5-26-2010

Start of the ride

The tradition in Mongolia is to tie a ribbon around a tree and make three circles around that tree. If you do this you will have good luck and return safely.

The circles have to be made in a counter clockwise direction.

JayJay and daughter will be making trips soon too. He will be going to Mongolia and she will be headed to Australia. There will be three ribbons on this tree soon.

The Swiss Alps come into view…..

I stopped to put in my ear plugs and saw this little cable car. The hills are so steep here I have seen cog wheel trains and bigger cable cars but this one must be for a residence.

There were tons of bikes on the road as it was some sort of Catholic holiday that the government recognizes.

There were two passes I was headed over but were still snowed in. I made it over this one and it was a nice road. There were avalanche protections you can see in this photo on the lower right. There are tunnels through the mountains too but I wanted to ride over them. JJ said there was a train that you load you bike on that will take you over one of the passes as well.

the view from the top coming down into the valley was nice. These mountains are nothing like the Andes but they are impressive for sure.

I stopped at a rest stop and was impressed with the toilets. They are the squat type and that little round thing on the back lets out a fan of water spray that cleans the basin. I like this system a lot as it uses almost no water and is better for my ‘movements’….J

Damn Texans been here too, corrupting the inhabitants.

Neat little church in Bellinazona where I camped the night in a campground. This town is full of old ruins and castles but this little church is the only one I had the chance to see. There was supposed to be a storm coming in and I wanted to get south of the Alps and down in Italy where the weather should be more Mediterranean. It is a nice one day ride down here from JJ’s, so I might make a run down here when I come back. That way I can ride the mountain passes too.

I really like this rock roof. They must have an amazing support structure for a roof that weighs this much. It will last many lifetimes as they have proven here.

Postal trucks.

1984 Mac on display in the shop window.

Apple camera.

I have never seen a late model ‘chicken back’ VW bus like this one but there were several in town.

I stopped to get gas at a station and couldn’t get the damn gas cap open. I turned it a hundred times, pushing and pulling and finally it came apart. I have just been using the bottom part and it is working just fine. The tank bag covers it, so no problemo. I will try to find a new one for Jorg.

I went into a bank and you have to go through these little tubes to get in and get out of the bank. I guess it would slow the bank robber down and it would be handy for the cops if they could just open the tube and take them away.

I got lost in this little town on one way streets. I was lucky to find my way out of this maze.

A very well cared for R80G/S or a restored one.

I am in Italy and decided to have a pizza. This one is called a pepperoni pizza but it is grilled red peppers and not pepperoni sausage. It is very thin and not what I expected of Italian pizza. I need to do more sampling.

I had spent the day in heavy traffic and decided to head to the coast where I felt I would find a campground, as I had not seen any all day. I finally found a nice one and was setting up camp when a woman came over and told me that she had a F650 that she rides. She couldn’t remember what kind of BMW her husband rode. She asked if I was going to see the city tomorrow. I told her I wasn’t much on cities and would be traveling south. She said I NEEDED to see this city, as it was very special. She said the town didn’t have streets only canals with boat for traveling around. Humm, that sounds like Venice….. and so it was. The campground had a bus that picks you up and takes you there for $2.20 round trip. That sounded cheap enough to not take the bike so I went out along the road and waited for the bus. This little canal is in this residential area and I could tell the water was moving right along. Later I saw that they also have tour boats that cruise this route.

Holy shit!!! A bustling city it is for sure. The bus was full of people that were headed to work and it was just starting to get rolling here in town. There are lots of taxis as well as cargo boats. Think taxis and trucks.

I happened across a photographer at work in a huge building.

There seems to be nothing wrong with Italian women. Actually, I had been noticing that all along. They like to show cleavage and wear tight pants and skirts.

I had to take his photo for the women. He laughed as everyone was totally fixated on her.

I’m not sure what this place is, but it has a nice entrance eh?

street poster.

Side street.

This is a major water bus boarding area. Simple little church in the background.

I found the little side alleys more to my liking.

As the morning progressed, the streets started to fill up.

These little side streets had business. That aluminum cart is a garbage truck.

I was somewhere in this city.

There are some massive building and I think this one is a hotel.

I went in one of the big churches and found this interesting. The people have left offerings of silver harts and in the back of it was a place to put written messages?? to what ever is happening here. Who ever it is doesn’t accept money for their blessing or help.

The rock work was stunning.

I thought this girl with the sun shining out of the cut in her throat was interesting.

Another dead body.

The dress code. They had scarves here for use if needed.

I really like these working truck boats. Notice the fancy gondola parked next to it.

This is a gondola guy and I thought it was interesting to see the wooden arm that they use to handle the oar.

Lovey dovey…..

This flat bed ‘truck’ had old televisions stacked on it.

I finally found some nice ironwork and I know there must be a lot of it around.

I really like these little side foot streets, but I found them a little scary as they go every which way and it was easy for me to get lost. Bread crumbs would have been one answer, but for the pigeons.

A garbage lady. These little carts are really nice tools. They seem easy to handle. There were quite a few women hand truck drivers. Everything moves by boat and hand truck here. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for delivery. I guess over a thousand years, they have it worked out pretty well.

Not much space between houses eh?

cargo hauler..

They were bringing stuff to the farmers market.

With out doubt, the best produce I have ever seen. Amazing variety and everything was very good quality. This was morning so things might have looked different in the afternoon.

These were picked this morning early.

Same here. My wife Susan used to batter these squash blossoms. As squash goes, they are pretty good done that way.

Rabbit food.

We grew this type of tomato and they are really good. I have never seen them for sale before.

This guy was peeling the bottom and slicing off the bottom. I think they are purple artichokes. They had tubs of these artichoke hearts floating in water for sale.

I had to buy these little strawberries. I figured they would be like the sand strawberries and would be double sweet and tasty, and they were.

The fish monger

She had snails too, and as you can see, they were alive and crawling to get away.

I had to go into this shop as they had some licoriza (licorice) ropes displayed in the window. They were a little pricey but WOW, these Italians can really do licorice RIGHT!!`

The sandwiches (?) looked good too.

Another church and another amazing thing happened.

The detail work is amazing.

it would be nice to hear the pipes.

This is a dock outside an old hotel that was blocked off. The rocks were just rounded off with time and I can imagine that they are hundreds of years old. 

I had enough of the City and beat feet for camp. I like this water faucet in camp.

I got really bummed out by being in that city even if it was so different. It sure is set up for the tourists but I just don’t find myself in that mode. I hate crowds and that place was sure getting me crowded. Actually at this point I am almost thinking coming to Europe was a mistake as there are just so many people here and the road traffic is heavy. It is sort of neat being on a bike as they allow motorcycles to split lanes and pass everyone stopped at the stoplights and signs. They use the roundabouts a lot, which I really do like. I hope I can get into a place where there are not so many people. If it is all crowded like it has been so far, I can sure understand why people left here and came to America.