Flooded Venice

All of the plaza san marco is flooded during high tide. I don't know if this photo shows it too well, since the thumbnails are hard to see. But they have little boardwalks so people can walk around, and police standing in the water to keep everyone moving. The storm here was unbelievable. I don't think I've heard thunder or lightning like this before.

Venice

Okay, I haven't posted anything for awhile. There has been no internet connection available. After spending a few days in Pula I moved on two Venice. The day I came here it was nice and sunny, but the weather turned bad and has been raining ever since.

The attached image is of the coliseum in Pula, which is incredibly well preserved. Croacia was great, the people were very freindly and it's amazing how well everyone speaks English. The campsite I was in overlooked the Istrian Sea and the Brijuni Islands. I could sit on the rocks and watch the sunsets.

Today is Friday, September 28. If the weather is not too bad here I will head on towards Barcelona tomorrow. If it's bad I'll wait it out since I don't feel much like driving in the rain. I've met a really nice couple from Germany who are camped right beside me. We've spent the rainy periods sitting in a tv room they have at the campground. speaking of which the campgrounds here are really impressive. I'm staying at Punta Sabioni which is right in front of Venice. The ferries are a ten minute walk away, and it takes about 40 minutes to get to San Marco Plaza.

Bled to Pula

It was really cold overnight in Bled. In the morning the first thing I did was look for sun. It turned out the lake was sunny so I went for a walk. Coming back to camp, it was still in the shade and cold, but I packed up anyway. From Bled I headed to Ljubjana and then West towards Triest. It was still cold, but the road was leaving the mountains so it slowly warmed up. There were two long tunnels, after the first one the temp. had gone up about 5 deg. by the second one it was another 5 deg. So, by then I was getting too hot. I turned South before Triest and crossed the border into Croacia. There was a big change in the condition of the road so it was obvious Croacia is a poorer country. But, the road was still good. The driving in Slovenia and in Croacia is pretty fast. I was doing 85 mph, but cars went by me like I was standing still. A Porsche went by and it must have been redlined, it sounded like a jet. I even got passed by a Ford Fiesta!!

In Pula, which is in the South of the Istian Peninsula I had a bit of a hard time finding the campground I was looking for, but eventually I did and it is beautiful. My site overlooks the water, it's warm and sunny and cheap. It is more like a resort than a simple campground. I went to the restaurant for dinner and had an Istian specialty (Pasta) watching the sun go down over the mediterranean.

Salzburg to Bled

Today I made the trip from Salzburg to Bled, Slovenia. The route took me South through the Alps. The views of the mountains was fantastic, but a lot of the road was through tunnels so you did not see much of mountain passes. The weather has turned definitely fall like. The trees are all turning and the ride yesterday was quite cold.

Bled is beautiful. It seems to be a major tourist area, with a lot of fancy hotels. The lake has an island, the only island in Slovenia, with a beautiful old church on it. You can rent swan boats and paddle around the lake. Above the lake, on a high cliff is an old castle. After arriving here I just drove around the local roads seeing the sites.

I am staying in a campground, which is pretty luxurious. I have never seen anything like it in Canada, although I dont stay much at resorts.

Munich to Salzburg

This post is to replace the one that I accidentally deleted!! It´s for Tuesday´s trip from Munich to Salzburg.

It rained all night in Munich, and in the morning I thought I was not going to leave. It stopped raining so I decided to make the drive. I took back roads down to Rosenheim to catch the autobahn. It started to rain and just kept getting worse and worse. I was totally soaked and finally pulled over at a rest stop to take a break. The restaurant was motorcycle themed. Harley Davidson that is. The bathroom stalls had names on them like "Road King", "Fat Boy", etc. It was kind of strange. Leaving there I had only 30k to do to Salzburg so it wasn´t to bad. Once in Salzburg (I had given up on camping) I looked around for a hotel and just happened to find one close to the old section which is old style European and very agreeable.

Salzburg Castle

I´ll try adding some more photos here. It seems to have worked. The one on the left is the castle over Salzburg and the one on the right is a vew from the castle.

The weather has improved here, tomorrow I cross the Alps and will stay somewhere around Bled. This may be the first time I actuallz camp.

Salzburg

Okay, it looks like I may have deleted one of my posts by mistake. I´m trying to read German here and did something. Anyhow, today I spent the day walking around Salzburg. I took the teleferico up to the Hohensalzburg, which is the big fort over the city and walked around there for a couple of hours. Then walked around all the old areas. Let´s see if I can add photos.

Okay, Lucille are you happy now?

Munich

Today I went to the Deusches Museum in the morning. The tour book said it was good, but I was still amazed by it. Niko would have been in heaven. Boats, planes and trains. And a lot of interactive displays for kids and adults.

In the evening I met up with Christian and his father who took me to a proper Bavarian restaurant where we drank excellent beer and had Sweinebraten mit knodel, which was recommended by Olaf when we met him at Porteu Cove. Christain´s father has invited me over for breakfast in the morning before I head out to Salzburg.

Munich

Today was museum day. I went to the Altes Pinakotech and the archeological museum. From Erding I took the S-bahn in and then walked around the old town area stopping at the two museums. I never realized that paintings by Ruben, Durer, etc were so commonplace. The Vancouver museum has a long way to go. Also, I walked through the Englischer Garten which reminded me of Golden Gate Park, except there was one section devoted to nude sunbathers and another that was a huge beer garden. On the way back to Marienplatz I came across a street festival. It was called Streetwise for some reason. I was sort of a multicultural, environmental celebration with lots of beer and shows. That´s something else you see hear is people drinking beer on the street, on the trains, as well as the beer gardens. I have one more day here before leaving for Salzburg. If I had another week I still would not see everything.

In Munich

Well, after an unending flight I arrived in Munich and took a taxi to the hotel. Unfortunately the taxi driver had just arrived from Afghanistan and had no idea where Erding was. It took awhile to get here.

Today (9-15) I took a taxi back out to the airport and he knew where the airport was. At the Swissport cargo terminal I paid the paperwork fee and a truck driver gave me a ride to customs where after a few stamp s stamps on the paperwork my bike was free to come into Germany. It took all of 10 minutes. Back at the cargo terminal they had my bike uncrated. All I had to do was reconnect the battery and I was ready to go.

I rode back to the hotel, almost getting lost, and after parking my bike packed some things up and took the S2 line into Munich. There I spent the afternoon walking around Marienplatz. There´s a lot to see here so I´ve decided to stay on until Tuesday.

Preparing to Leave

Final week...my car is at Dad's under cover until we return and today I took my bike to the Swissport cargo office and loaded it into a container for shipment to Munich. It's going with all my camping gear, clothes, etc. I hope everything arrives okay. Next time I see it will be in Munich. My flight leaves on Thursday, so by Saturday I should have my bike back and be ready to hit the road.