Scotland to Sicily via Croatia

[Gino Rondelli]

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

Ace cafe

Manx Norton, cool!

Waiting for the eurotunnel First night in France, post breakdown!

Chilly at the top of this pass

Superb motorcycling

Another pass another photo

Nice

You get the picture, it was cold but nice

Monument to the Alpini

Bassano del grappa, wobbly bridge

Fi & Sara

Grappa museum

One for the road!

Fi enjoying a beer on the beach in Croatia

Panoramic entering Dubrovnik

The Old town

George is even famous here

This guy had a unique way of removing ear wax

The old harbour

The town from the top of the city walls

 

 

 

[Gino Rondelli]

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.

Dubrovnik Port awaiting the ferry

Bari, 8am Saturday

Roberto, our Bari lawyer guide

Mount Etna from our digs, not too shabby

Panoramic from the restaurant

Nice by night

And nice by day

Even the bikes had a view

For you Montalbano fans, the famous balcony!

Sunset, drink, food, perfect

Ragusa, a well know church shown often in the series

Pretty trees

More Churches

The ancient portal to the City (not Fiona)

Blah blah

Enjoying a drink on that balcony

A Fisherman returns home in the sunset

Meanwhile the locals dance in the street

Heading over the hills

Pretty dry here as you might imagine

[Gino Rondelli]

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

Palermo

Where are we?

Rubbish everywhere

A wedding car, seems to be the fashion

Nice though

More stuff

One of the gates into the old city

waiting for a ferry

Lets take a selfie

Steva's drive, not for the faint hearted

Old Guzzi's in the garden

Not so old Guzzi's in the garden

Steva and one of the other visitors on Friday night

Good food, good crack

Hear no evil, see no evil , speak no evil

King of the castle

Getting messy

I liked this shot

Steva in full flight

And the girls in full dance

My Bulgarian helpers

The view from Bruno's house, not too shabby

Guzzi looking into the village

[Gino Rondelli]

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!
 

Another day another service station

Dijon, another church

Nice square

Another photo to add to my exotic telephone exchanges collection

Very old methinks

We eat in a café that used to be a printers, so for all you printers out there an old Heidelberg

Don't know why?

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.
 

Unloading the bike while I relax in the tent

Dinner Al Fresco

Clear sky it was going to be cold

Colder

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.
 

What do you mean we're lost again?

Just hanging around

Watching stuff

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!

Waiting for another crap DFDS experience

[Gino Rondelli]

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! 

[Orson]

Excellent! 

 

Thanks for the pictures and text!

[czakky]

Excellent write up. Glad y'all and the bikes made it in mostly one piece.

[Scud]

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.

[docc]

Delightful,    Gino! Thank you!!

[guzzler]

A bloody good read!

Thanks for posting it mate, it's always good to hear  peoples V11 travel tales.

Cheers Guzzler.

[Bill Hagan]

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!   

 

Anyway, great stuff, pix and story line.  

 

Bill

 

P.S. You clearly "married up." 

 

[Gino Rondelli]

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 

 

Gino

[Admin Jaap]

Thanks for sharing! Great stuff.