The Last Day

It's the very last day. Boo! And yet - hurray!! We pootled along lots of D roads until we got close to Le Tunnel, then switched the motorways back on. 

It was a great ride, mostly empty roads, lots of long straights but some very twisty bits over the odd hillock or two. It's surprising how high the land is around the coast, the wind was absolutely incredible, really hard to maintain a straight line sometimes, and a bit dodgy on descending bends.

Today's Big Thought...

We came through the Somme, and especially a little town called Albert. In fact we went right through the middle, past the Somme Museum dedicated to the 14-18 war. We passed many war graves, row upon row of white crosses - everyone knows about those. Seeing them is quite different though, triggering in me a very visceral response. It made me reflect a lot on the past and how Europe tore itself apart twice over the last century, and how much effort has gone into making that less likely. I hope we can remember those times and continue to learn from them as our wonderful leaders negotiate our exit from the most successful international cooperative in history.

And we'll be in Blighty an hour earlier than planned! I hope the Spitfire escort

Is ready!

Strange Decorations - #2

The hotel Le Florence is pretty interesting, seemingly a large complex of buildings near the town centre. Our room is seriously massive, and in one of a number of blocks of rooms that all seem to be pretty old, linked and separated by some complex courtyards. It's pretty cool.

View from the bedroom window.

The courtyard the bikes are parked in. The place seems to be in the middle of a never ending refurb, including this intriguing doorway to nowhere...

The dining room is huge and empty - apparently breakfast is available 4-12.00! Which is the longest breakfast interval I've ever encountered.

It's also deserted when we arrive, which given the huge window of valid arrival times, is probably due to the same factors that may explain why we haven't already met intelligent life, we miss each other's existence slots!

But it does leave me free to examine today's Hotel USP - The Easter Decorations. Very sweet. And we have mini eggs at our places!

Diner pour les Touristes!

The last night - let's explore S-Q and find something to eat. All the places we Googled were either closed (Le Panda Qui Fume - a microbrewery and this very interesting) or not quite what we were looking for. As a pit stop, we had a cheeky Leffe in the dodgiest bar so far - its level of dodgieness is evidenced by the local who, having completed his time, proves unable to find his way out.

And onto the main square where we select a brasserie based on a) the food choices b) the lack of crappy thumping music leaking out.

The square isn't as deserted as this makes it look, I just liked the circus tent thing in the foreground.

The food is ok, it turns out to be a chain that regards its customers as a revenue stream rather than friends to be cherished, but they do serve big beers. Which may be a Bad Thing for some - Jim witnessed a fight across the square, with "the winner" kicking multiple bells out of "the loser" (status determined by which one was on the floor).

It's quite a picturesque place in the evening sun.

The Longest Day... Probably

Another cross country day today, pretty ambitious - 240+ miles, and nearly 8 hours. Glad to be here in Saint-Quentin, nice big room, big beds!

We just rolled along today, D roads, occasional bit of N road, but mostly small villages and empty two lane roads. So easy going!!

Lunch was a supermarket job, enjoyed at the roadside. It was sunny but cold, 10 deg at one point, so I put the woolly hat on to get a start. And then I put the jacket liner back in, and was properly comfortable!!

There's always so much to see, and ponder on, it's impossible to recall much in particular. Nice windy road near Strasbourg, vast vistas in the middle of France, quite a few tractors chugging away, and almost all the villages looking deserted. After eight hours, it's all a bit of a blur! And it didn't rain...

So, restaurant tonight, last one :). Looking forward to being home, feels like a long time since we were there last. And I can't believe we've actually been to Greece! That's amazing!

What Do You Do On A Monday In Hoerdt?

Looking relaxed in Hoerdt - nice BnB, or Chambre d'Hote, he is a sysadmin at the local psych hospital, spent lots on refurbishing the old outbuildings, now runs a two room show, with a very nice sitting and dining room on the ground floor.

After dinner (cordon bleu chicken, salad, strawbs and cream for pud), we walked into town. It was completely deserted at 10pm, none of the restaurants looked like they'd been open, so we were glad we'd had the CdH dinner to arrive to.

And there's always one isn't there??

Bowling Through Bavaria

My initial plan was to take the GPS fastest route, which involved maybe 3.5 hours of motorway. However, when we took the no motorways option, it was only 5.5 and looked much more interesting. What a good plan!! You see that the route pretty much drills across Bavaria and then past the Vosges.

And what a lovely day for a ride - sunny, clear, fresh, possibly a bit too windy sometimes but hey, we'll take that over rain anytime!

The first bit was over the rolling lowlands of Bavaria, great bends, little traffic and easily passed if a slow truck or whatever. Villages every 5km or so, so be careful with the limits, people live here you know!

We did have a hard time finding lunch, every place that Jim's magic box turned up was shut. So we pulled into a Lidl, selected some choice comestibles (in truth, Parma ham, salami, Gorgonzola and a baguette), and stopped at a roadside spot. By now, we were in the Schwartzwald, rolling bends, and steep wooded hills.

You can just make out Jim down by the stream...

Looking back up the stream, the sound was a wonderful accompaniment to lunch.

And then to cap it all, we turned onto the B500, rated one of the top 10 biking roads on the world... Wow. We didn't do all of it, but it's pretty amazing, up, down and lots of sideways. What a fluke!

And now we're in Hoerdt, just across the border in France, having passed the guys in khaki with the SLRs and other security type chaps. It's a BnB, beautifully done, and they're doing dinner... More news to come. After we've finished petting the beagle, anyway.

Strange Decorations

#1 in an occasional series

Now, assume you're the owner of a stube in Bavaria, with an attached hotel. What do you do to give your place a unique feature?

Hang a vendor's cart from the ceiling, of course. 

Didn't really hold us back though...

Three Meals, Three Countries

Two maps today - it seems the phone app doesn't like me taking too many pictures whilst tracking, it stops and needs to be restarted. Just stick the lower map on the top bit of the upper one, correct the scale mentally, and job's a good 'un. 

Today started in the Italian Tyrol, lovely weather and great views.

Here's the view from the first stop, when the phone cut out. 

Another shot in that direction, across the road.

We didn't have too far to go today, maybe 150 miles, so it was good just rolling along. The road is pretty much a two laner the whole way, with loads of bends and hazards, so overtaking can be tricky anyway, so we didn't do very much. Why bother, when you only end up on the back of the next queue, 400 yards up the road?!

We eventually stopped for lunch, very late, at a nifty roadside stuber. It was pretty busy, location and Sunday I guess. 

The ceiling was interesting, made out of cunningly assembled pine. There were some pictures of a 1992 bobsled team and a wall full of prize cups, I'm not sure these were actually related.

I'm afraid there's no picture of lunch, we were very hungry and scoffed the Greek salads and bread before I had time to take one. Here's the evidence...

So, breakfast in Italy, lunch in Austria, and hopefully dinner in Germany, where we are currently relaxing, showering and considering the beer options.

Morning Glory in the Tyrol

This looks better from the hotel balcony! I just didn't want to miss it, so took a shot while doing some taiji outside on the grass.

A lovely morning, fresh, sunny. Great hotel, well patronised and busy last night. That's probably due to the continuous stream of 70s music played loudly in the bar... Which is fun, for a bit.

A couple of beers last night before dinner.

The bikes all snugged up in the garage with the other guests' hardware.

A classic Tyrolean gaff, with added rumble. It was really busy last night, the waiter was doing an incredible job juggling all the food, drink and even working on two floors! The boss seemed to be going him a hard time at one point, didn't really seem fair.

The party continues... It was pretty quiet in our room, the place is built like a bunker.

Up For Real

Today we headed across the flat, salt marshy bit north of Ravenna - looks pretty interesting for wildlife, but stopping wasn't really on the agenda. Roads were straight with reasonable traffic but somehow not boring in the cool air and bright sun.

We headed inland past Venice, across lots of plains growing veg and so on. Lunch was around Bassano del Grappa, at a roadside cafe with a couple of bikes parked up. It's Saturday of course, so there a lot more bikers around, all properly togged up and presumably with somewhere to go, at least before their mums expect them home for dinner.

We have a conversation with the Harley Fat Boy owner (well named, saves thinking of two names that mean basically the same thing), he's impressed with the ride to Greece and back thing, and passionately clenches our hands in the Secret Biker Grip (c. jDG 2017) as we prepare to leave.

A group of people, locals, arrive as we do, and immediately engage in heated banter which is fun to watch. They've stopped when I took the photo, man obviously contemplating post-pasta suicide at this point. 

Meal's good, meaty pasta, salad, bread, water, all food. Excellent value, and a very sweet lady keen to serve us what she had left.

There were various nice looking bottles of wine on the walls, but the camouflage brand caught my eye... Good for duck hunters enjoying a picnic I suppose.

And now we've really gone up - after lunch the Alps showed up, and the road twists and turns along the valley near Trento, with steep cliffs and hills looming either side. The road still rises, with tunnels to help keep it gradually ascending. At the last fuel stop Jim accidentally selects the diesel pump for his €10 shot - bummer, unattended, no "oi, I want my money back" button, so presumably someone gets a present! Another €10 required.

And we here in Laives, at the Steinmannwald, nice spot, good looking resto where we pre-booked dinner, and even a very nice garage for the bikes, beside the owner's twin Harleys.

A Great Day For Up!

A Rave in Ravenna

Tempting as the hotel menu was, it seemed churlish to miss the sights of ancient Ravenna. After all, it's not like we'll be back soon, and frankly, I was getting hotel cabin fever after yesterday's disaster and a lengthy ride with a cold!

So here's a church. It happens to be the Basilica Di San Francesco, right beside the tomb of Dante. Cool. 

We took a taxi to in centro del citta, and then walked for a bit. There were a few people out and about, some good-looking buildings in that great Italian style. The town hall is a bit of a mid-20th C box, but it is red, which is at least different. 

Of course, I'd forgotten the dratted map the nice lady at reception had given us, but we'd asked about restos, and the name Alexander had stuck in my mind. A quick Google and it was 300 yards from where we'd walked to - marv. 

Looks interesting... It's a converted cinema, which explains the architecture and detailing.

Jim coquettishly sampling the home made bread sticks and sourdough.

And the decor is pretty far out in a good kind of way...

But the food and wine were great, we decided this is our fine dining meal of the trip, so more food pictures. Local wine, scallop, mackerel starters, brilliant buckwheat spaghetti with sardines, and cod, skate for mains. And pud. Hic! 

Starters.

And I got the hotel room window open, so it's cooled down enough to sleep - air conditioning, but I can't work it!!

The Crow Flies - Where?

Today was going to be an easy pootle up the coast road, SS16, maybe 180 miles. However, it was incredibly slow going - lots of traffic, traffic lights and random old gits in Fiat Pandas, backing into the road or driving into it then not actually speeding up. My satnav suggested a route some 35 minutes faster, which was interesting because we were already on a 17.00 finish with no stops or delays. So we thought we might try it. In fact we stopped for lunch at a services just after the critical turn to Foligno - it had taken more than 3 hours to go 60 miles!! 

So onto the highway, no tolls - interesting !! Basically, we were heading inland, through the mountains, and ended up on SS77var, which is a brand new road that is pretty much nothing but a sectional tunnel with short stretches of open road between the sections. For miles!! Popping out into the sun, we could see the old wiggly SS77 - maybe next time we'll plan better and take that! Beautiful hills and mountains, and we burst through into classic Umbria. The unexpected bonus was passing Assisti, with the Basilica distinctively extending from the hilltop. 

So we made it in 7 hours, maybe 250 miles. Ridiculous! And my head is still buzzing despite earplugs. Was it quicker? Who knows, but at least we were moving along.

Now to decide if it's hotel resto or town resto - last night's hotel meal was pretty average, so some debate to be had here.

We're in the Grand Hotel Mattei, which is lovely but a bit soulless, as wel as having rooms which are too far off the ground for Jim's taste.

Sunny side - Up

Well, that's a good start!

Ups and Downs

One of the things about touring is the emotional, as well as physical, Ups and Downs.

We left Patra last night, the boat pulled out about 18.00, and stopped at Igoumenitsa on the way to pick up more lorries. That happened about midnight, and woke me up, so I took a picture...

We sailed? chugged? rumbled - what does a diesel boat do? - into Bari on time, about 9.30 Italian time. We just got an hour back in the switch...

A beautiful clear day, with a great view of Bari which these pictures don't really do justice. An Up, I'd say.

The bikes were on the entry deck, two floors below, so there was a bit of shuffling to get the gear there safely. The boat has escalators!! Madness.

Jim waiting somewhat disconsolately for the crew to let us into the car deck. It was packed with lorries, some reversing out, so it was a bit hairy getting organised. After that it was an easy get off the boat, then a lap of the exit roads while we work out where we're going.

Rather than stick to motorways and tolls, we select the "no motorways, no tolls" route. This is a good plan - eventually we make it to the Adriatic Highway SS16, and although there are lorries and things, it's not too crowded and gives us a great rolling view. It's also pretty straight, but hey, you can't have everything. A good temperature and cool air, lovely - Up.

This place, Bari and on is poor, an has gone seriously broke. Roads are very holey, lots of closed shops, warehouses and so on, and... Lots of sad looking young ladies sitting on chairs beside the highway selling their bodies. Usually alone, they have a chair, some water, cigarettes and are often in the phone - it's a lonely job. And in case there's a suspicion of cultural confusion on our part, they were wiggling their asses and showing lots of leg above the thigh high boots below the micro skirts. lots to think about, and a Down.

But the good thing about normal roads is normal places, and lunch was at La Fantine. Seafood risotto for Jim and a plate of assorted grilled fish for me. With excellent crusty bread and salad, this was marvellous. Definitely an Up.

Then there were a few ups and downs and bends along the coast, which were pretty nice. We had a great view of the Adriatic on our right, switching places with the railway and autostrada all the way.

The atmosphere of many of these seaside towns is a bit like Morecambe - closed up, shut down, nobody here. A bit boggy and sad! Then it started to rain, just as we pulled away from a long road works hold up - big splashy drops, wet in moments! Down...

And so it stayed through rush hour Pescara - solid slow traffic. But the emotional sun comes out - the hotel came along, it has parking, and room is enormous and the beds marvellous! 

Beer time. Up.