To the Alps or ...

Which direction to program into the GPS?… OK Alps it is…

View out the window of the Hostel we stayed in.

It took some time (camp time I think) until Deb’s frosty demeanour thawed. But that is how it goes… We (I) had a good day riding over several passes and we made camp.  So we were headed to the Alp’s!! The day was a bright, sunny and clear. The overnight temp had been about 1’c - 2’c. As we have been starting late most days it was warming up by the time we got going (10:30am). We stopped at an ALDI store (not our favourite for variety) to get some (minor) supplies for a snack / lunch on the way.

You
You Tube Video of us riding through the Alps in Austria.
Click here

Time for a cuppa in the hills.

Road side parking , this one had a seat with a view!

We meet Tom, A Germain motorbike mechanic out for a ride on his new re-build from a crash bike.

By the way where are we going ?? I’m sure like all couples there are different goals or desires in a trip. Being male and a biker, mine were simple 1. Ride the bike somewhere, mostly in the hills away from as many people as possible. 2. Do task 1 in the sunshine. 3. Repeat task 1 – 3 several times and then skip to task 4. 4. Go to Morocco. 5. Go to Moto GP. End .  Yep, that’s Steve’s way…..not my way!

AND That’s when the fight started!

We ended up in a town called Egg, looking for a place to camp..didn’t see anything available there so we rode onto Dornbirn & stayed at a little caravan park, which reminded us of smaller caravan parks in Australia. 

Not many campers here.

The next day we rode into Switzerland along the auto barn heading towards Italy for our overnight stop along Lago Maggiore.  This was our first experience of an Italian caravan park!!  Stephen had read in other rider’s blogs, that there seems to be an Italian way of camping!!!  No, I don’t like getting undressed in the open, you have to put the coins in to start the hot water service before getting into the shower.  Oh! & make sure you take your own toilet paper!!  I must say we did have beautiful views out over the lake and surrounding townships.  Another big plus was that it was glorious weather.

Italian camping.

The view out over the lake.

The next morning we got up reasonably early for us, packed up and headed towards Venice.

23/09/11 Venice, Italy.

What a busy tourist trap.

Cars, bikes, scooters and buses everywhere!  We found a hotel over the bridge, around 12 km’s from the historic Venice City.  Great spot, fairly quiet.  On the Saturday morning we were able to catch a bus to do the touristy things in the town.  Swarms of people everywhere.  Being from Alice Springs we are not use to this.  It was interesting seeing the old town, a very big money spinner for the locals.  The sea will not have to rise too much further before this town has a problem.

Strange little house.

New boatload of Fresh, Crisp Euros comming into be processed.

Over the next few days we will be heading off to start the Moroccan leg of our tour.  We are thinking it will take at least 6 days to get there.  We will be camping along the way, hopefully the weather will hold out.

Cheers,
Stephen and Debbie.