05/07/2011

Chilling at Torino (part 2) ...

...Slovenia was a small but nice parenthesis of the tour. Pretty green dense forests, nice roads to enjoy riding (scrapped my engine guard though my rear tire is almost finished), quite reasonably priced as a country.



On our way back to Italy we stopped at a very scenic spot to try the local recipies:



This fine bunch of guys consisting the PmB group had to split at . I followed the guys who headed west and we ended up at Riva del Garda. This place is one of the most relaxing I've ever visited...exactly what we needed after 3 days in a row doing many hundreds of km around the alps. Really gorgeous:




After a nice ride around this amazing lake with the special climate and vegetation we had to take the boring autostrada back to Torino for the last iron butt part of this fabulous trip.

Here's the whole route kindly offered by my good friend Antonello:


Special thanks to him and all the nice PmB guys - see you again out there dudes ;)

Chilling at Torino...

...gives me the chance to blog a bit about the amazing riding experience that took place compressed in the couple of days that just passed.

Hard to leave this beautiful view from my balkony at Dobbiaco,



 but we had to move on.

Destination: Kranjska Gora @ Slovenia but first we had to do some nice passes and of course the well known Grossglockner. This is a MUST for any biker (or not) - period. The whole park is unbelievable, offering a great route plus countless spots for unforgetable photos. Unfortunately my battery died when we reached the marvellous glassier there but I managed to take  some pictures before:







We had to ride partialy in dense mist. When we reached the top at the refugee it was quite cold and finnaly snowing! My coldest July ever I have to admit:








This hard but wonderful day ended at Kranjska Gora where we attacked the local recipes in huge quantities:


TO BE CONTINUED!

02/07/2011

Live from Dobbiaco (gorgeous sunrise!)

View from my balkony!


Live from Dobbiaco (12 C degrees right now here!)

I am really tired but really full of amazing km today. Too tired to make a decent post but too happy not to share it.

Last night was a very pleasant one at Pesaro thanks to Steve and Michele. We had cool drinks and local recipies during a nice sunset by the sea:


The whole scenery was good enough to keep as happy though we had to leave the place due to an unbelievable attack of thirsty mosquitos :)

Today's riding had it all. From cool bikers (20 in total) to cool km (600+ in total).

We all met up at the beautiful square of Marrostica:



First stop was at Monte Grappa:



Very beautiful and interesting place as so many people were killed there during the 1st world war. Well, now in 2011 people can have a much better time there like we did:




Next beauty to stop at was here:


This pass is one of the most impressive I've visited and lies at 2250 meters. Pretty cold up the (9 C degrees) but who cares when there's an amazing route to get there and a unique view from the top:



It is time to rest now, stay tuned for more updates. Lots of videos to be posted later as well...


30/06/2011

Live from Pesaro...

Right now I am taking advantage of an open wifi outside Steve's house at Pesaro. (Thanks a lot for your hospitality man)

The neighboorhood looks nice and with some wifi till Steve comes and meet me looks even better.

Here's my bike parked here:



Looks a bit dirty and sad? This is the reason why:




It was raining dogs and cats as soon as I arrived at Ancona. Fortunately I am almost dry again.

The rest of the trip was under AMAZING weather conditions which offered me a great sunrise view from the ferry:


TO BE CONTINUED!

25/06/2011

Προς κάθε ενοχλημένο από τις απεργίες της...



...ΔΕΗ


Εάν η γραμματοσειρά στον παραπάνω σύνδεσμο δεν εμφανίζεται σωστά αλλάξτε την κωδικοποίηση (encoding) σε Ελληνικά.

06/06/2011

I'm gone...Φεύγω...

After a few political posts in Greek, it's time to inform you that I'll be leaving behind for a while my sweetheart called Hellas for the beauty of a tour around Italy - Austria - Slovenia.


The obvious reason why this tour will be a beauty is the above route itself. The other reason is (unkown to you therefore not so obvious) the fact that I will be riding with another 15 riders - members of the great PmB (Pochi ma Buoni) Italian Yahoo group established by my good friend Antonello some 10 years ago. I am the only member residing outside Italy and this is gonna be the great 10th Anniversary of this great group.If you are not yet convinced how great it is check out the logo:



I will try to update my location on the map as often as possible so you can track me while I'll be moving from place to place. After the above tour I'll try to do the Assiette as well as the Col de Sommelier (up at 3000+ meters) but no fixed plans about these rides around the Italian - French border.

I'll try to post and share stuff with you as often as possible.

Stay well and happy!

LAST UPDATE: After being postponed due to bad weather I leave on 29/6 to attend the meeting that will finnaly start on 1/7. I'll try to post as often as possible and will update my location even more often.

02/06/2011

Αγανάκτηση...

Από σχόλιο μου σε γνωστή ηλεκτρονική εφημερίδα...

"Όσο καιρό το Δημόσιο στήθος παρήχε πλούσια ρουσφέτια όλα ήταν καλά για εμάς τους νυν "αγανακτισμένους". Τώρα που στέρεψε στερόντας και από τις επόμενες γενιές λόγω του κανιβαλισμού μας ... "ξυπνήσαμε" (πολλά εισαγωγικά εδώ). Όταν ο Άκης ήταν υπουργός άμυνας τρέχαμε για μετατάξεις στο γραφείο του να περάσει ο γιόκας καλά στο στρατό. Μετά πέσαμε από τα σύννεφα υποτίθεται και τώρα δεν θέλουμε να τον δούμε. Όταν ο Καραμανλής έκαιγε τη μισή Ελλάδα το παίζαμε αγανακτισμένοι στο Σύνταγμα και μετά μας πέταξε από ένα τριχίλιαρο και τρέξαμε να τον ξαναψηφίσουμε. Ο κατάλογος αντίστοιχων θλιβερών πελατειακών παραδειγμάτων ατελείωτος και διακομματικός. Ο πολίτης που δεν τολμά να αγανακτίσει πρώτα με τον εαυτό του μιας και όλο αυτό το σύστημα το επέλεγε και το υποστήριζε, δεν έχει δικαίωμα να παριστάνει τον "αγανακτισμένο". Αγανακτισμένοι ήταν όσοι λίγοι πολιτεύτηκαν χωρίς να υπόσχονται ρουσφέτια και στο τέλος κουράστηκαν να βλέπουν τον κόσμο να ακολουθά γελοίες προσωπικότητες και τα παράτησαν. Ακόμη όμως και τώρα χάνουμε την ευκαιρία να ασκήσουμε συγκεκριμένη πίεση στην κυβέρνηση προς τη σωστή κατεύθυνση (π.χ. να θυσιάσει μέρος του Δημοσίου λίπους για να σωθεί ο ιδιωτικός τομέας που πληρώνει άδικα) τώρα μάλιστα που επιτέλους κάνει δειλά κάποια βήματα. Αντ'αυτού βρήκαμε την υγιή αοριστία των Ισπανικών απομοιμήσεων του Συντάγματος που θολώνει τα νερά επικίνδυνα και απλά δίνει υλικό στα κανάλια που πεινάνε για βαβούρα, χάνοντας μάλιστα τελευταία και την ειρηνική της αρετή με τους αποκλεισμούς. Μπορεί ο Μίκης να χαίρεται, μαζί του και εν αγνοία του πάρα πολλοί λύκοι επίσης, αλλά η συγκεκριμένη παλαιάς κοπής πρακτική του πεζοδρομίου μας φέρνει στο μυαλό στίχους του Παύλου Σιδηρόπουλου "...να φάμε απ' το ίδιο καρβέλι με τη γενιά του ΕΑΜ..." "