Corsica and the Grand Canyon in France

                              We had to take another ferry to Corsica and came into the town of Bonifacio perched on a cliff. 

Passed a lagoon with kite surfing classes going on

Then stopped at a roadside rotisserie stand and ate an excellent and hearty lunch.

                                                                                                      

 Before

After

And a whole lot of french fries!

Wished I could have enjoyed some of these veggies instead, it's only the first week and I'm sick of french fries. 

Decided to skip Ajaccio and head into the Corsican Mountains to Corte and through cool and lush forests with turn after turn after turn and hundreds of motorcycles. This island is a motorcycle paradise...even reserved parking for bikes. Everyone here gives the friendly hello wave and half of them are in t-shirts and flip flops.

Excellent tasting natural spring water. I also bought a bottle of Rose here.

We decided to go to the highest peak in Corsica

Found a wonderful campsite by the river with a friendly staff and actually pitched out tents during daylight. I nearly took my head off on a clothing line riding around camp to get an idea of where we might pitch our tents. 
 

Enjoyed some Corsican rose wine and a simple meal of salami, cheese (that some little critter stole from my bag during the night), tomatoes and bread. He’s gonna be doing the doggie butt sledding we have all seen. I had the remaining chicken breast from lunch and lay down in a clean state and just drifted off to sleep.

One more cursed, awful, noisy, expensive ferry and we are DONE. 

Met this strange little friendly man in the port town who gave me some ripe plums and played a bit of guitar for me.

We disembarked hoping to meet up with Adam, after all, that was his proposed plan but no dice....so we went to camp Darby (another well organized, excellent military camp) Now I go off on a tangent. I've really enjoyed riding with someone in the military. I've generally been in full support of the military over the years even when the debates with some of my more liberal friends in San Francisco around military budgets has spiraled out of control like the car that crashed off the highway today. It's easy for a congressman in DC to say, shut down that base in Livorno Italy and we'll save $$$ but as I walked around I could appreciate all the effort that went into making a second home for US military personnel away from home. Right down to a bowling alley and girl and boy scouts clubs. 

If you take 4 day weekends or even *gasp* 2 weeks off a year for vacation, you will never understand what it is to be away from all you know and cherish for an extended period of time.
You spend the first week unwinding and the second week dreading going back....I've looked forward to these two military bases with such yearning and been rewarded in spades. Tonight. A Dutch contractor (who speaks excellent English and French) who handles logistics for the US Army gave us a pork tenderloin, made a salad with all of their left over veggies and on top of that, drove me to the laundry mat when I walked by with a huge bag of stinky clothes.

We agreed to wake early....well all of us, since I always wake up at dawn (Dad you would be proud) to get to Pisa before the hordes of tourists and grumpy old men who direct traffic away from the barricades were there.
I got and email from Dad asking if the tower of Pisa was still up after I finished with it. 

 Then we went to Cinque Terre. It means 5 towns. What made all the hassle in reading a few dozen guidebooks over many a Sunday afternoon to create the trip plan worth the effort, was when Dan (our fearless leader with GPS) said it was one of his best 5 rides ever. For you non-motorcycle riders, it's a big deal and made me brim with happiness.

Love my $500 zoom lens!

The places we've seen today actually made me tear up a couple a times for their sheer beauty and the realization that I was truly here, doing what I envisioned just a year ago and thinking, it's really this easy. Just dream it and do it.

I was also grateful that he shared that sentiment since the road in, was the road out....a big delay in our day but only because the road had caved in and was impassable. Well perhaps not with motorcycles but I had just about enough of dirt roads delaying us and scaring the heebee jeebies out of me on these street tires. 

It was a twisty and I mean TWISTY road that I was doing OK on with Danny's careful warnings but for this one hairpin, uphill turn that would even challenge a car. It was about noon by now and the Hobbit must be fed, much like those Gods of ancient times or suffer their wrath, namely me.

Dan spotted a restaurant on the side of the road with some old timers sitting out front watching the traffic blaze by in 100 degree weather and we struggled to park the bikes as we always do on these narrow, steep, windy roads. What came after was a wizened woman who put up 3 fingers and walked away without so much as a menu and returned with salad dotted with succulent tomatoes and too much salt, whole wheat bread (virtually unheard of here) and a huge (and I do mean huge) plate of spinach fettuccine pasta with homemade tomato meat sauce to die for (33 euro for 3 people). 
Sorry, no photos. Inhaled the food.

Gelato stop

Someone once told me, Monaco is where the Billionaires play.

 

Loved this lunch spot with parking for 2 wheels.

We are near San Remo and found a camp site that was *as usual* expensive but welcomed. When I rolled up my tent this morning, I noticed some ants and paid it no mind since I knew the heat would kill anything rolled up in my tent. To my chagrin, found a small army of these buggers running about furiously as I pitched camp this afternoon...Yes, that's right, we pitched camp 3 nights in a row in daylight. Since I don't want to jinx my luck I'll just leave it at that. Things however did turn bad. I had a Brazilian meal from the camp cafe that smelled wonderful but did something less than wonderful to my stomach. I am still not sure what woke me, if it was the biblical swarm of ants scurrying all over me or the pain in my tummy. After a brief shriek I got out of my tent, brushed off as many ants as I could from my body and sleeping bag and set up the cot on the ground outside my tent away from the hoard.

I decided this morning when we set out with quite a few more ants rolled up in my tent and now other bedding that I would find a hotel at the end of the day no matter the cost.


Then I planned a route that would take us to the complete opposite in terms of weather, populations and geography through what the French called the Grand Canyon of Verdun. 

Bungee jumping

It was exquisite but hot again. Once we oogled and snapped our photos pulled into a lakeside town for much needed gas, I found a 100 euro a night hotel that put the human back into me. I gave them my sweat soaked gear for washing and proceeded to the pool.

The front desk lady was nice enough to give me a ground floor room that I could park right in front of and I charged everything and caught up on other administrative stuff and removed some dead ants from my things. (snicker)
I can't wait to have a good night sleep and eat a simple soup of veggies to calm my very unhappy stomach and sleep on a soft clean bed without ants.
The mosquitoes have made a 'connect the dots' diagram on my legs and ankles that itch like poison ivy in my hot sweaty boots every day. I hope they aren't here. It's dry and hot and not near the water, wish me luck.

Next stop was a working monastery where you can stay the night if you take a vow of silence and help with the chores. 

A lavender field (with plenty of signs saying not to cut any)

Could have been pretty cool but it was not meant to be, nor was a 15 Euro Prix Fixe menu in town. 

Thankfully we passed through a city and found a local corner cafe/bar that had a 'plat du jour' (dish of the day) of salad, grated carrots, tomatoes, half an egg, slices of ham and scalloped potatoes, all for 7 Euro. It was by far the best meal we've had and the cheapest.

We then rode through some twisty roads in Southern France dotted with Apricot and Apple orchards and finally stopped at a camping near the river with a pool. (That means lots of kids and mosquitoes)  where I had a pizza, wished I'd ordered the a salad, then got into my blessedly ant free tent. It was extremely humid, very close to 100% as we could not seem to cool off unless we stayed absolutely still.

 

Next stop Carcasonne! And some *fun* with the police!

While we were waiting to disembark I found a KTM rider who lived in Bari (our arrival port) and asked him to help Adam find a mechanic to get the carburetor fixed and we found out later that this poor guy took him to 7 different shops (everyone is on holiday here) but finally found one person to help him. 

Our first stop in Italy was Castel Del Monte (and en-route some ladies of the night, well morning, lounging in recliners on the side of the road) 

 Dan got to find out if his new tire patch kit worked.

A small village stop off in the central part of Italy for lunch where coke cans are thin and sexy.

Found this cool memorial to a group of soldiers from the second world war on their way home when their plane crashed nearby.

The Amalfi Coast

We arrived at the crowded coast just before sunset and wound our way around cliff after cliff with sweeping epic views that just arrested the heart in my chest.

We also have developed code words for different things already....the Italian mopeds that buzz about us like hoards of angry bees are Kamakazi's.  

 Rode back inland and had to stop to enjoy this exquisite sunset

Dan arranged for a very special treat for me, a night at a military base near the Napoli airport. We checked into a very nice room, ate good pizza and had shots bought for us by some military guys getting drunk in the bar. Best of all, washing machines. Wait, not just the tiny European washing machines that have 2 hour cycles but big U.S. 30 minute washing machines and DRYERS!

My bed that night.

Dan and Daniel found their clothes clean and folded the next morning. I took a good scrub in a perfect bathroom (that included a toilet seat, I think Italians have something against toilet seats here). The next morning we experienced some city stop and go frustration trying to get to Pompeii and the bikes weren't too happy with the heat, Dan kept saying his bike was one chicklet from being too hot. 

We got to Pompeii and found a long line in the hot sun to which I gave an Italian looking hand signal along the lines of 'no way'.

These are lemons!

We suited back up and headed North to our first stop, MonteCassino abbey. ( I meant to get that building corner into my shot)

I like this shot the most with the 3 crosses

Nice photo of the boys without the hoards of tourists

Stopped for a Donar Kebab and watched a guy get swindled out of an iphone. I was busy wolfing down my food like a wild cat (he he) but Dan and Danny....who BTW is a most excellent, safe and competent rider for 19. Truly, he rides just like his Father and after just a day, any concerns I had around riding with a young 'hot-head' were erased. (although right now as I type this, his stinky socked feet are up on the seat next to me on the ferry to Sardenia are making me gag).

Anyhoo, Danny was smart enough to write down the license plate of the thief and when the pigeon realized he's been robbed, handed it to him. Dan and Danny both felt torn about whether to get involved. I found it very considerate that Dan asked my opinion before getting in the middle of that mess, I said that I didn't have a dog in that fight. It's a tough choice sometimes, we are here on vacation, as foreigners, and just don't know what might come of getting in the middle of a bad situation like that even though it's the "right thing to do".

We did the tour of the Abbey which is still used and has active worship and then took a great twisty road to Arpino but not before a traffic control cop flagged us to stop and after a few tense words just wanted to see our papers....we are riding the speed limit and usually a little under while crazy Italians (usually in Audi's, we find Audi drivers are the worst) wail by us like we are sitting still. Italy is in general very tourist 'unfriendly'. 

Stopped at a gas station where I found this life size stuffed bear.

A light rain coming

The town of Aprino.

Would have loved this for lunch

Even the campsite check in lady was about as friendly as a block of ice and helpful as a nail in a tire, nor could she count. We stood there in the dark in full gear sweating while she tried to get the numbers right; we said, 3 bikes, 3 people, 2 tents....to which she said something like 2 bikes, 3 people 3 tents and then another combination of 1 bike, 3 people, 2 tents....we spent the rest of the evening coming up with playful variations. 6 people, 1 bike, 3 tents and on and on. 

Danny had some fun with me and my tent that night

 I asked about getting a taxi to town to eat and it cost the tourist price of 7 euro....that's ok. Had an excellent pasta carbonara but I was bummed they didn't put the raw egg yolk on top and after that wandered around the town at night and took some excellent photos.

A gelato. The first of many to come.

Charming town with an old castle at the top

One of my favorite shots of the trip

Walked back down a steep, loose dirt, dark road to the campsite and passed out at our usual midnight hour.

Woke up the next morning to walk around and see the lake. Did some twisties to a port town that was a terrible place (usally they are, dirty, expensive, small) and boarded our second ferry. It was quite comfortable though and we tried to nap and relax but all would have rather been riding. (If only snokels were longer). Arrived near dusk in Sardenia and rode to Camping Acapulco on the water. When we rode in through the camping, there was a restaurant packed with locals all drinking and laughing loudly and picked a patch of dirt near a buzzing transformer and a natural gas outlet. 

Toxic. 

Pitched camp again at 10pm and went into the restaurant. There was another couple trying to get the attention of the waiter as we were but I was armed with French and our meal came out much faster. I enjoyed a Spaghetti Bolognese and promptly fell asleep. 

The next morning I found this wonderful little beach right below us and enjoyed some excellent breakfast treats in this cafe on the campground.

Succumbed to the usual temptation of flakey, buttery croissants while the boys ate their oatmeal.

Oh OH! and I saw a shiny new Tiger 800 XC like mine!