The Euro Trip....

[CMSMJ1]

Cheers dude... Wine is the shizz an I am probably going to get a bottle opened as I finish writing this up tonight!!

Anyways...onto Day 5.

Day 5 – Wednesday – Saint-Pierre D’Argencon to Saint Martin Vesubie (and a mad dash to the sea and getting lost in Nice and Monaco!!)

So, Day 5 was on us and we had the Alps in sight and the prospect of hitting the Med in only 5 days of cruising across France. We had learned again that the twisty roads are knackering and very time consuming so it was up and at them, pack the tents and bags and get going. We were getting very fast with our campsite admin..could get it all up or down in half an hour and on the bikes.

It was bloody hot, again, but we were not quite learning to sack the leathers as we were still sensible enough to be scared of falling off.

So, down through Aspres and into Gap again…some more awesome roads and a bit more kilo delta action for me. I was loving the riding and the roads. Great holiday and strange to think that less than a week ago we were getting soaked in Sheffield and now we were about to start into the Alps and end up only 50 miles from the sea!!

Some serious lovely scenery…
This is the large lake/reservoir at Savines Le Lac – we crossed the bridge and rode down the sides of it..











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We then hit the valley and was on the road to Barcelonnette and the scenery and the roads were just getting more and more mental.




We arrived at Barcelonnette an stopped for some food and petrol. Getting very excited about the prospect of the Col de Bonet which is a 2800 metre pass in the Alps. Famous shit..

Riding up the roads were just too cool…flowing corners and around hairpin to hairpin. We stopped on the way up for some pictures.











Walking to the summit was a killer…
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This is the other side of the mountain…the Mediterranean side!


I did have some bother on the Col as when we wanted to get going again the Ninja was not having it. Tried to bump it and ended up rolling down over a mile seeing if it would bump. The altitude was playing havoc with the carbs and so it did finally get going the lower I went. After that, I just caned it as Grandad had already fecked off and was on the top….Once on the top the bike did restart and we got radical and hoofed it back down the hills…heading to St Martin Vesubie!





So…we arrived in St Martin Vesubie and set up the tents. It was now 6 O’clock an we’d been riding on the roads from 9 that morning. In a fit of immense retardedness I persuaded Grandad that as we were close enough to the Med then why not just get radical and ride to Monaco without panniers. It was 50 miles away..so we could get there in an hour or so?? Surely! What could go wrong….??

We set off and without the gear on the bike we had a great time. It was cool Like a computer game with little tunnels hewn from the rock and rivers an slow coaches in the way. We were riding like fools but it was such a buzz and we flew down the mountain side and onto the main drag into Nice. Holy shit…what a ballache. Traffic was slow, the heat was intense and because Grandad is a regular meals kind of guy he was slowly turning into a murderous hungry dude…

Once in Nice town centre (or rather massive city) we followed signs for “Nice: Cote D’azur” as I was thinking this would lead us the right way.. As it happened we ended up at the sodding airport which is the wrong direction to the planned Monaco session. We stopped for fuel and a bit of an argument about this being a stupid idea and where the fuck were we going to go…

By a trial and error basis, in what seemed 50 degree heat, we managed to land on the A8 toll road..signed for Monaco!!

We paid the couple euros to get on the road and whizzed down

The Grimaldi Palace…Monaco.

Even better..



The Mediterranean!! Woohoo..from Sheffield to the Med in 5 days. Awesome.

So, we were now in Monaco, starving to death, sick of riding and ready to kill each other. It was now nearly 8 O’clock and we were thinking what we might do for food…we blagged a table, dressed in sweaty leathers, in a posh restaurant and without talking to each other we ordered some food. I had some Veal…Grandad a steak and a beer.

We ate in silence…as Grandad was about to kill someone as he had no ciggies too…but when he got a pack of Marlboro red he was chilled and once the food and a pint had taken effect we began to worry about finding our way back into the mountains as it went dark.

Looking at our shit map we thought going back via Menton on the Italian side was a better idea than getting lost in Nice again…. So at about 9 O’clock we set off…and promptly got lost and decided we had better go back the way we came. Arse biscuits.

More riding along the coast roads and we somehow got on a road to Nice that was not the road we came in on. In Nice we didn’t have a clue and ended up riding down into a toll road which we knew woul take us back the wrong way. We turned our lights off, turned around and pegged it back up the slip road…sketchy and worried about the rozzers and being crashed into! We got back out and decided to find some people and ask them.
First couple we saw were on a roundabout having an argument….a guy and a girl having a proper domestic. So I butted in and asked how we get to Vesubie..the dude laughed and gave us the crazy finger gesture. It was now 10 O’clock and we were mightily pissed off. He told us to get on the road and keep going until we see a sign for some village..and then turn right. That was the road to Vesubie and it would be 2hrs travel. Bollocks! As it happens, we got lost again and asked another couple who told us we were on the right route.

Again, we rode like totally stressed out idiots…carving the roads and with main beams showing the way we had the frustration of being miles from a warm sleeping bag and a cold beer.. We made it back to St Martin Vesubie at 2355. There was a local bar in the village and we caned 2 Stellas in the 5 minutes before it closed. Trying not to wake the rest of the campsite we rolled back down and got set for some kip.

That day was a very high point in seeing the sea but a low point as I had taken us on a stupid trip to Monaco and wasted 6hrs. We were in Monaco itself for maybe 1 hour..the rest was riding about being angry and lost. The worst part….the next morning we were going to Monaco anyways so we should have left it….

[CMSMJ1]

Day 6 – Thursday – St Martin Vesubie to Pisa, via Monaco

Waking up at 0600 in St Martin Vesubie and we were wrecked. We knew we had a 300 mile ride to complete today an we would be in Pisa tonight. That was a cool feeling indeed. We decided to kick back for an hour and Grandad went to explore St Martin Vesubie village while I was having a shower and sorting my packing out.

It was a nice town. Very narrow and basically straddling a small peak.




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Sorry about the links, Grandad got all arty and made the pictures tall! Worth clicking them as it is a lovely little village and if any of you are planning to ride to Italy I suspect you will come this route.

We raced back down the roads we did yesterday when we were knackered. Having effectively a third pass at them made it seem like we knew the place already. We nailed the run into Monaco and got there in about an hour and twenty. This is where the trouble began….

It was bloody busy in Monaco – cars tailbacked everywhere and scooters all over the spot. Filtering was the order of the day but I had slightly wider panniers that Grandad and as we got to the same place we parked the night before I lost him. Shit. We had not fitted our crappy intercoms as the heaphones in G’s had failed. We both only had 1 bar of phone power left and so I resolved to ride around and see if I could catch or find G before too long.

The sun was blasting down, the roads were snided with traffic. I was wearing my leathers still. All of this was a recipe for industrial sized ballache. As it happens I managed to turn a few laps in on the F1 circuit which I was happy about;. I am a big time F1 fan – more so than pretty much anything else. To ride the road down to Mirabeau and onto the hairpin and then round Portier was too cool. The tunnel was nice an shaded as well.

I rode around for 45 minutes doing lots of laps and trying to see were the fuck Grandad had gone to. We finally caught each other on the phone. So I asked him where he was…and he was telling me he was near the boats. Quite useful…seeing as it is a fucking great big harbour! I asked some more..what could he see? What pub was he near? Eventually it turned out he was about 300 yards away and was also riding round. I took a few pics of where I was and then went to get him!




So..we now had 250 miles to cover and it was lunchtime…what a ballache.

We flew out of Monaco, a few pics on the roads and then we were onto a toll road that was signed Genova – bonus!








This one on the autoroute – the first proper motorway we had used.

It was awesome – through tunnels and over gorges and valleys. I was getting sick of the tunnels by the time we had been through the 100th one..they were full of fumes and made you feel sleepy in the dark. Not cool.


We stopped in Italy for lunch and some fuel. Grandad trying to be cool..
Before..


After


Tyres were still hanging on…

Grandads was getting thin but I never took a pic. Have one later on.

More nice roads and 90mph photos!



Off the motorway after munching the miles and we had to pay the tolls..


Holy shit..It was EUR38 or thereabouts..Jesus! Was not expecting that as the other smaller roads we had used were 2 bucks..


A few hours later we rolled into Pisa and managed to run into Steve (Vfrman) outside the leaning tower. It was funny as we had agreed to meet out front of the Duomo square an so being completely boggled by the mad filtering skills and aggressive driving required in town we bimble along looking for the tower. We never saw the tower at all, but Grandad noticed a dude on a very very pimp NC30. There is only one bike like this on the planet..so it had to be Steve!

We had a quick crack…and escaped to follow Steve back to his gaff.

Couple of crap riding pics..



And there you go..we had made it to Pisa!

A howdy ho from Sojay (how is it spelled Steve?) Lovely hound indeed..a real classy pooch.




Steve and Grandad becoming acquainted.

We had a crack and it was really good to meet our host for the next 2 nights. The prospect of a rest and a day off from riding was relaxing indeed. We stuck the tents up in our new, extremely lush garden/campsite and went to get some food.





A trip to the local pizzeria to get some much needed food, a few bottles of beer and we sat and watched the racing from last week!

The next day we were going to get out for a ride with Steve’s mates in the Army riding club. Cool!

[hipringle]

This just gets better, I,m so green with envy, well ~I<m not really, its jealousy but I dont know how to spell it.

The photos are absolutely breathtaking, I loved day 5,s antics, cant imagine you ever loseing your cool Mark lol!

[CMSMJ1]

Day 7 – Friday – In and around Pisa.
We woke up and had a bit of brekkie. Checked out the tyres on the bikes as Grandad was getting worried about his. The rear Maxxis was getting thinner by the day and we now had to ride northways and home.


Mine were pretty good still.



Anyway..tyres are boring!

Steve wanted to take us out for a ride and we would then hook up with his posse later on if they got in touch. So a quick ride to the local coffee shop for a sarnie and a coffee (and a pistachio ice cream)


Steve on his trusty Fireblade rather than the oh so pukka NC30.

A ride for a bit more and we saw some nice old buildings..



A quick nip in the local hardware shop for some citronella sticks and anti Mozzie candles.
 




We did manage to hook up and go for a ride with the USA crew. A random and mixed bunch. We had the sports bike crew, 848, mille, GSXR750s etc. We had the chopper guys too – some really cool bikes and and all the guys were very good to have a crack with.
It was unsaid, but there was a touch of UK vs USA riding competition in the air as Steve agreed to ride at the rear as a tailgunner and me and Grandad slotted in near the front end and followed the guys out of Pisa and out into a twisty, badly surfaced forest road up a bloody big hill!!

We had only been riding a few miles, getting some good roads in and we came to a set of hairpin bends that were pretty steep.





Unfortunately our man on the pristine white 848 had lowsided!! Nightmare. The bike would not start again and so after 10 mins of mooching about offering a straight swap for my Ninja we finished the ride to the top of the hill and the local café there. A bit of water and some munch an we chewed the fat with our American cousins for an hour. Sharing bike stories and the usual shit that dudes waffle on about. Steve came up later and told us they were giving up on the 848 for onw and would come get it in the truck later.
We got our shit together and finished the ride down the backside of the mountain. By this time I was getting very keen to catch and pass all the guys..like you do. So, engaged my balls and got riding faster and overtook a few guys and caught the fast pair at the front although I never got past them, it was good fun playing and trying to catch them up.

We split up as we were going to go see the tower and get some tat bought for the wife.







Pisa is a nice place. Bloody busy and the riding style to get around on the streets was crazy. I thought I could filter but some of the moves I saw were mad. I was getting filtered past while I was filtering myself! It seemed that the further south we went the road manners and attitude was getting more and more mental. In England we are able to ride to a roundabout and see if we would have right of way. We’d slow a bit and then dive on. In Pisa you woul have to get onto the roundabout as soon as you got there, regardless of anything else. Mad buggers..

We went back home, via an ice cream shop…had some of the nicest ice cream ever! We also saw the American posse getting back out in the truck to go and pick up the 848.

Back home…I wanted to get a look at Steve’s NC30. Most of us old skool 400GB crew remember When Steve was in Japan and was getting this bike together and also when he moved back home for a couple years and gave it the pimpest paintjob I’ve ever seen. Steve is a dedicated chap. Behold the most tasty NC30 I have ever seen…and I have seen a few!


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Awesome.

That evening Steve had arranged a BBQ and his neighbours and mates came round. It was a good crack and both Grandad and I really enjoyed talking to the guys and gals and the food was damn tasty too! Steve’s wife made some dressing that was just lovely.

A funny thing was talking to the American kids. They did not know why I spoke English if I was not from America. Obviously the language they spoke was made in the USA….I thought it was pretty funny and so I gave them a history lesson starting with the development of the language from the old Latin and Nordic tongues that the Anglo-saxons and the Danes managed to meld with the old Norman French into the common English tongue we had today. I educated them about the pilgrim fathers being from England..and this is why they spoke English..the ids thought I was strange.
Another thing to note was that our esteemed host thought he could drink a lot of beer…me and Grandad, having llived in Barrow, can out drink most species of fish and so the beer stocks took a hammering.
A great day out and I have to say thanks to Steve and his wife for having me and Grandad over. Anytime you are over here in the motherland..you are most welcome to crash at my house, crash my bikes and I’ll take you round Cadwell Park and for a run in the Peak District.

The next day we were planning to ride to Lake Garda…and away from running water, great hosts and the comfiest lawn I’ve ever kipped on!

[CMSMJ1]

Day 8 – Saturday – Pisa to Lake Garda

After a load of beer and tasty food we woke up feeling chipper enough. Steve made the coffee and we decided on our escape route to cross the country and travel north and towards home!

A week into the holiday and already we were going back. That sucked.

The roads out from Pisa and across the Appennines are too cool. Not as well surfaced as France but more like the UK roads in permanent 30+ degrees sunshine.


In fact, I need to thakn Steve for saving my arse and loaning me a tea bag jacket for the ride yesterday and for the rest of the holiday. Proper life saver!

We were climbing all the time and there were loads of tree lined hairpins and flat out sweepers. Great riding.

We stopped most of the way up for some lunch as we wanted to get a good long afternoon of distance covered.


We carried on, across the middle of Italy and headed for Modena and past Maranello.


Slowly but surely the Alps came closer and we were soon thinking ahead to sticking the tents up and getting a beer..










As you can see, lovely weather and blazing sunshine. We liked Italy.

The general vibe of the trip was that we were getting better at covering distance and managing our fuel stops. Grandad was not managing any jnee down yet but by now I had nailed France and Italy and was looking forwards to hitting the sliders on the deck in each of the countries coming up.
Grandad did manage to pull a sneaky little wheelie though which I never did so I’ll give him props for that.



All of a sudden, the lake was here. Fuck me, a bloody large old lake this.












What a kickass place. Another one I will have to come back to and bring the lady wife. Grandad gets a hard on for mountains and gets giddy over lakes (as he is a Cumbrian lad) and so to see the size of this place was making him bonkers. It is such a magnificent and overwhelming location. Huge mountains and a lake you could drown Leeds in! We threw up our tents and went to get a few beers and some food.

This was actually a funny affair. The only place nearby was a few minutes up the road and so we got over there, got a table for two..(nice) and was looking for a menu when the waiter came to ask whether we wanted pasta this, gnocchi that or the antipasti first. We asked to see the menu to be told there is no menu..so what do we want. I hear them say some pasta piccolo or whatever and grandad heard something to do with cheese. We also bought a bottle of loval vino and sat back wondering what we were about to get served.
The venue was rammed with tables and guests. All under a large tarpaulin an closely packed. Next to us was a dude – Like “Bruno” who was with what we thought was his sister and his girlfriend. It was clear that they all spoke English as a common language and this Bruno dude was such a prick. He never shut up..blah blah blah. The people on the other side were also getting bored of this dude talking shit about everything and so in a comedy moment that crossed language boundaries we got a proper chuckle on and mocked this Bruno tosser mercilessly. He knew it, we knew it..it was funny.

Food arrived…pasta and sauce for me, nice. Gnocchi and blue cheese sauce for Grandad. Nasty. We also got a jam jar of raw veg and some bread with various dips and some Nutella! I have had some crazy food before but this was just strange. After we had the pasta they brought a load of meats. Parma ham and so on. Yum..


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For afters they brought a bottle of Limoncelli and a bottle of Strawberry liquor too. They got caned in short order and was actually tasty.


The random meal was cheap – 14 bucks each I think…bargain and very strange.

It had gone dark so we went to get some beers and chilled out.





Lake Garda is a good place. I thought that was one of the nicest places we stayed out but by then it was feeling a touch unreal that we were in Monaco 2 days ago…

The next day was another long day – We were planning to go over the Stelvio Pass and into Austria and thence Germany. No idea where in Germany as this is where our planning stopped.

[CMSMJ1]

Day 9 – Sunday – Lake Garda to The Bodensee

Well..this was going to be a serious day. We would be crossing the Alps via the Stelvio Pass which is about as famous as an Alpine Pass can be.

We got up, slightly hungover, and did our daily ablutions.

I loved this Slashgrind station. I had a go on one of these for a dump too..they work.


The scenery out of town was amazing as we headed around the top of the lake and down to hook up to the road to Bormio which is at the base of the Stelvio Pass.










More sweet roads and the Dolomites to play in saw me and Grandad ragging it and getting some great overtakes on each other. We stoped for some fuel at an automatic gaff and while I was having a piss round the back a middle aged woman turned up and was asking Grandad to fil her car for her. It was pretty funny…she was giving orders to him an blowing kisses taking the piss. He did it as well..proper pump jockey for an old Italian woman!!



Saw a little lizard too…the wife loves them



We pressed on but after a while we realised that there were not enough photos being taken and the scenery was stunning so we grabbed these..










We rode through Madonna di Campaglio which is where the Ferrari and Ducati team have their winter playing out. It was obviously not snowing so the place looked rough as toast..bare concrete hotels and bare slopes.

The highlight of the holiday, for me, in terms of road riding was about to happen anyways.

We were about to hit the SS42 – the Passo do Tonale

Bugger me. This road had it all. It was smooth, wide and had all the corners you needed. What made it special for me was that Grandad and I had caught up a 10-12 strong group of Italian riders right at the bottom and as I was leading we picked them off one at a time. There was a bit of roadwork and so we were able to catch the leaders of that group. When we set off again all ut the leader waved us by and so I was going faster and faster trying to put a move on the leader of this Italian group. He was riding a Tuono with a lass on the back an I managed to pass him out of a corner in a pretty commited overtake. I knew that I had clear roads due to the roadworks and looking ahead of me I could see the road snaking up the mountain. It was just superb. Our friend on the Tuono was chasing me closely and half wheeling me at some corners so I went faster and faster. He also went faster and faster until the pair of us had left the other bikers for dead and were carving the mountain side. I had not really been head to head like this before on the road and it was obvious to us both that we were serious. Really serious. There was a set of corners with plastic sticks on the apex and I was riding so hard that they were my targets. Brushed them with my hands, my shoulders and my panniers as I was going ever faster an riding at least as hard as I had to when I won my first roadstocks race! It was so thrilling and I don’t think I have ever ridden like that before or since.
The road began to plateau as we got on the crest of the pass. The Tuono guy was still there, nearly overtaking me about a mile before we got up to the top but I carried more corner speed through the next corners and made 3 or 4 bike lengths on him. Saw the road straighten up and we both rolled off a bit and started to slow. I was going to stop to wait for Grandad as I had just ridden 15 minutes at 100% speed and without sucking my own dick I knew that I was as fast as anyone up that road that day! As I slowed to the kerb the Tuono guy was waving at me and came alongside. We were shakling hands like the end of a GP and he was talking in Italian at me. I could not understand and said so..and then in a moment that really made my day (and holiday)
“You are a verrrryy good riiddeerrrr” (in a Valentino style vocal) Fucking right! I told him how much fun that was and he shook my hand some more and zoomed off.

I was buzzin. Went to park up at the enormous war memorial and waited for Grandad.







We stopped for some coffee and a butty and I was telling Grandad about my racing with the dude an what he said.. Grandad had a bit of a chase and then decide he wasn’t feeling mad enough to come with us and was happy enough to beat the rest of the other Italian riders.

So, now we were close to the Stelvio…a blast into Bormio which was a busy town with a lot of pukka cars and loads of touring motorbikes. It was a friendly place indeed.

More awesome scenery and even a train we chased..







Mr Gay UK…wannabe at the end of Bormio town and the start of the Stelvio Pass.


This is the Italian side




That is me!!



This is the Swiss side


It was a shit road and I did not enjoy it as much as Grandad did as I was not feeling the love for the trillion hairpins and really poor road surface. It is a road I would recommend for the views and the mental amount of corners but as a riding experience it was slow, sketchy and plainly abused by coaches and uber fit cyclists.

We met a guy on top of the Stelvio who was riding a KLR600? And had been on the road for ever. He was on the way back from Ukraine and was probably unimpressed by our 8 days away from UK story when he had been away for 6 months…

Anyhow..we were on top of the Alps an needed to figure out where to get to and find somewhere to camp. The run off the tops was better than the way up. We got down and we already felt the weather changing from boiling hot to a more northern European style of cloudy and gloomy

We got a mission on and decided to aim for Germany and the Bodensee on the border of Austria and Switzerland.. That was a couple hundred miles and so we hit up a few larger roads and even paid a 15 buck toll to travel in a bloody long tunnel under a mountain. The worst part of that was when we came out the other side..and it was raining!! That morning it was 35 degrees in Italy and now it was about 10 degrees and raining…that sucked arse.

We arrived in Bodensee, camped in a really naff site but managed to get some Currywurst and wheat beer so all good. We arrived, ate, drank, went to sleep…got up, packed up and fucked off. No pics at all!!

So, from a sunny Italy through gloom Switzerland and rainy Austria – with knee down in both – to land in Germany…what a long and tiring day.

[cbr400rrn]

Excellent keep um coming Loving the links to google maps

[CMSMJ1]

Wil do man..we are nearly done as byt the time we landed in the Bodensee we were beginning to run out of money and the weather had turned from lovely summer hols to gloomy and raining.

I am liking the url links too..thought I had better learn how to do them for the trip!!

Some wicked roads and a great crack.

Next stop is Heidelberg....and a major piss up!

[nc23rider]

Hi mark,is your mate grandad related to rob who you did the NBC race with ?
if not he must be some sort of long lost relative as he's a dead ringer,or is it just my shit eye sight LOL.
The trip sounds superb,and im very envious of you and your mate as i read it,i've always wanted to go touring,
but the mates i USE to ride with on the road are notorious for fucking off and leaving people [and with my piss poor sense of direction that would not be too good when abroad] when ever i ride on the road with other people
[which is not very often LOL] i always say if we get split up just keep going straight ahead and do not turn off on to any roads,the lead rider stops at the next junction/roundabout and the rest will catch/meet up at the same place.
If i race against you next year,can you make your overtakes on me wide ones,as it sounds like you've turned in to a bit of a nutter LOL.
REGARDS,STEVE.

[Hadies]

Excellent read. Thanks!
Gotta go on one of these someday.