Lost in Europe

[sijohnston]

So I took my new 800GS for a trip around the continent through July. My plan was to make it to Albania, but by Croatia and owing to an extended time in Slovenia, I decided to head home.

Given that 3 weeks was my limit and believing that you don't need panniers if you're going for anything shorter than a month, I parked a 49ltr ortlieb rack pack and roll pack on the it and took off. Of course the other addition were the Ireland stickers as they definitely give you a little more leeway with the authorities when you're abroad (will say more about that later!). However, it was the marching season before I took off, and my home town was playing host to many of the 12th parades before I left. Fellow GS'er David who I'd meet up with in Italy thought it better to cover up the tri-colours until I cleared Coleraine.

On one of those summer dawn mornings, I met up with David and Lynda on the dual carriageway at 4:30am and we made for Dublin. We would enjoy the roads of North Wales together (after the Welsh Police stopped insulting us at Holyhead) and then part at Shrewsbury before meeting in the Cinque Terra in Italy.

10 mins after we parted, I hit torrential rain and standing water on all the motorways the whole way down to Calais. This would be par for the course until I cleared the Alps. If anything, it was a good test of my Rev'it suit, which to this point hadn't really been tested. I made it to Dover and Calais and after a 500 mile day, booked into the Formula1 before beginning the trek down through France.

I eliminated toll roads and highways on the GPS and enjoyed a few greasy twisties down through France. It was wonderful being so far off the tourist track and picking my way through villages and places that seemed remote to all but the occasional biker. My aim was to get down to Karlsruhe in Germany before nightfall and pitch camp. I got there in driving rain and tired, parked the bike up in the town square and thought after another 500 miles, a hotel was on the cards. I was so tired I left all the luggage on the bike, and went off on a reccie. Eventually I got a place to stay, and returned to collect the bike and install it in their underground car park. I poured the litres of water out of my boots, and got the fans in the rooms set up to give them an overnight drying.

I liked the town so much, I decided to park up in some cafes and begin reading my tome for the trip - East of Eden by John Steinbeck. After that, it was off to Garmisch Partenkirken for the BMW meet.

 

[BAKERMAN]

Slovenia extended time, going to be off there late August/Sept sounds interesting the fact of your extended stay.

 

[sijohnston]

So getting to Garmisch was good craic. I was trucking along at some pace and making the most of the windy alpine roads when an Adventure and 3 other bikes appeared in my mirrors. That there were other bikes around wasn't unusual, as there were 30,000 of them appearing for the meet. But this Italian GSA and what seemed like his 3 buddies were passing with me and clearly up for some riding. I stepped it up, put the pegs on the ground on almost every bend, and shook him off in places so that when we all got into Garmisch he thanked me kindly for the ride - so polite! He's got 'King of the Mountain' written on his helmet, so keep your eyes peeled if you're down that way.

Anyway, with the weather having improved at last, I found my way to the BMW location, and was staggered at just how many bikes were around.

I pitched the tent and scoped out what was going on. First things first, I went to hear Herbert and Mrs Schwartz talk about their African trip on the 800. It was all German and so after 10 mins of the video I took off and thought I'd return for Michael Martin giving a lecture on long-range adventure. Again, German
Having spotted the Enduro Park, I thought I'd sign up for some of that. It was a name collecting exercise for BMW so they only charged 5 euros and gave you the opportunity to take a short course with an instructor around the base of the mountain. I could've picked any bike but opted for one like my own with the TKC's, just to see if it was really all that off road. It was! Unfortunately I didn't know anyone there at the time, so I've no photos of me.

After loosing half my body weight in sweat, I headed back to my tent to get changed and to get some food. It was there that I overheard some conversation between an English bloke and some Polish folks. He said that he was traveling around Europe on his own, so I thought I'd go over and say 'hey'. I introduced myself as Si from Ireland at which point he asks 'you're not the Si from UKGSer are you? I said yup and he tell me he's 'Gordo'. Amazingly, when I posted about my trip, he pm'd me his mobile and vice versa incase our paths crossed. He was going clockwise and to Istanbul and I was going anti-clockwise, so I wasn't sure if we'd meet. And here, amongst 30k other bikers, we'd pitched our tents beside each other!! Anyway, the Polish Blue Knights were all sufficiently amused and made me eat Angelski Goulash and drink vodka now that I was in their circle of hospitality. Gordo was mightily relieved that an Irishman had pitched up to take the pressure of him, because he was still recovering from the vodka poisoning the night before (as you can tell).

One of the many comical moments was this chap who was obviously having some good dreams and permitting the rest of the meet to see the consequences. We dared one of our Polish friends to go and douse this member with some cold water, but he couldn't bring himself to.

In case you were in any doubt as to where you might be, BMW had 'BMW 2008' illuminated in large on the side of the mountain - it was impressive.

Gordo and I packed up our stuff and left reasonably early the next morning to get a day's a riding in. This is a GPS programing moment in Garmisch before joining the convoys and caravans of bikes through the mountains.

 

[davidgibson999]

Lynda and I were very impressed by your tan when you joined us

 

[davidgibson999]

And it must have helped having a mule to lug your kit down that hill

 

[sijohnston]

for someone who just got photoshop last week, you're doing well
what do you expect after a winter in ireland and several days of traveling in rain? it still didn't stop you from jumping me on your floor ye boy ye. it's the fact that i look completely malnourished and runty that scares me more. how will i ever pull a hot UKGSer girl now mate?

 

[sijohnston]

So Gordo and I hit the Dolomites and headed towards the Timeljoch Pass. We made our way up and I started getting carried away with the hairpins. I got slowed up by a coach and foolishly thought I could take it on the inside of the apex. idiot! i moved and noticed that the coach was about to cut me out because it needed the space. In order to offset me becoming one with a bus, I hit the grass bank on the inside, but managed to keep it shiny side up. Once I got over the fact there were maybe 60 people on the bus laughing at this twat on the motorbike, I thought I'd get some clear space ahead of it. I went for second gear as there was no rev-range left in 1st, and found I couldn't get it. My foot was kicking mid-air and so a few corners later with the bike screaming to be out of 1st, I stopped and found that I'd bent the gear selector right back. I managed to gently bend it back into shape until I could find a Fiat dealer down the other side who would kindly let me use their workshop to put it in a vice and put it back to almost normal.

Once we had gotten down off the pass, it seemed too good to be true that it hadn't rained yet today. However, it began in earnest. Over-confidently I had stripped the waterproofs out of my gear and was grateful for Mary's hospitality in allowing me some shrine space to kit myself out for the rest of the day's deluge. And yes, my legs are still as white as Mary's frock David!

By now we had made it to the Tirolean Italy and having done the Stevlio before, Gordo had suggested we left it until the next day and that it would make more sense to pitch into the campsite in Prada at the foot of the Stelvio (great campsite by the way with super facilities and only 13 euros). He was right. They had a ski boot room in the swimming pool complex that became our own drying room while we attended the local beer festival which appeared to be a bit of a wash out.

That evening over beer, some terrible local music, and good pizza, we discussed...eh, lots of things? Oh yes, we discussed the potential merits of shaft driven BM's over and against chain and sprockets. The challenge was on. I told Gordon that there was almost no maintenance in chains and that in fact, I could have lubed my chain, pitched my tent, and properly fixed by wayward gear selector, by the time he'd pitched his tent...and also giving him a head-start. Judge ye for yourself what the outcome was from the photo. And by the way, that settles it: chains are superior!

The next day, Gordon decided to head back on himself while I headed up the Stelvio Pass. As if you hadn't guessed, it was raining when I left and continued to do so until I dropped down into Bormio. That said, I pretty much had the road to myself, but there's only so much you can do in such tight hairpins in the wet.

My onboard computer was telling me that it was 4 degs when I got to the top.

On the other side, you've got more of the same, only in better condition: dozens more switch-backs. It was here I passed a Scottish 1200GS and wondered whether I should stop and have a yarn.

Once I got down to Bormio, the heat came on and it was espresso time. I rested for about 30 mins and then hit another couple of obscure passes and on one was surprised to come across this Scottish biker again. I rode behind him for a bit and then signaled to see if he wanted to pull in and have a chat. He did...and he was called Bob. I was glad to have had the ignition ring recall done on my bike before I left, because poor Bob here had to roll his bike off the ferry at Calais and wait for 6 hours until BMW got their finger out and put a new one in for him. If you haven't had it done yet - do it! You'll be glad to know he was well on the road by now though.

After a long tunnel or 8, I dropped out at Lake Garda. It wasn't raining!

By now I was heading to Riamaggiore and took some stunning northern Italian back roads to get there. When I say stunning, I mean stunning. There's metallic fibres from anything sticking out at the lower points of my bike strewn all over their roads...and it was a hoot!

Getting to the Cinque Terra sort of represented stage 2 of the trip for me. Photos to come.

 

[Alte Wolf]

Enjoying keep going ... know some of those roads

 

[GS TRV]

I'm enjoying this - keep it going dude

 

[sijohnston]

So after a full day of riding with the Garmin pointed towards Riomaggiore where David was waiting at the bottom of the hill - complete with the Dale Winton Perma-tan - I arrived for some rest and legendary Lynda Gibson hospitality.

Hanging out with some good friends after a days exhilaration courtesy of the Italian DOE was welcomed. I made my way down to their apartment where they would be hanging out for a couple of weeks - see David's photo above. We enjoyed a few beers and then went out and grabbed some food.

David was particularly taken with this cactus and could be found on his own speaking to it in the early mornings. The nature of their conversation is yet to be understood.

The Cinque Terra is truly a beautiful place. For those who don't know, it consists of 5 villages perched precariously on the mountainside and linked only by a cliffside walk and railway line.

They basically consist of a central street with pastel coloured apartments looking across at one another. In fact, for the locals, the other side of the street is their TV and constant source of entertainment and intrigue.

Your senses are continually bombarded along the walk. The sound of the ocean, the colours and smells of the flowers, and the noise of the visiting north American students! I came across this scooter that had obviously been laid to rest and which had the appearance of looking out to sea. It was one of those moments when God and the creativity of humankind melded into one.

Again, this rest-stop gave me the chance to indulge myself in two of my favourite things: a good read and a good red. Perfect!

That said, there's only so much sitting around you can do when you've got the finest motorbike yet to be made. And with that in mind, we set about adjusting suspension, checking tyres, and a route to the hills outside La Spezia.

We'd ride together for a while and then Gibbers would peel off and head home leaving me to be on my way. By now I was quite adept at getting my life and belongings together for the road.

After a couple of hours, I was left to my own devices again and decided that I'd head to Pisa to see if this tower was all that. On the way and in the middle of nowhere, I came across the entrance to some place that had motorbikes built into all the fences. They seemed to be old norton replicas and there must've been 100 of them if there was one. I rode in to see if I could get some answers, but the place was derelict. Was this another bike cemetery and if it was, they're much cooler places than the human ones, for I learned that you're put in a drawer in a field in what seemed to be a giant filing cabinets!!

So Pisa. Horrible. The town was a pit, and was crawling with all kinds of people hawking tat to the gullible tourists. It was all I could do to stay for 5 mins which enabled me to get an energy bar in and a litre of water. There's only so long you can watch imbeciles mimic the righting of the tower for their posterity's sake. They may as well have been doing it for my posterior's sake because I was crapping myself with laughter at them.

Notice the guy on the left. He was one of the 3 million posing ridiculously!

With relief I took off and headed to the Tuscan town of Sarteano. Again, sumptuous roads, great scenery, warmer temps, and the occasional train that never seemed to come...

 

[sijohnston]

I arrived at my apartment in Sarteano which is a quaint old fortified town with a castle and surrounded by vineyards. The streets are typically Italian and judging by the echoing conversations, host fiery Italian families and are channels for all kinds of wonderful Italian cooking at around 1pm each day. One of the frustrating things about Italy, particularly when you need fuel, is that the siesta's last for an unreasonably long time. There was one occasion when I had 5 miles left in the reserve and tried to fuel in about 10 stations, but none were open and I didn't have a card that any of the machines would accept. I had to sit in the heat for 30 mins until they decided that sleep should give way to commerce. I think all of this is entirely good, it's just a rhythm of life I'm not used to and it's damn inconvenient when you want to be on the road and everyone's sleeping in the middle of the day. Anyway, cobbled streets, a lively square with a fantastic cafe/bar, cabanieri that give you parking tickets you don't need to pay for, and very few tourists, is Sarteano. Nearby and out in the sticks is Bagno Vitori which are 3 natural thermal pools at an incredibly high temperature. Legend would have it that they were the panacea for all kinds of stomach ailments back in the day. Clearly their use had now spread to providing a kind of aquatic viagra as there were several copulating italian couples when I rode out at 11pm.
Sienna, and plenty of other beautiful Italian villages/towns are all very close and a short ride out each day will bring you to somewhere different.

If taking a break from riding is more important, Sarteano's reasonably posh campsite is 10 euros a day to use and has 3 great pools at your disposal.

Of course, since you're in the hub of Italy's major wine producing region, it'd be rude not to visit the vineyards on the doorstep. Only the ride home should be a cause for concern

I was tempted to head from there down to Rome, but the thought of queuing for hours in that heat and carrying my helmet etc, made me think that an easyjet city break might be a better way of covering the major cities. After 3 days of hanging out in Sarteano and the locale, it was time to head to Slovenia, which by all accounts was the highlight of the trip, for reasons to come...

 

[davidgibson999]

Keep it coming - enjoying it!
No more libelous comments about me and cacti!

 

[GS TRV]

re. petrol machines they rarely take cards but will always accept cash. Just top up the credit on the machine to required level and then select pump you want to fill from. Bit late now though

 

[Ogmios]

good report more please

 

[sijohnston]

re. petrol machines they rarely take cards but will always accept cash. Just top up the credit on the machine to required level and then select pump you want to fill from. Bit late now though

Yeah Trev, the only problem being I had no cash either at this point. So the only option was to sit out the i-talian lethargy, but it was ok because i got into a good chat with a local harley chapter.

more coming when i get a moment.

 

[davidgibson999]

Yeah Trev, the only problem being I had no cash either at this point. So the only option was to sit out the i-talian lethargy, but it was ok because i got into a good chat with a local harley chapter.

more coming when i get a moment.

you never have any cash here in ireland either especially when it's a pub which doesn't accept cards

 

[ricardo]

Quality report. Did Timmeljoch and Stelvio last year, luckily in the dry. Being a lazy sod though I can never be arsed to take photos. Keep the photos coming.

 

[sijohnston]

So Slovenia, what a wonderful place! Getting there was pretty awful. For the first time on the trip so far, I consistently sat on the tolls. With the intense heat and volume of traffic, Italy isn't actually fun in the slightest, unless you're in the more hilly regions. Autostradas were devised in hell and are redeemed by the fact that not too far from them are the roads of purgatory. Of course, purgatory is the place that takes you to the heavenly roads of Slovenia...because they were indeed good for the soul. Once I got over the border beyond Trieste, it was back to form. A word of advice for any travelers to Europe...go straight to Slovenia; do not pass go, and don't bother your ass collecting £200, it'll take too much time. Make sure you enter the 'avoidances' category on your Zumo and take out the toll roads and highways, because a) the money you needed to invest in a vignette can now be used to pay for the extra tank of juice you'll need for the slightly longer twisties and b) you'll soon discover that the Slovenians wisely built their roads with bikers in mind first and foremost. In fact, I've a theory about the Balkans having been there several times: The Balkans (or former Yugoslavia for any Slovenes reading!!!) are like a microcosm of Europe for the following reasons:
1. The Slovenians are like the Swiss. They're too good for everyone and they know it
2. The Croats are like the Germans. They're prone to violence occasionally but they think they're over it. However, every once in a while there's a little skiff somewhere and the watching world goes 'hey, what's happening there? Wait, it's ok, it's all fine'.
3. The Serbs are like the English. They used to rule everywhere and now they don't and they aren't quite sure what happened and how they let it happen.
4. The Macedonians are like the Irish. They sit around drinking every day, never do any work and everyone loves them.
5. The Montenegrins are like the Sicilian Italians. They're all basically mafia.
6. The Bosnians are like the Albanians. They just get a raw deal from everyone and mostly their neighbours.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the roads. Did I say they were good yet? When you decide that the motorways are for philistines, you soon discover that you can move between the larger towns pretty quickly on the side roads. They never depart too far from the main roads because quite often you're riding along beside them, or under them, and you see lines of cars and there's not a one on your tarmac. Slovenia is well mapped on the latest Mapsource software, so you'll be good most of the time. However, occasionally you'll be thrown a googley. On a couple of occasions GPS Julie would tell me that I should turn left in 300 metres, 200, 100...and so I'd be looking for a road of some description only to find a continuation of a hedgerow that had been going for the last 3 miles. So on backing up and retracing my steps, sure enough, there were a few branches broken leading to a windy trail and an entrance large enough for a midget on a space hopper. But, remembering you're on the BMW's 'unstoppable' bike, you just get in there. After 15 mins of following the trail you think, 'what paradise will this dump me out in?'. I didn't find out, because I was obstructed by a railway line. It was great fun getting there, but a little frustrating that I had to find my way back out. The Unstoppable was stopped.

Grrr, I wish I could get a run at finishing this report. Too many interruptions. Sorry.

 

[paul nicholls]

slovenia

fantastic, im glad i read your report, a mate of mine has just moved over to slovenia and im off to visit him in sept, hes raved about the place for ages,so much so that hes packed it all in here, bought a farm and buggered off.eventually hes going to develop some accom. on the land and ill give details on this site when hes up and running.
just out of interest what is the weather generally like in sept over there?

 

[sijohnston]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for checking in. Yes, I would be tempted to do likewise. With 70% of the country being mountainous with several ranges, rivers, lakes, and even some coast, it's got it all. The capital is wonderful and everyone speaks good english as their education system is so much superior to ours. Property is escalating daily, but still represents a good investment. Croatia is over done and not quite as stylish or European in feel. Slovenia is a no-brainer and I envy your mate's decision. I'm led to believe the weather tends to be great there. It should be at least 25 each day and maybe a good bit warmer. Let me know how you get on...and make sure to spend a good bit of time on the southern slovenian roads. If you've time, head to Krk in Croatia which is only a few hours of a ride and is a beautiful little Croatian island now linked by bridge.