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Showing posts from July, 2013

So what’s next – a Re-invention?

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41st Anniversary picture in Oberursel Well after a beautiful day in Heidelberg and a visit to our friend and bike shipping contact Stefan, we changed oil on the Strom, took mileage readings and then headed back to Frankfurt where we met up with Heiko Heiko, a true friend indeed! for our anniversary supper. It was a beautiful evening in Oberursel and we ate out at Zum Schwanen, a pub that Sandra and I had discovered back in 2011. Back when we began to plan our ‘retirement trip’ which became the 2011, 5 month 22,500 km 16 country 3 continent extravaganza, we had quickly realized that we really enjoyed the opportunity to travel this way and see all the places we wanted to see.  It became and always will be our “Trip of a Lifetime”. We have now completed 5 motorcycle trips to Europe, spent cumulatively a year on the continent, visited 24 countries , and saw in excess of 180 World Heritage Sites and traveled approximately 60000 kms . by motorcycle. We even learned that w

Splugen Pass - a day in 5 Countries

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Moto Guzzi Factory and Museum As everyone knows when we plan our trips we look to connect great riding roads to great destinations. The past two days have been just so. We left Levanto early. It was hot already, about 28C at 08:00 hrs, but as we got into the mountains behind the coolness was evident for a bit. We took the autostrada to Genoa where we got held up for close to 30 mins in a series of traffic jambs. Nothing like being in a tunnel and not moving, but we finally weaved our way through the cars/trucks and headed off toward Milan, finally getting out of traffic there and into Mandello de Lario, on Lake Como, and one of the exhibit halls  the home of the Moto Guzzi factory and museum, where we waited until 3 pm for the opening of the museum. The exhibits were good, but it’s a shame that the new company that opens them, Piaggio hasn’t spent a restoration dime there. Hey guys, how do you expect to re-build the brand? A racing 3 cylinder Fin