CHASING THE HORIZON

Bolgona, Rimini, Florence....somebody pinch me.

The veiw from our bedroom window was once again spectacular.

 

 I set about getting the days blog away. You See what I have to put up with to get the story out to you guys. I hope you appreciate it.

 

The breakfast spread was quite impressive considering we were proabaly the only guests.

 

I cant belive the obsession us wogs have in cleaning our feet. We gave ours a quick wash, loaded the bike and set off.

 

 

Our destination for the morning was the city of Bologna and the Ducati factory. Quickest way was via the Autostrada. A daunting thought, but it had to be done.

The speed limit on the autostrada is 130kmh, however if you choose to travel at this speed you will surely be killed by the cars speeding past at whatever speed they liked. I set the cruise control at 150 and we were still being passed by everything from Fiat panda's to 7 series BMW and Ferrari's

 

More proof that speed doesnt kill, going too slow does. Perhaps someone should tell Anna Bligh that.

You see some strange things on the road. The woman on the back of this monstrosity was fast asleep.

 

If Buzz was with us he would have wet himself over this.

 

The Ducati factory is a fairly innocuous looking building in one of the inner suburbs of Bologna.

 

 
 

We didnt have a booking for the tour and for a few minutes it looked like they were not going to let us in, but I used all my Italian charm on the pretty tour guides and after getting down on my knees and begging they felt sorry for the Aussie idiot, and squeezed us in. Another group of Aussies that had actually booked the previous day wer'nt so lucky. I felt a bit guilt for a second. Oh well bad luck mate.

 
This chick is actually a test rider. She randomly selects a bike and goes for a quick spin around the block. Here she is testing a new Diavel. Nice work if ya can get it eh?

 
The foyer has one of each of Vales and Nicky Haydens current race bikes.

 

 

These chick was from Califonia and is a huge Rossi fan obviously. She had nice legs.

 
Then it was into the museum proper where they had examples of Ducatis early work.

A film projector.

 

 

Thier first attempt at a bike.

 
They had an impresive line up of bikes on display and the tour guide was gorgeous.

 

 

Mike Hailwoods TT Bike. First bike in the world to feature Lhs gear change. Done especially to accomadate his broken foot. All other manufacturers followed suit afterwards as they discovered it was easier to engineer the motor this way

 
Ducati used silver whenever they wanted to commeratate a special event.

The legendary 750ss is very special.

 
The 851on eof my favourites.

 
The ducati ice racer. Check out the tyres.

 

Possibly my favourite bike on display and its not even a ducati. Cagiva owned Ducati at the time that Hubert Aurial rode this bike in the dakar. Was an awesome bit of kit.

 

Too many bikes to show individually.

 

The 916 was voted the worlds sexiest motorcycle. Ya kinda have to agree.

 
There was a whole display dedicated to troy Bayliss's bikes. He is considering a god around here.

 

And rightly so. I reckon they should put him on the current Moto GP bikes. He could show those southern shandy drinking poofters how to sort a bike.

 

A ducati supermono. One of only 60 ever built for super single racing. Real exotica.

 

Casey Stoners world championship winning bikes. They didnt like it when I said they should put him back on it. No sense of humour these wogs.

 

Then it was in for the factory tour. Photography is expressly frobidden, however i tried to sqeeze off a few stealth shots. Unfortunatly this one is the only one that even came close to working.

 

I was also surprised to learn that Rossi and Hayden have only ever visited the factory once. Would have thought that the way the bikes are going this year they would have been there at every opportunity to try and sort them out. The staff are all hoping he will visit next week after the Mugello GP.

We were able to peer through a small window into the race team area which is off limits but to the select 230 people that work in there. Its no wonder they cant win a race. The pricks dont do any work. They all just stand around talking and smoking. Wouldnt happen on my shift.

 

This is next years model moto gp bike. Freaking dinosaurs.

 

 It was about 37 degrees in the shade so we decided a swim in the Adriatic sea was in order. Headed for the beachside resort town of Rimini and found ourselves a deck chair to sit on. There were plenty to choose from.

 
Had a quick refreshing dip in the sea.

 

Then promply got booted out cause they wanted 15 euro each to use their private beach. Told them to get stuffed, then used the shower and change rooms and headed off for a cold gelati. Pity really as there were plenty of pretty girls on the beach wearing next to nothing. Couldnt get any shots because we were hunted but got this shot of 2 topless girls.

 

If eating Gelati and watching pretty girls on scooters in mini skirts was an olympic sport, I would be world champion. Who knew  knickers came in so may colours.

 
 

I think Sams lemon sorbet was a bit sour.

 

She seemed pretty happy with Gelati boy though.

 

Next stop was the little town of Tavulia. Home town of Valentino Rossi. He is also treated as a god and the whole town is devoted to him with flags and pictures everywhere. We visited the officila fan club and the Pizzeria that he owns. The pizzeria is run by all his school friends and these are the guys you see on TV when Rossi wins a race and pulls his stunts. Great bunch of guys. we had a great time here chatting to them about Rossi etc. The pizza was awesome as well. 

Unfortunatly we missed Vale who was here yesterday but was now in Mugello preparing for this weekends moto GP.

 

 
 
 
 
 
It was time to head for Florence where we are couchsurfing with Marco.

The Tuscan hills looked spectacular in the afternoon light.

 

Had another short stint on the Autostrada

 

Then turned off to have a quick look at the famous Imola race track.

 

The pace was a bit slower than usual today.

 

then with the sun setting it was a fun blast through the hills to Florence where we are staying in Marco's ultra cool penthouse apartment.

 

Was a huge day today. Tomorrow we are going to check out tuscany. Marco who is a fellow strom owner has mapped out what looks like a brilliant a loop for us. Pity he has to work.

Pisa and Pizza

Marco our coushsurfing host has this very cool penthouse apartment on the 7th floor of this building, and from the patio there are great veiws of the surrounding area. Amazingly Marco has given us entire place to use and he is staying at his girlfriend Sylvia's place for the weekend. Remarkable since he doesnt know us rom a bar of soap.

 
 

 

The aaprtment is very cool and it also has a foot washer. Our bedroom.

 

Me hard at work in the living room.

 

Marco's evil cat

 

And the garage.

 

We needed to got o the Mugello circuit to pick up our tickets for the Italian moto gp this weekend. Many of you that know engines will have heard of the 2 banger and the 4 banger. Well this is the very rare Italian G banger.

 
We collected our tickets without drama and headed into the beautiful Tuscan countryside.

 
Stopped for a lunch at a resturant with a great veiw which unfortunatly you cant see because of the smog and heat haze,

 

 We think it was a school camp but luckily ther were a couple of yummy mummies there and Sam reckons she saw Fabio.

 

Hada great pasta lunch. Just like Nona's

 

A big storm was brewing in the distance which just made the veiw all the more spectacular.  
 

 Pisa is a massive tourist trap. Pretty, but more Americans than Italians.

 

Cant belive they flock here in their millions to see some old shit box building that might fall on them and kill them at any time. My first impression was this is pretty lame.

 
The other building near it is also about to collapse.

 
The tower actually looks a more impressive when you look at it from a different angle.

 

I reckon this is the best angle though. (Coppers walked around the corner seconds after this shot was taken)

 

We were robbed when we paid over $20 for 2 Gelati. Called the police but they were busy stuffing cash into plain paper bags....not sure what that was about. I think I will report it to the Italian president Roberto Bellisconi when I get home. He''ll sort it out. Cant have corruption can we?

 

 I should have paid more attention to the name of the shop. It really did costa
 

Told Karen to take us home and she got totally lost and led into the ancient city of Lucca.

 

The veiws down the narrow alleyways was very nice and noone told me or Karen we wer'nt supposed to ride the bike down them.

 
 

We eventually made it out and headed for home, Straight into the previous mentioned storm. Roads were treacherous.

 

It didnt last for long though and we soon made it out to the sight of a beautiful rainbow over Florence.

 
There are 2 million people in Florence and 1.8 million of them ride scooters. Marco is one of them. Despite having a 650 strom in the garage the scooter is the vehicle of choice for speeding recklessly around the city streets and running red lights.

We met him at home and we went to pick up his beautiful girlfriend Sylvia from the station as we were going out for Pizza.

 
Despite having blutooth headset. Marco prefers the Italian proven hansfree system of shoving the phone up inside his helmet. Everyone does it here and they all ride around chatting endlessly. Its hilarious.

 
 

Marco and Sylvia are passionate about there home city and took us on a brilliant twilight tour of the city. Marco was an excellant tour guide pointing all the historic places and explaining the history. Was great fun and better than any paid tour.

 

 
 

We met up with friends Alex and the gorgeous Juliana. Company and pizza was awesome.

 

Juliana also uses the trusty handfree system on her scooter.

 
 
Then continued our awesome night time florence tour.

 
 

 Was a fantastic night with brilliant people.

Tomorrow Mugello....Valentino Rossi's mechanic Alex briggs has promised to leave a pair of side cutters near the paddock fence, so it should be a great day. :-)

 

Mugello Mayhem

Marco came ro pick us up and we headed to Alex's (who we met last night) chocaleteria for brekky.

 

Alex is considered one of the top Chocaltiers in Florence and we can understand why. Sam & Sylvia were in their element.

 
 
I cant rememer his assitants name but she was gorgeous. The chocolates wernt bad either.

 

We headed for the the Mugello track where we once agian met up with Buzz, who has been back in Germany getting Mareen organised for her flight home. Was great to have the big dopey prick back.

Words cannot explain the mayhem that ensued at Mugello and its only the saturday. Tomorrow is going to be chaos.

 
The Italians take their moto gp and partying very seriously. It is absoloute mayhem, Campers with brilliant setups or they just sleep where they fall, horns blowing contstantly, fireworks going off constantly. Bikes being held on the rev limiter for minutes at a time. Chainsaws (with chain removed and fitted with megaphone exhausts, beautiful women everywhere, wearing next to nothing, Beer, food, porn, Wine, Scooters doing wheelies. Bikes doing burnouts. Its just chaos. I love it.

 
 

 We met Nathan from Australia, who was a huge piss wreck.
 
 
 
 
 

We comandered a vacant shade shelter and met Rosella and Enrico. Italians but who interstingly  hated Rossi with a passion. Rosella flipped him the finger every time he went past. Was hilarious. She loves Casey Stoner which is quite surprising as everyone over here hates him.

 
The guys that owned the shade shelter Marco and Gio turned up and after we bought them a couple of beers, they were happy for us to stay. Turned out to be a really nice couple of blokes (they may have been gay not sure) who race in the local superbike championship, Their knowledge of the circuit and racing in general was impressive.

 
 
 
 
 
The Rossi fans a passioinate and hate everyone else with a huge Italian passion. The follow pictures may offend some, but you will get over it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thats just a sample of some of the stuff that went on. as I said it was on saturday. Sunday is going to be unbelievable.

 

We took the fun roads home and headed out for a crap pizza at a crap pizza bar, but while walking home came across this amazing street party. Was amazing.

 
 
 

A couple of cold beers on the patio and off to bed.

 

Buzz is really getting in to this couchsurfing business. Can someone tell him the planking craze is over.

 

Not sure when I will be able to update next as after the race we have a 1400klm express run up the autobarn. Will do it asap as Sunday at the GP is going to be epic,

More Mugello Mayhem

So Sunday morning and its the big race day. We don our best Florintine saftey gear. Mugello is in a big bowl and gets stinking hot, so we figure that there is more chance of dying from dehydration than actually crashing, so have lapsed on the riding gear for today. I promise Sam We wont be doing anything dangerous.

 

 Luckily Sam has her safety sandals on.

 

Lane splitting is compulsory in Italy. He we are doing about 80kmh. Its ok our saftey gear will save us in an event of an accident.

 
The traffic was chaotic and the police have absolutly no control....they dont even try.

 

Came across this on the way in. Scooter rider crased into car. He wasnt too bad though only 2 broken legs we think.

 

I think This guy was on his way to a gay fancy dress party.

 
We discovered once we got to the track that we were able to take the bikes in. Just like Phillip Island superbikes but with a trillion people. It was chaos, luckliy I have a air horn fitted to my bike. Was great fun sneaking up behind people and scaring shit out of them.

 

 

Took a couple of shots of some bikes going round and round. apparently there was a race on.

 

 

Was a bit hot so most of the crowd was half naked....not that i noticed.

 

We got a police escort into the grandstand.

 
Took our seats in the stand.

 
Our veiw of the track.

 

GP bikes are crap in the sand. I reckon they should all have dual sport bikes.

 

Breakfast of champions. Pizza and beer.

 

Valentino Rossi was sitting just in front of us.

 

 Nah just kidding...bloody looked like him though.

A gazzillion beers before lunch in the sun will do this to you. A nana nap between races.

 

 We had a great time being bogan Aussies and putting shit on all the Vale fans.

 

 

The aussie casey Stoner finished 3 rd after leading for most of the race. The crowd abandoned Rossi, shortly after the start when they realised that he wasnt going to win. The silence was ear peircing...except for us knuckle heads screaming our heads off.

 When the race finished they actually encouraged the spectators to invade the track. Even on your bike if you wish. Wouldnt happen in a fit in Australia. It was absolute chaos and great fun. We nearly started a riot while riding through the camps yelling "wheres Vales anyone seen Vale? Has he finished yet? I learnt a few new Italian swear words. Hilarious.

 

 

We couldnt resist doing a lap of the circuit. Luckily we had our saftey gear on.

 
 
 

Buzz still thinks planking is all the rage.

 

We figured a burn out was in order
 

And it very nearly ended in tears. Would have been a great look if both of us ended up on our ass.

 

There was a 40klm traffic jam on the way out. Flattened the battery on my bike with all the stop start and bikes were overheating everywhere. it took us about 3 hours to get out......all in 38 degree heat...great fun.

 

 
Eventually we made it out just as the sun was setting.

 

 We went back to the penthouse said goodbye to Marco and Syvlia, who have just been so fantastic. Really hope they come to stay with us some day. Marco there is always a bike for you.

We needed to put in some kays so hit the autostrada and did about 300kays into the night and ended up finding another flash hotel just north of Milan at about 11pm.

Buzz the bell boy took our bags to our room.

 
Tomorrow is another 3 countries in 1 day sort of day. The pace will be on as the jerk that is shipping our bike back home, has very kindly forgot to tell us that he has moved the shipping date one day forward. Not happy. It was only by chance that we found out. More on this later.

Antics on the autobarn

So we have copped quite a bit of flack over our choice of riding gear yesterday , and Sam's dad wants to wipe the floor with my ass, so i just need to clarify a few things.

Firstly, please do not try these stunts at home as you will surely be killed. The acts were performed on a closed course, by fully trained idiots.......and I was drunk.

We promise not to do anything silly for the rest of the trip.

Loaded up the bikes and headed straight up the Autobarn. We have decided to head for Nurburgring to see if it is possible for us to do a lap of the historic track.

 

At 160kmh we reached the Swiss border in no time and moved once again into eyeburning postcard scenery.

 
 
Passed Valentino Rossi headed up into the mountains to escape the Italian fans that want to lynch him for his poor performance on the weekend.

 

I think this was his dad following him,,,not sure.

 
Decided to go over the San Gottarrd pass rather than through the 20klm long tunnel. The tunnels on the bike are horrible. Full of fumes and hard to see. Buzz loves them, I hate em.

 

 

 

The passes are much more fun although they do take considerably longer.

 
Had a dodgy Bratwurst and and an agument with the dodgy seller at the top of the pass. Bastard tried to rip me off for 2 euro.

 
The scenery was nice though.

 
Then down the other side through more perfect scenery and perfect roads.

 

 
Buzz obviously arrived at this corner with no brakes. The scooters usually pass him.. Notice the wide line. Thats as tight as the etnerprise will turn.

 

Luckily the enterprise also has auto pilot.

 

Called back into Denzlingen , so Buzz could see Maureen who was to be medievaced back to Australia today and Also to see our favourite girls again.

 
Was very sad to say goodbye again, but we had to go. Back out onto theautobarn for more hi speed antics. All very sensibly of course.

 

This little fella looked so cool he didnt know what to make of us trying to get him to smile.

 
Passed by the Hockenheimring, but were going to fast too stop.

 

Nothing silly going on here. This is the autobarn afterall

 
 
We wernt going that fast anyway.

 

 
There we quite a few hazrds we had to avoid on the roads. This could have got messy if we hit any of the slippery little suckers, but fortuneatly we didnt see any. I think I may have some though.

 

Audi R8  anyone
 

 
At every exit on the autobarn, there are these signs. Not sure why it only applies to Aussies and I did my best to comply, although I did need to be careful after the dodgy bratwurst I had this morning.

 
Buzz also did his best to comply.

 

Apparently we were very good at it

 

We arrived at the Nurburgring about 15 minutes too late to do a lap and were bitterly disappaointed to learn that it may not be possible to do one tomorrow as the track has been booked for an industry day.

 
Went for a bit of a look around the place anyway and have booked into a hotel and will see if anything can be arranged for tomorrow.

 

 

Had a great meal in the resturant with lots of memeorabillia haging on the walls. Even been a couple of aussies here that are are in the same boat as us.

 
 
 
Ended up just Like Klause.

 

 

Not the Nurburgring

 
We got up early and headed as quickly as possible and headed for the info centre.

 

We were gutted to learn that a lap wasnt going to be possible as the track was booked for an industry day. We could get on at 5pm that afternoon, but due to dipshit bike shipper changing the dates we cant hang around.. Oh well just have to come back another time.

We consoled our selves by sneaking through a hole in the fence to get some spy shots of the top secret testing that  goes on here.

Electric supercar

 
M3 taxi.

 
 
 

Disguised Mercedes something or other.
 

Porche Panamera. (had one of these pass us on the autobarn yestreday at about 300kph. Nearly blew us off the road. We were lucky not to be killed.
 

Danger lurked everywhere.

 

Although this guy came close to being killed.

 

A fleet of XK Jags about to go out on the track for some corporate junket. Tried to scam our way in but no go.

 

We even tried renting a racer

 

It was all to no avail.There was no way we were getting on the track, so we decided to do a backstage tour.

 

Nicky Lauda was almost killed where I am pointing.

 
 

A few of the locals were out on the GP track.

 

Stole some internet from the media centre to get a blog out.

 

 
 

Michael Schumaker and I have both peed here.

 

 The ring has a full on amusement park, which also has an awesome looking rollercoaster, which also wasnt working today.

 

 Sam being a price is right chick. Incedently the price is aout 400 000 dollars. I made sure she didnt touch it.

 

We wernt going to get to race around the track proper, so we decided to do a virtual race in these brilliant full motion simulators. Was great fun.

 

 The podium.

 

The media conference afterwards got very ugly.

 

But then it was time to go Our ferry leaves from Hook Of Holland at 10.30 tonight.

The nederlands is quite possibly the most boring country for riding motorcycles ever invented. We decided to break the mind numbing run by heading into Belgium for an ice cream.

 

I Would have been happy for beers and girlies but Sam wanted icecream

 

 
 

We did our good deed for the day when we came across this idiot who had locked his keys in the boot of his benz, He had already smashed a rear window to try and get in when we arrived.

 

Buzz utilising skills garnered in a previous profession as a profesional vandal smashed the lock and we were in in mere seconds. It was an impressive display of workmanship.

 

 The guy was wrapped, Buzz had smashed the shit out of his Benz. Was Hilarious.

 
The freeway into Rotterdam was huge. 7 lanes wide in places.

 

 The bikes have generated interst everywhere we have gone, with a lot of people keen to chat. Even when we are trying to get them cleaned.

 
Our final meal in Europe was in keeping with the rest of the meals we have had. I reckon I have put on about 5 kilos but that will be coming back off as soon as we get home.

 

After dinner it was on to the boat for overnight crossing.

 
 
The cabin was quite comfy, but no foot washer.

 
 

Our last night in Europe and We spent the night in the bar getting rid of all the Euro cash we had left. Succeeded admirably and Ended up totally smahed on gin.

Mission complete

Sadly our mission is now complete.

We loaded the bike into the container at Felixstowe.

 
 

Had an argument wth bloke thats ships the bikes, who is a complete tosser. If you ever want to ship a bike anywhere I would strongly reccomend not using this comany. Dave Milligan is a complete wanker and will never see another cent from me the lying, obnoxious prick that he is. He can do as his company name suggests and get routed.

(postscript: We were routed around further by this moron when the bike got back to Brisbane. Use him at your peril)

We then caught the train into London and the tube onto Morden where we are couchsurfing with Pete & torsten.

We have spent the last few days doing all the usual touristy things around london like the London eye, Thames river cruise, Open top bus tour, Hampden castle etc etc. I won't bore you with all the details suffice to say we have had a great time and huge thanks to Pete & Torsten for taking us in.

London eye veiw.

 

 

 

Sam got on famously with Henry the 8th at Hampton castle. He really liked her raincoat apparently.
 
The Jack the ripper walking tour was great.

 

The guise was brilliant and really passionate about the story of Jack the Ripper.

 

Our bus tour got caught up in the mayhem of the Harry Potter premier at Trafalgar Square.

 

We had a geat dinner at an Italian resturant (like we havnt had enough Italian food) with Pete & Torsten then headed home.

This morning we fly out on our QANTAS A380 (dont worry we are taking our helmets as carry on to be safe)

It has been an amazing 7 weeks and the trip of a  lifetime. We have done some amazing things and met some awesome people, many of which will now remain lifelong freinds. To anyone that we met or came across or met on this trip reads this, we thank you for making our holiday so memorable. Everyone has been fantastic. We hope you have enjoyed following our adventure and as always welcome your comments, emails or questions at any time. 

See ya

Guy & Sam x