Riding The Swiss Alps

Jammed, jammed, jammed on time, but I said I'd get some pics up so here you go.  I apologize for rushing through these, but you'll get the idea of how amazing this was...

Zurich HD, where it all started from.  These guys didn't speak much English, so thank goodness Erin was there to speak German with them.

I'm off!  Well, after I finally found my way out of the city.  (I'd looked at maps the night before and had written down streets and turns I'd need to make to get to the Autobahn, but - as we later realized; when I left the dealership, I went out the back street, not the front.  So I was immediately lost and it took me 45 minutes of riding around, trying to decipher street signs in German, before I finally found my way out.)

The scenery EVERYWHERE is just beyond amazing!

A nice panoramic snapshot for ya.  And yes, that is a castle in the middle of the town.

I made it to Gotthard Pass!  This was THE road I was looking forward to!

Hmmm...I could take the easy way around the mountain...

Nope!  I came to ride the ancient pass, so let's get down there and to some twisting...

Not much room for error on these roads.  No actual guardrail, and some of those turn are a long way down...

A picture from the bottom of the road, of the tunnel back up at the top...

More amazing sights.  This is why it took me so long to get through these passes.  I had to keep finding places to park so that I could wander around and really take things in.

This was on the second pass of the day; the San Bernadino one.  It, too, had windy turns, but it also had clouds to ride through, and lakes to admire...

And stretches of roadway that seemed to go on forever.

This was along the Splugen Pass.  More twisties, more amazing scenery...

At the top of this pass there was an old battlement of some sort.  It overlooked the valley below and would have been a prime location for a bunch of artillery.

The Italian border!  I'm officially in Italy now...too bad I'm running out of daylight...and the clouds are really moving in...and I have no idea what's in front of me for accommodations, or how far ahead they may lie...

So, I rode about 10 feet into Italy to make it official, then did a U-turn and headed back the way I'd come.  I'd passed a hotel/restaurant back on the highway and figured I'd hit that for the night.

A few more pics of the battlement on my way by.  Inside was very cool...

A nice framed pic of the bike

The clouds were moving in and down, pretty quickly...

I made it down and to the hotel without any issues.  Had a great meal (the menu was all in German, but I lucked out and managed to decipher ravioli, and it was delicious.  As was the dark beer I had with it.)

A nice restful evening, a hearty breakfast, and I was back on the road, headed back to Zurich.

These are the bridges on the highways over there.  Look how thin the supports are!  I couldn't believe it, and there were full sized tractor/trailer rigs going over these things.

Now there's something you don't see often.  Along the side of a highway, and ancient castle looms up...

Back on the San Bernadino pass, I found an old, unused road.  Well, it's unused by mankind, but the cows use it quite often, given all the dried cow pucks all over the place.

It was along this stretch that I found the road that wasn't on any maps.  The pavement just ended.  Off to one side was a dirt path which cars and motorcycles were banned from, and a little sign for some place called Bandita Di Caccia.

What an amazing overlook...

Back at the first pass (Gotthard).  I was going to ride it again, but the wind had picked up something fierce and was really driving the clouds down into the valley with impressive speed.  That, plus I wanted to give myself extra time to find the dealership (considering how well I'd done finding my way out of the city the day before), so I just gazed at it for a while longer, took one last pic, and then turned my front tire toward Zurich.

Along the way, I pulled over to refresh my memory on the streets I'd be looking for when entering Zurich.  At the rest area, I noticed beneath an overpass, an old set of stairs leading down...so of course I had to find out where they went...

They brought me down closer to the edge of the lake I was next to, as well as a set of train tracks.  Another awesome scenery opportunity!

I'd left myself a few extra hours in case I got lost, but as luck would have it, I found my way directly to the dealership without any problem at all.  Which meant I had a few extra hours to kill before they closed.  I could always take the bike back out for a bit....nope, I wasn't going to chance getting lost again, so I parked it and shut 'er down.

There are many other pics (as you've seen on FB) but I think these are the better ones and do the best job of showing the amazing 2-day trip I was fortunate enough to experience.  If any of you have the opportunity to get over there and ride any of the old Alp passes, you gotta do it!!

Ride Hard!  Take Chances....in foreign countries!

Yes, I'm way behind!

Sorry folks, I have been beyond jammed here at work.  I know I owe you more pics from the Europe trip, and now I also owe you a writeup on the 2015 Labor Day event.  I have another trip coming up this weekend (business trip to Ireland), so things are getting even tighter on time.  So because of that (and since this is a blog about riding), I will just put up the riding pics from the Europe trip, rather than everything.  Besides, I believe just about everyone is on FB and has seen all the pics already.

So bear with me - I am hoping to squeeze in a couple of posts this week; one for the Europe riding pics, and then a quick blurb about Labor Day.

Hang on...time is flying by...

Gruyeres, and the HR Giger Museum

 Such amazing scenery around here!!  Here, Gruyeres can be see atop the hit it sits upon...


Here's the town itself. This was my first taste of an old European town, and it's just exactly as I pictured!

At the entrance to the Giger museum.  They don't allow cameras inside, but there were a few statues outside...

The pic above is a snapshot of the floor.  It was made up of these tiles, throughout the entrance patio, as well as the entire floor and staircases of the museum.

Again; no pics inside the museum, but I found one spot where the wall cameras couldn't see me, so I snapped a pic of this statue.  Didn't do a great job of taking the pic, though...

This was taken inside the 'store', which was allowed.  It wasn't much of a store, I'm afraid.  Not many things to choose from, and the items they did have were priced in the hundreds.  That's hundreds of euros.

A bench on a little patio out back.

The Giger Bar!  Amazing stuff - it was like being on set of one of the Alien movies!

Back outside in the township.  Amazing scenery!

And there you have it!  Next up; Munich!

Europe Vacation - The Beginning

I’ve only one day to get my trip posted up on here, and there are Tons of photos, so I’m just going to dive in.  First will be a little bit of detail for your reading enjoyment, then I’ll just start hammering away with the pics and adding little blurbs to them as I go

Vacation Time!!  I’d left my Jeep at work, gotten a ride to the airport shuttle from Lori, and had made it to Logan with plenty of time to spare.  The folks at the American Express currency exchange booth were kind enough to give me a full colonoscopy when I exchanged my USD for the currencies I’d be needing overseas - man, the US Dollar is getting hammered!!

(And speaking of foreign currencies – why do other countries have a different sized bill for each of the different denominations?  I was told it’s to quickly tell them apart.  I could be mistaken, but isn’t that what the big numbers in the corners are for?)

Still having some time to kill, I opted to find a quiet seat and do some reading.  I’d been smart and had bought a paperback book beforehand, figuring it’d be much cheaper to buy it at Target than at the airport.  So, imagine my joy when I’d spotted the same book at an airport kiosk for $6 dollars cheaper than I’d paid earlier that day…

But enough about that – I was on vacation!  And I wasn’t going to let a mere $6 dollar loss on a paperback, or a staggering 35% loss on my currency exchange dampen my spirits!  Time to board?  Let’s get this thing rolling!

I was off!  And too tired to sleep, despite the late hour in the day.  Oooh, each seat has it’s own viewing screen – free movies?  Nice!  I chose Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  Meh, it was pretty decent.  Decent enough for me, anyway.  Ok, I’d better get some sleep – I keep hearing about this thing called jet lag.  (shrug)  Not really sure how it’ll affect me, but whatever.  So with eyes closed and my seat fully reclined a full 10 degrees (I shoulda upgraded my seat!!), I headed off to slumberland…

…and was repeatedly awakened by the gentleman a few rows up who kept retrieving things from his overhead compartment and then slamming the door shut.  Why do you need to slam the door, sir?  The stewardesses closed many, many of those overhead bins during the boarding process – a process which you were witness to, and not one door was slammed.  Yet you feel the need to open and slam the door many times.  Why, sir?  Why?  (Idiot!!)

Touching down in Reykjavik, I’m sure I looked a bit out of place.  Ya see, when I travel (car or plane), I like to wear light clothing.  So there I was; walking off a plane into 46 degrees and a decent wind…in a t-shirt, shorts and mandals.  Good plan!

I figured I should snap some pics of Iceland while I was there, right?  But from the airport, of course, since the layover was only a little over an hour and I wasn’t about to take a chance on getting lost, or denied re-entry to the airport.  So how did Iceland look?  Well, from the airport at least, it looked…barren.  Barren, as far as I could see.

A quick bathroom break and then I’ll be…whoa, this bathroom stinks.  It smells like…what the…is that shit on the floor?  Yep; shit.  And guess who stepped in it?  Moi!  Who the hell shits on the floor in a bathroom?  You’re in the bathroom already!!  Ugh.  Welcome to Iceland.

After giving my mandal a thorough washing, I was back out and kicking back in the lounge area.  And by the lounge area, I mean the corridor.  With seats long the sides.  Ok, I’ll just sit here and do some reading.  Hey now, check out that stewardess.  She’s hot!   And that one is, too!  And that one…and that one…and…holy crap, they’re all gorgeous!  Tall and blonde – everywhere!  Hey ladies, any interest in a middle-aged, slightly overweight, balding short guy from Boston?  Hello?  Bueller?  No?  Ok, I’ll just sit here and read my book then….

Oh yeah – I got my first passport stamp!  The lady at the customs booth was all kinds of friendly.  She reminded me of Large Marge from that Pee Wee Herman movie, but with less personality.  I’m guessing she’s never been a stewardess.

On to the next leg!  Zurich, here I come!  That flight was uneventful so I was able to grab about an hour of sleep.  Deplaning and doing my best to follow the signs (how come folks don’t speak English around here?), I was finally able to locate the baggage section.  I had to keep an eye on the time, because I still needed to find a train to take me to downtown Zurich, where Erin was going to meet me.  I had an hour and a half – certainly enough time to find one little train, for one little short hop, right?

The luggage started flowing out almost right away – Mint!  Uhhh…but where is mine?  Hello, anyone seen a black, non-descript piece of common, everyday luggage around here?

Thankfully, I recognized some of the other folks who were standing around with me, as having been on the same flight, so I just waited it out.  Finally, after almost 45 minutes, there was mine.  I think it literally was the last piece out, but no time to dwell on that, gotta get moving!

Let’s see, let’s see…if I were a train, where would I hide?  Uhm…let’s follow that sign that says Tram.  Ok, tram it is…just gotta go down these stairs….along this corridor…up these stairs….take a right….down some stairs…up these stairs….whoops, not up these stairs….ok, back down….another corridor…cool!  A bunch of track entrances!  Uh-oh, I  hafta buy a ticket…from a kiosk….in a different language.  Wait!  There’s an English option!  Sweet!  Ok, click this button, select “1”…uhm…I don’t know what it’s asking me now…I thought this was supposed to be in English?  Ok…this looks like the button I want…press it…put in some funny sized (but colorful) foreign currency…and voila!  A ticket!  And another piece of paper…(shrug) must be a receipt. (Erin later informed me that I'd bought 1 adult ticket and 1 child ticket.  D'oh.)

Ok, let’s find the right track…this one says Zurich HB, that’s what I want, so off I go.  Down the stairs, and…uh-oh…two sets of tracks, each have a bunch of destinations listed on them.

Uhm, pardon me, do you speak English?  No?  Ok, thanks.

Hmmm…let’s try this person…  Excuse me, do you speak English?  No?  Ok, thank you…er…Merci’..uh…Danke...(ugh). (I’m beginning to have a different perspective on the whole “Learn The Language” thing…)

I finally found someone who spoke my language and she directed me to the correct track.  I was able to navigate the tram map well enough (staring at the T maps in downtown Boston finally paid off!) and found the correct stop.  Yay!  Now I just need to find the big blue woman, suspended from the ceiling.  That’s the landmark that Erin said to meet at.  Ok; time check.  2:15, I gotta get moving!

Let’s see…let’s see…nope, no ceiling hanging woman around here.  Let’s wander around some more.  Man, this place is huge!  But no hanging blue ceiling woman!  Wait, there are some stairs…nope, these bring me out to the street.  Ok, back down  I go…more wandering…more stairs…nope, another street.  Aargh!  Time is running out!  Wait, another set of stairs…these bring me up to street level, but I’m inside an Enormous train station!  Huh…and look; a giant blue woman hanging from the ceiling!  I made it, and it’s 2:30!! And here comes Erin!  Ta-Daaaaa!!  Whew!!

Ok, first things first; let’s get a beer!  Wait – Erin, being the voice of reason suggested we go find the Harley place and make sure that I’ve got a bike lined up.  Ok, we found it (pretty cool little place), they don’t speak much English, so thank goodness Erin was there to talk to them.  Yes, they have the Road King reserved for me, and yes, they will see me next Tuesday (pun intended for those in the know).

Ok, off to get a beer and a bite!  Oddly enough, Irish pubs are the only pubs open this early, so off I go to an Irish joint, in downtown Zurich, for my first out-of-country beer.  Mmmm, tastes just like back home!

After that, it was off to the local grocery store for supplies, then back to Erin and Jack's place for dinner (home made pizza with fresh grown herbs – mmm!) and more beer.  Jack arrived home from an after-work event he’d attended, and we all caught up.  It was kinda late now (approaching midnight, their time), and Erin commented on how well I was doing, considering the jet lag.   There’s that phrase again; jet lag.  What’s the big deal about jet lag?  I feel fine!  (But maybe I should do some math in my head)  Let’s see…I’d been up since 5am Tuesday morning, my time…that meant…holy crap…I’d been up for almost 37 hours!  Well, I did get the ~4 hours of sleep on the plane rides, but still…I felt great!  I don’t even feel tired!  I don’t…wait, why am I hearing Jack’s voice in my head, counting down from number 10?

And with that, I woke up.  Seems I’d dozed off immediately after saying that I didn’t feel tired.  Ok, time for some bed!  Erin said she’d knock on my door @ 9:30 the next morning.  9:30?  But that’s over 9 hours of sleep!  There’s no way I’ll sleep that long in one stretch!

So the next morning when I opened my eyes and looked at the clock, only to see that it was 9:30…  Huh.  This jet lag shit can be a bitch!  But no matter; it’s time to get the real vaca going – today; off to Gruyeres and the HR Giger Museum!

And there you have it; the beginning of the European vaca.  Now to speed things up with pics...

Ciao For Now!

I'd hoped to be able to get a couple of posts up before I left but I've been too slammed with trying to wrap up work stuff to get on here.  Anyway; tonight I am outta here!  Depart Logan @ 8:45, land in Reyjkjavic, Iceland for a bit, then it's up in the air again, finally landing in Zurich tomorrow @ 1.

Once I land, I need to find my way to the train tracks, then buy my ticket using Swiss Krona (or whatever the Swiss currency is called), then find the right track and hop on for a short ride to Zurich HB train station.  Arriving there, I should see a sculpture of a blue lade hanging from the ceiling, and below here; ta da!  A bar!  That is where my friend Erin is going to meet me when she gets out of work.  I tried to explain that leaving me alone in a bar in a foreign country for any length of time is probably not the best course of action, but she says she trusts me to behave.  Silly girl.

I've got my fingers crossed for my Harley rental next week.  In email discussions back and forth with the dealership owner, I think I have a bike set aside and waiting, but I'm not really sure.  We seem to have had a couple of miscommunications along the way (like when he said I could rent a Street Glide or a Road King, so I said I'd take the Street Glide, and he replied "ok, Road King.  Then I said "no, Street Glide", and then he sent me the confirmation for the Road King.  I guess I have have my choice, just so long as I want the Road King.)

Anyway, he asked me for my credit card info over email so that he could secure the reservation.  I know better than to send that information over email, so I asked him when a good time was to call and give it over the phone.  I never heard back from him.  (Shrug)  If there's no bike waiting for me, there are other bikes I can rent.  Besides, I'm told that a Harley really isn't the bike I want for the roads over there.  (Ha!)

So bottom line is; I've got options (just so long as I choose the Road King, apparently).

Ok, enough rambling.  I've still got a ton of things here at work to wrap up.  I hope everyone has a great couple of weeks and for those that are making the Labor Day trip this year, I'll see ya soon!

Ride Hard, Take Chances....in Europe!!

Gots Me Some Spending Money!

Keep an eye on your motorcycle insurance carriers.  I read in the news a couple of years ago that the State of Massachusetts was going after insurance companies that were insuring motorcycles.  Apparently the companies hadn't been depreciating the value of your motorcycle each year, when they renewed your policy.  So a lot of folks were paying more than they should have been, and the State was looking to get some money back for the folks that had had these policies.

Well now, that sounded pretty allright to me!  So I'd researched it more, and found the list of insurance companies that were guilty of doing this, and damn - my insurance company wasn't on the list. It said that my insurance company had been doing things correctly.

Oh well, look on the bright side, right?  Even if it meant that I wasn't getting any money back, at least it meant I hadn't been overpaying for all those years.

So imagine my surprise when I received a letter last week, saying that I had a check coming to me as a result of the lawsuit the State had brought against the insurance companies.  Really?  That would be pretty awesome, I'd better keep a lookout for a check.

Sure enough; a hefty check arrived just the other day.  I guess the State thought I'd really been overpaying!  Sweet!

Found Money!  And just in time for my Europe vacation!