After a pretty long session on two wheels, it is time to take a break from the bike for once.
I am in Qatar for the week, visiting friends. The opportunity to visit a middle east country almost free of tourism infrastructures was too appealing to let it pass by.
Qatar does not disappoint in many ways. This is a bare and harsh land. Temperatures are in the mid 30’s and it is a bit of a shock on the system.
After the long and rather difficult day yesterday, I was not ready to roll before 10:00 am this morning.
But the blue sky was back. It was actually pretty much perfect. So I ended up covering a lot of ground.
The highlight of the day was at the ‘Col du Joly’ which I had visited in August with my folks. That days a low cloud cover and gloomy weather kept us from seeing anything exciting.
So today I had my revenge.
The Mont Blanc massif can really be glorious if you are patient enough I guess.
This is it …
This morning first order of the day was Stelvio Pass.
And I was not disappointed, darn lucky I should say. really excellent conditions if you can forget the cold. But the cold keeps moisture and mist away. No wind either and no clouds or only in really high altitude.
And because we are pass the middle of October, very little traffic. I cannot even start to imagine what a gong show it must be in the summer. This pass is so famous and has been featured on so many TV shows and car magazine that it attracts peoples from all horizons.
Not too many pass get there very own Wikipedia page where you can learn all about this one of a kind road.
Due to a mechanical failure, the first in 25,000Km, I had to spend some time in Bormio. There I was helped by another rider named Andreas who owns the coolest of Suzuki I have ever seen.
Once my bike was fixed and ready to go, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. And since it was time to get closer to home, I decided to leave the mountain region to reach Como lake, and try to make it back to France tonight via the infamous ‘Mont Blanc tunnel’.
It was a long cold day, but an unforgetable one for sure.
The big objective of the day was to climb the world Famous Stelvio pass.
I miserably failed at my attempt, but for good reasons. I visited three other pass on my way, and the vistas where so breath taking, the weather so perfect, that I took a long time on each one. By the time I reach the valley at the bottom of Rombo pass the last one, I could tell that I had not enough daylight to reach my goal. And when the traffic became furious, I throw in the towel.
So I think that the best one was definitively Rombo pass who took me to snow levels, freezing temperatures and moon landscapes. I loved every bit of it since the Fall colours were the best of the trip so far.
Out of the craziness of Venice, Here we are in the Italian Dolomites.
It was a bit of a shock though. Temperature dropped and the weather changed big time. All day it was foggy and overcast. Visibility was pretty lousy and I know that I missed some great sights.
But at least I got a taste for it, especially the road quality.
A definite, must come back here one day situation.
The first couple of pictures are to show what the Venice and Trevise area got to offer in term of riding. narrow relatively twisty and smooth pavement. But with no room for error. Unless you are a good swimmer.
Today was a hard day. A typical hard day Paris style as a tourist.
This town is tiring in many way. Many peoples fight for a limited space. Then there are not much alternative to transport. And you spend the day to walk, walk, walk.
So the tourist famous spot I guess have to be seen on your first visit. But I categorically refuse to line up for anything other than transport. So I will have to go back one day. But I seriously don’t see it as a priority.
My advices for Visiting Venice are:
- Park at the train station of Mestre and take a train ride to Venice for €1. That is safer parking, cheaper parking and no traffic jam.
- Not sure to take the vaporeto is the best option, Maybe just walk is just easier. But you need good shoes.
- Get lost, get lost, get lost into the little street of Venice. That is the only way to see the real Venice.
- If you can’t go to Venice outside of July and August. Do yourself a favor … just stay home.
If you are in the area, and can afford an extra day or half day not too far, then I would recommend to go to Trevise (Treviso). I think this was the only town I saw in Italy who gave me the feeling, ‘I want to live here’
Well despite my adventurous schedule … (No schedule), I managed to book a tour at the Ducati factory in Bologna where I headed early this morning. Being totally lucky I chose one of the couple of weeks when Ducati asked its production staff to stay home as it looks like the sales target are not going to be met. The global economy slow down is probably playing a role into this.
Despite this little hiccup it was still a very enjoyable tour. Photos are not allowed during the tour of the plant, but you do see a lot and learn quite a bit.
The guide then leads you to the Museum upstairs and gives you a full tour and highlight. Then you are free to take pictures and visit the shop of course for as long as you wish.
My most interesting encounter was with an engineer who came out along with others onto the parking lot. And since I had been allowed to park the Beemer beast alongside the employee bikes, I had quite a crew looking over my bike in many interesting ways. Professional rigour I guess.
One heavy walk day.
Morning visit to see that the leaning tower of Pisa is actually really leaning.
Then a ride to Florence by the countryside. The first part was truly horrible and boring, Then I finally hit some really nice road through the Tuscany hills covered in Olive trees and wineries. The only weird and annoying part was this constant mist. Like a pollution cloud hanging overhead all day long. Pretty gloomy. It reminded me a lot of China ‘naturals’ lights
Florence was my first real life encounter with Italy legendary traffic. Let me tell you that you have to be totally focus on what you are doing to survive this craziness.
The city is really beautiful and the limited time I spent there gave me a big envy to come back and see more. This time by getting inside many more buildings of all kind.
Today is transit day. Brilliant really fast ride across the island from Ajaccio to Bastia. Then a pretty fast Ferry crossing (4 hours) to Livorno in Italy.
Finally some real action by those awesome pilots. It is an experience one cannot forget. The atmosphere, sound and climax build up is brilliant. All for a few seconds of course. But seconds one cannot forget.
The way the rally is laid out is to make it difficult for spectators to go from time trial sections to another throughout the day. It is true that in the past people would race from action spot to action spot and would take crazy risks in their own car trying to catch up to the competition.
Today the special section are close by and there are very few roads allowing to quickly reach another one.
Despite this, as I am on 2 wheels I managed to see action in one of the best spot, a Jump. But also go to a liaison section with brilliant scenery and try to capture the cars in a nicer and quieter environment.
This is why there are very few ‘Action’ shots in the following gallery.
After the action I managed to witness one of the sunset for which Corsica is famous for.
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