July 1, 2016

I always knew from the very beginning that traveling in Europe would be one of the most expensive parts of my trip. But I’m learning some interesting things from analyzing it.

First, some rankings: June was spent in the UK and Europe. June ranked as my #1 most expensive month for fuel cost, and my #4 most expensive month for food cost even though I bought groceries and cooked quite a bit, and (gratefully) had many meals provided by others.

Lodging tends to be one of the biggest daily expenses, so controlling this expense makes a big difference in extending my travel and having reserves for other things. Even though I spent the month in places where the lodging is the most expensive I have encountered, June was #7 on my expense rankings for lodging. This is due to camping and the generosity of others, as I had seven $0 nights, which really add up. I also had my first $0 day of the entire trip, thanks to Michau, Patricia and Lukasz, who provided food and lodging on a day that I didn’t ride so I didn’t buy any fuel.

On average, June ranked fifth in terms of daily average expense for food, fuel, and lodging at an average of $42.76 per day. Not bad for Europe. It could have been even better, but I spent a couple of nights in hotels, which quickly raises the overall average.

A set of tires in Scotland, the ferry to the Isle of Man, and the Channel Tunnel train added to my expenses in June.

Gas: $239.33 (Daily average: $7.98)

Food: $331.50 (Daily average: $11.43)

Lodging: $700.62 (Daily average: $23.35)

Bike maintenance: $206.76

Ferries, Channel Train: $256.14

Biggest lesson learned: accept the kindness of others, and you can afford to travel longer, or in more expensive places like Europe.

July 1, 2016

Riding through Czech Republic, I pass several motorcyclists on beautifully restored (or maybe they are original?) Jawa two-stroke motorcycles. It’s great to see these being used as daily riders and kept in such nice condition. I’m reminded that after all the years I have pronounced it “Ja-Wa”, the correct Czech pronunciation is “Ya-Va”.

I’m back on small roads and really enjoying it. Many of the roads I’m riding don’t have a center stripe due to their width. This is my preferred riding: I get to see a lot more of the local “flavor” on these roads. 

Approaching a small village, I encounter a detour. The bridge is being rebuilt through town, so the detour takes me several extra miles through the countryside. I somehow manage to miss the turn to head back towards the main road, but according to my GPS, there is another small road about a half mile further that will take me there. 

I turn down that road, and it winds through woods before descending a fairly steep hill. At the bottom of the hill, the road curves to the left around a blind corner. As I come around the corner, there is a woman lying in the middle of the road, with a man kneeling next to her talking rapidly on his cell phone. She appears to be unconscious, and there is a bicycle lying in the grass at the side of the road. 

I park the XT behind them and dig out my first aid kit. She appears to be in her mid-60s and is pretty banged up and bleeding from road rash. As I approach, she is coming to, and the man is helping her to sit up. I stay with her while he runs to his car and retrieves an umbrella (it’s already sunny and hot) and a blanket for her to lay on. I get the water container off the XT and pour some onto a towel to help keep her cool, and we wait for the ambulance. 

It takes about twenty minutes, and the paramedic tells me that she has a broken scapula, and thanks me for stopping to assist, especially in slowing the cars down that have been racing down the hill towards the blind corner. I keep thinking, “why would someone come upon this and not stop?” I’m hoping it’s just more good karma for later in case I ever need it. 

I ride on, eventually crossing into Austria, and find a terraced campground on the edge of a nice lake. I’m back in the expensive part of Europe again, and camping is more expensive here than a hotel was in Mexico and Central America. 

 

 

Unfortunately, in the direction I’m headed, it’s not going to get any cheaper any time soon. I’ve also noticed that the “friendliness” of bikers has decreased dramatically since I’ve headed back west. In Poland, everybody waves. In Czech Republic as well. Once you get to Austria, it’s a rare occasion. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of BMWs and other bikes on the road here, and only occasionally does someone wave. I’ve taken to referring to it as “Snobstria”, although that probably isn’t fair; I’m not sure if they are all Austrian bikers. There are a lot of others riding these mountains as well. 

July 2

Sometimes the language differences can be amusing, but it often takes a native speaker to point them out. Here’s a few recent examples:

This one is my favorite though:

As I pulled into a campground in Austria, a guy saw my Texas license plate and approached me. His accent didn’t sound Austrian, but more eastern European, so I’m not sure where he was from, but english was not his first language. He asked, “You are from Texas?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I have uncle in San Antonio.”

“Oh, that’s very close to me. I lived one hour north of San Antonio.”

“He is very old. And dead.”

I almost spit out the piece of bread I was eating, and it took everything I had not to laugh.

Add that to my now-famous “I’m from Vindu, would you like a puppy?” story.

July 8, 2016

The people I have met on this trip have all been great, and many have become great friends that I hope to keep in touch with.

After leaving Team Poland, I headed west again to Switzerland, and met up with another of those great people that I had met on the road earlier.

Last year, I spent several weeks riding on and off in Central America and Colombia with Judith. She had shipped her Suzuki DR-Z400 to Anchorage on July 1, 2015 and was headed for Chile when we met in Guatemala. She made it to Santiago, Chile before having to return to Switzerland at the end of December (I only made it to Lima, Peru by that time, having been sidetracked by a couple of weeks paragliding in Colombia).

Judith (and Jamie) live in Lucerne (or Luzern, as it is correctly spelled here), in a beautiful apartment overlooking the city.

Her apartment takes the entire top floor of the building, with a wrap-around terrace. Spectacular.

As I said earlier, it’s extremely beneficial to have a “local” tour guide, and Judith was willing to show me Switzerland, and especially the Alps, in a way that I never would have found on my own. And she managed to arrange a V-Strom 650 for me to ride, so I could keep up with her Gladius 650 and give my XT250 a few days’ rest.

Judith laid out a route over nine passes and just under 500 miles. The scenery everywhere in Switzerland is breathtaking, and the mountain passes are just that much better. We avoided a few of the more popular passes in order to avoid the traffic, and instead ended up on some beautiful single-lane roads. Even so, the amount of bicycle traffic is amazing. I have trouble understanding how so many people can pedal up these hills. Then again, at one point we saw four people who looked to be in their 70’s riding mountain bikes, and it wasn’t until Judith later pointed out that they were electric mountain bikes that I lost a small amount of my astonishment. Still, I’m impressed at the energy levels of everyone here.

We also just happened to stumble on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Lenzerheide.

Just before the Mountain Bike races, we passed through the small village of Filisur. Well, I guess normally it would be a small village. But this week, as we rounded the curve descending into town, we were met with thousands of tents. The “One Love Festival” was happening, and it apparently is quite popular. Lots of bands, DJ’s, music, and other “activities”. 

Most of the passes have a small restaurant/cafe at the summit, usually with an outdoor deck, and nearly every one of them is filled with motorcycles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the first day, we stopped just past St. Moritz (wow, just wow) at Diavolezza. This small hotel caters to skiers in the winter and to mountain climbers and trekkers in the summer. It’s only accessible by gondola.

 

 

 

 

On the second day we took some smaller passes, and I found my favorite: Klausen Pass. Others may be higher, or have smoother switchback climbs, but the scenery climbing up to the top of Klausen was breathtaking, and the (even narrower) road down the other side towards Luzern was spectacular. Definitely no room for error, especially with the supercars that were coming in the opposite direction, but you’d miss some of the best sights if you were completely focused on the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 10, 2016

I spent the day walking around Luzern. Being a Sunday, most shops were closed, but that didn’t stop the tourists from coming out. This is a beautiful city, and the weather just invites the crowds to hang out near the lake and in sidewalk cafes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was once again honored to be invited to a family BBQ and gathering at the home of Judith’s brother’s family. Although english is definitely a second (or third) language for them, they were willing to try to communicate with the language-challenged American. And food transcends language barriers. Although I draw the line at grappa. As Lucasz said in Poland, “You can practice for Russia by drinking vodka here”. But Croatian grappa is beyond the limits of this non-drinker.