Two Wheels move the Soul

Stelvio - Mighty Impressive but not the Transfaragasan  Glacier at Stelvio Originally our plan was to travel from Austria thru northern Italy do to the “Great Passes”, a motorcycling Mecca if you will. But Venice and friends got in the way of this, and we are glad we let them. So now we are back to ride Passo del Stelvio, and Passo de Bernina. At 2730M Stelvio is a huge pass to take and with it being mid-summer there was more traffic than we would have liked. I have over an hour of video to see what you haven’t seen in person yet. It is staggering, the enormity of it, and yet Transfargarsan holds more appeal if only for the more mysterious location,  tunnels and construction techniques. The good part is that it is hot and sunny, usually people see it in the rain, or worse, snow. One fellow we talked to made 3 attempts before riding it successfully. Weather (rain), rock falls and weather(snow) were his earlier failures. Suffice to say we thoroughly enjoyed going over

“ Eremo di San Colombano”  Mauro told us of a route they take to Rovereto, Passo del Fugazzi, that Betty loves on her Ninja 600 ( their other bikes), so he sent the route to us the next morning before we left Villa Gasparini. I mentioned before about Gasparini ; it is a fantastic place to stay. So we decided to take it. It was very technical with lots of blind corners so I would suggest you ride it a few times before doing light speed on it. One thing I remember was Sandra yelling Whooaa! at a small church “ Eremo di San Colombano” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eremo_di_San_Colombano   built into the cliff ( built out of the cliff), about 3 kms out of Rovereto. What a spectacular site to see and there are inscriptions dating back to 753. And speaking of sights to see; one difference between Europe and Canada is the history that manifests itself in ruins, restored castles, and developed country sides. People have lived here for centuries and developed the countryside. Tier

Betty Mauro Elisa and Massimo Back in early June we had met Max, Elisa, Betty and Mauro in the Sahara desert near Merzouga and had travelled out the next day on my mapping GPS. The stories they told have made us laugh so many times so when we were headed back to Venice we told them and they invited us to come on a " BACCARO"  tour. Originally it was translated to Bacarata tour. BACCARO  Tour It is a night time bar crawl in old Venice for a special fish appetizer called  BACCARO  which is actually cod as we later found out. To wander the streets of Venice at night with hosts that live there and visit along the way with friends and family was very special for us and we will never forget it. We never did see a tourist there during this time. It was all locals and much more romantic. It started by being picked up at our hotel then driven right into a special parking spot in Venice (almost non-existent). then visiting some of their favorite places, stopping by place

Large Disk Brake Lock There is a lot of concern, both real and imagined, about security of your bike while on the road. If you want to sleep at night, and not worry about the bike take some precautions. In fact once organized you can do this all in 5-7 minutes. Time well spent considering waking up or walking out to find your bike or valuables gone! Steering Head Lock to left Helmet Lock attached to mirror The most obvious security rules are to use the locks provided with your motorcycle, in particular the steering head lock. If yours locks in 2 different positions, use the position that locks it hard left. The bike can only be moved in a left circle that way and is more difficult to walk. Use the helmet lock if one is provided.  Helmet Locks The V Strom has a keyed alike helmet lock  on the frame with a stainless cable so 2 helmets can be locked together, but I am not fond of the location, so we use two combination padlocks that lock the helmet D rings to the mirrors. Wh

A quiet Back Canal If you’ve been following you know that we were in Venice in June, but really only to catch the ferry to Greece, and we saw Venice from 100’ above the grand canal. Much less crowded than our experience today. Who really goes to Venice twice in one trip anyway? First we woke up to temp’s in the low 30’s, and since we had driven right into Venice last time we decided we were going to do te same this time. That part worked great, except that by the time we got off the bike we were sweating profusely. Vaporetta's Full - check line up We had our Ipod and phone with us planning to take a leisurely vaporetta Line 1 to St Marks square and listen to the guided tour. Yeah right.  We get to the ticket booth, a line-up like you wouldn’t believe had developed (see picture of Sandra standing near a que, and a ticket agent and customer are screaming at each other, all amplified for everyone to hear.  “Can’t you read?” She questions, and the American cu

Traunsee, Saltzgammergut Some of the finest scenery you will ever find is in Austria. As we crossed the border from CZ back into Austria the roads got better, the scenery which had been beautiful along the Vltava river, with the road winding from Cesky to almost the border got even more spectacular with the terrain changing from treed forest to more open rolling land. Steeples --- Churches and Mountains Nothing compares the the volume of church steeples that are in each town, nestled in a small valley in between the rolling hills. And in the distance we could see the looming Austrian Alps near Gmunden. Gmunden is situated on one of the Salzkammergut - Dachstein lakes which are east of Salzburg and south of Linz. Near Gmunden Day Trip to Salzburg Mozart in Salzburg As we rode the volume of motorcycles increased as we drove south. By the time we arrived in Radstadt we must have seen 150- 200 bikes in a 100 km stretch of Alpine road, and maybe 75 cars and 50

Cesky Krumlov by Night Cesky Krumlov is located in the lower mountain area of SW Czech Republic and the Vltava River, the same river that runs through Prague begins in this area. The regions to the SW against the German and Austrian borders were infamous for Czech citizens trying to escape to the west and being killed by their oppressors during communism.  Pension Anna is Pink It’s ironic because now people from all over flock here for its tranquil beauty. Described as CZ’s answer to Rothenburg de Tauber in Germany we got here around 1:00 pm in the afternoon. There were a lot of walking tourists on the streets at that time and “Pension Alley” spread to the left and right of us as we entered the Old town. That pesky Walking Zone sign that we had been scolded about in Olomouc poked it’s head up in the direction we were supposed to go for 1 B&B and I looked left and there was our 2nd choice Pension Anna. We checked there and they had a room, nice, super clean and big; co

Prague Castle and Charles Bridge After leaving Auschwitz we continued on to the little town of Pribor, Czech Republic.(CZ) around 5:00 pm.  We managed to find a nice hotel here, the Zafir, which was very quiet on weekends, but has lots of business traffic during the week. The place is actually very elegant but it feels funny when you are about the only people staying at such a large place. The next morning Sandra read where this was the birthplace of Sigmund Freud. Wow! We continued on to Olomouc which was to be our destination last night until a large thunderstorm brewing drove us to the safety of Pribor and kept our record intact of 1 hr of rain while riding.  Trinity Column a WHS We arrived about 10:00 am. in Olomouc the next day. That’s like 3:00 am Ladysmith time. Not a creature was stirring except to CZ Policia who took exception to us being in the Town square photoing the bike on a Sunday in front of Trinity column. Seems this area is off limits to vehic