Jump to content

Scotland to Sicily via Croatia


Gino Rondelli

Recommended Posts

We left home Thursday 23rd June, referendum day after Fiona finished work and blasted down to Durham our culinary needs refreshed by what I though was a bizarrely placed Indian restaurant at a service station on the A1. No dramas and up the following morning to find out collectively we had voted to come out of Europe, this may make for an interesting (and slightly more expensive) trip I thought.
We followed the A1, busy as hell and then when we just got into London it pissed down, torrential rain! as always it stopped as we got the waterproofs on so we were now a pair of boil in the bag rice really. We struggled to find the Ace cafe but after several detours and asking directions we finally got there. First impressions were that it was great to be at this motorcycling mecca but after eating the food served mainly by non uk staff I was left feeling underwhelmed , another box ticked though. We left at 5pm to be led right through the centre of London City by Mr Garmin (GPS) what a fantastic experience, 15 miles took 2 hours, I saw places in London I'd previously only seen on a monopoly board or on the TV, the cyclists, scooter riders, despatch riders, taxis and others tried their best but despite 2 close shaves we survived. I was glad to get to our digs in Maidstone for the night.
Saturday the channel tunnel, a new experience for me and not a bad one i have to say. A blast along Northern France to about 50 miles short of Verdun saw us stopping for the night and having some issues with the Guzzi but thankfully fixed reasonably quickly. Sunday a long ride through to the south of Zurich, still pissed at the Swiss ripping us off, we paid 80 Euro for our vignettes to allow us to use their motorways, we should start reciprocal charging these jokers. A basic hotel room for luxury prices didn't help.
Monday a fantastic blast across at least 5 passes, from ice covered lakes to 30 degree heat, fantastic day which ended near Garda to meet up with Hacko and Lorraine, the evening as expected ended in a bit of a drunken mess and Ian showed us his breakdancing skills or at least thats what I thought he was doing as he rolled around on the ground.
We parted on Tuesday and headed to Bassano del Grappa to meet Dan and Sara, now on year 4 of their Round the World trip (www.worldwideride.ca) A nice evening relaxing in this old town catching up with travel stories.
Wednesday we set off through Venice, Slovenia (luckily we avoided paying the toll for their very short motorway system) and through Croatia to just north of Split, a small town where we got an apartment near the beach for £30, superb, food and beer was also cheap.
Thursday we arrived in a very sunny and hot Dubrovnik, 2000 miles since we left home, its nice here but tourist hell, this is Friday as I write this and we've just returned from the old town, super pretty but my god busy busy busy. Tonight we get the ferry to Bari in Southern Italy to begin week 2 of our adventure, some pics to keep you amused; Apologies to Mr & Mrs H for not putting a caption on but this got screwed up and my patience with poor wifi is wearing this , you'll recognise him, he's wearing a KTM and a beer

a1.JPG
Ace cafe

a2.JPG
Manx Norton, cool!
a3.JPG
Waiting for the eurotunnel
a4.JPG
First night in France, post breakdown!
a5.JPG
Chilly at the top of this pass
a6.JPG
Superb motorcycling
a7.JPG
Another pass another photo
a8.JPG
Nice
a9.JPG
You get the picture, it was cold but nice

a10.JPG
 
a11.JPG
a12.JPG
Monument to the Alpini
a13.JPG
Bassano del grappa, wobbly bridge
a14.JPG
Fi & Sara
a15.JPG
Grappa museum 
a16.JPG
One for the road!
a17.JPG
Fi enjoying a beer on the beach in Croatia
a18.JPG
Panoramic entering Dubrovnik
a19.JPG
The Old town
a20.JPG
George is even famous here
a21.JPG
This guy had a unique way of removing ear wax
a22.JPG
The old harbour
a23.JPG
The town from the top of the city walls
 
 
 
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We left Dubrovnik and Croatia on Friday night. The very efficient ferry (take note DFDS!!) deposited us in Bari, Southern Italy on Saturday morning. We had a few missed turns out of Bari, very stressful as I'm sure mot of the people have comedy driving licences although its not funny! We latched on the a GS1200 rider who was heading part of the way and said we should tag along, we did and it worked out well, turns out our temporary guide was Roberto, a lawyer from Bari, plenty business there I suspect!
After about 100 miles we parted company and Fiona and I ran along the foot of Italy from East to West before getting the ferry to Sicily, it all seemed chaotic but they sure turned the boats around quickly for the 25 minute trip to the island. We stayed in Taormina, a very hilly town in the shadow of Mount Etna. We had an outstanding view from our hotel which made the challenging ride up the narrow streets worthwhile.
Sunday we rode past Catania which looked incredibly busy then took the small and less crazy roads to Punta Secca, the biggest issue down here is the road surface is very slippy so its with much trepidation that you tip into bends, the locals though have God to protect them obviously so drive and ride in such a way that beggars belief. A couple of days in Punta Secca in Inspector Montalbano's house was a superb way to relax but a short trip to Ragusa to see more Montalbano set's (Italian detective series)  kept our blood levels high. I haven't mentioned the heat, it varies between a cool 30 and a hot 40, excellent ! We've just arrived in Palermo following a nice ride part of the way across the sun baked centre of the Island, photos as always to give you a flavour and to save me writing more nonsense.

a1.jpg
Dubrovnik Port awaiting the ferry
a2.jpg
Bari, 8am Saturday
a3.jpg
Roberto, our Bari lawyer guide
a4.JPG
Mount Etna from our digs, not too shabby
a5.jpg
Panoramic from the restaurant
a6.jpg
Nice by night
a7.jpg
And nice by day
a8.jpg
Even the bikes had a view
a9.jpg
For you Montalbano fans, the famous balcony!
a10.JPG
Sunset, drink, food, perfect
a11.JPG
Ragusa, a well know church shown often in the series
a12.JPG
Pretty trees
a13.JPG
More Churches
a14.JPG
The ancient portal to the City (not Fiona)
a15.JPG
Blah blah
a16.JPG
Enjoying a drink on that balcony
a17.JPG
A Fisherman returns home in the sunset
a18.JPG
Meanwhile the locals dance in the street
a19.JPG
Heading over the hills
a20.JPG
Pretty dry here as you might imagine
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We stayed in Palermo two days and did a lot of walking exploring the old town, there are some amazing bits of Architecture and history but I’m afraid its a bit dirty and down at heel, the heat makes some of the city’s less appealing smells more pungent. From a tourist and outsiders point of view there needs to be some education or cash put into the rubbish and graffiti problem but i suppose if you’re constantly paying the mob its difficult.
We left our digs for the ferry at 6pm with a hint of trepidation having watched the trffic insanity for two days, the ferry terminal less than a mile away, to say we got the run around was an understatement, i was beginning to think we were back in the Central American republics, when we eventually got to the ticket office to collect our boarding cards, the very fat, rude surly guy was as helpful as a dose of diarrhoea when there’s no toilet and your wearing a white suit! He started shouting at me then calmed down when I gave him a round of the guns with my best Italian abuse and actions. The Ferry queueing seemed and was chaotic but at the end of the day we were boarded with no drama and left the guys to tie the bikes down, we met some fellow UK travellers so that was good to realise Mr Fat smelly guy was universally rude.
The Ferry was huge, clean and much better than the crap we have to put up with going to Europe, it was good to find out we arrived in Genoa at 5pm and not the 9pm i thought it was. Genoa at 5pm is a stressful place to ride a motorcycle, not good at all. We arrived in Calice Liguria around 6.30 and called our host for the next two days Steva who we met at the Elefant Rally and runs a bikers B&B. He met us in the square and warned us the road to his place was a bit steep and had gravel, no kidding batman, I’ve ridden easier trials sections, but the V11 and Kawa made it with only a couple of dabs ! Martin and Sue form the UK (also Guzzi folk) were already there so we spent the next two days partying including a night in Finale Liguria watching Steva’s band and getting seriously pissed!
Saturday Martin a Sue left early to get a tyre fitted and we had a tour of the old town with Steva. When I returned to my bike there was a load of oil under it, It seemed to be coming from the breather but  couldn’t see properly, we pushed on for about 50 miles and pulled into a service station to check, it was pissing oil everywhere, further checks revealed the main engine breather had split. I took the tank off but didn’t have a long enough screwdriver to get the clamp off. An Austrian guy in a car offered tools and encouragement but had to go, meanwhile two Bulgarian truck drivers on their stop came over and got stuck in, I couldn’t get near the bike and half an hour later we had nipped the bad bit off the perished hose and got it together again. Bizarrely a Chinese guy who spoke no Italian or English appeared having ridden his GS12 from China with his young son on the back.     

We set off to my old village I lived in when i was a bambino, stayed with my cousin Bruno in his B&B for a couple of days eating, catching up with the locals, drinking and chilling. We did get a bite freaked out I admit when we encountered the snorting wild Boar on the way walking to Bruno's house with only the phone to see the way, no harm done , I think it was more scared than we were!  Today we set off and rode the route Napoleon which is outstanding normally but for now there’s mega roadworks so after a long day we quit just an hour short of Grenoble, Every time i stop i’m nervously checking the breather as it’s a very temporary repair. The plan is to make progress every day and hope it hangs out
a1.JPG
Palermo
a2.JPG
Where are we?
a3.JPG
Rubbish everywhere
a4.JPG
A wedding car, seems to be the fashion
a5.JPG
Nice though
a6.JPG
More stuff
a7.JPG
One of the gates into the old city
a8.JPG
waiting for a ferry
a9.JPG
Lets take a selfie
a10.JPG
Steva's drive, not for the faint hearted
a11.JPG
Old Guzzi's in the garden
a12.JPG
Not so old Guzzi's in the garden
a13.JPG
Steva and one of the other visitors on Friday night
a14.JPG
Good food, good crack
a15.JPG
Hear no evil, see no evil , speak no evil
a16.JPG
King of the castle
a17.JPG
Getting messy
a18.JPG
I liked this shot
a19.JPG
Steva in full flight
a20.JPG
And the girls in full dance
a21.JPG
My Bulgarian helpers
a22.JPG
The view from Bruno's house, not too shabby
a23.JPG
Guzzi looking into the village
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So as I said previously the plan was to make steady progress home, the problem with that is as soon as you leave the South of France it gets colder, I don't like cold!
We also to begin with decided to stay in bigger cities in case my Guzzi needed to go to the Doctors. The temporary repair was holding up well and we made it to Dijon, nice municipal campsite near the town centre (walking distance in fact) The old town is nice but really just a collection of shops selling crap you don't need on a motorbike or in a tent. A meal in a city centre café was a bit more expensive than the Italian / Croatian side the petrol as well was as much as 1.56 Euro on the highways. We had a beer stop at a café obviously used by the locals, fun pub full of mainly men and all seemed half pissed, a collection of characters, no different from a Scottish pub really apart from the better suntans and they were speaking French!
 

a1.JPG
Another day another service station
a2.JPG
Dijon, another church
a3.JPG
Nice square
a4.JPG
Another photo to add to my exotic telephone exchanges collection
a5.JPG
Very old methinks
a6.JPG
We eat in a café that used to be a printers, so for all you printers out there an old Heidelberg
a7.JPG
Don't know why?
a8.JPG
No campfire just TUC biscuits and whisky in a tin cup

There was a weather front moving in so we played it safe and had an early night. The following day was cloudy, very cloudy, we headed up the road and then the rain started, some of the heaviest rain I've ridden in, we were down to 40mph terrified we'd get shunted as visibility was almost nil. At one point the Gendarmerie were behind us with their blue lights flashing, they followed us for miles but I wasn't stopping in that weather, they eventually passed us which is when I realised they weren't tailing us but escorting a military truck, the shame, overtaken by a wide load. We stopped to get our bearings, my Interphone F5 which we use to speak to each other on the move was doing strange things and turned out to be completely beyond repair due to the rain, bugger, more stress then as we set off my oil light came on, remember I had a split breather pipe earlier in the trip, I thought "bugger that'll be the engine knackered then!" but a stop and check it seemed to be circulating oil and the level was ok so I did what any Guzzi rider would do, I pulled the wire of the switch as I was too nervous riding with a big red oil warning in front of me. We stopped that evening in a hotel to take stock and try and fix things. The Interphone was not fixable, the oil switch I only replaced 3 months ago seemed to be faulty but I was at least confident the bike was fine. We taped up Fi's waterproofs which had melted on my exhaust earlier when her hands turned white with the wet and the cold and she was trying to use the heat of the Guzzi cylinder heads to restore feeling. Not the best day we'd had and challenging for many reasons but hey ho, that's life on the road, you can take the odd bad day as long as there's no one hurt and the sun eventually returns.
We pressed on through Luxembourg (Shite drivers) and camped in Belgium for a couple of nights at a nice campsite not far from Namur. The site had a high proportion of residential vans and was obviously an escape for people from Brussels. A day off on the Friday and we were horrified to see the news about the lunatic in Nice the previous night, we've been there often, it's such a nice place and not one you'd expect to be associated with this level of violence.
Saturday we awoke to find out about the Coup in Turkey, we were thinking the world is going mad.
 

a9.JPG
Unloading the bike while I relax in the tent
a10.JPG
Dinner Al Fresco
a11.JPG
Clear sky it was going to be cold
a12.JPG
Colder
a13.JPG
Fi has been in Italy too long, speaking to our neighbour with full hand gestures
 

We headed to a small seaside village near Ijmuiden for the Saturday night, problem was the tunnel is closed and our Dutch is non existent so at one point we were 5 miles away from our destination but after several u turns, much swearing, a couple of laps of the town, a few rides up and down the A22 we finally made it haven done over 20 miles going round in circles, Mr Garmin can be such an arse at times!
Sunday we reluctantly took the DFDS ferry back to the UK, the usual shoddy treatment by DFDS, they are masters at pissing me off, they use cheap Filipino labour (unlike the ferries in Croatia and Italy which appear to be staffed with friendly and helpful locals) and you get the feeling the dour faced European staff don't really want to be there and probably spend their time off having meetings about how to make it more difficult for motorcyclists! I think in future we'll use the Chunnel more. We arrived home after a dry final leg, bikes away, washing machine filled up and a decent cup of tea. 4000 miles, 3 minor (but worrying) mishaps with the Guzzi, the Kawasaki as always never missed a beat although I did adjust the chain once, it also passed the 60,000 milestone so only another 40K before Fi retires it and buys a new one. Fantastic trip, nice people, nice food and I proved to myself you can easily tour on what many think is an impractical touring bike, just got to get my physio sorted and I'll be ready to do it again.
 

a14.JPG
What do you mean we're lost again?
a15.JPG
Just hanging around
a16.JPG
Watching stuff
a17.JPG
BMW Wasp outfit, Germans on tour of Scotland, now with a better route planned, an ignorant cyclist knocked a bit off his handguard as he cycled up his inside to get on the boat, I was too slow to boot him off, never stopped, never saw him on the ferry, I hope he suffers terrible saddle sores!
a18.JPG
Waiting for another crap DFDS experience
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And that my Guzzi friends is it for this trip, it was a blast, enjoyable and surprising just how comfortable a V11 can be on a long trip. It's not great for trail riding but we managed ! My parts (Breather hose and oil switch) arrived today so all that stress for around £20 worth of parts! Kiwi Roy's diagram helped me in my electrical hour of need so thanks for that! This story was taken straight from my Blog so it may read a bit strangely but I sure as hell wasn't re writing it again. 

I hope you enjoy! 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And that my Guzzi friends is it for this trip, it was a blast, enjoyable and surprising just how comfortable a V11 can be on a long trip. 

 

That's an inspiration. Thanks for sharing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks for posting that stupendous travelogue.


Kathi -- who, while a grand pillion and indulgent Guzzista's wife, usually groans when I ask her to watch a thread on a motorcycle forum -- loved it all, too.

We especially appreciated the Bassano and Montalbano locale pix. 

 
We lived in Vicenza for several years “back in the day,” and always visit Bassano on our (too-infrequent) return trips. I was lucky to work with the Alpini while there, and both Bassano and that relationship have me appreciating grappa to this day.  Viva gli alpini!
 
And, we have seen nearly all of the ("old" and "young") episodes.  While I have learned not to mention this to Kathi, I have never gotten over Katharina Böhm’s departure as Livia!  :whistle: 
 
Anyway, great stuff, pix and story line.  
 
Bill
 
P.S. You clearly "married up."  :thumbsup:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the kind comments guys, appreciated and makes it worthwhile.

Bill

My dad did his national service in the Alpini. I bought a nice bottle of Grappa in Bassano but its 52% and a bit like fire water

 

 

 

P.S. You clearly "married up."

 

It's the only way  :grin:

 

Gino

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...