We arrived in Frankfurt on about 6 April where Stephan Knopf had everything ready for us as usual.
We expected to stay for a couple of nights at Stephan's B&B. With the moto ready and the sun shining we decided to be on our way a day early.
A day early we went to visit Torsen and Ricarda. We must say a few kind words about these motorcyclists. We first met them when we were travelling in South America heading north to Cusco. They were sitting along the side of the road having a picnic. They were travelling on two modified BMW 650s. They can go 1000k after a fuel stop. They go slowly enjoying themselves and seeing much that others miss. They once spent three weeks in one place.
We then all rode to Cusco where we stayed at the same hostel. Two days later we left to take a tour and when we returned they were still there. Later that year we met them again in Argentina where we celebrated New Years and Ricarda was elected "Ms Empanada of Argentina." The following day we went our separate ways, we to Azul for the big international moto meeting and they to Chile. One meets many people on the road sometimes making friends for life, sometimes only for the day and sometimes only as you look them in the eyes. Torsen and Ricarda returned Germany and when we flew to Frankfurt to pick up our BMW. Ricarda used her considerable charms to persuade her parents to invite us to stay at their parents home. Her parents are very nice, also riding a BMW which Torsen and Ricarda borrowed, having left their motos in Argentina. But, as punishment for inviting two Americans into their home, they gave us Torsens and Ricarda's beds and made them sleep on the floor. We only found this out later. Torsen and Ricarda have even invited us back but this time when they know we will not be in Europa. We will be on our way to Alaska. Torsen was going to teach us to play Scat which I have wanted to learn since I was 10. Ricarda's father is an expert player. We also wanted to find out about the book on Nambia written by the German, Henno Martin, but Amazon.com gave a price for the English version as $114.00. We have decided to put off this purchase until we learn German. Time ran out before we learned to play Scat. This visit was one of the highlights of our trip along with the chocolate cake made by Ricarda. Not learning Scat one of the downsides. But we saw our good friends again and hope they will come to visit us in our home in Oregon.
We left Torsen, Ricarda and her great parents and headed to France where it snowed so heavily that we had to put in early. Gail wanted to camp but I convinced her that a hot shower and a hot meal would be better than a snow covered tent. After agreeing to give in on many other items, I convinced her that a hotel was the best option.
As we travelled south in Germany and France we did not know if people would be throwing rocks at us since we had not yet won the war. Everyone in the US said don't go. But most people think we are German since we ride a BMW. After speaking with us they think we are from Great Britain. When we tell them we are from North America they think we are Canadian. So we had no problems even being interview in central France. Thanks to Andre Mousset, a newspaper reporter, who is also a BMW rider, we are famous, maybe infamous in that region, since we have not yet read the article. Of course we can't read French, but our daughter went to school in the same region for two years
Finally, we reached the coast and took the ferry to Corsica . Corsica is everything good that people say it is. Tourist oriented with signs for moto garages for both hotels and campsites. Often these signs are in English. And, good moto riding. We then took the ferry to Sardinia. Sardinia was better than we thought it was going to be but we could not spend much time as the weekly ferry to Sicilian was leaving in two days. So we missed our email friend, Ewrin thoma. We had almost met him in South America, again in Eastern Germany, and now we came within 25 miles or so but we had to hurry to the ferry.
The overnight ferry to Sicilian put us on the Western end of the island. Here are many Greek and Roman sites to visit which we did, staying out of the big cities. We also saw Mt. Etna. Gail wanted to climb it and look into the crater of the volcano but I reminded her that she had two children and I had promised to bring her home in one piece, safe and not boiled alive. Even though she had climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro just a few years ago she agreed not to risk my life again. We arrived early in one city in Sicilian to visit a museum and so decided to have breakfast, coffee and a roll. This roll had a filling and when I bit into it I discovered it contained a gold statute. It was of course covered with the filling from the roll. I thought that these Italians do things in a strange way. A prize in a roll. Then Gail, who is a little smarter than I, suggested I check my gold crown. It was missing. What I thought was a gold statute was in fact my crown. But we saved it for future use. Other than that Sicilian was interesting. One hostel owner said that a building he had not yet finished was stopped by the mafia as they wanted to control all accommodations for foreigners. It is still there, a large building, half finished. Better moto riding here than we thought it would be.
It is just a short ferry ride to mainland of Southern Italy. We had heard many negative things about Southern Italy. But we found it anything but flat, hot, and boring. First we visited the famous museum in Reggio Calabria. The two Greek bronze statutes housed there are worth the trip. There are only about five left in Italy as the others were melted down for coins several hundred years ago. At the museum we also encounted the first scam of the trip. The girl who sold us the tickets said she could not make change and would give it to us when we completed the tour. But when we returned at the end of the tour she claimed that not only had she had given us change but in fact we owned more. Fortunately, another woman who spoke English appeared and the scam was discovered and we got our money back. Years ago Mark Twain referred to such people in a book as "Inoccents Abroad". We once had an inept person attempt to pick our pockets in Ecuador. We carry a fake wallet and even with our help they could not lift it out of my rear pocket. Of course, the real professionals are those who take our money and we don't even know about it.
This was one of the more expensive vacations that we have taken. Last year when we travelled in Europa to Portugal, the exchange rate was 90 cents for 1 euro. Now it is at least 1.10 cents for 1 euro, sometimes even more. And of course we took 6 to 7 ferries which cost more than the normal land only trip. At least this time they did not steal our backpack in Annwiller Germany.
We travelled up the west coast of southern Italy upon the advice of a motorcyclists we had met in Sicilian. Following this route we passed a group of motorcyclist ready to ride a scenic road. Later, they caught up and said they would show us to a view point, which we would have never have found. This being due in part to a lack of Italian language skills. Can't read it, can't speak it. We thank Alfonso Ciprioti for sharing a part of his country with us.
One often, or at least we two, have some bad thoughts about the country we are travelling in. The way they park, the poor food, the heavy smoking, the lack of Internet cafes, or the French keyboard. But whenever this happens, the local people do something very nice. Such as that by Andre and Capruzzi. We chose to travel secondary roads. This means we frequently are not where we want to be. The only map was not very good, Looking at this map we only knew that we were on a dead end city street. We really hate to back track! An Italian came up to us and offered to help. We pointed out on the map where we wanted to go which was about 25 miles away. Capruzzi Claudio and his family told us to follow them as this is where they lived. When we got to his small village he invited us to lunch. We find it amazing that a non motorcyclist would invite two dusty, hot and dirty Americans into his home with his family for lunch. But he did and here again it was one of the high lights of our trip. So,the Italians may be the world's worst parkers of autos, but they are some of the nicest people we have met. And it was a wonderful lunch. Southern Italy has lots of isolated mountain roads if one stays in the center going north. Here we also met Eva, an actress from the Rep. of Czech. One day she will be famous.
But finally we are on the Eastern coast of Italy and the ferry to Corfu. A small island and we were only there for one day. One time on this island we got lost on a dirt road in the mountains and found people begging. It was really isolated. Then getting onto the ferry to go to mainland Greece, we met a motorcyclists Giorgos Katsantonis. We exchanged information and when he found that we were going to Athens he made about 15 telephone calls, finding us a mechanic and hotels to stay in. Hopefully, we will meet him again when we return. At the mechanic's shop we also met Andreas Polidis who gave us more helpful information. We left the moto in Athens and hope to return soon. The food was great here and the locals very friendly, just as in Argentina. The only downside is that we could not meet our email friend, Kotas as he was away on vacation. But we did make another new friend, Giuseppe who sold fish in Africa. We got him lost in downtown Athens, showed him the Partheon, but from afar as we did not let him tour the premises, and took him to the national museum that had closed the day before for one year. But he told us many fish stories, such as having a million dollars worth of wine in his basement.
In Athens our hotel room was 40e. They said that in August 2003, during the Olympics, the complete hotel was rented by the Olympics Committee who will rent it for 240e, per room. It will be hot, no transportation, the taxis are a rip off, the Greeks all leave for the islands and we wont be there.
Gail and I enjoyed this trip, visiting many places we had only read about and making new friends. Our moto is now in Athens until we return and head for Turkey and points beyond. But, we had to fly to Hawaii as we have a new addition to the family. Now we are spending time with Tynda and Coboka. Tynda has his own web site and Coboka knows over 200 commands. But he has only taught us 5 of them. In a few day we leave for Finland to continue our attempt to ride to the northcape. The last time we tried the engine blew. We have had 17 major BMW break downs during our travels. At least we know a lot of good mechanics in many different countries. But our friend Malla, who we have visited many times and who has visited us in Oregon, will be on vacation.
Remember, when you are in Oregon, come visit our moto zimmer. Email me at tynda@aol.com for more information. Send your friends if you have any.
Eric Haws
TYNDA of www.rio.com/~tynda
enjoy our website
tynda@aol.com
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