Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/185.html



We're stopping by Neda's sister's place in Milan to visit for the weekend! After six weeks of roaming around Italy, it'll be good to relax in the company of family. The map above is a pretty dramatic depiction of where the Italian Alps begin. Milan is sitting on some pretty flat real estate by comparison!


Sestre, sorelle, hermanas...


Mladen "The Kingpin", making deals and side-deals around the table

A favorite family past-time is playing board games together. Monopoly is the perfect game to demonstrate to youngsters that old age and treachery will always overcome youth and exuberance...

It was interesting seeing my piece go round the board, arriving on different properties; having to pay much $$$ if there was a hotel on it, paying a bit less to camp on the property if no buildings were present. Sometimes, Chance took hold and dealt me good fortune, and I found myself Free Parking. Other times bad luck befell me, and problems I encountered required $$$ to fix. A few times, I had some run-ins with the law and almost landed in jail. And for some strange reason, I kept rolling low numbers, so it took many turns to make it around the board even once. I watched as all the other players passed me like I was standing still. It felt like it took years to finish playing!

What a stupid game...


Europoly!

The Italian version of Monopoly is played with Euros. After traveling on the continent for so long, I couldn't stop converting everything to Canadian dollars in my head! Every time I landed on someone else's property, I kept thinking, "OMG it's so expensive here..."

It would have been less stressful if we could have played the Latin American version instead, where landing on "Park Place" will only cost you 20 pesos a night, maybe less if you slip him the dinero under the dining room table. Get Out Of Jail card? That's called a 50 peso note...


Taking Tea out for a spin!

We're told that the warm weather is very uncharacteristic for Northern Italy this time of year. My in-laws are winter-people and they look forward to skiing every season, so they're not too happy about this. Oh well! We like it just fine for motorcycling!

When we lived in Canada, we didn't get to see Goga, Mladen and Tea very often. Neda constantly worried that Tea would grow up and have no memories of her aunt and uncle. Video-conferencing via Skype really changed all of that, and Neda was very diligent in setting up regular chat sessions with her niece to give her English lessons, but more importantly to interact with her so she could build a relationship when Tea was young.

Now that we're in Europe, despite the circumstances that brought us here, we've seen so much of Tea. She's at an age where she is literally and visibly growing up in front of our eyes. And she's in such a rush too! Every time we see her, she gets on her tippy-toes to compare her height to mine. Sure Tea, pick on the shortest member of the family!

We spent the whole summer with her in Croatia and now Milan is only a few days ride from anywhere in the continent or just a €50 Ryanair plane ticket away. Neda is really happy to be so close to her family!


Goga entered a photo competition and we attended an awards ceremony where she won a prize for her picture! So proud of her!

I don't like celebrating my birthday at all, and every year I tell Neda not to mention it to anybody and not to organize anything in the hopes I can let the date slip by without any reminder that I'm growing older. I've never had a surprise birthday party in my life and this year is not going to be any different. Despite the schemes of my wife and my sister-in-law...

The fridge is the worst place to hide anything from me. When we had a kitchen, I would go to and from the fridge a million times a day like a pendulum. Most of the time, I don't even take anything out. I just open the door, stare inside and then close it again. My dad once told me to just take a picture of the inside, then tape it to the fridge door so I wouldn't have to keep opening it.

So on one of my trips to the fridge here, I found myself staring at a chocolate bithday cake. And written in dark brown icing: "Happy Birthday Gene".

With the fridge door still open, I glanced over at Neda, Goga, Mladen and Tea. They were all staring at me with their eyes and mouths wide open in shock. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO! BASTARDOOOOOH! You ruined the surprise!!!!"

Heh heh, not on my watch!


Does this cake look familiar?


It's an homage to the same chocolate cake that Mirjana made every single year for her daughters' birthday!

The next morning while we were all eating left-over birthday cake for breakfast, Mladen said to me, "That was pretty funny, you ruining our surprise party for you, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess", I replied.
"Well you know that MotoGP race you're downloading right now? Rossi wins."
"... whut... NOOOOOOO! BASTARDOOOOOOOOHHHHH!"

Old age and treachery overcomes exuberance yet again...


Chocolate cake makes the bitter taste of payback go down a bit better...

The goal of every good parent is to provide a stable environment for their child, filled with routine around homework, meal-times and sleep schedules.

The goal of every good aunt and uncle is the exact opposite...


Pillow fight!!! Okay Mladen, try getting your daughter to go to sleep now...

Happy Birthday Gene!

I really enjoyed this post. Thank you for sharing.

Roadghost said:

LOL. Really enjoying the pics and vids. I'm amazed at how narrow the roads are. Most would only pass for bike paths here in Canada. And the drivers seem to travel slowly and orderly, unlike Canada where they race around like crazy. Carry on. Very fun thread.

Click to expand...

Hah! Gene already touched on this, but Italians pretty much drive/ride as fast as possible. On those narrow roads, you are expected to take up as little space as possible. The oncoming bus will give you the space that you need, you can count on it, but not one bit more, and the only way the oncoming traffic on those narrow mountain roads will slow down is if there's not enough room for both to get past. There's a reason Fiat has built tiny cars in quantities of millions!

adv_round said:

Happy Birthday Gene!

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/186.html



I started documenting our travels about 10 years ago, when we first began taking long trips by motorcycle. Our earliest stories were shared with our family and friends to update them on where we were. It was only when I started posting our subsequent ride reports on the Internet that we received a flood of correspondence from people all over the world inviting us to visit them. We are still amazed and humbled at how many generous people there are out there who have offered to share their homes, garages and a hot meal with a couple of scraggly hobos like us!

On this trip, we feel very fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to meet some of these people, who have since become good friends. Unfortunately, because I am quite lazy and this blog lags far behind where we currently are, we receive many invitations only after we have already long passed through the area.


Bettina & Stefano caught us on our way back north

Bettina & Stefano sent us an invitation to visit them in Switzerland over a month ago while we were traveling through Italy. Fortunately, we were doubling back north to visit Neda's sister in Milan, so it didn't matter too much that the blog was behind.

My European geography sucks. I was originally going to e-mail them back saying that Switzerland was a bit too far off our path. Good thing I checked Google Maps... Lugano, where they live, is only an hour away from Milan, on the other side of the border. I don't feel too bad though, I'm sure many non-Canadians have no idea which provinces neighbour Nova Scotia.

Then again, I'm sure many Canadian's don't know either...


Bettina welcomes us into her home in Switzerland

The only things I knew about Switzerland were Swiss watches, army knives, chocolate, cheese and Martina Hingis (hubba hubba). Oh and Swiss bank accounts. Actually, I seem to know quite a fair bit about Switzerland. I also heard that it was a very rich part of the world. Northern Italy is pretty well-off compared to the rest of the country, but the minute we crossed the border, I saw a Ferrari 355 at a gas station. Less than five minutes later, a brand new California T whizzes pass us. Holywhut! I had no idea these were even on sale yet!

Also mountains all around us! The Swiss must have hired a really good negotiator when they were drawing up the borders because all the Italians got was land as flat as lasagna!


We were enticed to come to Switzerland by the promise of home-cooked meals!

Bettina prepared a great dinner for us that evening. Both her and Stefano used to work in the wine industry, so they brought out some fine vintages to help welcome us to their place. I thought back to all of the pictures that we posted in Italy of the cheap €1 bottles of red wine we were guzzling and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Or maybe it was all the good wine I was drinking that night!

The conversation flowed as much as the wine did. Our hosts are both avid motorcycle travelers as well and their last trip to the Isle of Man TT this summer was of great interest to us because we were thinking of doing the same thing as well! We exchanged travel stories and there was a lot of head nodding and amens going around the table. We were birds of the same feather, flocking together.

It felt really good to be able to speak English again, like I could feel myself slipping back into comfortable clothes - first time in Europe, really. Poor Bettina and Stefano, I think I talked their ears off. I'm not even sure what I was talking about towards the end of the night, English words were just spilling out of my mouth like a dam bursting.


Neda makes a nice pumpkin soup for us the next day!

Bettina and Stefano are treating us so well! We asked them to take us for a little ride around the area. Stefano started pulling out the maps of the Alps which is their default route, but we didn't really feel like going for too long of a ride so we asked them take us around the lake for the afternoon. We saw a little bit of it when we came in and it looked quite pretty.


Bettina and Stefano both ride GSes as well!

Little jaunt around Lago Maggiore


Don't have to ride too far to get some great scenery


Neda is happy because gas is so much cheaper here than in Italy!

Being so close to the border, Lugano experiences a lot of road congestion from the traffic coming and going from both countries. Swiss residents head into Italy for cheap shopping, and Italian workers commute in to Switzerland daily because that's where all the jobs are, and the gas is cheaper here.

Just like in Latin America, we were instructed to ditch our panniers so we can lanesplit if the traffic got bad. Sweet!


Both Bettina and Stefano took turns leading us around the area


Follow da leada, leada, leada, follow da leada


Making our way around Lago Maggiore

Ticino is the southern-most canton in Switzerland and is where Lugano is located. I keep calling it Tocino, but either Bettina or Stefano don't notice or they're just being polite. But Neda corrects me later on: Tocino means "bacon" in Spanish. OMG, so embarrassing... "You know, I really like Bacon. It's very beautiful. So, how cold does Bacon get in the wintertime?"


Hanging out at Laveno, waiting for the ferry

We crossed the border fairly early in the ride and it seemed to me like were actually doing more riding in Italy than Switzerland. "Hey, come on up to Switzerland so we can show you around the neighbouring country where you just came from!"


We actually got engaged in Switzerland - at Lake Lucerne back in 2002.
This picture kind of reminded me of that.


Waiting for the ferry


Honk if you love GeeSes!

Honk if you love GeeSes!


Bettina shops at the same place I do for motorcycle gear...


Bikes all ready for a quick ride across the lake


Turned out to be a great day for a ride!


Awww... we *LOVE* this picture of us! Thanks Bettina & Stefano!


Our Swiss Motorcycle Gang! Don't mess with us or we'll put holes in your cheese and slash your interest rates!

I used to lead a lot of group rides in the past, and I forgot what it felt like to just follow someone, trusting that they knew where they were going and to just sit back and enjoy the scenery and the curves ahead of my front wheel. And what scenery it was: beautiful lakeside-towns, mountains in the background, clear skies and the sun blessing our excursion on these twisty Swiss (Swissty?) roads.


Bettina takes us away from the lake to explore the hills a little bit


Farm tour


In this picture, I know we're still in Italy because Conad...

Conad is one of Italy's most popular convenience store/grocery chains. Because this trip is more about daily life in the places that we're visiting, we equate Conad with Italy, just like Mexico = Pemex, OXXO and Telcel. Also Conad sounds like Gonad.

I didn't come up with that, it was actually Neda who pointed it out. Everytime we'd pass a Conad, I'd wait for the intercom to come online so I could hear my wife giggle into my ear, "Gonad...! heh heh heh!" and then the intercom would turn off. Every single time.

My childish sense of humour is finally rubbing off on her.


Heading back to Switzerland after an awesome ride!

It was such a great afternoon of riding and spending time with our new friends, and also getting to see a bit of the area around Como and Lugano. We were making our way back, and on one of the hills I was accelerating and shifted up into fourth gear. I gave it some gas and... nothing. The engine revved loudly, but the bike didn't accelerate. I kept the revs up and slowly the motorcycle sped up to what the throttle was asking of it.

That's not supposed to happen...

I downshifted back into third. Acceleration seemed okay when the revs were up. Then I upshifted to fourth again and gave it some gas. Revs went up and again, that delay in acceleration as if my throttle was connected to a vehicle in front of me towing my motorcycle with a long elastic band.

uh oh...

Sounds like a weak spark, or fuel pressure? Could just be bad gas or dirty fuel filter. Is it hard starting? Might even be a loose throttle cable. It can't be much.

It always feels a little like Christmas morning when I open this thread and see there are updates from you guys. Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us!

When wheel speed doesn't follow engine rpm, the clutch plates have likely reached the end of their useful life. Unless that BMW has a fancy CVT mode... Europe has to be the best place in the world to break down with a GS. 90% of riders there own one! I hope you guys are on your merry way again. Northern Italy is motorcycle heaven as far as I'm concerned!

Thatf4iguy said:

It always feels a little like Christmas morning when I open this thread and see there are updates from you guys. Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us!

When wheel speed doesn't follow engine rpm, the clutch plates have likely reached the end of their useful life. Unless that BMW has a fancy CVT mode... Europe has to be the best place in the world to break down with a GS. 90% of riders there own one! I hope you guys are on your merry way again. Northern Italy is motorcycle heaven as far as I'm concerned!

Click to expand...

^ Going to have to agree with this in every aspect.

How many kms on Neda's new bike now since you started your "vacation"?

Thatf4iguy said:

Europe has to be the ̶b̶e̶s̶t̶ most expensive place in the world to break down with a GS.

Click to expand...

fixed.

Supernam said:

How many kms on Neda's new bike now since you started your "vacation"?

Click to expand...

I think she's up to around 73,000 kms.

Did you head towards Superprestigio ?

ze clutch ist kaput ...

With that sorted out ... you are getting into an area where I've been before!

The Splugenpass from Chiavenna IT to Splugen CH is really, really good. In fact, I ate lunch right here ... https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Lugan...oid=7E6elA-T_eVf-iVCvE9jQw&cbp=12,320.15,,0,0

The Albulapass from Tiefencastel to Zuoz is another good one - but there are SO many choices!

Speaking of which ... a few kilometers northwest of Chiavenna and on the Switzerland side, is the San Bernardino pass. E43 is the main motorway a little north of Lugano; the small road 13 next to it is the San Bernardino pass road ...

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/187.html



My clutch is fried like chicken in Kentucky.

I'm not that surprised. I've got close to 185,000 kms on the odo, which isn't bad life for a dry clutch. That's like 250,000 kms in wet clutch years!

I limped back to Lugano, taking care not to give too much throttle at low revs. I've heard clutches achieve total failure very quickly once they start to slip and I worried about making it back without a tow.

Back at home base, we surveyed our options. There was a BMW dealership nearby in Ticino, but Stefano told us it cost a lot to get their bikes serviced there. I could not have picked a more expensive place to break down! Stefano was in the middle of researching shops across the border in Italy to take their bikes to, and he told us that the one in Varese got good mention, so the next day, we dropped my bike off there to see what they could do.

On the ride over, the clutch started slipping at the bottom of third gear. I don't think I could have gone another 100 kms more before total failure.


My GS was a minor celebrity at the BMW dealership. It was the highest mileage bike they'd ever worked on!

Switzerland has four official languages, and Ticino is the predominantly Italian canton. I was so glad to have Stefano there with me at the dealership in Italy, conversing in Italian to describe my problem. They told us that it would take a few days to order the parts from Germany and another day or two to install the clutch. I also had a laundry list of other issues (10K service, broken hand warmer, leaking shaft drive) so I added those to the wishlist as well.

This meant that we were about to turn from invited houseguests into unexpected roommates...


Two-up ride to get some ice cream

Bettina's kids arrived a few days later and found their house bustling with new visitors!


What tastes better than ice cream? Someone else's ice cream!!!


I memorized the back of Stefano's helmet

We got Neda's bike serviced as well in Varese, which meant two extra trips for Stefano as he carried me back to Lugano on the back of his bike. Varese is only 30kms away from Lugano, but three trips in three days meant that I was doing a lot of staring at the back of Stefano's helmet. I'm not often a passenger, so I thought up of an invention: a periscope you could fit over the passengers visor so they could look *over* the rider's helmet as opposed to having to peer over their shoulder!

What do you think? I'm working on the Kickstarter site right now...


Look, autumn is here!

While Bettina is at work, we fill our days walking around the area, doing small hikes and picking up groceries. The weather has cooled rapidly in the time we've been here and we're surprised to see that the leaves are falling from the trees. We've not had to face an impending winter for a couple of years now so we need to formulate some kind of escape plan.


It's only been a few days and I'm already suffering from motorcycle withdrawal


Cats looooove motorcycle seats. Stefano loooooves Foo Fighters

Celebrating a Swiss holiday

One evening we took the kids outside to light some fireworks in celebration of a Swiss holiday. That night, I tried to look up on the Internet which holiday it was, but couldn't find any mention of anything this time of year. Stefano said tomorrow was another holiday and that we would be setting exotic cars on fire to celebrate. Ok!


With the kids egging us on, we all showed our hidden talents


Sneaky kids!


For someone who doesn't like birthdays, I was getting a lot of parties this year...

We're really enjoying our time here with Bettina and Stefano and the kids, but we're anxious not to overstay our welcome. The latest news from the dealership is that the fix is going to be delayed a few more days. We had originally planned to head back to Croatia because there were some matters Neda had to attend to with her mom's passing. Because it looked like my bike would not be ready for a while, Neda decided to go back to Pula by herself, while I stayed here in Switzerland.


Bettina's bike waiting for her to get back from work

I really liked hanging out with Bettina and Stefano. A few nights we played a game that I think we invented called Pass-The-Spotify. Spotify is a jukebox app on the smartphone where you can call up any song ever recorded.

You can tell a lot about a person from their song selections. Bettina played all the music I used to listen to while growing up, so I could tell that she and I were the same age: 29.

From Stefano's song selections, I could tell he reaaaaally liked the Foo Fighters.


You want a pizza me? I'll slice you!

Ticino is such a nice place to live in! I've been here over a week now, starting to get really comfortable. I'm thinking about calling the dealership to tell them to take their time with the repairs. Too bad I don't speak Italian...

It's almost *too* perfect here! I asked Bettina and Stefano if there was anything bad about their perfect little country? Bettina replied, "Well the politicians here are terrible.." What? They're terrible everywhere!


Even the trains are happy here...

They say that houseguests, like fish, start to smell after three days. So I made sure to take many long, hot showers every day. I even used Bettina's special bath soaps so I could smell extra-pretty. They looked kind of expensive.



"Hey Bettina, how do you make a Swiss Roll?"
"Well first you..."
"Wrong! You push him down a mountain! Har Har!"
"...!"


How do you make a Swiss Cross?
Ask them how you make a Swiss Roll...

Stefano has been calling the dealership three times a day for the last week demanding when my bike will be ready to pick up. That's so nice of him!

Glad you got that sorted.

Loved how Stefano is helping by calling the dealer 3 times a day lol

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/188.html

My bike is fixed!

I hopped on the back of Stefano's bike and we rode to Italy to pick up my motorcycle. The reason why it took so long is because they noticed my GS was still equipped with the old-style fuel pump controller which is a known defective part prone to failure. So they ordered the new replacement part from Germany and fixed it under warranty, which was really nice of them, since the warranty on my bike ran out years ago!

What was supposed to be a two-day visit in Switzerland turned out to be close to a two-week stay. I thanked Bettina and Stefano profusely for sheltering me while my bike was in the shop. They were so hospitable, friendly and helpful, they made me feel so at home at their place. I really hope to see them again soon.



I left pretty late in the day from Lugano and took the Autostrada all the way from Switzerland to Croatia. 600 kms flew by in a matter of a few hours. It makes you realize just how small Europe is, that you can ride through four countries in a single day. You can't even ride through Ontario in a day!

The days are getting so short! As soon as the sun set, the temperature dropped down to low single digits. The windchill while riding at 130 km/h forced me to put the heated electric liners on. First time since Alaska! We have gear to deal with the cold temperatures, but the imminent snow and ice will surely drive us southwards.

When I crossed the border from Slovenia to Croatia, I used my British passport for the very first time in my life. Since Croatia joined the EU, the guard just glanced at my document and waved me through. And here I was all ready to do my, "Bond, James Bond" impression...

Pretty cool just waltzing through though. I felt very European. Riding into Pula, into familiar surroundings again, I was hit with a sense of returning from a long journey. This was the first time in years that we had left a place and then returned back, as if it was a home of sorts. Neda still has to sort out some of her mom's affairs after she passed away this summer, so we are staying put here for awhile.


Trevor visits us in Pula! Photo by Iva

We first met Trevor at the Horizons Unlimited meeting in California back October 2012. Since then, we've kept in touch and our paths have crossed on the Stahlratte between Panama and Colombia in April 2013 and now he's in Europe with us, so we're hosting him in Pula while he decides where to go next.

We're all part of a network of Round-The-World motorcycle travelers and it's not unusual to say to someone, "See you in Europe next year!" or "Meet you in Croatia in a couple of months!"...


Day trip to Rovinj

Iva and Tajana once again take up the mantle of Istrian tour guides. But since we have motorcycles this time, Trevor, Neda and I all follow on two wheels. The first stop of the day is the tourist port-town of Rovinj.


Oooh, pretty bottles of olive oil...

Neda pulls me aside and tells me that these aren't the good olive oil, they're the crappy blend that they sell to tourists who don't know any better. "But the bottles are so pretty! It's got the name of the town on it and everything!"


Collision course.


Balbi's Arch

Rovinj used to be a fortified town due to the conflict between the Turks and the Venetians. In the 17th century, the gate of the town as well as the walls were pulled down and this arch was erected in its place. On one side of the arch is the head of a Turk and on the other side is the head of a Venetian.


Scootin' around Rovinj


Hanging out with Trevor

Waving to fellow motorcyclists

The geography in Istria is described using colours. There are three main area: "White" Istria are the mountain peaks, "Grey" Istria is the fertile soils of the interior and "Red" Istria describes the red clay soil along the coastlines, suitable for vineyards. You can see the red soil in the picture above, it's similar to the red earth in Prince Edward Island (Canada).


Our next stops, the ruins in Dvigrad


What remains of Dvigrad Castle, constructed in the 11th century


Dvigrad was abandoned in the 17th century due to a pest and malaria outbreak

The only pests that hang out in Dvigrad now are tourists.


Back on the road!


Some of the trees have already shed their leaves for the season, which reminds me we should be leave-ing soon too...


Neda found a feather duster. And she is whistling to it...?

Our last stop for the day is a little town on top of a hill called Draguc.


Cat watches as tourists clad in motorcycle gear wander around her village


Everyone is so beat from racing all over Istria, we take a little nap.
Except for Trevor, who looks to be attempting to break into this building...

My friends are such bastardos. Since I was the first one to fall asleep, I could hear them in my sleep giggling and taking pictures of me, but I was too tired to wake up and yell at them.


Heading back home, lots of Autumn colours on the way


Neda is so happy to be exploring her old country on two wheels


Tajana poses on the back of Neda's bike

Trevor left after spending almost a week with us. He was off to explore the rest of Croatia. Pula was experiencing some heavy rainfall, so we worried a bit about his trip. But on the other hand, we now had the place to ourselves again! It's been a very social time for us lately, either being guests or hosts for nearly a month now and I was missing some serious Pants-Off-Time. You know, when you walk through the door of your house, and then immediately take off your pants so you can walk around the place in your underwear? I know you know what I'm talking about...

I know you do.

Merry Christmas you two. Lots love from your canuck friends!

Thanks meme! Merry Christmas to you too!