Munich, Germany, D

Munich, D

Munich is a Mega City. It is a gateway and we used it as such. We stopped here only out of habit. Once you have seen the inner city, once you understand the vibes that run through the place it is a concept you will never forget. Munich is nice but it’s a business town; similar to Frankfurt or Hamburg. We took a hotel on the outskirts and used the train to get to the center. The train service is fantastic in Germany, always on time, always clean and predictable. The train station into the city was a 2 minute walk from the hotel BM Bavaria and so travelling in or around Munich was made easy. It is the best way to go should you ever visit. Use their public transportation system.

We had rain so walking was not much fun; still we visited the downtown area, saw the Glockenspiel again, had some nice German meals, and even took the hour double Decker bus visitor’s tour. But….. we have been here before; we knew a lot of stuff. It was like visiting an old friend. It was comfortable.  I scheduled this stop in Munich to get our bearings after our ride through Eastern Europe. We made a big loop, leaving Heidelberg going east, then all the way south, west and now north again to almost finish. All we have to do is get back to Heidelberg but that is no issue at all. The German road system is fantastic and predictable. We could have made it from Innsbruck in one go. But we needed to stop. 

The Open Air Market In Munich 

I contacted Stefan Knopf and he said, yes he has room for us, is looking forward to seeing us again, but he asked us to not mind him, he is packing, he is short on time, he is preoccupied because he and his family (9 people) are going on a 9 month world trip. Wow! I felt a bit like an intruder, I did not really want to interrupt in his preparations but we had no choice, we have to drop off our bikes at his place in Heidelberg. That is where we store our bikes in Europe. So a bit reluctantly, after sorting ourselves out in Munich, and yes, still with rain, we rode the few hours to Heidelberg.

When we arrived at Stefan’s he had hardly any time to wave to us, he was packing a container with his motorcycles and his truck that he was shipping to South America. He himself would take off going to South Africa first, following his container later. He is and was a busy man, well maybe even too busy. We could only stay one night at his place but due to his trip, there was no breakfast included. Stefan’s place was humming and very busy. We slept in his main house, not in his attached B&B, our bikes, as soon as we arrived were stored in his warehouse, which is a bit further away, in town. I felt rushed. We had just enough time to stow our gear, there was no time to clean our bikes, no time to prep the bikes, change the oil, add fuel additives, etc. Stefan’s was a mad house.  Not only was Stefan preparing for his trip but his oldest son Christopher was setting up for his 19^th birthday party. You cannot image the amount of food, drinks, music and people that were coming to celebrate. Carol and I did not attend that party, we withdrew and slept instead. I was right, we were intruding on Stefan’s good nature, and we did not pick a good time to return to his place, it was too hectic. We rushed around and did what we could with our stuff and luggage and felt rushed to leave. We had really no choice, either; we had to re-deposit our bikes, too. The stop at Stefan’s was needed but not very pleasant, despite the Pizza dinner we were invited to on the day of our arrival. Stefan is a nice guy; it was just us traipsing on his turf when we should not have been there. 

Over the Alps in October

Over the Alps in October

From Pompeii one can ride directly to Germany but it would be a very long day; that would be for Iron Butt Riders, not for me. While Carol has her Saddle Sore1000, I am no longer interested in chasing miles.  Sure I rode huge distances (Daytona to Boston) in a day, but like I said, I don’t like riding that way any longer. Nor do I like to race. I ride my 6 to 7 hours a day, then call it quits. We made it to Ponzano, North of Rome the first day, after leaving in the afternoon from Pompeii. Then from Ponzano we made it to Campogalliano. 

We found a hotel that was highly rated at Bookings and had an attached restaurant which was, we saw, heavily visited by many locals. You can’t always trust the ratings. The restaurant had an ‘air’ about itself that bordered on snobbish. Sorry, but I was totally not impressed. I have seen many ‘impressive’ acting restaurants in my life and some were without substance. This was one of those. The pasta soup Carol had was way too salty and the breakfast we received the next morning even had rancid butter; the bread was as hard as Survival Tack. I could not wait to leave this place. I do not like snobs. 

We rode another day until we got to Innsbruck and stayed outside Innsbruck (Zirl) because I did not want to ride the Brenner Pass late in the afternoon, just in case there is some frost on the road and maybe even snow. It rained all the way to boot, and rain could turn to snow at night. It sure was getting colder. At Innsbruck we had 43 F, so we sure had left the warmer southern lands. Finding a hotel in Innsbruck is easy if you have unlimited funds. I chose to stay in the small town of Zirl, just west of the large city and it turned out to be almost a private home we slept in. The hotel was very clean, very organized, with a great breakfast. We are now in Austria.

I like that the currency in Europe is in Euros. No longer do we have to change all kinds of money to travel across Europe. The Euro is great, it sure makes traveling easier. We rode through Austria instead of Switzerland because it is cheaper going this way. Switzerland would ask us to buy a Vignette for the whole year even though we were just passing through. Switzerland charges per person in a room, not for the room itself. Switzerland has their own currency and we would have to exchange funds. Switzerland is just too expensive and too cumbersome to travel in.

After we woke up at Haus Bergland (our Hotel) we finally set off to ride the Brenner Pass and across the Dolomites, part of the Alps. The day is very misty. Not sure if the clouds are this low or if it is fog. The Brenner Pass is an old, very old, very big and very much traveled Pass through the Alps. Not even so high, only 1370 Meters (about 4000 feet) but yes, we had snow. We had slush in the local streets when we left Zirl and snow left and right of the highway that winds itself over the mountains, but snow it is. One can slide in snow even if it is only minimal, it is sleek stuff. Riding across bridges, while travelling the local roads I slowed down and kept the bike perfectly level. Ice forms here quicker than anyplace else. The road was wet, so it was hard if not impossible to see ‘black ice’. I chose the Brenner Pass because it was the lowest pass, because it is heavily traveled, because it is well maintained and all the cars and trucks would have left a groove in the snow for us to ride in.

Yup! Snow And It Is Cold 

All my (over)planning worked out OK for us. We arrived and made it to Munich without a crisis. Not that Munich was so warm and it rained in Munich, too but we are over the hump. From now on it is just getting back to Heidelberg to store our bikes. 

Pompeii, Italy, (I)

Pompeii, Italy, (I)

To ride from Brindisi to Pompeii means riding across Italy from East to West, it can be done in one day. We used the Autostrada, the Super Slab Highway System in Italy. It’s a toll system and it is not cheap. You can figure between US $30 to $40 per day. They charge by distance so it all depends how many miles you ride. 

We started off in dry conditions but then it started to rain, it is now October, and so the nice and sunny days seem to be gone. Still we are glad this is not snow. We are too far South in Italy to get snow this early. Riding North? That is another question and that is why we do not want to diddle along now. The ride today was rainy, we got soaked. The traffic was typically Italian, a bit pushy, cars trying to share the same lane with you, almost bumping you off the road. It is a bit freaky since we are not used to it, but in general they are good drivers, they just drive differently than in other countries. The speed limit on the Autostrada is 130 km per hour but Carol’s bike does not like this speed. We puttered along at 118 km and all was fine. If we went even just a bit over our set speed, let’s say 120, then her bike started to buzz. She rides a single cylinder bike (2002/GS650) and the motor on this bike is just not made to ‘race’. It’s a great bike but not a racer. Riding in Italy is again a learning curve; it seems each county has developed their own style of using the roads. The Autostrada is a good highway system, trucks keep to the right side of the 2 lane road and the traffic moves at a good clip. We made it to Pompeii.

Pompeii Excavation Today 

Lots Of Locals In The Streets 

I have never been to this famous old town and it’s just one of the things to see on this Earth. Never mind that we needed to get north and over the Alps. Carol and I did our best to get to Pompeii early but it was 5.30 PM by the time we arrived at our hotel in Pompeii; too late to visit the excavations, and too late to visit a museum. We parked our bikes in the back of the hotel under fig and lemon trees, behind an iron fence. The bikes were secure. To find the hotel meant riding around the block once because it was not an obvious Hotel to find. Hotel Iside was within walking distance of the Pompeii Archaeological Site, a good location.

The day of arrival we just visited the local cathedral and since it was Sunday, the church was jam packed with believers. I knew that Italy is very catholic, very religious, but it still left me a bit surprised to see so many people in the large space of the cathedral, especially since this was for the afternoon services.

The town (the modern Pompeii) had lots of people in the streets, lots of small groups standing around, young people just chatting away, older men sitting on benches watching the going on, women sharing a story, it was happy town life. Yes we were the visitors, but most of the people we saw seemed to be locals on this late Sunday afternoon.

We ate dinner someplace, trying hard not to find a tourist spot, yet I am sure most businesses here live off the crowds that come to see Pompeii. The food we received was good but the service? Getting the appetizer at the same time as the main dish? I don’t understand, but we did not come here to eat well, we came here to see what, so long ago, was a living city during Roman times.

I expect you all know that on a fateful summer morning in A.D. 79 Mount Vesuvius buried the vibrant Roman city of Pompeii—and many of its citizens—beneath tons of volcanic ash and debris.

Please READ this part of National Geographic:  t will give you a good idea of what happened…..     

Vesuvius In The Background 

Today many people have a visit to Pompeii on their bucket list. It is a worth-while place to visit.

It is difficult to describe one’s feelings when stepping into the exhibition park like we did the next day. The ashes that fell on the terrible day in AD 79 covered up most of the city but most have since been removed by archaeologists. After removal of the pumice all that was left were the ruins. The ruins of Pompeii give a clear view of what life was like then. It seems like a stopped watch. All life stopped at once. Everything was preserved at a given hour. Vines that grew, trees that bloomed, people that lived, dogs, cats, horses, all of it, was frozen in time, in space; and was preserved to a degree. The scientists can tell what variety of grapes were grown then, what kind of fruit trees were in their gardens, what people did when the catastrophe hit. The attack of the mountain was aided by gases that froze people in mid stride. Their panic, their grief, their last breath is preserved in an exhibition of forms that were created by filling hollowed out spaces under the ashes with resin to show their last moments. While the bodies of the people have decomposed, the space they occupied under the ashes gives all of us now a ‘view’ of what it was like. It is disturbing to look at, yet extremely informative.

Shocking Last Breath 

Carol and I did all the walking we could the next morning when we visited the sites. We got a good, albeit, quick oversight of Pompeii. We did however feel the urge to move on, to get on the road again. The threatening clouds in the sky meant rain down here in Italy, but farther north? What does it mean for us?  We saddled up after about 4 hours of visiting and started riding in the afternoon to go north. Autostrada all the way, time is now of the essence. Never mind the expense of the tolls.

Peaceful Today 

Stoned Roads, and Stepping Stones 

The old Colors Inside The Homes 

The Old Market Square With Vesuvius In The Background

Tourists

A Fiasco,  The Same River But Does Not Meet Here 

We got as far as Ponzano (North of Rome), where we had made a reservation via Bookings. Ponzano is a very small town that did not even have a restaurant. We walked all around the place and asked people but no, nothing, no place to eat. We found a very local store and just bought cheese, meats and bread and had a picnic in the B&B we crashed in. Our walk after we ate gave us a view over the ‘fiasco’ of the ‘Fiume Tevere’ River, (Tiber River) a very narrow space where a giant loop in the river brings it back to itself only separated by this small space.


 

Igoumenitsa, - Ηγουμενίτσα - GR / Brindisi, (I)

Igoumenitsa,  -  Ηγουμενίτσα  -  GR  / Brindisi, IT

Riding in Greece is a breeze if you take the highway, yes it’s a toll road, but worth it. The ride today was wonderful, despite some rather dense fog when we left Vergina. We rode past high, tree covered mountains. I never thought Greece would be covered with forest. The local roads would have become a bit more involved. I am glad we chose the highway to make better time.

Our goal for the day is the coastal town of Igoumenitsa. It is a small ferry town linking to other towns in Greece or in Italy. We want to go to Brindisi, Italy. Our plan is to visit Pompeii, then shoot north towards Germany. It beats going along the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea, with too many potential border crossings along the way. But first we need to get tickets for the ferry. I looked on line but found it too convoluted, too confusing to book the tickets via computer.

So we decided to just go to the harbor and book our tickets in person. We booked a hotel via Bookings.com and we arrived ‘early’ in Igoumenitsa. Our room was being worked on but yes, it was ready. From the hotel we could walk to the counters of the ferry companies to see who had the best rates, or the best times, etc. Or so I thought. All of the buildings and the port building itself are brand new, look modern and there are lots of options to book a ferry. When we walked over on this Thursday most of the ‘offices’ were closed. We asked who sells tickets to Italy, to Brindisi and were lead to just one ticket office. There is no real option to buy from selected companies. We were faced with the one choice and we bought the tickets. The price was 74 Euros for each of us. The ship would leave at 1 AM, next day. Yes, you read right, 1 AM (just after Midnight).  Immediately I thought why did I book a hotel room? There is absolutely nothing to do at the port. It’s a big parking lot with offices around a central space. So now it is something like 1 PM and in 12 hours we are on the ferry ship. What do we do here?

So am I glad I have a room to go to? Sleeping is a bit out of the question, the day is way too bright. We go back to the hotel and we are the only guests. We read some. We look out the window from our 3rd floor room and there is nothing to look at. I try to nap, no good. We walk to find a place to have some food, there is just one place open and we eat ‘something’. We go back to the hotel and just wait. We close the window shutters, set the alarm for Midnight and try to sleep. Impossible, I worry too much I will not hear the alarm and I toss and turn. Ah, after a while we open the window again, and read some more.

First In Line For The Ferry 

There is no way to book a hotel in Brindisi, Italy right? Well, there is! OK, I tried and found a hotel that suited me; I was pretty sure we would make Brindisi; now that we had our tickets so I went ahead and booked it. Hotel Orientale. We just laid on the bed and read but then, before I knew it, it was 11.30 PM. We had slept somehow and woke up despite all of our planning.

We were asked to be at the ferry by 12.30 AM and we were there at Midnight, almost the first people in line at the pier. We waited, and waited. At 12.40 it started to rain, pouring rain. There was no place to hide; we were standing on a very large parking lot, immediately at the water’s edge without protection of any kind. Luckily our riding gear is waterproof. It poured down on us. Other motorcyclists who showed up were not wearing rain-gear and were soaked to the bones.

We made the mistake of trying to enter the port building to get out of the down pour and almost got locked out from the ferry. We got in to the building OK but to exit, to get back to the bikes, when the rains somewhat abated we had to go through the border crossing again, and we had left our tickets with the parked bikes. A bit of talking, sign language and finally we were back standing in the rain, waiting for the ferry.

Blue Light In The Lounge

Finally, at 1.30 AM the ferry ship becomes visible. Now the hectic loading starts. First everybody gets off the ferry, and then the passengers without vehicles go on first, then the heavy trucks, then us, the motorcycle riders, then all the cars. It is a bit chaotic. Carol and I are given a spot along the walls of the ship to tie down our bikes, it takes time, it takes ingenuity, and the straps to tie the bikes down are not really made for bikes. I improvise, we should be OK.

People Piled Themselves On Anything

Now we need to climb the narrow staircase to the lounge but by the time we get there, most if not all the seats are taken because many other passengers are stretched out across 3 or 4 seats. This is an eight hour ferry trip. Where do we store ourselves? Carol asked a lady from the ship and she finds 3 seats together for us. They are small seats, like airplane seats. The whole room is crowded. There are so many people on this ferry that people crash anyplace and just lay down on the floors and try to get some rest. Blankets appear, kids hug their parents, and couples find each other and cuddle. It is definitely not organized.

They Slept, No Matter Who Watched 

Some Had Their Bedding With Them 

The ferry takes off and we are very lucky. The sea is calm and there are no waves, no storms. I can just imagine how a trip like this could be in a storm. For me it was a bit of a hellish trip. I do not like to travel when ‘humanity’ lets itself go and becomes unorganized. I know a trip like this could be a lot better but we were stuck with the tickets we bought. The next time I have to remember to not get a hotel room beforehand, to not sleep beforehand but to buy a sleeper berth on the ferry for the 8 hour duration. It would be a lot better and a bit more comfortable. Carol and I did the best we could while being caught on this ferry ride but it was not something I like.

Once we landed in Brindisi, we just had to find the hotel, get the bikes put into the garage, find a place to eat and take the rest of the day off. Well it was not that easy finding the hotel, we had to conquer cobblestone streets and back alleys. We asked directions, and turned around on a step hill and rode against a one way street, etc., but…hey, Brindisi is a nice Italian town, the hotel itself was 4 stars and we made it to Italy. We finished moving into the hotel, settling the bikes, eating a salad for lunch and by now it was 1 PM. Nap Time! We woke up at 7 PM and blinked. Some long nap!

Dinner was Pizza and all of a sudden, Brindisi, a town I thought slept like Cinderella was quite awake. Southern Italy is more active at night, it is cooler, and it is the way people have lived here for ages. Every 2^nd shop sells ice cream so we had some, too.

Tomorrow we are off to Pompeii; this ferry crossing did screw me up with my sleeping patterns.

Vergina, Greece (GR)

Vergina, Greece (GR)

Picture Postcard Perfect

We are not really visiting Greece, we are now trying to make time to get back to Germany, to get over the Alps before we find ourselves snowed in and unable to cross since we are now into October. On the one hand that is true, on the other hand we do not want to scream down the highways to get to Germany. Yes, we do not dawdle but made up our minds to just stop here and there because we feel like it. Vergina was on our way and we stopped here just to get a quick overview. 

Vergina was the capital of the Macedonian Empire.This was a huge town in its time, with lots of history attached. Today it is a small village. Alexander the Great’s Father (King Phillip ll) was King here and was assassinated here. His tomb is a tourist attraction but you would not know it. This is also the spot where Alexander the Great was crowned King after his father’s assassination. Greece has so many ruins, spots to visit, history galore that this village of Vergina is just one of many spots on the schedule of history hunters; the tomb being just one more tomb for tourists to visit. 

It was not busy when we arrived on this very overcast day. We had ridden along E90 and had to stop for the night, so why not here? The Olympia Guesthouse was perfect for us. The way to find it was by asking locals. Not that easy to find but also not too difficult. Once we left the Highway we came in on very, very local roads. At one point I thought we were wrong, but no, our GPS led us and all worked out just fine. Still, do you trust your GPS explicitly? The reception we received at the Olympia Guesthouse was exceptional. Free cake and coffee, a warm smile, it is the Greek way of greeting guests. Oh, if only we could stay in Greece for awhile, I love it in Greece. Carol and I decided that this might be our goal for next year. 

Even Then They Had Great Artists

I Am Glad They Wrote In Latin Script

I learned while visiting the tomb of Phillip ll, that he was murdered because of his ambition to put a statue of himself among the statues of the gods. Someone did not like this at all and killed him, thinking him not to be godlike. He was not; he was a brutal ruler, a killer and an egomaniac. Makes me wonder what his son, Alexander the Great, was really like. Never mind the history stuff people tell me, what was Alex like as a human being? Probably not someone I would have wanted to meet, I guess.

Note The Sun Detail On Top, The Symbol of Macedonia 

The actual metropolis and the Royal Palace are just ruins today. The whole area is not even fully excavated. The locals told me that the ruins were used in years gone by as grazing grounds for sheep and goats but now the Greek Government has fenced the area in. Nobody is allowed to go inside the fenced area to protect it from further decay. Digging within the old ruins is forbidden.  The village is very small, living totally off tourists.

Pretty Urns, Love The Colors

We ate at a very local restaurant but the food was heavenly. I like the Greek kitchen. No matter what I eat, it’s great! Again, we received some small desert for free. How can you beat the  Greeks for hospitality?