And we're back...

Where to begin? The last 4 days have been a whirlwind...

Tuesday, the day after the ol' lady gave out on me, was just one of those days. The shenanigans were endless. Did somebody say shenanigans? Hours were needlessly wasted...yadayada, until I finally pulled out of the campsite at about 6:30, hoping to arrive at Lake Como before 10, where old old friend Julia DeWahl was waiting for me. More shenanigans, I didn't get there until midnight and missed out on what would have been an unbelievable views of northeastern Italy because of the darkness. But enough of my whining...

Wednesday was non-stop action. After a brief detour through the town of Como to find Julia  helmet, we hopped on the revived pony and set off for Bellagio...the "pearl of Como," according to locals. After a quick tour, which was awesome, we took a ferry across the lake and started a hike up into the mountains.. What I thought was going to be a ho-hum walk up into the forest soon turned into an epic journey with RIDICULOUS views of the lakes and mountainside villages below...take a look.

We headed into Milan on Thursday and spent the afternoon near il Duomo and some of the historic sites...pretty much hit up every prime location for people watching and did our best to enjoy the local goods. Most importantly, I was able to scope out some good poses, as tourists from all over flocked to the must-see sites intent on making wonderful fools of themselves.

Today, Friday, Julia took off to meet a friend in Cinque Terre and I tied up a few loose ends in Milan. I left in the afternoon for Nice, by way of Genoa and Monaco, getting a chance to skirt the Mediterranean in northwestern Italy and southeastern France. I'll be her ein nice for the first half of tomorrow (or so I plan), before leaving for Aix-en-Provence...

Enjoy the photos from the last 4 days...there are a bunch.

First look at Lake Como...

 Downtown Como...returning from helmet purchase and about to steal into a bakery and stuff our faces with awesome bread and cheese

 

Bellagio...yuuummmmmy

Me and Julia at the top of one of the lakeside mountains

Looking down one side of the mountain...

 And looking down the other, towards Como and Bellagio

 

Roof of il Duomo in Milan...

 En route to Nice...a ancient hilltop town just outside of Monaco. Not bad...

"Humor me... "

  

Notice the white and green poo on the left side of my computer screen...

I kid you not, a pigeon (showcasing outstanding accuracy) laid that bomb

while I sat in the "Piazza Duomo"

Sporting my "guber gear" in a right-sexy pose...

Just after driving through a torrential downpour/lightning storm

Sporting their own "guber gear" in a right-terrifying pose. I know they're just kids, but still...

"My name's Chucky, want to play...?"

Schedule:

In Nice now, hoping to go get burned sitting by the water. Possibly off to Aix-en-Provence tonight...

Real quick...

On the run in Milan. Had a great time on Lake Como yesterday after a late night arrival on Tuesday. An awesome hike had me taking lots of photos which I will post asap...hopefully later tonight.

Off to see il Duomo...!

Stuck in Bolzano

I'm not quite ready to call it a blessing in disguise, but this little turn that my trip has taken as a result of my bum bike definitely had its moments today. From the base of the Dolomites, I undertook what was initially going to be a 2 hour hike up into the mountains. I packed accordingly: some bread, plenty of nutella, and an apple. I wore running shoes, shorts and a t-shirt. It was a high of 80 degrees today and mostly sunny. Pretty much perfect...at least down at the campsite.

So off I went, undertaking what ultimately turned into a 5 mile up/5 mile down hike, temperatures at the "summit" a balmy 40 degrees...and windy. Needless to say, the food didn't last long and I had to battle my way back down to my tent, rolling ankles along the way, and trying my best not to lose it. Thankfully,  I made it down in one piece and have since stuffed my face with pizza and a beer...happy boy.

The views were unbelievable, especially after passing onto the northeast side of the mountain where they changed from distant Alps to less distant Dolomites. The photos of the more rocky looking peaks are the Dolomites...

Enjoy!

INNSBRUCK TO BOLZANO

En route, literally, from Innsbruck to Bolzano

My humble, very humble abode

Mountain roads...switchbacks and hairpins

At a crossroads, about to get on the Costalunga Pass...5 minutes before breakdown

The photo that broke the camels back..."HER" called it quits about 10 seconds later

THE HIKE...

 Halfway up, looking back down the valley towards Bolzano

My new buddy, creepy little dude

The trail...serious views and serious drop-offs

 The Dolomites!

Tough pose pic today...at the very least, proof that I am "who" and "where" I say I am...

Schedule:
Early wake up tomorrow to go make sure the mechanics are fixing HER instead of sitting around drinking coffee and talking soccer. Then hopefully a swift trip to Lake Como!

Devastated...

The ol' lady broke down last night while joy riding through the Dolomites....

At about 9 PM, after the sun had already set, I was stranded up in the middle of a mountain pass with the prepaid minutes of my phone quickly approaching 0. I also have pretty much zero Italian and German skills, but nevertheless was reduced to waving frantically at every passing car hoping to flag one down, somehow communicate, and then borrow their phone so that I might have Germany's equivalent of "AAA" come rescue me. Long story longer, after about a dozen cars wrote me off for a serial killer, two sweethearts stopped off and pretty much saved my life. So finally, I take a 35 Euro taxi ride from the mountain down to my campsite where I have since been stranded...

And since Italy thinks it's necessary to have "little Easter," a national holiday, on the day after real Easter, it won't even get looked at until Tuesday. I guess that's the life you live when the Pope's living in your backyard. So Julia, if you haven't gotten my emails yet, I'm not making it to Milan today....

- Scheisse Riding

"Throw anotha shrimp on the barbie...!"

Welcome to Austria! And happy Easter to all you gentiles out there paying attention to my non-sense...

First off, I have taken the most excellent "pose pick" yet. But before you scroll down and have a look, take a second and read about my most recent adventures..

Yesterday's travels had me riding from Munich to Füssen, and then from Füssen to Innsbruck, capital of the western Austrian state of Tyrol...and I think it was one of the most amazing pieces of Earth I've ever crossed. The relatively flat land around Munich slowly started to roll into bigger and bigger hills, occupied mostly by green grass and grazing cows. Lakes lay between the farms and probably help account for the verdure of early early spring in Bavaria. Finally, as I crested one of the small hills, soaring mountains erupted into view, and I felt a warm welcome to the Bavarian Alps! From there, I spotted my first destination on the day's ride, though it was just a dot on the mountain from where I was... Neuschwanstein Castle, built by "Mad" King Ludwig II in the mid 1800s. RIDIC. Take a look at the photo. My words surely can't do it justice...

My first peek at the Alps...

 

Neuschwanstein Castle, from a bridge in the mountain pass behind it

From there I continued on into the mountains, passing soaring peaks and valley rivers that seemed to direct the autobahn along its way. If you were a fly on the wall of my helmet (and had somehow avoided meeting your maker on my visor instead) you'd have heard me flexing my golden pipes to the tune of John Denver's "The Eagle and the Hawk" in all my off-key glory. Youtube link to the classic, for those of you out of this relatively obscure loop....here. Youtube to my version...thankfully doesn't exist. As for the mountains, I have no words....enjoy the photos.

The steed waits patiently to cross into Österreich (Austria)!

 One of many small, roadside chapels...

 The range that I had just passed through...

The twisting/turning hairpin road that led me to Austria and then down into Innsbruck was, at moments, positively terrifying (like when the guardrail stopped, but the 900 foot drop behind it didn't). For the most part though, it was the kind of ride that this trip was hoping to find..."guten riding" at its best. I arrived late in Innsbruck at my first camping ground, where amateur camping experience had me a) unsure how to anchor my tent b) tip my bike over and c) make a flippin' racket in the meantime. I finally hunkered down in my suspect set-up and awoke to a view of the Austrian Alps (and my neighbors RV, but that's irrelevant).

I've since ridden to Bolzano where I've set up shop (much more efficiently this time) at my second camp site. The weather is 70 and sunny and I need to get out and enjoy this part of the world before writing any longer...

But wait. Before I do...the thing you've all been waiting for...POSE PIC!

At Neuschwanstein...an absolute classic!

I'll post again tonight (possibly just photos).


Schedule:
Leaving tomorrow to meet longtime friend Julia DeWahl for a 3-4 day adventure in Milan and the lakes region. Can't wait!

Had to stay one more day....

Ended up pushing back my ride south to Fussen/Innsbruck after deciding there was still too much to see in Munich. . After a quick breakfast, I moseyed my way over to the much heralded and recently built/renovated BMW museum & main showroom...little did we all know that BMW was amking motorcycles before cars (and airplane engines before that!). Neither the space nor the exhibits, including BMW's "Art Car" collection, disappointed and I had to tear myself away (after patiently waiting behind a line of 8 year old kids to sit, just sit, on a few of the display motorcycles) and move on to the next...

Here are a few photos from that part of the day...

"Art Cars"...BMW's efforts to bridge "art" and racing. They asked 18 international artists, over the last 40 years, to cover individual BMW's in any way the artists wants...Andy Warhol did one, Jeff Koons has recently done one, and so has Olafur Eliasson. Heavyweights. Here are a few of the ones I liked.

             Alexander Calder, 1975                        Jenny Holzer, 1999            

                 

       

         Jeff Koons, 2010                          Olafur Eliasson, 2011         

An awesome sculpture in the museum made up of hundreds of suspended silver droplets, 

oscillating and falling into different forms...very cool. These 12 photos were taken over the course of about 3 seconds... (click on picture to enlarge)

 The new part: BMW showroom and general "auto/moto-heaven"

 The interior of "auto/moto-heaven"

Looking from new to old...the renovated museum (silver bowl) and BMW offices (tower)

In so far as it raised my spirits, I was hopeful that the BMW Museum might help prepare me to walk through the gates at Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp and model for all subsequent ones. But, despite all the history classes, and all the WWII movies, and all the terror stories you might have heard, nothing can prepare you for the solemnity, grief, and horror you feel when you walk through the same gates and under the same trees as 200,000+ prisoners once did.  You can't help but think of them standing inside that gate, in the exact same place as I then stood, and knowing that they might never walk back out through it. It was a heavy two hours, really deserving of at least 4 hours, and I was not quite ready to leave when the ushers started herding people out....

Here are a few pictures to help relate my time there, though they can't do justice to everything I (and am sure everyone else who visits there) was feeling...

 The International Monument at Dachau...a web of entangled corpses

The view from 1 of 2 reconstructed prisoner's barracks, looking back at the foundations of all the rest

"WORK MAKES YOUR FREE"

The entrance gate

Schedule:

Leaving for Fussen (Neuschwanstein Castle) and Innsbruck right now...

München

I promised myself and my sisters that I would run in a half marathon with them in Vermont in early June when I get home. Ouch, right? All that talk of weissbier yesterday had me feeling a little bit guilty and nervous about not having kept up the training since I started this trip. So day #2 in Munich started with a nice little run through awesome "Englischer Park," where I soon had myself confused and lost among all the criss-crossing trails. After a good 2+ hours (jogging long since turned to walking) I finally got myself out of there and had a quick shower before heading downtown to check out the Munich sights. Of note were the Neues Rathaus (not so "neues"= new), the Hofgarten, the Hofbräuhaus (most famous brewery/bier garten/bier hall in Munich, former brewery to the old Royal Residence when beer was reserved to highest social class, and site of earliest Nazi meetings), my weissbier, würst, and sauerkraut dinner, and the high level of attractiveness among the Bavarian (or at least München) women...

Not quite ready to leave this city. Will stick around tomorrow to see a few more things, including the BMW museum and Olympic park...

Photos!

Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) at Marienplatz

 A pretty standard wiener house...

The Hofgarten, alongside the Residenz (old royal palace of Bavarian monarchs)

 Northern side of the Residenz at sunset

 Thanks!!!

(Actually means "Drive Well!" but no one cares what it actually means)

Hofbräuhaus!

 Famous Frauenkirche with its green "onion domes"

By popular demand, the "pose post" is back, although I'm having to amend the subject matter of this section due to insufficient material. Take 'em for what they're worth...they required quick and sometimes dangerous camera work!

"Ginger chic"...?

 

 Grizzly Adams had has a beard!

Schedule:

Somewhat undecided...Intended on doing Munich in the morning, Dachau in the afternoon, and then driving to Innsbruck before nightfall. Might have to stay here another night and push Innsbruck back until Saturday...We'll see.