Days 1_to_5
Day 1
Finally! After all the papers, the last-hour shopping, the nerves and the goodbyes the dream starts to become real!
We take the highway direct to the North. We want to reach Niza on the first day. Riding through the highway with a motorbike is really boring (for everyone, the rider and the pillion). Usually we try to avoid them but now we want to go as far and fast as possible.
We decided to visit the Côte Azur because we never have been there, but we have a bad surprise when we reach there… winds of 80 km/h are waiting for us. With a motorbike that’s a disaster, the wind is pushing us out of the road, until it decides to stop (and we cannot do a thing about it). Tià loses the motorbike control sometimes, so we decide to stop, and think about what we can do. It’s way too dangerous to continue like this. We stop in a restaurant, we have an insipid sandwich, and we decide to take a Bed & Breakfast in Sigean, just 4 km away from us.
We end in the Villa Artemia with its two special owners. They are a couple formed by a french guy, who apparently cooks really good (we smelled it), and a guy from Laos, who says that can speak English (but can’t). We drink wine together on the terrace while he speaks something like franglish??? we had some fun there the 3 of us!
We spend a really good time there, the day was not how it was supposed to be, but at the end we had a good time and that’s the important part.
Day 2
The wind it’s a little bit weaker than yesterday, but enough for us to depart. We take the breakfast with our new friend, and we ride to the highway again. There is no time to visit Nice, maybe next time! Somewhere in the highway we find ourselves stuck in the middle of a terrible jam. Riding a motorbike between trucks at 30 C it’s not fun at all. We are cooking ourselves like a potato in the oven with our motorbike clothes. Then a truck driver says to us, that we should just pass all the cars, and we start doing it. We arrive to the stand to pay and… ups in this one you can just pay with an electronic device, and of course we don’t have it. A taxi driver starts using the horn, we push the bottom to speak to someone, and they answer in French. The taxi driver comes, but just so he can yell at us nearer, he doesn’t help us at all, and the girl on the machine just starts yelling “GIVE ME THE NUMBER!” we don’t know what number is that… the chaos is increasing until the girl says “CREDIT CARD NUMBER!!!!”. We pay, and we run away from this people as fast as we can.
We enter to Italy through Veintemiglia, and we are superimpressed about the bridges that we are passing, what an architectural work!
We reach San Remo really tired, spending a lot of time on the highway it’s always hard.
We love being again in Italy! We always feel like at home here. We walk around the city and the promenade, we eat some pizza for dinner (come on! It’s Italy!) and we go to rest.
Day 3
Today it’s going to be another “highway-day”, those are not really exciting, but we need to do that. China is superfar away and we have to be there in August!
It’s a really hot day again so we want to test our new toys… Tià uses for the first time the Hyperkewl vest, and I’m going to try my new Kevlar jeans.
We keep riding and riding, we eat something bad and expensive on the highway again, and around 16:00 I’m feeling sick, so I ask Tià to stop (I supose that the Hyperkewl winns the jeans when it’s too hot). We stop near a gas station, and then Tià realizes that the motorbike has an oil leak… but like a big one, there is oil everywhere. Perfect, and now what we should do?! We call the insurance and they say, that we have to call the 112. A guy from the gas station helps us, and they say that in 30 minutes we get a crane. We wait 30, 40, 50… 90 minutes, and then appears our crane!
It charges the motorbike, and I realize there is not a proper place for me.. sooo I sit on an armrest, then the driver starts yelling on the phone while driving (without security belt of course). Not fun. We head to Piacenza, the nearest city with a Triumph concessionaire. We arrive to the parking where we are going to leave the motorbike for the night. Now it should come a taxi and take us to the hotel (the one the insurance is paying). An hour later the taxi is there and leave us in the Europa hotel, but when we ask for our room they say, they don’t have a room reservation with our name… one hour more discussing with the insurance. At the end the crane drive told to the taxi driver the nearest hotel, not the one from the insurance. So finally, at 22:00 (6 hours later!) we have our room. We need something to eat, so we go to the kebab in front of the hotel, the sir there says goodbye saying “Guten Abend!” he thinks we are Germans!!! What a day!
Day 4
During the morning Tià goes to the parking to take the motorbike to the mechanic with the crane. We hope that it’ll be just some minor damage, and we can continue today our trip.
After a few hours (something happened between the insurance and the crane company) they take the Bonnie to the mechanic, there our italian friend (on the phone) explains what’s going on. At the end it was just something too loose!!
We stay at the hotel until midday, so we are sure that there is no more leak. We ride to the east thorough the highway again.
Usually we don’t book in advance a room, we search something near us the same day at the afternoon (as you have seen, a road trip with motorbike it’s quite unpredictable). We head to a country side zone where the villages are little and charming. We stop in Nogaredo de la Torre, we are going to sleep at the B&B 23! It’s an old house (in the good way) and the owners live there! We connect almost instantaneously, they are a really special couple. Paola orders for us pizza for dinner (all around us is closed at this time), and then we talk until midnight drinking some honey liquor from Slovenia! What a wonderful night!!
Day 5
It’s raining, but that’s not going to be a pity in this house. It’s just an excuse so we can stay longer, and talk a little bit more with Paola. She prepares the breakfast with all the love in the world, you can feel it, it’s delicious! Bruschetta, cake, some vegetables… all homemade or from the garden!
We start the ride a little bit late (again), but the good part of this trip, is that we don’t have to care a lot about that!
We enter to Slovenia through Gorizia, and suddenly we see ourselves in the middle of a valley with stark winds (really?!), another time we have to stop. It’s not so dangerous like in France, but it’s exhausting. We decide to stop in Vipava, and that’s a hit. It’s a beautiful little village, and we eat well there.
In the restaurant we’re told, that the wind should stop around 5km further. We decide to continue, but not through the highway. We are superexposed there!
We drive some kilometers on the road, and it’s way better because we are alone and the wind it’s weaker here. Then we continue on the highway, we pass Ljubljana (we wanted to stop here like in our honey moon, but we need to go a little bit further!), and we stop in Škocjan to sleep. It’s a little village on the countryside, we have our own apartment there! What a luxury!
Those are the views from our room:
