This morning, I was planning on heading down to Vienna, Austria. But a quick check of the weather suggested I would likely hit rain on the ride for points south and east.
I started staring at the map, and noticed that if I went a bit north, I might get to hit Cesky Krumlov, a town recommended by one of the guys I met at Knopftours. The weather report was favourable there, so I made the trip.
As I was packing, I chanced upon the pack of maps I got from ADAC in Heidelberg, so swiftly forgotten about. Many of the maps they gave me are specific to motorcycle touring; they paint great motorcycle tour roads in green, and recommended motorcycle sideroads/connectors in light green. Almost immediately, the route from Munich to Cesky Krumlov was laid out.
Convincing my GPS to follow the map was a bit of a challenge, but not insurmountable. I would just tell it to take me to a town half way down the road I wanted, then pause on the ride while I'm well down the road, to tell it to take me to a further town.
The route was great. Lots of good narrow roads snaking through a huge forest, very little traffic, and a very peaceful ride.
One surprise along the way was a stop for gas; 4 pumps but only 2 offered unleaded gasoline. All 4 did diesel. It was the first time I've seen a priority given to diesel.
Upon reaching Cesky Krumlov, the GPS wanted me to ride down a very steep path between two buildings to get to my hotel; that was kinda funny. If it wasn't for the pedestrian paintings at the bottom of the path, I wouldn't have realized it was a sidewalk.
Cesky Krumlov severely restricts the flow of cars through its city centres. There are very few parking spots, and you need a permit to use them. Most of the roads in the centre are narrow, cobblestoned, and some are not well suited to anything without a great suspension due to the inclines and the ruts.
I had a great dinner, with an appy of beef tartare and raw egg on roasted bread, then rabbit in a cream sauce.
Fuel costs in the Czech Republic were about CAD $2.09/L (CZK 37.3/L), and I got about 5.4 L/100km.
Sunday 26 August 2012
Posted with Blogsy
Friday 24 August 2012
Friday and Saturday, August 24-25th, Heidelberg to Munich
Munich continues to make me feel at home.
I'm staying at the Vi Vadi, same as I did back in December. Great budget hotel, great location a block from the Hbf, and always accommodating. I mentioned in my online reservation that I had a motorcycle, and they were all over that, immediately offering to guide me to the garage and to show me where I can park for free.
I was given a ground-floor room this time, and it was really nice. It had a back door that opened onto a secluded patio area, complete with chairs, tables, trees and grass.
I quickly changed into my civies and made out for the Augustiner Restaurant. It was busy as usual. I walked around for a few minutes, saw someone sitting alone at a table, and went up and asked if he wanted company for conversation. He seemed a little confused, but he said sure. It wasn't long before he said he was new to Munich, and he had never seen the sociable shared tables so typical in Bavarian restaurants.
He is Mexican, and spends his days split between Mexico City and Brazil as a surgeon of cardiology. We spent a few hours talking about life in Mexico and Brazil, travel, Europe, and Canada.
For Saturday, I rested, watched some TV, went walking a bit around the area, then went out to watch the latest Batman in English at a nearby theatre. In Germany, a few cities will show movies in their original language (OV or OF is listed in the movie listing), and Munich is just one of those cities, with about 3 theatres that show at least a few OV movies.
While I waited for the movie to start, I hit the nearby Lowenbrau biergarten for more crispy port knuckle and more dark beer. Lots more dark beer and dark weisse (wheat) beer. It may not have been the best plan, as that beer really wanted to be returned to the wild while I watched the nearly 3 hour long Batman movie. :)
Thursday 23 August 2012
Wednesday and Thursday, August 22-23rd, Paderborn to Heidelberg
I skipped off to Heidelberg today, in anticipation of my fork tube service tomorrow morning.
It was another great day on the road.
When I got to Knopftours, there was a few people there already, in various stages of touring. Stefan's daughter let me know what room I could take, and that her father would be home later in the evening.
My clothes were in serious need of detoxifying, so I packed all my clothes up into a big bag and ran off to a a downtown launderette that I had used before. This was at about 18:00. They said they could be finished my clothes before they closed at 21:00, but I told them I didn't mind if they weren't done until Thursday.
As I was leaving the launderette, I decided to head east through downtown Heidelberg instead of going back to Knopftours. Eventually, I found myself on a really great road full of switchbacks and climbs, until I found myself looking down over Heidelberg and perhaps the next few towns further west. There were a few landmarks up there that were reminiscent of medieval times, like stone watch towers and stone bridges. It was a spontaneous but exhilarating little detour, and having gotten a physical introduction to the era, maybe I'm curious about that part of history now.
I realized it was before 21:00 as I rolled back through Heidelberg, so I stopped at the launderette and found my clothes ready to be picked up! It was great to close off that task, and have one less thing to think about on Thursday.
---
Being ready to roll before my 09:00 Thursday morning maintenance appointment was a challenge. I'm not a morning person, and this was unreasonable! But I managed to make it out of the gate in time. As I was rolling out, Stefan was just returning from Frankfurt with 4 new riders. He waved me over, and told me that he'd come over to the bike shop in a short while to give me a ride back to home base, which was really great of him.
After dropping the bike off for its fork seals and another oil change, I got the ride back in time for breakfast. I sat down with all the new riders and talk about their plans and my experiences so far. They were all friends, American, and none had ever ridden in Germany. One guy shipped his bike over on an extended vacation, while the other 3 were renting bikes from Stefan for the next few weeks to tour the area. Stefan was going to give them an area tour on the bikes the next morning, then they were off on their way.
The bike was done by 13:30, and Stefan's father gave me a ride back to the shop. The service manager pointed out that one of my fork tubes is chipped and is why my fork seals are getting torn apart. He tried polishing them, but couldn't guarantee how long they'd remain intact. He estimated about €200-300 for a new fork tube. I doubt I'll bother; I'd rather just finish this bike off, then ship my Blackbird over to continue my European explorations in the years to come.
I hung around the base for the rest of the day, chatting and working on the bike.
Tuesday 21 August 2012
Day 24, Denmark to Germany, Tuesday August 21st
Today was a longish day. I rode from the campground to Paderborn, Germany. Lots of unrestricted superslab. I really do love the German Autobaun, though I recognize that I'm going to need to get a quieter helmet and/or start wearing earplugs (as opposed to my -15dB earbuds); being allowed to go however fast you like is glorious but noisy.
I got a room at the Ibis Paderborn, then quickly changed into civilian clothes and went out to find dinner. Found a nice biermarkt nearby with a variation on the port knuckle, but the typical good dark beer.
And, well, I pissed someone off.
Being back in Germany from Scandinavia, I'm back online after a century (okay, 3 days) of not having a local SIM in my iPhour and my iPad. I sat on the relatively unbusy patio/sidewalk and ate my dinner while catching up on Facebook, email, news of the world, and my blog posts.
Apparently, some guy sitting behind me was getting terribly confused about my actions with my iPad, and decided to complain to management that I was ruining his dining experience. Management happily sat him at the next table over, and switched his angle of attack to face a few tables of happy laughing people.
I paid and left not long afterwards. The guy was a bit shabby, and the wait staff apologized to me and suggested that he was just plain crazy. :)
Saturday 18 August 2012
Day 21, Sweden and Norway, August 18th
It was drizzling rain all day today. But that didn't stop us from going on a great little ride around the area.
We basically went straight west, taking what are called the "sugar roads" into Norway. Years ago, there was a big price difference in the price of sugar between Sweden and Norway, and these roads were not very controlled so people smuggled sugar across them.
The roads were mostly dirt, and in the drizzling rain, mud. At first, I was a bit nervous and my bike wasn't handling the road very well, with the front end dancing over the surface. Then I remembered my dirt bike training from last year, lifted my elbows to be in line with my forks, and put as much weight as I could on the front wheel, giving the front more "bite".
I immediately felt the balance improve tremendously. While the back end wasn't tracking straight over the ruts and mud, the front was fine and I felt very comfortable.
I know that most of my problem is a considerably bad suspension setup on the bike. My front is too stiff, and the rear is wallowing. I need a long bar to snap more preload into the rear, and I've just been too forgetful to lower the preload in the front. What I really need is an expert to set it up properly. Someday!
The mud ride was definitely necessary. I haven't ridden in mud much this year, and I was out of practice and avoiding it as a result. After that nice reminder, I'm all for riding on it again.
We basically went straight west, taking what are called the "sugar roads" into Norway. Years ago, there was a big price difference in the price of sugar between Sweden and Norway, and these roads were not very controlled so people smuggled sugar across them.
The roads were mostly dirt, and in the drizzling rain, mud. At first, I was a bit nervous and my bike wasn't handling the road very well, with the front end dancing over the surface. Then I remembered my dirt bike training from last year, lifted my elbows to be in line with my forks, and put as much weight as I could on the front wheel, giving the front more "bite".
I immediately felt the balance improve tremendously. While the back end wasn't tracking straight over the ruts and mud, the front was fine and I felt very comfortable.
I know that most of my problem is a considerably bad suspension setup on the bike. My front is too stiff, and the rear is wallowing. I need a long bar to snap more preload into the rear, and I've just been too forgetful to lower the preload in the front. What I really need is an expert to set it up properly. Someday!
The mud ride was definitely necessary. I haven't ridden in mud much this year, and I was out of practice and avoiding it as a result. After that nice reminder, I'm all for riding on it again.
Friday 17 August 2012
Day 20, Hamburg to Koppom Sweden, Friday August 17th
Today was a long day in the saddle. It was about 900km from Hamburg to a friend's vacation home just outside of Koppom, Sweden.
To save some time, I took the ferry from Puttgarden, Germany to Rødby, Denmark, then traveled over the bridge into Malmö, Sweden. From there, it was lots of highway and secondaries to get up to Koppom. I think the ferry was about €27, plus €4 "handling charge" for buying the ticket at the dock.
Contrary to what I'd been told about harsh speed enforcement in Sweden, it was pretty smooth sailing. I'm told that in general, there are no speed cameras on the highways, but while there are some on the country roads, they're irrelevant to motorcyclists since they only take photos of the front of the vehicles.
The roads as you approach Koppom for an hour or two are really nice, curving through some forested areas. Road surfaces were good to great, and many drivers would pull to the side to let me pass inside their lane.
In talking to my friend, Jorgen, about cars shifting over in a lane to let a bike through, his comment was that while some cars do, other cars are pretty frustrating, and make it the motorcyclists' problem to get around them. It is a funny attitude; since 99.99(5?)% of the drivers in Ontario don't make allowances for motorcycles to get ahead, seeing 1 or more out of 10 cars in other countries being courteous is amazing.
Jorgen gave me some GPS coordinates to find his place. However, his had an extra order in magnitude of accuracy than my GPS would accept, so I wasn't entirely sure when I found his place. He was out on the road at the time, so I was a bit concerned that I was at the wrong place. I did note with some curiosity that the lawn was really trim and clean. Then I saw something moving in the yard.
It was about 25cm tall, moving at a walking pace, and producing an electronic whine. I walked up to it as it ran into a tree. It stopped, backed up, changed direction, then continued whining its way across the yard. It was the roomba equivalent of a lawn mower! Fascinated, I couldn't help but follow it around as it randomly clipped millimeters off the top of the blades of grass, and slowly bumped its way into the back yard, around the sides, and back out front.
Its name is Moonish (or something akin to that but Swedish). Jorgen named it after a harmless guy in his youth that was slightly off-centre and wandered the streets day in and out. It has GSM and GPS and can message Jorgen when something goes wrong, and Jorgen can send it messages from around the world, asking it how its day is going. It docks itself when its batteries are getting low, recharges, then heads out again to keep the grass in line. I can't count the number of times I'd just stand there watching Moonish march the yard.
To save some time, I took the ferry from Puttgarden, Germany to Rødby, Denmark, then traveled over the bridge into Malmö, Sweden. From there, it was lots of highway and secondaries to get up to Koppom. I think the ferry was about €27, plus €4 "handling charge" for buying the ticket at the dock.
Contrary to what I'd been told about harsh speed enforcement in Sweden, it was pretty smooth sailing. I'm told that in general, there are no speed cameras on the highways, but while there are some on the country roads, they're irrelevant to motorcyclists since they only take photos of the front of the vehicles.
The roads as you approach Koppom for an hour or two are really nice, curving through some forested areas. Road surfaces were good to great, and many drivers would pull to the side to let me pass inside their lane.
In talking to my friend, Jorgen, about cars shifting over in a lane to let a bike through, his comment was that while some cars do, other cars are pretty frustrating, and make it the motorcyclists' problem to get around them. It is a funny attitude; since 99.99(5?)% of the drivers in Ontario don't make allowances for motorcycles to get ahead, seeing 1 or more out of 10 cars in other countries being courteous is amazing.
Jorgen gave me some GPS coordinates to find his place. However, his had an extra order in magnitude of accuracy than my GPS would accept, so I wasn't entirely sure when I found his place. He was out on the road at the time, so I was a bit concerned that I was at the wrong place. I did note with some curiosity that the lawn was really trim and clean. Then I saw something moving in the yard.
It was about 25cm tall, moving at a walking pace, and producing an electronic whine. I walked up to it as it ran into a tree. It stopped, backed up, changed direction, then continued whining its way across the yard. It was the roomba equivalent of a lawn mower! Fascinated, I couldn't help but follow it around as it randomly clipped millimeters off the top of the blades of grass, and slowly bumped its way into the back yard, around the sides, and back out front.
Its name is Moonish (or something akin to that but Swedish). Jorgen named it after a harmless guy in his youth that was slightly off-centre and wandered the streets day in and out. It has GSM and GPS and can message Jorgen when something goes wrong, and Jorgen can send it messages from around the world, asking it how its day is going. It docks itself when its batteries are getting low, recharges, then heads out again to keep the grass in line. I can't count the number of times I'd just stand there watching Moonish march the yard.
Thursday 16 August 2012
Day 19, Hamburg, Thursday August 16th
Today was a relaxing day. Walked around Hamburg a bit, grabbed an awesome BBQ buffet at the [m]eatery, then wandered around some more.
Wednesday 15 August 2012
Day 17-18, Heidelberg, Fulda, and Hamburg Germany
I landed back in Frankfurt on Tuesday without incident, but also without a lot of sleep. The shuttle service was waiting for me, and swept me off directly to the bike shop in Heidelberg with minimal delay.
The motorcycle was waiting for me with fresh tires and oil, but there was a problem; another blown fork seal.
The fork seal is a pain in the butt. I shouldn't be riding with it like that, but I didn't want to interrupt my trip too much. It might explain why my brakes feel so odd, come to think of it.
Since Heidelberg is reasonably central, I opted to cut my losses and book there again, making an appointment to have the forks taken care of on the Thursday the 23rd. I should be back from Scandinavia by then, though it will really shorten my plans up there. But it poises me well to go east.
I returned briefly to Knopftours to repack, and got on the road to go north. Started feeling the impact of not getting much sleep, and called it quits in Fulda, a little east of Frankfurt.
I'm really not focusing much on towns and cities on this trip. I'm just riding, and I can focus more in future trips.
Wednesday saw me do a lot of backroads from Fulda to Hamburg. The country up here is fairly flat. There are bicycles everywhere out here.
About half way to Hamburg, I started running out of patience. Backroads are great, but they're also congested with lots of trucks. I returned to the autobaun and cut almost 2 hours off my expected transit time.
I went to the Hofbraühaus Hamburg for a knusprige schweinshaxn (crispy pork knuckle) and lots of dark beer. Afterwards, I went for a walk around the Binnenalster (a small body of water in downtown) before returning to the hotel for sleep.
The motorcycle was waiting for me with fresh tires and oil, but there was a problem; another blown fork seal.
The fork seal is a pain in the butt. I shouldn't be riding with it like that, but I didn't want to interrupt my trip too much. It might explain why my brakes feel so odd, come to think of it.
Since Heidelberg is reasonably central, I opted to cut my losses and book there again, making an appointment to have the forks taken care of on the Thursday the 23rd. I should be back from Scandinavia by then, though it will really shorten my plans up there. But it poises me well to go east.
I returned briefly to Knopftours to repack, and got on the road to go north. Started feeling the impact of not getting much sleep, and called it quits in Fulda, a little east of Frankfurt.
I'm really not focusing much on towns and cities on this trip. I'm just riding, and I can focus more in future trips.
Wednesday saw me do a lot of backroads from Fulda to Hamburg. The country up here is fairly flat. There are bicycles everywhere out here.
About half way to Hamburg, I started running out of patience. Backroads are great, but they're also congested with lots of trucks. I returned to the autobaun and cut almost 2 hours off my expected transit time.
I went to the Hofbraühaus Hamburg for a knusprige schweinshaxn (crispy pork knuckle) and lots of dark beer. Afterwards, I went for a walk around the Binnenalster (a small body of water in downtown) before returning to the hotel for sleep.
Monday 13 August 2012
Day 15-16, Toronto and London, Ontario - Sunday and Monday August 12th-13th
I started today quite early (as judged by EDT inhabitants), about 05:30.
I woke up somewhat unsettled. I hadn't planned on sleeping so early last night, and I had a bunch of work to do before my family reunion today.
I'm rebuilding my old Thinkpad x120e. I had repaved its drive when my x230 had shown up, and now I'm paying the price for such behaviour. With my x230 dead, I've got to get the x120e going at least partially.
Installing a new laptop from scratch is quite a hassle; installing on a misbehaving laptop is a serious hassle. It seems like whenever the x120e is driving its CPU hard, it will not survive its next reboot, requiring me to leave it sitting without power for 30 minutes before it will boot successfully. I found that by blowing into its fan for 5 minutes will shorten its required nap, but boy howdy, what a hassle.
As a result of the rebuilding effort, I got out for the reunion a bit later than I planned. I was hoping to be at the reunion in Komoka, Ontario (about 15km west of London) for 13:00 but I rolled in about 30 minutes late.
With the activities of the past few weeks, I certainly had no shortage of conversation material.
It was a good turn-out. Not the best in recent years, but still decent.
I noticed that the clock change was starting to impact me at about 18:00, so I started making the motions to return from London to Toronto. I had to stop at a service station for a coffee to try to snap my brain back into functioning order.
I remembered something about European service stations; their washrooms are almost always charged; usually 0.50-0.75 euros. You often get a coupon for some of that back to apply to a purchase (like water, pop, snacks, etc). You may pay for the washrooms, but they go above and beyond to make sure the washroom is clean; the toilets are so self-cleaning that they have a mechanism to scrub the entire seat as soon as you stand up. Pretty slick.
For Monday, I was doing a lot of preparations for the return. Ran out and bought some clothes, a new jumpstart battery for the car (which is dead again, of course), and a couple automotive feeler gauges.
I used the feeler gauges to finally remove the SSD in my new laptop, allowing me to return it to a serviceable state. I used them to create oiled slides to get the 9mm SSD past the edge of the magnesium edges in the 7mm drive bay. Shortly afterwards, IBM called to tell me that there is no ETA for the parts for my laptop yet. I arranged to leave it with a friend in Mississauga so he can work with the IBM team on the repair call.
Grabbed some dinner, rushed my packing nearly leaving the iPad at home, and grabbed a limo to the airport for my 22:10 flight. I land at about noon tomorrow in Frankfurt to begin the second chapter of my trip!
I woke up somewhat unsettled. I hadn't planned on sleeping so early last night, and I had a bunch of work to do before my family reunion today.
I'm rebuilding my old Thinkpad x120e. I had repaved its drive when my x230 had shown up, and now I'm paying the price for such behaviour. With my x230 dead, I've got to get the x120e going at least partially.
Installing a new laptop from scratch is quite a hassle; installing on a misbehaving laptop is a serious hassle. It seems like whenever the x120e is driving its CPU hard, it will not survive its next reboot, requiring me to leave it sitting without power for 30 minutes before it will boot successfully. I found that by blowing into its fan for 5 minutes will shorten its required nap, but boy howdy, what a hassle.
As a result of the rebuilding effort, I got out for the reunion a bit later than I planned. I was hoping to be at the reunion in Komoka, Ontario (about 15km west of London) for 13:00 but I rolled in about 30 minutes late.
With the activities of the past few weeks, I certainly had no shortage of conversation material.
It was a good turn-out. Not the best in recent years, but still decent.
I noticed that the clock change was starting to impact me at about 18:00, so I started making the motions to return from London to Toronto. I had to stop at a service station for a coffee to try to snap my brain back into functioning order.
I remembered something about European service stations; their washrooms are almost always charged; usually 0.50-0.75 euros. You often get a coupon for some of that back to apply to a purchase (like water, pop, snacks, etc). You may pay for the washrooms, but they go above and beyond to make sure the washroom is clean; the toilets are so self-cleaning that they have a mechanism to scrub the entire seat as soon as you stand up. Pretty slick.
For Monday, I was doing a lot of preparations for the return. Ran out and bought some clothes, a new jumpstart battery for the car (which is dead again, of course), and a couple automotive feeler gauges.
I used the feeler gauges to finally remove the SSD in my new laptop, allowing me to return it to a serviceable state. I used them to create oiled slides to get the 9mm SSD past the edge of the magnesium edges in the 7mm drive bay. Shortly afterwards, IBM called to tell me that there is no ETA for the parts for my laptop yet. I arranged to leave it with a friend in Mississauga so he can work with the IBM team on the repair call.
Grabbed some dinner, rushed my packing nearly leaving the iPad at home, and grabbed a limo to the airport for my 22:10 flight. I land at about noon tomorrow in Frankfurt to begin the second chapter of my trip!
Saturday 11 August 2012
Day 14, Heidelberg, Frankfurt and Toronto, Saturday August 11th
Today was mostly an administrative day. Rode the short distance from Karlsruhe to Heidelberg, and stopped by Knopftours to sort my stuff there for the flight back. I had some unused stuff and lots of dirty clothes to return with.
Then I went to the Motorradzentrum Leiman, http://www.motorradzentrum-leimen.de/ to get new Metzeler Z6 tires and an oil change done. They're going to do it on Monday while I'm gone.
The shuttle service picked me up from the Motorradzentrum and drove me to the Frankfurt airport. Not the most comfortable ride, but you can't argue with its convenience. They're also going to pick me up from the airport on Tuesday and take me back to the shop.
I only had two carryon bags for the 17:00 flight back, making the logistics at the airport quite simple.
I got into Toronto at about 19:30 EDT (which was about 01:30 by my reconning). I didn't really sleep on the flight; watched a bunch of movies including Hunger Games (finally), and got to start The Avengers.
Managed to stay awake for about an hour before losing consciousness.
Then I went to the Motorradzentrum Leiman, http://www.motorradzentrum-leimen.de/ to get new Metzeler Z6 tires and an oil change done. They're going to do it on Monday while I'm gone.
The shuttle service picked me up from the Motorradzentrum and drove me to the Frankfurt airport. Not the most comfortable ride, but you can't argue with its convenience. They're also going to pick me up from the airport on Tuesday and take me back to the shop.
I only had two carryon bags for the 17:00 flight back, making the logistics at the airport quite simple.
I got into Toronto at about 19:30 EDT (which was about 01:30 by my reconning). I didn't really sleep on the flight; watched a bunch of movies including Hunger Games (finally), and got to start The Avengers.
Managed to stay awake for about an hour before losing consciousness.
Friday 10 August 2012
Day 12 and 13, Innsbruck Austria, Thursday and Friday August 9th-10th
I made it down to Austria on Thursday to meet up with an IRC friend nicknamed Turing.
He's living in Innsbruck for the moment, though he's about to go to Belgium for about 5 months for a change of scenery.
We went wandering around Innsbruck for a while, grabbed some food, and went to see Prometheus in 3D. Talked politics, countries, nationalism, and just caught up. I crashed on his couch for the night.
On Friday, we made a little run down into Italy for lunch. We took some side roads down, considerably extending the time we expected to be riding, but the sights were awesome. It went something like this; L38 through Patsch, Brenner Str/182 down to the border to Italy, then SS12 to Vipiteno, SS44 up, over and through what felt like 72 mountains to Merano, then SS38 into Bozen-Bolzano.
It is easy at least to get a Garmin to take this route; tell it to avoid tolls.
We wandered what seemed like endless pedestrian walkways until we found a great little restaurant. Mushroom risotto, mmm.
We blitzed back on the Italian and Austrian autobaun (with limits and tolls, meh). The tolls amounted to about eur13 for motorcycles.
We shook hands, I split off, with Turing going back home and with me continuing to Karlsruhe Germany for the night.
He's living in Innsbruck for the moment, though he's about to go to Belgium for about 5 months for a change of scenery.
We went wandering around Innsbruck for a while, grabbed some food, and went to see Prometheus in 3D. Talked politics, countries, nationalism, and just caught up. I crashed on his couch for the night.
On Friday, we made a little run down into Italy for lunch. We took some side roads down, considerably extending the time we expected to be riding, but the sights were awesome. It went something like this; L38 through Patsch, Brenner Str/182 down to the border to Italy, then SS12 to Vipiteno, SS44 up, over and through what felt like 72 mountains to Merano, then SS38 into Bozen-Bolzano.
It is easy at least to get a Garmin to take this route; tell it to avoid tolls.
We wandered what seemed like endless pedestrian walkways until we found a great little restaurant. Mushroom risotto, mmm.
We blitzed back on the Italian and Austrian autobaun (with limits and tolls, meh). The tolls amounted to about eur13 for motorcycles.
We shook hands, I split off, with Turing going back home and with me continuing to Karlsruhe Germany for the night.
Wednesday 8 August 2012
Day 11, Germany with a hint of Austria, Wednesday August 8th
Today was a day of superslab from Aachen down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
I did stop by the accessory shop, but somehow made it out of there without the new helmet. Maybe I'll try to find one if I pass through the duty-free country of Andorra later in this trip.
I love the German Autobaun. For getting where you need to go, nothing compares. It has a bit of scenery and I know I'd see a lot more if I took local roads, but in this chapter of the trip, I wanted to get as close to Austria as I could for tomorrow. It is a true delight to travel at your comfortable speed and not worry that you're in opposition with what the local government calls comfortable.
While passing near Heidelberg, I stopped at Knopftours to drop off my dead laptop and my camping gear, shedding some weight. I also lined up my shuttle ride for my transits to and from the Frankfurt airport this coming weekend.
I made some criticisms earlier about lane discipline on the Autobaun, but perhaps that was just a weekend thing. I found the drivers yesterday (and over the past few days in general) were much better. Euphoric, really. I am beginning to understand the frustration of my friends who return to North America after spending time on the roads in Europe. In my travels so far, noone has worse drivers than Ontario, through there is evidence that Calgary struggles to wrest that title away. Distraction, a feeling of entitlement in the fast lane, blind spots that roughly cover 270 degrees of everything not directly ahead.
European roads tend to have higher limits. Like, secondary and country roads are often 100km/h, compared to Ontario's 80km/h. Highways are often 120-130km/h, with Ontario at 100km/h, and many other provinces are 110km/h. Of course the German Autobaun is still unrestricted over a lot of it, with a "recommended" limit of 160km/h. But European nations' penalties for "undertaking" (passing at high speed on the slower side, or passing on the right in Canada, as an example) are often severe, making lane discipline a pleasantly common skill.
In Canada, it is a recommendation, not a law as far as I know, to only pass on the left. It happens very rarely here.
So Europeans seem to get more realistic speed limits, but the limits are more closely enforced. Speed cameras are prevalent throughout what I've ridden so far over here. There is some grief around the speed cameras, because I think they trigger at +1, making the posted limit a pretty inflexible one. I'm not sure what that spells for my Ontario plates (and some cameras are facing towards the front of the vehicle, so motorcycles are seemingly exempt), but I guess if I return home to a stack of +1, +2 photo tickets, I'll have my answer.
Incidentally, radar detectors are illegal through most (if not all) of western Europe. I think they sometimes use a slightly different band than is common on North American detectors.
It was a fast day yesterday. I had my worst tank of gas yet; just shy of 8L/100km. Considering the speeds I averaged today, that's still respectable.
I did stop by the accessory shop, but somehow made it out of there without the new helmet. Maybe I'll try to find one if I pass through the duty-free country of Andorra later in this trip.
I love the German Autobaun. For getting where you need to go, nothing compares. It has a bit of scenery and I know I'd see a lot more if I took local roads, but in this chapter of the trip, I wanted to get as close to Austria as I could for tomorrow. It is a true delight to travel at your comfortable speed and not worry that you're in opposition with what the local government calls comfortable.
While passing near Heidelberg, I stopped at Knopftours to drop off my dead laptop and my camping gear, shedding some weight. I also lined up my shuttle ride for my transits to and from the Frankfurt airport this coming weekend.
I made some criticisms earlier about lane discipline on the Autobaun, but perhaps that was just a weekend thing. I found the drivers yesterday (and over the past few days in general) were much better. Euphoric, really. I am beginning to understand the frustration of my friends who return to North America after spending time on the roads in Europe. In my travels so far, noone has worse drivers than Ontario, through there is evidence that Calgary struggles to wrest that title away. Distraction, a feeling of entitlement in the fast lane, blind spots that roughly cover 270 degrees of everything not directly ahead.
European roads tend to have higher limits. Like, secondary and country roads are often 100km/h, compared to Ontario's 80km/h. Highways are often 120-130km/h, with Ontario at 100km/h, and many other provinces are 110km/h. Of course the German Autobaun is still unrestricted over a lot of it, with a "recommended" limit of 160km/h. But European nations' penalties for "undertaking" (passing at high speed on the slower side, or passing on the right in Canada, as an example) are often severe, making lane discipline a pleasantly common skill.
In Canada, it is a recommendation, not a law as far as I know, to only pass on the left. It happens very rarely here.
So Europeans seem to get more realistic speed limits, but the limits are more closely enforced. Speed cameras are prevalent throughout what I've ridden so far over here. There is some grief around the speed cameras, because I think they trigger at +1, making the posted limit a pretty inflexible one. I'm not sure what that spells for my Ontario plates (and some cameras are facing towards the front of the vehicle, so motorcycles are seemingly exempt), but I guess if I return home to a stack of +1, +2 photo tickets, I'll have my answer.
Incidentally, radar detectors are illegal through most (if not all) of western Europe. I think they sometimes use a slightly different band than is common on North American detectors.
It was a fast day yesterday. I had my worst tank of gas yet; just shy of 8L/100km. Considering the speeds I averaged today, that's still respectable.
Tuesday 7 August 2012
Day 10, UK, France, Belgium, Germany - Tuesday August 7th
Finally got back on the road today.
The weather was potentially disconcerting, but ultimately fine. It was heavily overcast, verging on black clouds overhead, but it never rained for which I was pretty happy about.
I made a quick run for the EuroTunnel, and got an earlier train than I was originally booked for. Met a couple people on the train; a father and son from the UK riding two-up on a BMW R1200GS, and guy and girlfriend from the UK riding two-up on a Kawasaki Ninja, and Oliver from Spain riding a BMW F800R.
This summarizes what I've been seeing in the past week; over 50% of the motorcycles on the road in Germany, Switzerland, France and the UK are BMWs.
I didn't spend much time in France; I wanted to end the day in Germany where I knew I could get online, and would leave me closer to my ultimate goal for the next few days; Innsbruck, Austria. I have an IRC friend that lives there today, but expects to be moving to Belgium in a week or so. I wanted to get time to hang out in Austria with someone who knows the area.
I set my sights on sleeping in Aachen, Germany. There's a local motorcycle accessory retailer here that has a decent price on Schuberth helmets that I don't want to be tempted to buy from, fc-moto.de . Figured if I slept here, I could be unwillingly tempted to visit there on the way out tomorrow, possibly stopping by Heidelberg to drop off my now-spared (again) Shoei RF-900. I hope I don't go there tomorrow.
The typical route from the EuroTunnel to Aachen involves going through Belgium, so that's what I did. I took a short detour off the highway to check out the Belgium coast at Koksijde-Bad. They had some kind of festival going on, with billions of people wandering around. The volume of bicycles around there was awesome; a good percentage of the cyclists were decked out in racing tights on decent road bikes. I've always heard that the generally-flat terrain around Belgium and Holland called for lots of bicycling-obsessed people, and I'm starting to see that. I definitely want to head back there with a bicycle on some future vacation.
At one point, there were some dark clouds boiling overhead. I pulled over on the highway maybe 100m behind a van pulling some kind of industrial contraption on a custom trailer, to put the rain cover on my tank bag. I then noticed that a motorcycle cop was having a really animated discussion with the driver of the van, out by the trailer. After a few minutes, the cop finished with the van driver, whistled to get my attention, then started walking over.
As he approached, he started speaking Dutch. I interrupted him and asked for English. He asked, "Is everything okay? Any troubles?" I replied that the clouds looked wet and I wanted to protect my tank bag. He looked up at the clouds, and said "Those? There won't be rain, and anyway, you're a motorcyclist! What do you care about rain!" I laughed, pointed at my poor rain-sensitive camera in the tank bag, and shrugged. He set off back to his bike, and I got back on the road. He was right, BTW, it never rained.
I'm staying at another ibis tonight. I'll probably see a lot of them through this tour. I'm a fan of last-minute bookings at cheap but clean motel chains. I could book ahead at motorcycle-friendly B&Bs, but I don't expect to be planning ahead that often on this trip.
Thus far, the ibis motels have been great. The rooms aren't large, but they are frequently recently built or to maximize the utility of the space you have, have a good breakfast, and all the amenities I desire. They're part of a larger french chain called Accor Hotels. There are lower end shops, with things like completely self-serve check-ins/outs with shared bathrooms, etc, but ibis's consistently have self-contained rooms, humans at the front doors, and parking (though not often free).
I noticed that while I still have good right-hand-traffic instincts on city streets, I have to keep trying to remember which are the fast lanes on the highways now. Irk. Thanks UK. Love ya.
One thing I'm noticing over here is that when I tell locals that I've got 7 weeks off, they don't think that's too exceptional for Europe.
The weather was potentially disconcerting, but ultimately fine. It was heavily overcast, verging on black clouds overhead, but it never rained for which I was pretty happy about.
I made a quick run for the EuroTunnel, and got an earlier train than I was originally booked for. Met a couple people on the train; a father and son from the UK riding two-up on a BMW R1200GS, and guy and girlfriend from the UK riding two-up on a Kawasaki Ninja, and Oliver from Spain riding a BMW F800R.
This summarizes what I've been seeing in the past week; over 50% of the motorcycles on the road in Germany, Switzerland, France and the UK are BMWs.
I didn't spend much time in France; I wanted to end the day in Germany where I knew I could get online, and would leave me closer to my ultimate goal for the next few days; Innsbruck, Austria. I have an IRC friend that lives there today, but expects to be moving to Belgium in a week or so. I wanted to get time to hang out in Austria with someone who knows the area.
I set my sights on sleeping in Aachen, Germany. There's a local motorcycle accessory retailer here that has a decent price on Schuberth helmets that I don't want to be tempted to buy from, fc-moto.de . Figured if I slept here, I could be unwillingly tempted to visit there on the way out tomorrow, possibly stopping by Heidelberg to drop off my now-spared (again) Shoei RF-900. I hope I don't go there tomorrow.
The typical route from the EuroTunnel to Aachen involves going through Belgium, so that's what I did. I took a short detour off the highway to check out the Belgium coast at Koksijde-Bad. They had some kind of festival going on, with billions of people wandering around. The volume of bicycles around there was awesome; a good percentage of the cyclists were decked out in racing tights on decent road bikes. I've always heard that the generally-flat terrain around Belgium and Holland called for lots of bicycling-obsessed people, and I'm starting to see that. I definitely want to head back there with a bicycle on some future vacation.
At one point, there were some dark clouds boiling overhead. I pulled over on the highway maybe 100m behind a van pulling some kind of industrial contraption on a custom trailer, to put the rain cover on my tank bag. I then noticed that a motorcycle cop was having a really animated discussion with the driver of the van, out by the trailer. After a few minutes, the cop finished with the van driver, whistled to get my attention, then started walking over.
As he approached, he started speaking Dutch. I interrupted him and asked for English. He asked, "Is everything okay? Any troubles?" I replied that the clouds looked wet and I wanted to protect my tank bag. He looked up at the clouds, and said "Those? There won't be rain, and anyway, you're a motorcyclist! What do you care about rain!" I laughed, pointed at my poor rain-sensitive camera in the tank bag, and shrugged. He set off back to his bike, and I got back on the road. He was right, BTW, it never rained.
I'm staying at another ibis tonight. I'll probably see a lot of them through this tour. I'm a fan of last-minute bookings at cheap but clean motel chains. I could book ahead at motorcycle-friendly B&Bs, but I don't expect to be planning ahead that often on this trip.
Thus far, the ibis motels have been great. The rooms aren't large, but they are frequently recently built or to maximize the utility of the space you have, have a good breakfast, and all the amenities I desire. They're part of a larger french chain called Accor Hotels. There are lower end shops, with things like completely self-serve check-ins/outs with shared bathrooms, etc, but ibis's consistently have self-contained rooms, humans at the front doors, and parking (though not often free).
I noticed that while I still have good right-hand-traffic instincts on city streets, I have to keep trying to remember which are the fast lanes on the highways now. Irk. Thanks UK. Love ya.
One thing I'm noticing over here is that when I tell locals that I've got 7 weeks off, they don't think that's too exceptional for Europe.
Monday 6 August 2012
Day 10 - London UK, Monday August 6th
Started my day off trying to get in touch with Lenovo, while also trying to sort out my brief Canadian return next weekend.
The Lenovo call was interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying. My new x230's Canadian warranty and onside repair are actually international, which is great! However, it is next-business-day, and even then, they don't have a replacement part in stock, suggesting I could be waiting 7 days or more.
They also told me about a process to check first; disconnect all power (AC, battery), then hold down the power button for 10-15 seconds. This resets the power manager (or drains the power circuitry anyway). Finishing by reattaching power did not solve my problem though.
Later in the day, I called Lenovo Canada, or as it turns out, a call centre that immediately tells you they're in Atlanta, Georgia. The angle was to try to line up a service call for the Monday that I'll be back; I can't book same-day, and it will take time to get the part in, so I was trying to pre-book. They were potentially even less than useful; they told me they couldn't take the call unless I called from Canada, and demanded that I be able to answer my Canadian phone number, the SIM for which I don't intend on putting back into my phone until I actually return.
The girl said she'd work something out, but also said I could expect an email. I haven't seen an email, so I'm afraid they're trying to call instead.
If I can't get my laptop (for which was purchased specifically for this trip) fixed for use on this trip, I'm going to be pretty irritated.
Besides that, I chilled out at the hotel. Watched some Olympics, read stuff online, generally had a vacation from my vacation (and its stresses).
The Lenovo call was interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying. My new x230's Canadian warranty and onside repair are actually international, which is great! However, it is next-business-day, and even then, they don't have a replacement part in stock, suggesting I could be waiting 7 days or more.
They also told me about a process to check first; disconnect all power (AC, battery), then hold down the power button for 10-15 seconds. This resets the power manager (or drains the power circuitry anyway). Finishing by reattaching power did not solve my problem though.
Later in the day, I called Lenovo Canada, or as it turns out, a call centre that immediately tells you they're in Atlanta, Georgia. The angle was to try to line up a service call for the Monday that I'll be back; I can't book same-day, and it will take time to get the part in, so I was trying to pre-book. They were potentially even less than useful; they told me they couldn't take the call unless I called from Canada, and demanded that I be able to answer my Canadian phone number, the SIM for which I don't intend on putting back into my phone until I actually return.
The girl said she'd work something out, but also said I could expect an email. I haven't seen an email, so I'm afraid they're trying to call instead.
If I can't get my laptop (for which was purchased specifically for this trip) fixed for use on this trip, I'm going to be pretty irritated.
Besides that, I chilled out at the hotel. Watched some Olympics, read stuff online, generally had a vacation from my vacation (and its stresses).
Sunday 5 August 2012
Day 9 - London, England - Sunday August 5th
Today I just hung around London. Met up with Misha, Basia, and her brother for dinner, and otherwise took a day off to vegetate.
Last night ended on a down note for me; I was trying to process some pictures on the laptop when it suddenly died. Completely dead, won't even beep or light an LED. Sigh. So I'm at least starting the day tomorrow trying to line up Lenovo support, to decide my next move.
I took the local transit options to move around in London, which gave me some freedom to have a few brews.
Last night ended on a down note for me; I was trying to process some pictures on the laptop when it suddenly died. Completely dead, won't even beep or light an LED. Sigh. So I'm at least starting the day tomorrow trying to line up Lenovo support, to decide my next move.
I took the local transit options to move around in London, which gave me some freedom to have a few brews.
Saturday 4 August 2012
Day 8 - UK Group Ride, Saturday August 4th
Today's highlight was the Garmin Zumo "Ride Out", with Charley Boorman, launched at On Yer Bike, a bike and repair shop.
Charley showed up on many rider's radar when he and Ewan McGregor rode the "Long Way Round"; London UK to New York, 20000miles, 12 countries, 19 timezones, 115 days. Then as an encore, the two rode the "Long Way Down", from the top of Scotland down to Cape Town. As they're both actors, they had a support crew and filmed the majority of their adventures, releasing them to the viewing public. Since then, he's done several of his own projects, continuing his passion for motorcycling, including recently crossing Canada for his Extreme Frontiers documentaries.
Garmin warned that interest was pretty intense for this event, and they weren't kidding. Hundreds of riders showed up, seemingly the majority waiting for Charley to arrive.
Charley showed up on a BMW R1200GS Adventure, the same model (but not the same bike) that he rode for LWD and for crossing Canada, and an upgrade to the older R1150GS Adventure he used for LWR. He seems clearly to have changed his mind about KTM vs. BMW, a debate captured in LWR. That, or BMW is giving him endless free bikes in honour of the awesome showing he and Ewan gave for the bikes.
Within minutes of his arrival, he was cornered by hundreds of people seeking pictures and autographs.
After a time, I went to do my own ride of one of the Garmin-recommended routes around the area. It was about 80 miles, and took almost 2 hours. I started alone, but a handful of us found each other during the ride and finished it as a group.
I only mashed the left-side-traffic thing about 4 times. Sigh. Okay, maybe 5. Or... Only one driver was inconvenienced to the point of honking though!
The route finished back at On Yer Bike. I returned just in time to verify that I didn't win the grand prize; I believe it was the "African Adventure", which implies an epic Africa tour. I clearly was eager and anxious to win this. ;)
After the prizes were awarded, Charley joined everyone for a short group ride, with an untold number of people following, including me immediately behind Charley, who was in the #2 position himself. Of course, the very first thing he did when he got out of the parking lot was settle all the gear on his bike with a good wheelie. Then we were off!
It was a fast tour of the local area again, perhaps a 1/3rd of the 80mile circuit.
I didn't really get to talk to Charley much. I think I heard him tell people his next trip is in October, perhaps South America.
I eventually took off. My bike was running on fumes at this point, and I wanted to reclaim my laundry, which I dropped at Launderama in downtown Aylesbury early this morning. Then it was back to the hotel, and a tasty roast beef dinner (with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy), and an apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert.
I just read an interesting thing; Charley had an R1200GS Adventure stolen, the one he used for his Canadian crossing. Within hours, the bike was traced back to the thieves, and was already partially dismantled. Impressive that they hadn't discovered the tracking module yet and disabled it. I know who I'll be looking to secure my bike if I buy a bike in the UK.
Oh, I see I've been remis with some details people might find interesting. I shall go back in time and add these details to my previous days posts as well.
Premium (95 RON) as prices in the UK appear to be about GBP 1.36/L, or CAD $2.13/L.
Averaging 5.9 L/100km today, on roughly 100km/h roads
Charley showed up on many rider's radar when he and Ewan McGregor rode the "Long Way Round"; London UK to New York, 20000miles, 12 countries, 19 timezones, 115 days. Then as an encore, the two rode the "Long Way Down", from the top of Scotland down to Cape Town. As they're both actors, they had a support crew and filmed the majority of their adventures, releasing them to the viewing public. Since then, he's done several of his own projects, continuing his passion for motorcycling, including recently crossing Canada for his Extreme Frontiers documentaries.
Garmin warned that interest was pretty intense for this event, and they weren't kidding. Hundreds of riders showed up, seemingly the majority waiting for Charley to arrive.
Charley showed up on a BMW R1200GS Adventure, the same model (but not the same bike) that he rode for LWD and for crossing Canada, and an upgrade to the older R1150GS Adventure he used for LWR. He seems clearly to have changed his mind about KTM vs. BMW, a debate captured in LWR. That, or BMW is giving him endless free bikes in honour of the awesome showing he and Ewan gave for the bikes.
Within minutes of his arrival, he was cornered by hundreds of people seeking pictures and autographs.
After a time, I went to do my own ride of one of the Garmin-recommended routes around the area. It was about 80 miles, and took almost 2 hours. I started alone, but a handful of us found each other during the ride and finished it as a group.
I only mashed the left-side-traffic thing about 4 times. Sigh. Okay, maybe 5. Or... Only one driver was inconvenienced to the point of honking though!
The route finished back at On Yer Bike. I returned just in time to verify that I didn't win the grand prize; I believe it was the "African Adventure", which implies an epic Africa tour. I clearly was eager and anxious to win this. ;)
After the prizes were awarded, Charley joined everyone for a short group ride, with an untold number of people following, including me immediately behind Charley, who was in the #2 position himself. Of course, the very first thing he did when he got out of the parking lot was settle all the gear on his bike with a good wheelie. Then we were off!
It was a fast tour of the local area again, perhaps a 1/3rd of the 80mile circuit.
I didn't really get to talk to Charley much. I think I heard him tell people his next trip is in October, perhaps South America.
I eventually took off. My bike was running on fumes at this point, and I wanted to reclaim my laundry, which I dropped at Launderama in downtown Aylesbury early this morning. Then it was back to the hotel, and a tasty roast beef dinner (with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy), and an apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert.
I just read an interesting thing; Charley had an R1200GS Adventure stolen, the one he used for his Canadian crossing. Within hours, the bike was traced back to the thieves, and was already partially dismantled. Impressive that they hadn't discovered the tracking module yet and disabled it. I know who I'll be looking to secure my bike if I buy a bike in the UK.
Oh, I see I've been remis with some details people might find interesting. I shall go back in time and add these details to my previous days posts as well.
Premium (95 RON) as prices in the UK appear to be about GBP 1.36/L, or CAD $2.13/L.
Averaging 5.9 L/100km today, on roughly 100km/h roads
Friday 3 August 2012
Day 7 - UK, Friday August 3rd
Today saw me taking the Le Shuttle trip with the bike through the EuroTunnel.
I was booked for the 14:50 train, and I read that you should show up at least an hour beforehand for customs, etc. I was a bit earlier than that, showing up at 13:05 or so. As you approach the EuroTunnel booths, you're given an option of self-serve (if you have a reservation) and staffed booths (half marked with british flags and right-hand-drive oriented, half not.) I had a reservation, but I really felt like talking to a human, so I picked a staffed booth.
The girl was a bit surprised that I already had a reservation, but she was cheerful enough about it, asked for the credit card the reservation was made with, and offered to bump it up to the earlier 13:50 train for me.
French customs was almost a non-event. They took my passport, glanced in its general direction, then handed it back with a smile. I can't be sure they even opened it. I know for sure the 4 UK passports that were handed over by the van before me were waved off once the guy verified they were all the same colour from a distance.
The UK customs officer was quite friendly. Asked lots of questions, demonstrated that he had a personality, and was pretty conversational while getting the details he needed. There was none of the sense of threat I often feel when crossing the US/Canada border.
Off-topic, but I wonder if I can order the Ford Focus UK bumpers for delivery in Canada. They're so much nicer. Anyway.
The EuroTunnel train is basically a very long empty tube. About every other car has a large side door, so you can just drive in and down its length as far as you can. They only require you to engage your parking brake and put the vehicle in 1st; no tiedowns required. A few minutes later, they closed the external and internal doors between the rail cars and we were off.
The transit was about 30 minutes. Surprisingly, I had a very strong Orange France 3G signal all they way across until the train exited the tube in the UK.
While I was in the tube, I looked up the O2 store address in Folkestone UK, and bee-lined there as soon as they let me off the train. Picked up SIMs for both the iPhone and iPad. They enabled my iPhone account immediately, and sent me off to do my own iPad registration.
As a note, being left to do your own iPad registration while in a foreign country is a non-starter; a fact I forgot about until trying to do my registration. To complete it, you require a credit card, and you have to enter the local country's address that is registered to that credit card. They check the zip/postal/post code against the card registrar's database. If you're a foreigner, you're SOL. Best solution there is to get some form of pre-paid credit card that lets you configure your own address online. I have to admit, once you do get online, you feel like you just slayed a dragon.
As many are aware, the UK follows left-hand traffic, opposite most of the world as the wiki shows. They've got a pretty good system as you come out the UK side of the EuroTunnel; you are essentially dropped into the left-hand lane, with a big sign reminding you about left-hand traffic in the UK. I was always afraid of how my instincts would tolerate being shaken up by this, but so far, it has been okay.
Next was the 250km transit to Alyesbury, with a half-pass of the "London Orbital", the M25. My GPS was having fits as it got traffic updates; most highways on the far side of London towards Heathrow were really congested, or "severe" as my GPS says. For a while, it had me doing 5000 roundabouts through subdivisions before it finally ran out and only had the M25 to feed me.
I also found at one point that I had to kill my audiobook. I noticed I had started being "surprised" at left-hand traffic decisions and realized I needed to concentrate more.
I will also say that perhaps due to the higher traffic volumes here than I've seen since I landed last week, people really weren't dealing with the roundabouts very well here. Lots of people were stopping before entering, and judging by the levels of aggression by people in the roundabout (speed primarily), I can't blame them. I rarely ever saw people have to stop before entering in the smaller cities and towns I'd seen in Germany, Switzerland, and France, but I also haven't seen a city over here with even a fraction of London's population yet.
Once I got back on the M25, I took my hand at lane splitting. Wooo! Admittedly, my bike is a bit wide with its side boxes on, but people were opening up the right split (between the fast and second-fast lanes) for me readily enough.
After getting to the hotel, I set about trying to sort out the mess with getting my iPad on O2 here, and hit the pub next door. Bangers, mashed, and a Guinness; aww yeah. And now that I know that many UK pubs don't serve you at the table, that went a bit better for me this time around too.
Called Misha in London. Hopefully I'll get to visit him while I'm over this weekend. If not, I'll likely be back here before the end of this trip. He lives in the northern part of London, and figures as long as I avoid the core, I shouldn't run into too much Olympics insanity.
Tomorrow will be an early start. Breakfast at 08:00, then I want to drop my clothes at a nearby laundrette when it opens at 08:30, then zoom off to the ride for its 09:00 start. Har. I have lofty goals!
I should also comment on work. I have been keeping sporadic touch with my work mailbox. Thus far, things are either going well, or noone is bothering me with escalations. After a week away, I can't believe how remote work feels. I feel like I've experienced a month's worth of stuff in the past 7 days. And I have, what, 42 more days to go? Not that I'm counting at all; I'm really not. But the scale of the past 7 days did need some perspective of what I've got ahead of me.
Premium (95 RON), prices in England appear to be about GBP 1.35/L, or CAD $2.12/L.
Averaging 5.9 L/100km today, on roughly 120km/h roads
I was booked for the 14:50 train, and I read that you should show up at least an hour beforehand for customs, etc. I was a bit earlier than that, showing up at 13:05 or so. As you approach the EuroTunnel booths, you're given an option of self-serve (if you have a reservation) and staffed booths (half marked with british flags and right-hand-drive oriented, half not.) I had a reservation, but I really felt like talking to a human, so I picked a staffed booth.
The girl was a bit surprised that I already had a reservation, but she was cheerful enough about it, asked for the credit card the reservation was made with, and offered to bump it up to the earlier 13:50 train for me.
French customs was almost a non-event. They took my passport, glanced in its general direction, then handed it back with a smile. I can't be sure they even opened it. I know for sure the 4 UK passports that were handed over by the van before me were waved off once the guy verified they were all the same colour from a distance.
The UK customs officer was quite friendly. Asked lots of questions, demonstrated that he had a personality, and was pretty conversational while getting the details he needed. There was none of the sense of threat I often feel when crossing the US/Canada border.
Off-topic, but I wonder if I can order the Ford Focus UK bumpers for delivery in Canada. They're so much nicer. Anyway.
The EuroTunnel train is basically a very long empty tube. About every other car has a large side door, so you can just drive in and down its length as far as you can. They only require you to engage your parking brake and put the vehicle in 1st; no tiedowns required. A few minutes later, they closed the external and internal doors between the rail cars and we were off.
The transit was about 30 minutes. Surprisingly, I had a very strong Orange France 3G signal all they way across until the train exited the tube in the UK.
While I was in the tube, I looked up the O2 store address in Folkestone UK, and bee-lined there as soon as they let me off the train. Picked up SIMs for both the iPhone and iPad. They enabled my iPhone account immediately, and sent me off to do my own iPad registration.
As a note, being left to do your own iPad registration while in a foreign country is a non-starter; a fact I forgot about until trying to do my registration. To complete it, you require a credit card, and you have to enter the local country's address that is registered to that credit card. They check the zip/postal/post code against the card registrar's database. If you're a foreigner, you're SOL. Best solution there is to get some form of pre-paid credit card that lets you configure your own address online. I have to admit, once you do get online, you feel like you just slayed a dragon.
As many are aware, the UK follows left-hand traffic, opposite most of the world as the wiki shows. They've got a pretty good system as you come out the UK side of the EuroTunnel; you are essentially dropped into the left-hand lane, with a big sign reminding you about left-hand traffic in the UK. I was always afraid of how my instincts would tolerate being shaken up by this, but so far, it has been okay.
Next was the 250km transit to Alyesbury, with a half-pass of the "London Orbital", the M25. My GPS was having fits as it got traffic updates; most highways on the far side of London towards Heathrow were really congested, or "severe" as my GPS says. For a while, it had me doing 5000 roundabouts through subdivisions before it finally ran out and only had the M25 to feed me.
I also found at one point that I had to kill my audiobook. I noticed I had started being "surprised" at left-hand traffic decisions and realized I needed to concentrate more.
I will also say that perhaps due to the higher traffic volumes here than I've seen since I landed last week, people really weren't dealing with the roundabouts very well here. Lots of people were stopping before entering, and judging by the levels of aggression by people in the roundabout (speed primarily), I can't blame them. I rarely ever saw people have to stop before entering in the smaller cities and towns I'd seen in Germany, Switzerland, and France, but I also haven't seen a city over here with even a fraction of London's population yet.
Once I got back on the M25, I took my hand at lane splitting. Wooo! Admittedly, my bike is a bit wide with its side boxes on, but people were opening up the right split (between the fast and second-fast lanes) for me readily enough.
After getting to the hotel, I set about trying to sort out the mess with getting my iPad on O2 here, and hit the pub next door. Bangers, mashed, and a Guinness; aww yeah. And now that I know that many UK pubs don't serve you at the table, that went a bit better for me this time around too.
Called Misha in London. Hopefully I'll get to visit him while I'm over this weekend. If not, I'll likely be back here before the end of this trip. He lives in the northern part of London, and figures as long as I avoid the core, I shouldn't run into too much Olympics insanity.
Tomorrow will be an early start. Breakfast at 08:00, then I want to drop my clothes at a nearby laundrette when it opens at 08:30, then zoom off to the ride for its 09:00 start. Har. I have lofty goals!
I should also comment on work. I have been keeping sporadic touch with my work mailbox. Thus far, things are either going well, or noone is bothering me with escalations. After a week away, I can't believe how remote work feels. I feel like I've experienced a month's worth of stuff in the past 7 days. And I have, what, 42 more days to go? Not that I'm counting at all; I'm really not. But the scale of the past 7 days did need some perspective of what I've got ahead of me.
Premium (95 RON), prices in England appear to be about GBP 1.35/L, or CAD $2.12/L.
Averaging 5.9 L/100km today, on roughly 120km/h roads
Thursday 2 August 2012
Day 6 - France, Thursday August 2nd.
I flew through France today. Didn't see much, because I wanted to get close to the EuroTunnel before nightfall, to make tomorrow an easier day.
The ride started with a transit of the Jura Mountains up the D1005 and N5. There are some great roads up there, and not very busy. Lots of cyclists pounding away on the ascents. Once the mountains were past though, I caught the A31, A5, and A26 to Saint Omer, making a fast transit of the country. The A's seem to be toll roads; paid out about €30 on them.
I can't say that I feel at all cheated about the fast ride. I saw a few signs along the way (Vimy - Canadian Memorial, and a Canadian Cemetery near Calais in particular) that I want to see when I have time later. I had a great and relaxing day on the road, which I had gotten used to doing riding around North America.
I did notice that the French are kinda particular about their language. I tried speaking a few words in french, but I generally got a frustrated frown back, and a terse "correction", which often included a bit more of a roll on the R, more stress on enunciating the vowels, or just plain horror. If I spoke english, they didn't like that either. Greeting them with a "Bonjour!" would result in them happily talking at me in french for a few minutes, then I'd have to interrupt them, ask for english, and watch them get cranky. They just don't like me.
I stayed at an ibis in Saint Omer. When in doubt, I try to stay at economy chains; ibis is reasonably respected throughout Europe, and I figure there is a good chance I won't wake up with bedbugs the next morning.
Premium (95 RON), prices in France appear to be about EUR 1.68/L, or CAD $2.09/L.
Averaging 6.1 L/100 km today, at roughly 130 km/h
The ride started with a transit of the Jura Mountains up the D1005 and N5. There are some great roads up there, and not very busy. Lots of cyclists pounding away on the ascents. Once the mountains were past though, I caught the A31, A5, and A26 to Saint Omer, making a fast transit of the country. The A's seem to be toll roads; paid out about €30 on them.
I can't say that I feel at all cheated about the fast ride. I saw a few signs along the way (Vimy - Canadian Memorial, and a Canadian Cemetery near Calais in particular) that I want to see when I have time later. I had a great and relaxing day on the road, which I had gotten used to doing riding around North America.
I did notice that the French are kinda particular about their language. I tried speaking a few words in french, but I generally got a frustrated frown back, and a terse "correction", which often included a bit more of a roll on the R, more stress on enunciating the vowels, or just plain horror. If I spoke english, they didn't like that either. Greeting them with a "Bonjour!" would result in them happily talking at me in french for a few minutes, then I'd have to interrupt them, ask for english, and watch them get cranky. They just don't like me.
I stayed at an ibis in Saint Omer. When in doubt, I try to stay at economy chains; ibis is reasonably respected throughout Europe, and I figure there is a good chance I won't wake up with bedbugs the next morning.
Premium (95 RON), prices in France appear to be about EUR 1.68/L, or CAD $2.09/L.
Averaging 6.1 L/100 km today, at roughly 130 km/h
Wednesday 1 August 2012
Day 5, CERN, Wednesday August 1st
To start the day, I woke up early to get to CERN early to try to get a space on a tour. But I couldn't find my main set of keys. I had my backup keyring, but my main one was AWOL. After checking my bike without results, one of the girls at the front desk intercepted me and told me I dropped my keys in the parking lot yesterday. Someone found them and give them to the front desk. I think I dodged another bullet!
Anyway. (Always an anyway.)
I couldn't get an advanced reservation on a tour, but they suggested I get there by 09:00 and they'd try to fit me in. I did, and they did, for the 13:00 tour.
They can't take people into the tunnels on this tour as experiments are running. They said that they may be shutting down the LHC in 2013 for upgrades, which might open up the tunnel for tours. I'm already planning ahead for that! (Anyone want to do a CERN+Oktoberfest week in 2013?)
They started the tour in CERN building 33 with a movie going over the first 50 years. Saying it was inspiring to me is an understatement. If I had seen it 20 years ago, I know I'd be living over here, working at CERN now. The importance this project has played in science is breathtaking.
After the tour, they took us to the ATLAS building. They showed us a 3d video from the making of the ATLAS collector, then took us to see the ATLAS command centre.
I met a Danish rider at the tour. He mentioned the costs of owning a vehicle is absurd in Denmark. Like, the plate itself costs 125% of the sales tax, which is 25% on top of the cost of the vehicle. Buying a car can easily cost half a year's salary, if not well over.
Anyway. (Always an anyway.)
I couldn't get an advanced reservation on a tour, but they suggested I get there by 09:00 and they'd try to fit me in. I did, and they did, for the 13:00 tour.
They can't take people into the tunnels on this tour as experiments are running. They said that they may be shutting down the LHC in 2013 for upgrades, which might open up the tunnel for tours. I'm already planning ahead for that! (Anyone want to do a CERN+Oktoberfest week in 2013?)
They started the tour in CERN building 33 with a movie going over the first 50 years. Saying it was inspiring to me is an understatement. If I had seen it 20 years ago, I know I'd be living over here, working at CERN now. The importance this project has played in science is breathtaking.
After the tour, they took us to the ATLAS building. They showed us a 3d video from the making of the ATLAS collector, then took us to see the ATLAS command centre.
I met a Danish rider at the tour. He mentioned the costs of owning a vehicle is absurd in Denmark. Like, the plate itself costs 125% of the sales tax, which is 25% on top of the cost of the vehicle. Buying a car can easily cost half a year's salary, if not well over.
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