Day 11 Off to Prague

We spent most of the day in the drizzle and cold rain. We headed up north and entered the Czech Republic riding through the small farm lands of Austria and Czech. We finally spotted some deer off in the grass fields. Pretty small animals compared to our deer. We enter the city of Prague, and found nothing but chaos..all the streets were short, one way and packed with cars. The pedestrians just step out and expect you to stop. Very hard to do on the old cobblestone streets. As bikes we are trying to go slow and steady and look for the next turn.... Im going to start hitting them soon. You need to force your way into traffic and rev the motor so they choose to step out after you go by. We did not see many bikes or mopeds so maybe they don't know how dangerous it is. These large cobblestone roads are not flat and feel more like an off road adventure with a well oiled track. This is definitely a bustling city.

We have now spent more than 3 hours checking in and trying to park the bikes. The lady at the front counter was in no hurry. Did I mention not only did we wait but we paid 30 euros per day to find this parking spot and park. It was only 3 blocks away but 1 km and 10 minutes of one way angled messed up streets.

Welcome to Prague, im sure it ill be worth it....more later.

Day 9 and 10 up to Budapest and over to Vienna, Austria

We landed in Budapest, Hungary by 12.30pm today. Wow a very large busy city. Sitting on a tour bus currently seeing all the highlights. This is another diverse city, full of castles and churches. Very historic with lots of famous composers and scholars being educated here. They are very proud of their heritage. Sorry I did not write much about Budapest, we did like it much better than Vienna, it has a notion of coming back and exploring a little more.</p>
<p>On our way to vienna we went through Slovakia with, many open farm lands. They are growing lots of corn, probably for the ethanol everyone loves so much. We have been seeing deer signs for almost the entire trip, but we have not seen a single animal yet. We arrived in Vienna (Wien) about noon and stopped and enjoyed lunch. Vienna looked pretty modern when we first entered, shopping everywhere. We wandered around and found lots more shopping. We regrouped and headed into the central plaza. Now we found the old Vienna. We stumbled on the Hufburg Palace and the Lipizzan riding school, which looked like a very huge courtyard of cobblestone with huge impressive buildings surrounding it. The girls got some good photos of it and the two arched entry and exit points. Impressive until you got to the church, oh but the old church was just a bit further and it was very old and large. Built in 1136 it was very well kept up. Massive pillars and arches inside. Again plenty of photos, of Vienna.</p>
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Day 7 and 8 a extra day in Venice and then off on a fasttrack european exploration

We spent a couple of days in Venice and took off for Croatia yesterday.

Venice was very nice. Lots of walking and great hidden streets and corners. We have had a great time here in the past and will come back again. We went out to a restaurant we found in Mestre on our last visit. The food was really good just like last time, check out Osteria La Pergola, via fiume, 42, 30171 Venice, Italy ....you can take a train into Mestre and then walk to the restaurant. It is located in a very residential are. Im drooling thinking of the food.</p>
<p>We headed to a town called Porec, a little seaside tourist spot. Here we met Leanna a couch surfer who stayed with us last August. She gave us a tour of the old town and Basilica. Very interesting buildings and friendly people. They had a coffee shop and bar in an old watch tower from the original fortified walls. On the water front there were water taxis out to the various islands and lots of vendors selling thing from useless trinkets to glass bottom boat rides.&#160; The islands sounded like they would be fun, one is a nudist beach. A friend said we could rent a 50' sail boat and travel through all the islands for 1000 euro a week. Seems pretty reasonable, sign me up. Who is going to navigate????

On the way north we rode through some small villages, in one called Motovun we found a medieval town. I posted some photos of us trying to ride through. This was the oldest town I have every rode through...usually we are instructed to walk. I don't think the locals appreciated us and I know the other tourists did not at all. We were just planning on doing a zig zag loop until we came across a parked car that a local left right before we were to exit. We ended up stuck on a down hill cobblestone road not much wider than the bikes. We had to push the bikes backwards uphill until we could turn around. Then we rode all the way back through town once again to exit where we came in. Now I'm positive nobody appreciated us, since they all had to walk and were jumping out of our way. The cobblestones were large and it made the bike weave alot, so I think they thought we were trying to hit them.

<p>We next headed up to Ljubljana to vist another couch surfer who stayed with us a little more than a year ago. At the border i got a little lecture for not having an international drivers license. He was upset because he was forced to get one on his last visit to the USA. I have had on in the past. It is only a piece of paper that has our drivers license explained in 10 different languages and none were in his language. We argued for a little bit and then we left we with our entry stamp.

Saso the couch surfer, gave us a tour of the small city center, absolutely beautiful. There was a nice river running through the middle and live music everywhere.....it was a Tuesday evening and people everywhere eating drinking and having fun...a place to come back to. Wish we had time to stay and explore longer...only 2 hours from Venice. Everyone forgot their cameras so we don't have a photo of the town square. You might want to look it up on the web it was very pretty.
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Day 6 short to Venice

Pretty uneventful, so I'm just going to whine about stuff I forgot to mention before.

Fuel prices and my quart of oil.... Fuel prices have been about as high as I have seen before, close to $10 per gallon...some places more. But what really shocked me was the price for a quart of oil for my old reliable BMW. I asked for the least expensive quart of oil....when he showed a 1 and a 4 with his fingers, I am thinking 1.4 euros, not bad. When I finished paying him 14 Euros, I was starting to feel ripped off. He went ahead and told me the prices of all the other oils on the shelf, they were much higher...that is almost $20 for 1 quart of cheap 10-30 wt oil. Something besides water has passed up our fuel prices. I could not imagine changing the oil in my truck at 16 qts or better yet the motor home at 24 qts and not the cheap stuff.</p>
<p>Today we also did the tourist thing and headed into Venice and walked around. We toured the basilica and the Dodge's Palace, built in the 9th century and rebuilt a few times after that. Same tourists still dragging luggage around looking for their hotel amongst the many hidden alleys. It is funny to see how much people pack and will drag up and over all the bridges. Then it started storming....lol...it got better watching them try to run and negotiate the slippery marble walk ways. We got back to the bus and watched a new batch arrive from the airport....I don't think they wanted to get off. There is no cover and no where to run. You have to cross two pretty big bridges that are all steps before you can even start to look for your hotel. The closest one is 1/8 of a mile and on a normal day you are sweating pretty good after the first bridge....we know we did it last year with our own luggage. The hotels are spread out from there up 4 miles of hidden trails and waterways, and you will get lost. Everyone was soaked, we kinda enjoyed it, at least I did. I noticed that the clothes were kinda risque ...you should have seen them all wet.

Day 5 the last of the Alps and over to Verona, Italy

Day 4 was a little delayed do to internet connection issues. I uploaded all of the remaining photos while we were riding this morning. Technology is so good. I can do so much on my bike while riding.

So Day 5 started out at 7am beautiful morning cool and again very light traffic and no large log trucks.....we wind our way up the next pass having a great time. Racing corner to corner, half an hour into the ride and... We come across a couple of motorcycle cops telling us to slow down because 600 bikes are coming up the hill....nice we get to see a (what we thought was a motorcycle race first hand)....wrong a pedal bike race with lots of sweaty people taking up the whole road. I guess they thought we should pull over and watch. Nope we pushed on and took photos. There were some interesting corners were we did not give...we held our lane and they bunched up fast. Really a race early in the morning when we want peace and quiet. We passed a few cars on the way down, what are they supposed to do, park and watch until the last slow guy finally gets by? Pictures posted

We then headed through another wonderfull French village and back up yet another pass. We get to the top and a guy was setting up his homemade bread and cured meat stand. It was about 9am and we purchased some very dirty dried meat and 1 kilo of bread. I wish he had smaller samples we could have tried more. As it was we purchased 40 euros worth and sat there and had breakfast and with cappochinos. Great view and dirty food. Pictures posted. In the little cafe where we got the coffee there were walls of photos. We were about to ride the world famous Monte Carlo Rally circuit. They had old photos of cars and celebrity's. Looks like they run this route summer and winter.

On the way down we came upon 3 lamborghinis and a ferrari racing up the hill. Remember how I said the roads have been very narrow. My face was shocked. I love the sound of the bikes and that what I thought I heard. I don't think I want to ever hit one of these knife cars headon. Thank god their front bumpers are very low. We cleared the rear bags by a small margin ...and would have hit if it would have been a normal car...but then it would have been narrower and slower...oh well it was a fun close call.....lol

Also I think we finally got some of the elusive pictures of the twisty roads. There are so may trees covering the roads you can never get the photo you want. We thought maybe we should just take a photo of the GPS. Pictures posted

Now we hit the naked beaches of France. Every time I saw any water on the trip I would call out on the headset...naked people..waiting for Paul wreck...I know but it is funny. When we hit the beaches there was so much traffic and and pedestrians we really had to dodge and weave. I started following the other bikes that did not stop with traffic. It got pretty entertaining when a green van decided to push me to the right into another car. Paul was now laughing at me....I got him back...I stood up and karate kicked him in the front fender and left him in the dust. Too bad he is so wide and slow. Ha ha ha

We decided to end the day in Verona, Italy. I guess some famous love story was based here. Something about a block wall...I think it was when Harry met Sally. We are now walking to the old town...I could have sworn I had lunch where Harry met Sally in New York...Kat's Delli. Oh well history is beyond me. I want to go back to the alps and run the curves...tomorrow off to Venice on the bikes...hope they float.

Day 4 running the French Alps

The route for the next two days is called Route des Grandes Alps. Started the day we a great sun rise and no cars. We soon caught up with a log truck. Same size as our log trucks wit logs hanging way past the rear supports. Hopefully we have a photo I can post. Doesn't sound very interesting until you hear he was using the entire road from corner to corner wall to guard rail and he was moving. The rear axle on the tows wheels were turning some how, like the super long fire rigs. We could not figure who was steering. We soon came to a tunnel where he slowed almost to a stop....I backed off really quick, he did not fit. He lined up for the very center and pulled the logs through with the tops dragging almost the entire way....I think they have done this before. If there were cars on the road we would have been waiting for them to negotiate who was backing up.

Once we got around the log truck, which proved to be very difficult, the scenery opened up. The roads and views were so pristine we were having trouble taking it all in. Waterfalls, green rolling hills, rock walls, mountains and old buildings were calling the cameras. So far the French portion of the alps has been a favorite. Last night we had fresh farm cheese and butter with our bread and cured ham. We all ate too much. Even though this sounds wrong the local cheese was so good dipped in the farm churned butter. We were told the cheese was made by a farmer up the road. He has a special basement he cures it in. The brown crusty cheese was my favorite. I think we literally ate 2 lbs of cheese and a lot of the serrano ham and bread. .......got to come back here.

We had some great car free roads today. We climbed 5 passes 6-8,000 foot elevation each with nice cool temperatures. Every time we passed a herd of milk cows we could only wonder who and where are they milking all these animals. The roads were all narrow and the blind corners scary. We have had so many close calls with the big bags hanging off the back, it is getting to be second nature to hear a horn or comments from the peanut gallery...the passengers. We are thinking the roads are not quite wide enough two race to karts side by side safely and we are blowing by cars and vans...oh and motor homes....crazy europeans.

We ended the day in a small valley village with a very old castle...dates to King Jean (france). We drove up to the Chateau and could not read the sign so we hiked up and walked in. Lisa always wanted to go inside one. It is perched up on a hill way above the town. We are sitting here eating dinner enjoying the view of the castle.</p>
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Day 3 across Italy over to France

Today we started early. we left the Hotel at 7am...after waking the gate keeper. We paid the night before so we could leave in the morning before they opened at 9am...someone did not tell her.... she was a little cranky. It was nice and cool and felt really good after the 100 degree day before. Very little traffic but the storm that went by during the night left our twisty road we started on a little dangerous. Finally a road with out cars but ended up with a road covered with wet leaves branches and .... fallen trees. A little off road and we were back on track. 
We continued running roads in and out of little Italian villages, the streets were narrow and made for a lot of close calls. We ran into multiple traffic jams...where drivers and passengers were out of the vehicles trying to negotiate the passing. We just pushed to the front of the jam and drove on.</p>
<p>Soon we hit a express toll road. As soon grabbed the toll ticket there were 2 right hand options. I chose wrong!, after letting Paul know he chose correctly and I told him I would catch up. Lisa and I kept going looking for an exit to turn around ... after 3 or 4 km we stopped and examined the map. We found that this expressway was a direct route to Milan. I did what anyone would do...I turned around and headed backwards using the shoulder. Worked great until we got to the on ramp we entered the expressway on. It was a blind corner and as we creeped up I think I scared the semi tractor. I also felt my seat get smaller....Lisa puckered...I think that was another first.  We continued backwards up the ramp and did a u turn on to the proper exit...right in front of the large toll booths and offices that we had collected the entry ticket. I guess we got more for our 2 euros than anyone else.

We stopped for a late lunch in Chamonix, France. Very pretty ski town full of life. The view was very pretty with several huge glaciers and Mont Blanc in the background. Hopefully the photo turns out. Once we got back on the road we headed directly into the French alps. The roads were clean, very few cars and spectacular views...we ended in La Giettaz. This town is built into the hillside and very cool in temperature compared to last night.

Day 2 Dolomites and Northern Italy

Today we got an earlier start, but the progress was slow. We headed straight for the hills. The roads were slow and full of cars and bicycles. We climbed through some really gorgeous villages.&amp;amp;amp;nbsp; Soon we we hit a paved path that climbed to 8500 feet. We assumed since it was so narrow that it was a one way motorcycle road...no cars....boy were we wrong! Check out the photos. Not only did did we catch up to cars but we ran into them head on....the drivers had to get out to negotiate the pass...what are the thinking. The corners were so sharp and climbing up the steep incline we literally needed a granny gear. We saw goat herders and dogs trying to keep the animals off the path. Felt like Mongolia or maybe a paved road in northern India....very odd and old. Who ever decided to pave a path (a wide walkway) up an over a pass like this must have had lots of spare time on their hands. This would be a very fun WR450 ride. Do not leave the path at any time...Found a little Italian village to have lunch. Very quiet and no tourists. Food is affordable and good. Heading to the Swiss border after lunch...more later...I might need new company...not well loved here.

Ok after lunch got really interesting. We hit the Swiss border using a 4km tunnel that felt like we were in a partical accelerator...picture posted...today was over 100 degrees and the tunnel was so cool! We had to ride as fast as we possibly could go...one way traffic only.

After the tunnel we hit Mulholland Drive in the mountains...also picture posted...hard to describe the road. Too bad they let the stupid cars on this road. It was a perfectly concrete paved road with the best laid out corners and views I have seen. Hard to get a photo, but we tried.

We finished the day going in and out of Italy and Switzerland...ending in Italy.

Hopefully tomorrow is much cooler.

Day 1 in Europe 2012

<p>We left Munich Germany a little late. It took us a few hours to get out of town and free of the congestion. As we climbed into the mountains the traffic was still very irritating. We spent most of the day following poor examples of bad European passes. Yes, we got the hang of cutting those poor car driving bastards off. I did one pass...mind you they were all stopped for construction and when I got to the front of the line and continued around the corner I found myself facing a track hoe blocking the road....I realized that there was a red light I passed in the process....oops.</p>
<p>It was also very warm and humid today, we tried to keep moving at all times. The roads were windy and a lot of fun in the mountain passes. The big bikes we rented were a little to heavy for the types of turns we played on today, but much lighter than the cars we passed.</p>
<p>We are sitting here in a small town in Italy, having dinner. Bikes are ripping by every few seconds, it is like music to my ears.

Oh i almost forgot...Ronda keeps missing the castles. We have seen some great old castles....but she never has her camera out. ....atleast Paul has not tossed her off the bike yet.