ski season. The scenery just kept getting better each time I went around a corner, and there were lots and lots of corners. The roads, leading up to the alpine pass (Vrsiska road) were prefect for motorbike riding mostly good fast speed corners on almost perfect tarmac. But the alpine pass was something else steep and sharp corner after sharp corner. As you get closer to the top the hairpins are all cobbled rather than bitumen, I'm guessing it needs less maintenance but it's quite rough and makes it interesting on a motorbike and there were motorbikes everywhere. The hairpins are numbered 1 to 50 and it climbs almost 1000 metres in a very short space.

    I did see one funny/strange sight. A hiker walk along the road had 6 or 7 sheep following him, when ever he stopped did they, when he went off again, so did they. He just looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said they had been following all afternoon and he couldn't get rid of them. I guess if he got lost he could always have lamb for dinner.

    I stayed at a resort in town (much cheaper in summer) the room and food were great and the views of the surrounding mountains were beautiful.

    Down the other side of the range the next day, nowhere near as steep..but fantastic riding, and I'll be in Austria.    Read more

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    Some more pics - Kranska Gora

    September 11, 2016 in Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    I stopped along the way for a hot chocolate (the pic shows it was so thick thst the spoon stood straight up in it....couldn't drink it, had to eat it). And met 3 guys ftom Germany doing a 2 week European bike trip.Read more

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    Graz in Austria

    September 12, 2016 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Made to Austria. The ride/down down the a mountain range from Kransk Gora was much more open some tight corners but a lot of nice sweepers , good bitumen and and not a lot of traffic. Again beautiful scenery, green with rivers and streams everywhere.

    Graz is a bit of an Industrial city (I was sorta expecting all of Austria to be villages surrounded by green rolling hills) so glad I only stayed the one night. At leasT a good part of the ride here was enjoyable. I did have a good lunch along the way!!!    Read more

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    Bad Hall - still in Austria

    September 13, 2016 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Was happy enough to leave Graz and head onto Bad Hall just inside the Austria border from Germany, an overnight stop before going into Lietchenstein. The ride was fine, some beautiful bike roads and some more average roads. The town really took me by surprise, I guess then name had put some subconscious thoughts into my head. It's funny when you don't know a language you try, or at least I do, make sense of it in English, often to disastrous results. Beautiful little friendly vilage. The hotel was very good and the hosts fantastic.

    You can tell how much they like beer in Europe, even the local church was advertising the October beer fest. I have to say, to my mind Austria is like a little Germany.    Read more

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    Liechtenstein - Triesenberg

    September 15, 2016 in Liechtenstein ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    I've had 2 weeks off from blogging - did you miss me ❓

    Made my way into Liechtenstein, I'd booked into a little mountain village just outside of Vaduz which is the capital. I was hoping for a cute little relaxing village, and from the pics you can see thats what I got. The country side just gets more and more scenic, and the roads more and more windy (as in curves) - just keeps getting better.

    One thing I will say, the schnitzell in Austria, Liechtenstein (and Switzerland) are a lot tastier/better than those at home. Only downside to this little country, damn it's expensive, even in the slower summer season.

    Fact: Liechtenstein is only one of 2 countries that is double land-locked.

    Cheers for now    Read more

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    Switzerland for a couple of days

    September 16, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Made it to the capital of Switzerland. The ride out of Treisenberg was great. The old proverb of "what goes up must come down" suited the ride perfectly. The road down the other side was fantastic smooth tar with really well banked corners..just fun. Had to traverse a couple of ranges and the weather was looking a bit ominous but held off. Beautiful country side but with a fair bit of slow traffic including the obligatory milk trucks! The problem with a lot of these roads is that there is nowhere to pull over for pic taking.

    Bern is a mix of old and new like a lot of Europe. I thought Lietchenstein was expensive......just add 10% for Switzerland. Spent a couple of days wandering around the city ang got the shortest hair and beard cut of my life. I went into an African barber shop that advertised cuts for both "black and white". Well by the surprised look on all the faces in the shop when I took a seat, I'd say it had been a while since anyone took the sign at face value. There was a bit of whispeting and pointing and then some big smiles (ftom all of us) before I was invited to take a seat. Anyway great hair cut (a number 1 - took about 3 1/2 minutes) but still cost me £30.

    Next stop Italy and a chance to meet some relatives.    Read more

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    Road from Bern to Aosta

    September 19, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C

    This blog is just about the road from Bern to Aosta in noryhern Italy. The route I took goes close along the shore of Lake Geneva and the Great Saint Bernard road that includes the pass over the mountain range separating Switzerland and Italy. It also includes the 8 km long Saint Benard tunnel, part of which is through the mountain range and part of which hangs off the side of the mountain. The pass itself is just under 2,500 meters high. This means a couple of things. 1. Fantastic views and 2. Bloody cold. Had to stop to put on winter gloves and just about every bit of clothing I had until I looked like the Mitchilin man. The road is mostly good and very very windy!!!

    This is hard to admit, but I was glad when the road straightened out - I needed a rest!!!!    Read more

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    Aosta Italy

    September 19, 2016 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    I've really been looking forward to getting to Italy to visit my parents' birth place, catch up with relatives that I've only ever met once before (previous trip with Anne) and the ability to speak the local language - well a bastardised English version anyway. I won't see the relatives and mum and dad's old stomping grounds until I get to Asti in Piedmont, but can't wait to have a conversation, without having to resort to mime, even if it is with a total stranger.

    Aosta really took me by surprise. I stayed in a cheap (because it isn't ski season yet) hotel about 15 minutes walk from the centre and the "old town". It's a lot bigger than I thought and it's bilingual French/Italian. Most of the town signage is in both languages and streets often have straight out French names. There is even a lift from the town that takes you to close-by ski slopes. The old town was just fabulous with, lucky me, lots of (American) tourists visiting. I got to speak Italian (even when people wanted to talk in English!!!). I'm sure they wondered why a simple request for a hot chocolate turned into a 1/2 hour conversation about what a great day it was. Aosta has beautiful buildings (some back to the middle ages), the obligatory huge piazza & large Cathedral and the best gelato I'd eaten in 10 years (eg. last time I was in Italy). The streets weren't too busy so it was a safer introduction to some of the craziest drivers and riders in Europe.

    I also love Italy's ability to meld old and new together in a very practical way. There are 3 photos below of 1.an APM (that's an automatic pizza machine for the uninitiated) 2. a condom vending machine and 3. the local Aosta Cathedral. The two vending machines were almost next to each other on the same building wall which, in turn, was a very close walk to the Cathedral. It was explained to me that this was the practical dating solution for young un-married catholics. With 1 you both got a a cheap meal. With 2 you both got the dessert that you both wanted but couldn't ask for at home, and with 3 you got the immediate forgiveness needed to have an other date next weekend!!!!!

    Next stop Alessandria. I need to fast for at least one day before I go stay with relatives - boy do Italians like to feed you 🐷    Read more

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    Alessandria

    September 20, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    A 3 hour trip ( no autostrada for me) for the 200 odd kms to Alessandria. Once you leave the Aosta Valley, and head into the province of Piedmont, the country side really does start to flatten out. Piedmont literally means at the foot (pied) of the mountain (mont). Look at that, a free linguistics lesson ✏. Not too much to say about the road except that there are a lot of rice fields in this part of Italy. I stopped off in Casale Monferrato which is the area Dad was born and sent a pic to my mom and sister while I was there.

    Alessandria, again, is a typical Italian regional city with great architecture. Fun to walk around for the afternoon after booking into a very nice, for the price, hotel with safe and secure underground parking for the bike. Europeans, including Italians, are generous and very friendly people but there is a percentage of the population that would steal the skin off 5 day old milk. But then again you can say that about every country!!!!!!! Why are there two sinks in the hotel bathroom? The second one is so low to the ground it's very hard to use!!!!

    I did say I was going to fast for at least 24 hours before eatng solidly for the 5/6 days of staying with relatives. The hot chocolate and pannini was too much of a temptation.

    Right, next stop will be 5 days of talking, eating, sleeping, eating, sightseeing, eating, and then to finish off...more eating.

    Asti here I come (ohh, and my relatives don't even know I'm in the country let alone that I'm going to visit and stay for a while. They will be (pleasantly?) surprised 😲    Read more

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    Asti - staying with cugini

    September 21, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Thats staying with "cousins". There, "now you learnt some Italian".

    Pio and Idelma had no idea I was going to turn up on their door-step. My sister had given them call in the week prior to make sure they were home (they have a place in the mountains they spend a quite a bit of time at). They have quite a large house with a bell at the front gate. I rang the bell and when Pio appeared at the top of the steps I asked him if he knew who I was (we had only ever met once 10 years ago when Anne and I stayed a couple of nights). He looked a bit taken back (I'm dressed in my bike gear and haven't had a shave for a while) and I could see he was trying to make up his mind on what to do - two choices. 1. just turn around go back inside and pretend the bell had never rung (and maybe call the police - Pio and Idelma are at least in their late 70's), or 2. Ask who I was. Before he got any more concerned I let him know,. It took maybe 15 or 20 seconds to register, but then he just ran back inside telling Idelma the "Australian is here", leaving me still outside the gate. I'm still not sure they knew what I wsx doing there, just kept saying "motociclo" and shaking their heads.

    These really are friendly and sprightly people. I stayed for 2 nights and in that time they wouldn't let me do a thing. No helping in the kitchen, no cleaning up the table, did my washing - the lot. Pio drove me around sightseeing both days including to Ottiglio, the town where my mum comes from. Asti city is beautiful and the country-side (and wines) are a match for anything you will find in Tuscany. There were still grapes on the vine waiting to be harvested. Pio, like all Italians, is an interesting driver. Apart from the car (Fiat Punto - what else) he also rides a scooter. I'm not sure my heart could stand the stress of watching him on the scooter in traffic.

    Again, it's a pity I wasn't partaking in wine drinking as I was offered about 2 dozen times over the couse of 2 days. The last time they had any tea in the house was 10 years ago so we had to make a dash to the local shops. Pio is a retired restaurant owner so the meals were something special.

    Pio is an avid hunter and in many parts of Europe you will see hunters walking around country roads with rifles and shotguns slung over their shoulders - including Pio. He hunts 2 or 3 times a week, depending on the season, with the speciality being wild bore. He took me to the area's "club house" where after a weekends shoot 10 or 25 huntets will gather to cook eat and drink. This place has its own cold room butchery and and commercial stoves etc.

    It was a great stay for a couple days and without me really being part of it, it was organised that I go and stay with some other cousins, in Turin, for 3 nights. My journy was being planned for me but these people are relatives and too nice to refuse. Anyway I was getting used to being looked after hand and foot.

     Next stop Turin.    Read more

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    Turin - more cugini !!!

    September 25, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Three days visiting and staying with some more cousins. Again I couldn't ask for more and probably should of insisted on less. I ate like there was no tomorrow (you csnt say the word "no" while your mouth is full of food). Ate at home the first night then with the two dsughters' families for dinner on the following nights. I had to put in some pics.

    Turin is a pretty spectacular city and I spent 3 days being driven around sight-seeing (only stopping to eat). There is an amazing Basilica, on a mountain behind Turin, called "Superga" (last pic below). Frederick (who is at least 25 years older than me) beat up the 160 odd winding stairs to the top for a great view of the city and the surrounding area. Also went an saw a hunting lodge (Stupinigi) that had been built by the Royal House of Savoy about 200 years ago. The Royals sure knew how to live.

    Ladtly a pic of a vehicle thst I'm not sure how to describe. A motorbike with four wheels? It only has room for the driver, smallest car I've ever seen.

    Time to leave and try and loose the 3 4 kilos I put on in the last 5 days.

    Off to the port city of Genoa.    Read more

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    Genoa

    September 27, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Mostly staying of the autostrada (except for about 30 kms) and motorways meant it took almost three times as long to get here, but also meant really nice country side, mountains and villages to ride through. I did see the terrible sight of two fellow riders (separate incidents about 25 minutes apart) lying on the road after having been hit by a car. The first at a roundabout, the ambulance had just arrived, and he looked in a bad way. The second crash involved a car merging onto the autostrada that side swiped a motorbike at probably over 100kmh. Happened maybe only a couple of minutes before I got there, no ambulance yet, and doesn't bear thinking about the outcome. I rode gingerly for a while.

    Stayed for 3 nights to have enough time to wander properly around this very old port city of some 600,000 people (of which I would guess 400,000 ride a scooter. There are just scooters everywhere, they out number cars at least 3 to 1. I rode pretty much as you would drive a car (it's still pretty nerve racking in such a busy city) but the locals took lane splitting to new hights. They make liberal use of the other side of the road, footpaths as well traditional lane splitting. It's actually amazing to watch. All the scooters and bikes, at traffic lights, filter to the front then it's their version of a motogp race start as they all hurdle into the first corner. Some of those 125 and 200 cc motors must have a very short life span. There's no where enough parking do they are just everywhere, including in the stree, and I mwan in the lanes. Ohh, and I think I found a car (if that is what it is) even smaller than the one in Turin (see the bottom middle pic).

    Another thing I've discovered is that Italians love mobile phones, you'll see them texting as they ride. They don't bother with expensive helmet headsets for talking, they simply dial and then slop the mobile phone between their helmet and their head and then ride off talking whilst gestulating with both hands off the handle bars.

    I did a lot of walk (determined to drop some of that weight from my stay in Asti/Turin but it's going to take more than 3 days....). Lots to see and I spent an afternoon at the Genoa aquarium but it was really sad to see dolphins and sea lions in very small indoor aquariums.

    Next it's down the Ligurian coast-line to Marina di Massa.    Read more

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    Marina di Massa - Tuscany

    September 28, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    So, when I think of Tuscany I think of vineyards, hilltop villages, castles, Leaning Tower of Pizza as well as great food and wine. Well, it also has a coastline and beaches. It might be the Mediterranean, but I have to say good old Aussie beaches beat it hands down. I'm not saying the costal villages and cities aren't fabulous, just the beaches are really pretty ordinary - mostly pebbley or with dark dirty looking sand (and old rich prole that should no bether than be wearing bikinis or budgr smugglers).. Having said that, the road hugging the coastline from Genoa to Massa is fantastic with small towns hanging precariously off cliffs overlooking the sea. It was a slow ride but the scenery was breathtaking.

    I stayed in a hotel at Massa - it was late off season so they upgraded me to a balcony superior room...very nice. The room had the most sophisticated shower I've ever seen...7 nozzles (4 strong horizontal for a body massage, 2 head high jets (no idea what for..ear cleaners?) and 1 large ceiling rain shower. I usually turn on the shower to get the hot water running (often takes a while in these old buildings) then undress and hop in. This was a room sized shower so turn the water I had to get in - I thought I was turning o the hand held shower, but instead I got soaked from the ceiling rain shower - unexpected but was okay, clothes I was wearing needed a wash anyway.

    Next stop - Frienze (Florence)    Read more

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    Florence

    October 2, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Nice ride to Florence even though I did see two motorcycle accidents within 15 minutes of each other. One on a roundabout and one on the Autostrada. Both looked serious and served as a reminder to be careful.

    Stayed in one of the smallest hotel rooms of the whole trip. The bathroom was so small you could use the toilet and have a shower at the same time!!!!!

    Really beautiful city just full of history - not enough time to see it, maybe a return visit. Found a great little restaurant not far from my hotel and had spaghetti with a wild boar sauce - had it 3 times in a row, who says I'm not a creature of habit.    Read more

    Trip end
    October 2, 2016
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