 |
 |
|
|
Well, we're on the road again! After 5 months of being settled in the Alicante, Spain area and having completed three months of three hours a day Spanish language lessons we are now off exploring the areas of Spain and parts of Europe that we have not yet seen.
We cannot publish this picture in a size where you can read the graphics without giving you the opportunity to wait a half hour for it to download. You can see some blue in the lower area of the bag between Antonio and Jim's knees. Also on the upper front fender. There is also a graphic with the site name on the back of the top box that Jim is leaning on that can be read from the rear. Each side of the tank has the words “world tour” printed in a gray color slightly darker than the color of the bike. The glare of the sun on the tank is preventing this from being seen completely. These words run parallel to the diagonal line to the right of the BMW logo on the tank between the logo and the line. The only thing we have scheduled for the next six months is a week in Portugal for the Europrez 6 gathering and a three day motorcycle event in Provence, France being hosted by a German manufacturer of motorcycle accessories named Touratec. We will try to keep the page updated with our activities as frequently as we can. Let the daily trip reports begin! Saturday, April 14, 2001 Top of Page We (finally) got out of Alicante on Saturday, April, 14, 2001. We waited an extra day in hopes of Our first night our proved to be a bit of a pain. It seems that everyone in Spain comes to the Mediterranean beaches for Easter. Not a hotel room to be found on the coast. This really didn't hurt us. It just caused us to alter our trip plan and move a bit inland, which we did, spending Saturday night in Lleida. This is a very nice medium sized town (don't ask what medium sized is) about 100 miles WNW of Barcelona. Lledia is famous for being the snail capital of Spain. They even have a festival the first part of May. By the way, the honorees are the main course at dinner. Sunday, April 15, 2001 Top of PageSunday morning we headed East planning to spend the night in Andorra La Vella, Andorra. Andorra is a very small principality located in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France. Andorra is famous for it's snow skiing facilities and its duty free shopping. Our tour book told us that the town was shut down on Sundays and having encountered this when in Gibraltar we had vowed to time our arrival in Andorra on a day other than Sunday. So much for our plans. As luck would have it, as we arrived we noticed a tremendous number of people on the streets and the shops all open. After a phone call we had found a hotel with a vacancy and we had the bikes parked, off loaded and ourselves changed. With tarjeta de credito in hand we hit the streets. Seems our timing was outstanding. This was Easter weekend and the only day of the year where the stores are open for twelve hours, 9 AM to 9 PM. We thought we heard Betty and Wilma of Flintstone fame screaming, "Charge it!" all over town. Andorra La Vella is quite the place to shop. It should be known, however, that most of our shopping is of the look and see variety. Verna did get a new pair of thermal glove liners though. This town has an amazing variety of goods available. We have never seen so many motorcycle accessory stores in one place. Boots. Leathers. Helmets. Clothing. Name it and claim it. The also have cameras, stereos of an amazing variety and just about any electronic item you little heart could desire. And the people had come to spend. They could not keep their money in their pockets. Monday, April 16, 2001 Top of PageMonday morning found us wandering the streets to locate a few more post cards and then we were on the road again headed east for France. It was interesting seeing all of the empty boxes stacked up in the hotel garage where people had removed their purchases from the packing. The border crossing was quite interesting as the Andorrans do nothing and the French wanted to know how many cigarettes we were bringing into the country. They were pulling cars at random for searches.
Tuesday, April 17, 2001 Top of Page Today was one of those days that you live for. Blue skies, a few white puffy clouds and fabulous vistas and roads. As usual, we got an early start - left the hotel just before 11:00 AM. Hey! It takes time to get organized and packed in the morning. We were in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains at 1600 feet of altitude and the early morning was quite chilly (OK, how would we know?). These small hotels with restaurants included are really quite decadent. We just have to walk across the grounds to get "petite dejeuner" before 9:30 AM. Today's travels led us to the suburbs of Montpellier. We tend to travel by the road less taken by most folks and as a result we don’t cover great distances. We are probably beyond the "smell the flowers" type of travelers. The picture of Jim with the bikes at left doesn't really do justice to the view. This was taken outside Mirepoix, a small town between Foix and Carcassonne. We suspected that the background would be washed out just because of the distances involved. In Spain we rarely were able to see as far as we could across this valley (below) because the wind constantly stirs the dirt and there is a tremendous amount of dust in the air. It is so bad that we thought is was smog when we first arrived but soon realized that there just wasn't enough industrial pollution, or vehicles. Here, the air was pristine and clear.
We stopped for lunch in a small snack bar located at a junction in the road - basically the corner of nowhere and who knows where. We have a habit of ordering one lunch an splitting it because we find that the French four course meal plus bread and beverage are more than we can eat. So, we order one meal and split it. On some occasions we never really know what we are getting and today was one of those days. We think that it was veal but we do know that it was delicious! Complete with mashed potatoes, gravy with onions and mushrooms, large salad, fromage and chocolate mousse for desert! Mmmm, mmmm, good! The only down side of the day was our realization that we were going to be too close to a large city when we were ready to seek accommodation for the night. At four in the afternoon we found ourselves in the suburbs of Montpellier hunting for a hotel. We did find one but our first choice was fully booked and this called for another hour of navigating the streets of a city we knew nothing about. In the middle of rush hour. It's at times like these that I wish the transmission on the bike was an automatic. The result of this adventure in hotel hunting has convinced us that we each need to modify our list of 5 items that we would not leave home without. Number one on Jim's list is now his Garmin III+ GPS. Thanks to this little device we managed to get lost about half a dozen times without really being in jeopardy of finding our ultimate destination. We may have put on an extra mile or two and seen parts of the city we might not have, but we can guarantee that we would have been on the road for at least another hour, if not more, had we had to stop and try to get directions from the locals. We don't speak French and the vast majority of them do not, or will not, speak English. Thanks to the GPS we knew where we were and what direction we were traveling. Thus, when we found ourselves having missed the turn we were previously told to take and found ourselves traversing narrow, twisting streets all was not lost. We just kept moving in the general direction that we knew we needed to go and ultimately found our hotel. Isn't technology grand? Wednesday, April 18, 2001 Top of PageNo pictures today. That really tells it as it is. We motored through some beautiful countryside bypassing Nimes and going through Arles on the way to Marseilles. We stopped for lunch in the town of Salon were we met a fellow BMW R1150GS rider. He even had the right color bike, just We are in a small hotel about 13 kilometers north of Marseilles. There is a bus stop down the hill and around the corner where we can catch a bus into Marseilles every 15 minutes or so in the morning. It takes the Autoroute and makes no stops until it is well into the city. We adopted this strategy of not staying in large cities some time ago. We have found that large cities are difficult to navigate and we never know where we should not go for one reason or another. As the gentleman we met today told us, "Marseilles is a large city and has all the the problems of a large city. It is wise to be careful with the bikes". We have used this strategy in the past - staying outside the city and using local transportation into and out of town. Between the trains and buses we have always been able to get where we want to go and never a worry about the bikes. So, tomorrow we will become typical tourists trying to see all there is to see in a short period of time. Our first quest will be to secure an English language tour book (Lonely Planet or Rough Guide, if possible) for France. We foolishly packed our French/English dictionary earlier this month thinking that we would remain in Spain all summer! Thursday, April 19, 2001 Top of PageToday we took the bus into Marseilles. A fast trip as this was an express route and we were the last stop before the bus entered the Autoroute. It was a very nice day but a bit brisk as the wind was up a bit. Had a nice lunch near the Hotel de Ville (town hall in the days of old). Managed to get some money transferred to get our membership in The BMW Club (UK and Ireland) renewed but it was a major task. After being told at six banks, two change bureaus and one American Express that no, they could not issue a money order or bankers draft in Irish Punts (or any other currency) we resorted to Western Union at the Post Office.
Friday & Saturday, April 20 - 21, 2001 Top of PageNice. If you like your beaches to be of stones one inch in diameter this is the place for you. We were also surprised about how cold (well, not warm) it is. Seems we forgot that as we were traveling east we were also traveling north. Our trip on Friday was quite brisk, weather wise. We have read and heard of the infamous "mistral" in France and now we have experienced it. Beautiful, clear and sunny day but very chilly due to the wind from the north. Had on just about everything we owned for cold weather driving. This mad life particularly nice when we arrived in town and were now cut off from the wind. Traffic here is quite heavy and we got to sit in very slow stop and go traffic as we tried to find our hotel. By the time we arrived at the hotel we were in the proverbial Aerostitch steam baths. Couldn't get out of the jackets, fleece and pants fast enough. The hotel staff in the lobby thought they were being invaded. Our room in the hotel is small and expensive. Go figure. Somehow we managed to locate ourselves in a place that put us within walking distance of everything we wanted to do or see in town. Even the local BMW dealer. Seems the BMW Motorcycles in France are not handled by BMW car dealers like they are in Spain. They are separate shops dedicated to motorcycles only. This explains why I got some strange looks at a BMW car dealer we stopped in on Thursday in search of a liter of oil. The local shop is putting synthetic oil in bikes from the very first service. Not what I wanted. They are also using 15-40W mineral oil. Not as heavy as the 20-50W we use so told them thanks but no thanks. Both were API SG though.
Tomorrow we are off to Monaco and points east - Italy. Sunday April 22, 2001 Top of Page
We left Monaco and headed east, entering Italy and rode to San Remo where we stopped for lunch at a small outdoor restaurant right on the boat harbor. Pasta and fresh crab for Jim and a nicoise salad for Verna. This was the most expensive meal we have had since we left the U.S. We were quickly reminded how much we have enjoyed Spain and being able to have a three course meal with wine for $5.00 to $7.00 U.S. At this point we did something we normally do not do but we felt that we would not be able to reach our intended destination for the day (Santa Margherita Liguera) if we remained on the incredibly slow two lane coast road. We got on the Autostrada. YATR (Yet Another Toll Road). The phrase, "Driving through Italy" has taken on new meaning for us. We have never been on a road that had so many tunnels on it. The Autostrada which runs along the coast from France and turns south along Italy's western coast goes through the most incredible mountains and is a never ending series of tunnels connected by towering bridges which span the distances between the various peaks. This is hard to describe but imaging driving through a tunnel that is 1200 meters (that's about 3/4 of a mile) in length, emerging onto a bridge of reinforced concrete that is about 200 feet above the valley below and spans approximately the same distance. Now, vary the distance of the tunnel from 200 meters to 1800 meters and do the same for the open air spans. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. For 200 kilometers (120 miles). Incredible. We thought hat we spent more time inside the earth than we did exposed to the sun!
Monday April 23, 2001 Top of Page
Tuesday April 24, 2001 Top of Page
Wednesday April 25, 2001 Top of PageAn exciting day on the road playing dodgem with the Italians on the Autostrada. In and out of the rain. One car came so close to Jim that he could feel the wind ruffling his pants as it went by. This is really quite terrifying as you watch these people driving at 80+ MPH and not being able to control their car well enough to keep it in one lane. They just wander into the adjacent lane - makes no difference if it is occupied or not. In town it is even worse. In the short space of two days we have had four different incidents of cars trying to run us off the road. The only thing we can determine is that it is a form or road rage associated with the unbelievable number of motor scooters here which are all suicidal as far as we are concerned. The city streets are in complete anarchy. People do not stop for stop signs, the scooters run red lights constantly. They cut in front of cars and do other death defying things. Italy is beautiful but it is a very dangerous place to drive.
We are back in France tonight, in the town of Grasse, just north, north west of Nice. Bills itself as the perfume capital of the world. Quiet and peaceful. An exciting evening out. We have decided that the next best thing to watching paint dry is watching your laundry dry at the laundromat. Thursday, April 26, 2001 Top of Page
Today we headed out of Grasse, taking the back roads so we could avoid the traffic through the city center that we hit last night coming into town. Good choice. The road led us up into the Mediterranean Alps and away from all civilization. We then headed west to pass through the Gorge of Verdon, with its steep walls and aqua blue water below. At the most spectacular point, the gorge walls were almost vertical, but there was no safe place to pull over and snap a picture. This was the best we could do, and it really doesn’t do it justice! The roads through here were in good condition for the most part, and with the beautiful countryside, it made for a most enjoyable ride. We saw several bicyclists on the road and were very happy that we had mechanized power to get us up those mountains.
We took a break and stopped for lunch in Moustiers Sainte Marie in a quiet outdoor cafe. As we were getting off the bikes, a young lad from Australia came up to Verna and in his very best French asked “Parlez-vous Anglais?” to which Verna replied, “It’s the only language we speak!” much to his amazement. Then he saw the Oregon plates and was really impressed. We have met so many nice people from all over and we find these encounters a big part of what makes the trip so enjoyable. For more information about Italy, see the Italy Section. Top of Page |
||
 |
||
|
If you find typographical errors or have any other problems when looking at the site please contact the Webmaster describing the problem and the page involved. |
||
|
Copyright © 2000-2009 Jim Seavey and Verna Norris All Rights Reserved |
||
Verna's bike has had it's 12,000 mile service (Jim's is just under 10,000 miles - seems we use Verna's a bit more because we travel two-up on hers and Jim's is set up for solo riding). We finally got the web site address on the bikes. Many thanks to Antonio Tolosa-Gonzalez (pictured with Jim and Jim's bike at right). Antonio works at Aries Rotulos in Alicante. He applied the graphics on each bike advertising our web site address. Thank you Antonio!
We crossed over a mountain pass of 7600 feet. Lots of snow. Spring skiers still out. Note the height of the poles (one of which appears to be growing our of Jim's shoulder) in the picture at the left. Nice markers of the operators of the snow removal equipment so they will not drive off the edge of the cliff where we were perched for this picture . The picture of Verna at right gives some indication as to how rugged this country is. Short while later we stopped just down the hill for a bite of lunch at a little road side stand. An American couple were there. Seems he was attending a conference of some sort associated with his work. 
WORK??? We did not travel far this day as we did not leave until after 12 noon what with the opportunity to do more shopping. As I (Jim) am typing this we are in a small hotel next to the Arege River in Foix, France looking out the window of our room at the river moving serenely past. This hotel is quite nice. It is a member of a chain know as Campanile. We learned about this group through the BMW Club of the UK and Ireland monthly Journal. Some of the members had stayed in one and were quite pleased so they wrote an article for the monthly club newsletter. Thanks!
While it doesn't have the depth of field to show how far we could see the picture at right does a much better job of showing the gorgeous French countryside. All of the fields have been plowed and the spring crop is in. We encountered on one tractor on the road today which shows how the major planting is completed. Usually, when the farmers are active, as we learned in Ireland, tractors are a constant menace on the highways as the farmers move from field to field.
We encountered the R1150GS in the photo parked across from the Post Office. While I'd love to have a Lambourghini in screaming yellow I'm afraid that the color for the GS is not to my taste (Jim). This bike does appear to have every item Touratec sells. The additional tail/stop light located below the registration plate is quite interesting. So too is the piece of metal attached to the foot brake lever where the toe actuates the lever. Looks like whoever was on it had a close encounter of the scraping kind with the pavement recently as the right valve cover is almost ground through in two spots and the crash bar has taken a fair amount of wear. Aprilla top box.
There are lots of nice little shops in the old part of the city. Much like the barrio Santa Cruz in Seville. We walked and shopped, did some laundry at a coin operated laundromat (exciting stuff this) and Verna found a crocheted hat that she liked so she purchased it. We also found stickers of the French flag for the bikes. There are lots of shops with olive wood, pottery, and fabrics typical of southern France. Of course restaurants, brassieres, and cafes abound, so you won't go hungry here. There are also many small shops with great looking fresh fruits and vegetables, local cheeses, olives, breads and pastries.
On Saturday we did the tourist bit and rode the local tourist train which is really a road-going conveyance. It was worth the $5.00 charge as it covered a fair amount of territory and also went to the top of the hill (La Colline du Chateau). The train was much easier than the long, steep walk it would have taken to get up there by foot. Quite a view from there (picture at left) and this is where the original town stood. There is a natural spring at the top and two thirds of the water that it generates is recycled into the town's supply. But first, it is used to form the waterfall at right.
Today was one of those picture post card days as we left Nice and drove east toward Monaco. We are very happy that we chose a Sunday to travel through Monaco; the small town itself is quite commercial and we suspect that shoppers would have been out in large numbers had it been a week day or Saturday. Did see quite a profusion of Rolls Royce’s, Ferrari’s and Lamborgheni's in the area of the casino. That's the casino in the background of the picture below, left. No sooner had we stopped the bikes and this really nice German couple stopped and chatted with us. She in German and he in some English. Seems they were staying at an apartment her sister has on the 34th floor of a building in Monaco and they were in town for the tennis tournament that was in progress. They were kind enough to take the picture.
Oh, yes. Italian drivers. We thought things in Spain were on the wild side. We hadn't seen anything yet! We arrived safe and sound in Santa Margherita Liguera ( left) and located a one star hotel from the Lonely Planet Guide. Italy is really expensive. The cost of our lunch was the first clue and the cost of our hotel was a shock $75.00 a night! We had been staying in four star hotels for about $40.00 U.S. in Spain. Similar in France. Time to get out the tent and sleeping bags. What did we expect? I don't know but most of the other English speaking folks we met (Canadians, Australians and Americans) were all as shocked as we were at the prices.
Today made up for all the nice weather we have had for the last two weeks. Rain. All day. We ventured out in the morning and took a ride into the mountains trying to get to the five small villages that are located along the coast south of Santa Margherita Liguera but it was cold and we decided that we would just stay another day and do this on Tuesday as the weather was to be much better. Later in the afternoon the rain stopped and we went for a walk about Santa Margherita Liguera and managed to find our "been there, done that" sticker for the bikes. These are the flags that adorn the top boxes on the bikes. The back of the top boxes is almost full. By the end of the summer we will probably be starting to cover the sides.
Blue skies and sunshine. Glad we decided to stay the extra day in order to take in the local sights. We headed down the coast to visit the Cinque Terre. This is a remote coastal area that has only recently been discovered by the tourists, so still retains some of its old-world charm. It is a haven for hikers and the hilly terrain is a network of paths connecting the different villages. There are 5 major towns that are the visitor's highlight to the region, Monteresso, Vernazza, Corniglia (at right), Manarola, and Riomaggiore (picture below). Driving by car is a bit harrowing on the narrow, twisty roads, but on the bike it is nice, if slow, jaunt (though you must watch for oncoming cars cutting
the inside track on the switch backs!) Only Monteresso can you drive all the way into town. The other towns require you to park well outside and walk in. The parking issues are due to the fact that these towns were built in a very compact fashion on very steep terrain, all before there were roads leading into the area. So several of the towns don't even have any roads within them, but are a tangle of narrow, twisting passageways between buildings, many at a very steep angle or made of steps.
We decided a delightful way to enjoy the area if you are up to the exertion is to visit the 5 towns over a 2 day period by walking. We would start in Riomaggiore (the southernmost town), and walk to Manarola for lunch. Then walk to Corniglia to spend the night. Walk to Vernazza for lunch the next day, then on to Monteresso in the afternoon. After spending the night, hop the train back to your starting point. The walks between the towns take about 2 1/2 hours though are a bit strenuous due to the steepness involved. 
You can also visit the towns by train or by ferry during the tourist season. But by driving through the rugged terrain, we feel we got a better sense of the territory. The picture above is one small village we came across, sitting on top of the hill, with the hill below it terraced for the grape vines and olive trees. And the picture at left gives you a sense of the terrain, with the road winding along every contour of the hills. Think of the backbreaking labor it took to terrace all those hills!
We had an interesting encounter with two lads on motos who passed us on the Autostrada. They got real excited when they saw our bikes. They pulled in and waited for us to pass and then followed us for many miles. Ultimately they signaled Verna about stopping for a drink which we did. Stefano Cardoni and Demis Laini (at right, left to right). Today is a national holiday in Italy, commemorating the end of W.W.II, and they were out for a bit of a ride, rain gear and all. Very nice guys and we look forward to receiving e-mail from them.
Sunny warm weather, great roads and fabulous scenery - what a day! Today was one of the most memorable we have ever had on the road, anywhere. Fantastico!
Just after leaving the gorge area, the river spills into a big, peaceful lake, the same aqua blue. Where are our waterskis?