Well now I have been back in Ireland two weeks. Things are starting to come together, and I even have a job offer by the sounds of it. Where I will be soon .. who knows. But first I guess I should fill you in on the last leg of the story. When I decided to come home, it all happened very quick. I was staying with my friend Laura's parents in Aragon, when I set off. So I left Benabarre and crossed the Pyrenees at Pau, it really has a lovely pass with some old castle on the french side of the mountains. I stopped here to have my sandwich, (thanks Maury! it tasted great).
Not really knowing how far I could go in a day I just started to drive, with the intention of heading past Bordeaux. Once past i was looking at the map and saw Cognac. I was thinking hey this is the home of Hennessy, one of my favorite drinks. So i really should stop and say hello. So with a slight Detour off the main road I was checking out the center of this nice little town. Its fab, with Remy Martin, Martel, Hennessy etc all located here. After a quick look around I went out the coast through rolling hills covered in vines until I got to La Rochelle. This is a lovely little port with some really nice restaurants. I pitched the tent in a campsite.. the former garden of a chateau, and did some exploring.
Then next morning I was up early, the rain and the cold weather not very conducive to staying in the tent, and by midday I was at Mt Saint Michel, in the north of France. This is an amazing little island, with the Abbey built up on it with a causeway to connect it to the main land. It was incredibly windy, the howling gale evoking memories of Patagonia. But I had heard a rumor of a cheap fast ferry at Boulogne Sur Mer near Calais. So I set off, and around 4 pm I drove into the ferry terminal, without a ticket or anything, and luckily within half an hour I had a ticket and was on the ferry on the way to England.
The ferry crossing was actually quite rough with the boat pitching around alot. But not bothered I was listening to my ipod and watching Winnie the Pooh on the TV in the kids section. I arrived in England at the same time i left France (1 hour difference in time zones) and drove into Dover.
I was actually shocked to see most of the towns around here are crap. I was expecting a nice centre with cafes etc. instead I got commuterville for London, these places are dead. So I spent the first night in Ashford, Kent, and left for London in the morning.
In London I meet up with Simon, the crazy sarcastic English biker I had traveled with In Colombia, and Ecuador, until my accident in Peru. So with the bike parked up in Kensington I got my official lighting quick tour of London. All was cool, saw Buckingham Palace, and Westminster, downing street, etc. Had a comical moment when Simon asked me if I wanted to see covent garden. My response of "I don't really want to look at some flowers" brought some laughter.. Apparently there is no garden in Covent Garden.. So tourists beware., you have been warned.
After a good night out I set off for Chelmsford, the capital of Essex. Not to check out the famous girls or to find some new type of STD, but to visit my old friend Dan from Fencing back in Cork when I was at University. So after an Indian Curry and a few pints, a morning lazing on the couch watching the FanZone Commentary of the Sunderland Newcastle match on Sky, I booked my ticket and sped off through England and Wales for the boat back home.
You meet bikers everywhere these days, even on the boat at 2.40 am from Hollyhead. I was loading my bike and ran into Terry from Northern Ireland, over at an off road gig in Wales with this KTM, so plenty of travel and bike stories swapped, before we docked at 6 am in Dublin Port. What an adventure! now I am home there is a old Irish phrase "Níl aon tintéan mar do thintéan féin", there is no home like your own home!.
Well if anyone is interested in skiing there is still snow in Andorra! last weekend I made the trip to Andorra. From Spain I took the C16 up to France crossing at Puigcerdá, and followed the N320 up over Pas de la Casa. The road is cool, nice and twisty and cold! At the top of the pass at over 2400m there was about 2 foot of snow at the side of the road, and a freezing fog hovering over the surface. It was kind of Erie. My new instruments read in Fahrenheit and i am still not expert in conversion, but at the coldest it was reading 19F, which i think is around minus 7c. Kind of cold!!!
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| From Andorra |
Stayed in a nice hotel in Canillo, and on Saturday did some exploring. I don't have a clue how to ski and now was not the time to learn so I went exploring trails. There are some cool ones in the direction of Llorts, with some really picturesque place.
The main roads are well salted and looked after, but once off the track there is plenty of snow!! So once again I got the opportunity to practice.
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| From Andorra |
Canillo is a small town located about 8km north of Andorra la Vela, but it does have a cool, motorcycle museum, with a great collection of bikes from turn of the 1900´s to a 2004 Paris Dakar KTM. With some really interesting bikes. Like a DKW with a Wankel Rotary engine in it and a bike adapted for the snow.. But I was drooling too much so had to leave and explore the city of Andorra la Vela.
Or is it a town.. not sure, but anyway its small with lots of expensive stuff. So if you want a new Tag Heur watch or Armani Suit this is the place for you. Ps it has some cool architecture also.
The ride back into Spain was lovely, with warm weather and all. I took route C14 which follows down a river valley past Coll de Nargó. Really nice. Tomorrow I leave for Aragon and hope to be home in around a week.
On the 3rd of April I visited Montserrat, a monastary on an unusual escarpment south of Manresa. Instead of me writing a history thing here you can visit the website at http://www.abadiamontserrat.net/angles/index.htm
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| From Catalunya |
It was the 6th anniversary since my mother passed away so of course I lit a candel, its one of the many in the picture above.
From a bike point of view the road up to the Abbey is fantastic. It has loads of sweeping hairpin curves, which wind up along the mountain, going from near sealevel right up to the top. Really great to drive, and lots of fun to.
For the last few days I have had a bit of a cold so have not done much, but its off to Andorra on Friday and more adventure.
Well people it has been awhile since I have updated you on progress. Today I am in a small town called Santa Maria d´Oló just north of Barcelona, having an experience of Catalan rural life! Its really quiet here, but there are some nice rides around. Yesterday I did two and a half hours of on and off road riding through the countryside, and across some rural tracks. I have to try and upload some pictures here, but need a connection for my laptop first.
Taking up from Germany, I left Ottobeuren with the Fritz´s who were kind enough to put me up for a few days and give me some trips on good routes etc. It was Dr. Fritz who organized my bike service with Seitz in Ulm. Who were great. They fixed up my bike, gave me a loan bike, and even had dinner with them one evening. Great garage!! I recommend them.
The weather has been kind of nasty since I got home, we had some heavy snow in the days before leaving for Italy, especially the day before leaving. I was kind of scared at first, never having ridden in deep snow on a bike. But most of the Autobahns were clear, and it was only when entering into Austria and Italy that I started to come across some snow. Fern-pass on the entry to Austria was great, just fields and mountains covered in a perfect blanket of white snow. It was amazing. The road is nice and twisty but it was difficult to enjoy because of the large volume of traffic on it. It was not until we got away from the main roads that the riding got to be fun, and I must say there was something unique about riding through a snow storm and cracking the ice of my visor!!
The Alps In northern Italy are kind of special, some really nice roads and great scenery, I will have to return here another time when the weather is better. As you descended from the mountains the snow was replaced with rain so really it was not so conducive to staying around. The first night I stayed north of Lago di Garda, and drove around the lake the next day, following the western shore. It looks like a great venue for sailing. Hope there are some fireball events here in the future! Originally I was going to head to Verona, but with the bad weather I decided to go south to Bologna. Near Bologna I started to follow the signs then got lost, after awhile of driving and not getting any closer I started to wonder where I was, then I saw this sign for Firenze.... 15 minutes away!!! So accidentally totally missed Bologna and ended up in Florence. By now I was soaking wet and a little cold! the coldest temperature that day was minus 4!! So i took a room near the centre and hung up all my gear, cranked the heating up to full and left the gear to dry.
I was lucky in that the rain cleared up for the evening and I had a change to explore the city without getting soaked. First stop was the famous Cathedral, which I had studied in Art class back in school. Was great seeing it and Giberti´s baptistery doors in person. Then it was into JJ´s Cathedral bar on the plaza, (yes it is an Irish bar). Also visited the other famous sites, the pont vecchio and the Uffizi while walking around the streets at night. Its a nice city but a nightmare to drive in!! got hopelessly lost the next day trying to get to Pisa.
So Pisa! It was great to catch up with Nicolo in Pisa and have more than a few beers. This was the first place I was ever on a motorcycle, and I now have a foto of the current bike alongside the first ever! kind of cool. As always the hospitality was great. After a few days I set off along the Via Aurelia in the direction of France. Again it was raining!! and the traffic was crap, so eventually I gave up and took the Autostrade for alittle while before getting back on the Aurelia. Some more great twisty sections especially near Imperia. But they really slowed my up, and it was getting dark when I entered Cannes. I decided to head north to Sisteron, but stopped shortly after in a small place in the Alps as it was too cold and too dark to keep going. I found a lovely little hotel at a reasonably price and despite not speaking any french managed to get the room and my dinner and a nice jug of wine and beakfast the next day. Dinner was great, enough soup for three people, pasta with meat, desert, and wine.. for €3. oh and I forgot the coffee. I left early next day for Sisteron. Some fantastic roads! really good, twisty opening bends with amazing vistas. I was surprised how dry the area is. I passed numerous dry lakes and rivers. Has it not rained this winter in Europe? Sisteron is a lovely little town. I had arranged to meet to French bikers who live here, but it all when a little pear shaped. I forgot to ask for a telephone number and when I got there my only way of contacting them was email. So i went to a cafe which was closing and sent an email. Then the threw me out as they were closing so had no way to wait for a reply, so instead of thinking and waiting for a few hours I had a look around the town and left.
The weather in France was a definite improvement with sun all the way. In no time at all I was outside Marseille, and not liking cities too much I kept going on country roads to Montpellier and eventually into Spain.. (or Catalunya.. depending on who you talk to). Again I am avoiding the highways here, much preferring the country roads. More to follow with fotos.
Well as I type this I am in Ottobeuren south of Ulm, and its snowing outside. I woke up this morning to a blanket of white. So between wonderful cups of coffee and bread with Nutella I recall yesterdays ride to Neuschwanstein Schloss.
Rebuilt on the ruins of two older castles by Ludwig II, king of Bavaria in 1869, it represented his idea of the authentic style of old german knights castles. It is basically a fantasty design, and was the inspiration for the fairytale castle used as a logo by Disney.
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| From Germany |
It is located near the town of Fussen very close to the Austrian Border and about 70 km south of Ottobeuren. The fist section of the road down was Autobahn, and fast. The new 1200 GS is fairly similar to the old model on the highway. The raised handlebars just making the ride a little more comfortable. Its on the curves at the end of the A7 that you notice more the changes. I felt it handled better in the corners than last years model and was more sure footed. One think I will say was while the heated grips are a god sent, they need to be hotter. When its snowing on you and the basic temperature is 1 degree before windchill factor you need all the heat you can get.
After checking out the castle and the town of Fussen I wandered around some of the surrounding roads doing some exploring. Most of the Alpine passes are still closed due to the snow, therefore I was limited in where I could go. But I did manage to find some nice roads around Fussen. I like the new clutch, its lighter than the old one and feels smoother.. but still I really must question the logic of a hydrolic clutch in an adventure bike!!
So the bike is an improvement, but I am not gone on the colour!
Left Buenos Aires on an Airfrance 777-300 aircraft in 35 degrees of heat, then arrived in Frankfurt and it was considerably colder. It was comical at the cargo terminal, it was dark, everyone working there had big coats and scarfs on, and I was dancing around in jeans and a T-shirt trying to stay warm while waiting for the bike. But it arrived and I was straight into the bags to find a jumper and jacket.
The bike had recently developed a problem with the front breaks, if you squeeze the brake leaver the brakes closed, but then failed to open. The only way was to beed air from the system. So obviously I had a leak in the system somewhere where air was getting in. On top of this clutch leaver had started to leek also! Was thinking what more can go wrong. Right now I am thinking the bike has such a fantastic engine but the rest of the machine is shite. I mean why have a hydrolic clutch on a GS bike in the first place? Fix that in the middle of africa!
So to stop a rant.. I brough the bike to BMW in Ulm, (kindly organised by Stephan from Horizons Unlimited). I went through everything (very long list) with the mechanics there so will hopefully have everything back to 100% when I return on Thursday. In the meantime I have a brand new R1200GS on loan! Its cool, I like some of the changes on the new model. Its more comfortable to ride, the handlebars are higher, the breaklights are now LEDS (so they last much longer), and along with styling changes it feels better balanced than the old model. But I stil have a few suggestions for changes, I will have to write to BMW.
So after a nice ride though southern germany taking in some nice towns I am planning where to go next and what to explore when I am here.
St Patricks day weekend I spent in the "Captial of Europe" with Marion my old friend from Glenans sailing and Vincent. It is really a lovely place, and from an Irish point of view really old! Back in 1988 when Dublin was celebrating 1000 years,they were doing 2000 here. Its actually listed as an UNESCO world heritage site, It is the capital of the Alsace region and has been both German and French at various stages. I took the boat tour around the city which filled me in on all the details you are getting now!
Did you know that it was here in 1792 a red haired guy called Rouget de Lisle composed the Army of the Rhine's battle song, that was later to be know as "La Marseillaise". The Catherdal is awesome, started in 1176 it includes an Astronomical clock. Interestingly it was Irish monks that brough christianity to Strasbourg, and the catherdal contains statues depicting the four evangelists as the lion (Mark), the cow (Luke), the eagle (John), and the man (Mathew), exactly like in the book of kells. As far as I recal the images are from a vision by Ezekiel in the bible.
Elsewhere it is famous for the Christmas market held each year, the Kronenburg Brewery and the Museum of Contempory art is worth a look also. It houses a collection by Gustave Dore which is pretty good, along with works by Picaso and Kandinsky.
Finally at the risk of starting to sound like a tourist guide there is the European Parliment, which has its own complex at the edge of the city. Cool to look at and see where all the decisions are made.
For St Patricks day we found an Irish Pub called the Irish Times, who even had a piper present. Actually he was Scottish not Irish, but maybe the next best thing, (It still was live music). During the performance outside the pub, this dog wandered up and proceeded to howl along with the piper, think he actually got more applause than the guy with the pipes!
