2001 An Italian Odyssey - Water Trip

From the top to the bottom of Lake Garda is over forty miles of near stop-start traffic with the majority of the eastern side built on, making it appear to be one large conurbation. This means that the easiest way to travel is by boat and there are three different types available.

There is a car ferry,

a hydrofoil

and a paddle steamer.

Over the next couple of days we managed to use all three.

Our first boat trip took us down to Sirmione, a small town on a peninsula at the southern end of the lake. Sirmione boasts a castle and an old Roman Villa.

The castle we did not have time to visit as we spent a long time walking round the villa’s ruins. Guzzisue was busy with her camera taking shots of the villa and some of the original floors. There was also a museum with a lot of artifacts in glass cases. Ian got reprimanded for touching the glass cases! Well they were alarmed and he didn’t want to be shot so he decided to be more careful. The visit was marred as there was no detailed tourist guide to help us get more enjoyment, this may be different now but I’m unable to comment as we have not ventured back yet.

After our visit to the villa we spent a little time getting some souvenirs to take home for family and friends before catching the ferry up to Garda for a short while before finally arriving back at Lazise.

2001 An Italian Odyssey - Gardaland

Today after breakfast we travelled by the local bus service to Gardaland, the largest theme park in Italy. When it is considered that Alton Towers is possibly the best park in England then all I can say is get over to Europe and see what is on offer! Gardaland, although tacky in areas with a few older looking rides wins hands down. We managed to stay most of the day in the park with food and drinks being reasonably priced. Due to the heat in Italy there are several water mist areas to walk through to cool off. The queuing time for the rides was about 40 minutes. This may have been down to the fact that the schools had started back. Many of the queues being in the shade with areas selling ice cream if the queue was longer.

On waiting to return to Laize the bus appeared about half an hour late, but we have been there before.

2001 An Italian Odyssey - Lift Off

I will not dwell on the first couple of days of this years travel as it very similar to the previous adventures heading towards Italy. We stopped off at the Prunellia Hotel in Verdun again for the first night and then managed to get into Austria for the second before entering Italy on the Sunday. Having managed to work out how to use the automatic petrol pumps and battled to get off the motorway near our destination, Lazise on the shore of Lake Gada was reached.

Lazise is a small town that has some walls and a six-towered Scaligeri castle and was also the most important trading post and the first independent commune when under Venetian rule, so our guide book told us.

We struggled to find accomodiation as most hotels were fully booked or just had a room for one night and we wanted to stay in the area for a few days. Eventually we found a hotel not far from the lake and took the attic room, no balcony and sloping ceiling so we had to be careful where we walked.

Biker Ted's Award #2

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Sarah from Sarahs House for nominating me the Arte y Pico Award. In doing so she wrote:

Biker Ted.. http://bikerted.blogspot.com/
Biker Ted Rocks... Lots of stunning pictures and tales of bike riding. Encourages me that one day we will spend some time abroard on the bike.

My aim from writing my blog is to do exactly what Sarah says, to encourage people to get out on two wheels, be it in their own country or another. When we first went abroad Ian was quite nervous about the unknown, which is exactly what can make a motorcycle tour exciting. Things may go wrong but many times they can be sorted out, as what happened to us last year. I will write about this at a later date.

As usual there are rules, 5 to be exact.. in receiving this award.


1) Pick 5 blogs that You Feel Are Deserving of this award based on their

(a) creativity,

(b) design,

(c) interesting material, and

(d) contribution to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) For each award giver: Include the name of the author and a link to their blog, so they can be visited.

3) For each award recipient: Show the award with the name and link to the blogger from whom it was received.

4) For both giver and receiver: Show the link of Arte y Pico. (http://arteypico.blogspot.com/)

5) Publish these rules.

As I am new to the world of blogging I will have to adhere to these rules at a later date so you will have to “bear” with me for a while on this

Wall Of Death

One of the stalls selling t-shirts at the 8^th International Classic Japanese Bike Show had this great design based round a Wall Of Death theme.

This reminded me of the travelling one that sometimes comes to Nottingham’s Goose Fair in October.

I must thank Guzzisue for the use of her photos of The Wall Of Death as I did not have my camera with me at the time.

Also, in Motorcycle News recently they had an article about a home made Wall Of Death that was built by Colin Furze and his friends. Now all we need to do is find a DVD of Eat The Peach, a film about two Irishmen building a Wall Of Death in their village, but until then enjoy these clips and Richard Thompson’s song Wall Of Death.

WALL OF DEATH, The building process FURZE

WALL OF DEATH (homemade) the SCOOTER did it amazing FURZE

Richard Thompson - Wall of Death

Castle Donnington, 8th International Classic Japanese Bike Show

The first weekend of Febuary saw Ian, Guzzisue and myself heading to Castle Donnington for the 8^th International Classic Japanese Bike Show. We tend to go to this show every few years when Ian decides that he needs to buy new binders for his Tansha magazines, the bi monthly publication from the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club, or if he gets the urge to go auto jumbling for bits for his 1982 Suzuki GSX400.

Ian had success on both counts with this visit as he purchased two binders and he found a top end gasket set for £10. Bargin.

We spent some time looking at the fine restored machinery and I even tried a small Honda ATV for size but I think I’ll have to stick with my cruiser (see Wind In My Fur for pictures).

Details for the 2009 show are here.

2000 Déjà-vu - The Homeward Journey Begins

Today we managed to travel 360 miles from Canazei to Heidelberg travelling on some fantastic roads, especially the one we took to get to Bolzano. It was not safe to stop and take photos of this unfortunately as it was used by many tour coaches and there was not any safe parking places.

In Heidelberg we tried to get into the same hotel as last time but it was full, however the tourist information centre found the Anlage Hotel just outside the old town with off street parking for the Guzzi. The hotel is an old building that the Addams Family may have enjoyed living in. There were some period pieces of furniture place throughout the building and a large window with stained glass on the stairway. We were given the old servants room in the attic with an electric skylight window that closed automatically when the thunderstorm struck during the night.

The following morning we located a station for the funicular railway and travelled to the top of the cliff and walked a little way before heading part of the way back down to walk round the castle grounds. Afterwards it was time for more window shopping for Guzzisue whilst Ian and myself headed for the large record store that we visited last time. I’m not sure if it is a good thing that the Guzzi’s panniers are the wrong size to fit vinyl lps in.

When we arrived back at the hotel a flyer had been placed on the Guzzi from the International Motorcycle Touring Club. The flyer was offering membership to the club along with advice on touring abroad. We declined the offer.

On the evening news programmes throughout Europe there were items of growing unrest due to the rise in petrol prices, with England having serious problems. There is nothing we can do but carry on heading back home.

One night is spent in Béthune before heading back to Calais for the ferry home. In Calais we decide to fill right up in case there are any fuel shortages back home. Once filled up the Guzzi was being a little temperamental and refusing to start. It eventually fired up and while Ian was looking for some paper towel a car window opened and a roll was passed to Guzzisue. The lady in the car said that she had seen us down in Italy!

Back in Dover the petrol station at the port entrance was closed due to lack of fuels. The ride home was tense and slow as we crawled from station to station in search of the motion lotion, finally finding some on the A14 north of Cambridge with minimal queueing with a policeman there to keep watch and make sure there was no fights at the pumps. We made it home with the petrol that we managed to find and reported in to Ian and Guzzisue’s parents.