Wednesday 14 July 2010

My travels in Europe

Quite a few people have asked about my recent travels with my bf on his motorbike, so I decided to do this blog! It was going to be quite a long one, but due to recent events over the last 3 weeks I got a bit disenchanted with it, so I decided to just cut it down to pictures and a bit less text!

Day 1. Dover to Mulhouse (France)


Our destination that first day was Mulhouse in the SW corner of France near the Swiss border. We made it by about 5pm, found our Formule 1 hotel tucked away on a trading estate, had avery welcome shower, something to eat, a couple of beers, and fell, somewhat knackered, into bed!


Day 2 Mulhouse to Chioggia.


We got underway about 9after a nice french brekky, and blasted ourway to the Swiss border. The frontier guards are not the most welcoming in the world! Asked if we had a ticket (ie a vignette), we said no and were told very sharply "Over there!" it was around £39 for a vignette allowing us to use the Swiss roads! It's valid for a full year, which is fine if you are intending to return, but I reckon it's a bit steep if you're just passing through!

Anyway off we set through lovely mountain scenery, and as we climbed it got thankfully a bit cooler!



Rest stop in Switzerland.


It would have been more spectacular to ride over the mountains rather than through them, but 1) Goldwings are not designed to cope with hairpin bends, especially when heavily loaded, and 2)Tony doesn't do heights! The AA route we'd planned took us through the Gotthard Tunnel, which is 17km long, and after about halfway it gets very hot and a bit claustrophobic, so we were glad to see the light at the end! Soon after that we crossed into Italy and found that it's true what they say about Italian drivers, they really are a bit crazy!

At one fuel stop we met a bunch of other bikers and had quite a jovial chat.


Fellow bikers!


The autostrada past Milan was a nightmare!
As we were having yet another cold drink at a service station, a small convoy of Wingers arrived, so we decided to tag along behind them as two of them had Sat-navs! We arrived in Chioggia via around trip of the town (blame the Sat-navs!), registered for the Treffen (which is what European Goldwing rallies are called, from the german word "treffen - to meet"), and set about finding a spot to pitch our tent. Unfortunately all the shady spots under trees were taken! that accomplished, it was food and beer time!

The whole Treffen area was very well organised... it was on a sports field on an island in the middle of the town! Thus it was very compact and everything waswithin easy reach... beer, food, entertainment, showers and portaloos (yuck!)

There was a live band on in the big tent that evening, more than a few beers were consumed and some old friends re-met. Slept like logs!


Day 3 Friday.


The day dawned very hot and humid! We decided to take ourselves off to Venice for the day. We sought advice on the best way to get there and off we went. The journey was very interesting.. first a boat, then a bus, then the bus went on a mini ferry, then a bit further on land to Venice Lido, then another boat! Very leisurely, and very well timed too, no waiting in between buses and boats!




View of Chioggia from the boat




First sight of Venice.


This was my first ever visit to Venice, so I had high hopes! I was not disappointed, it was everything I had expected and more! The only blot was the huge number of tourists in large groups in St Mark's Square, all following their guides! It wasalso very hot but we found shade by exploring all the little streets and canals. No gondola ride.. too expensive! The shops were brilliant and I was wishing I had a few thousand Euros to spare and the means of getting stuff home!! Handbags, clothes, shoes and above all the beautiful Murano glass!



Just one Cornetto!








Here endeth part one!









































































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