Sicily

Old Town Palermo,
Click on any picture to zoom in

Our time here in Sicily has been ‘an experience’. When we left Geneva we needed to be in Genoa Italy for late Saturday so that we would be on the last ferry to Palermo. Well that was pretty easy to do, and we had both forgotten how beautiful and technical the autostrada is as you head south from Alessandria. It was pure enjoyment, until we reached the ferry port in Genoa, which we have had experience with as well, when we got off the Tangiers Morocco ferry and snaked out of the port and headed to Levanto. This time we descended into the chaos where we met a very friendly Dutch couple who were riding 2 Honda’s a VFR800 and a CB1000 in very close to matching paint jobs.

Dutch Couple and Sandra

They had taken refuge in a no man’s land under the huge mall area and he said matter of factly, “now I have something to do, I will show you where the ticket office is.” A few minutes later and we had our cabin booked for the 11pm ferry to Palermo on GNV. Yes folks the same people who brought us from Morocco and they haven’t improved much since 2011.

On arrival in Palermo we took the Ibis hotel there, on a reservation and they recommended the MUDU pizzeria, an upscale place which was extremely busy on a Sunday evening. We ate at about 9:30 pm. On what was extraordinary mushroom, prosciutto and smoked buffalo cheese pizza. The next day we rode up to a place called Monreale,

Amazing Mosaics,  Monreale

where there the Duomo has gold mosaics on every surface of the interior. While my pictures don’t do it justice, this is an amazing cathedral to see. We then returned to Palermo and wandered the streets but found that Palermo is a very old and dilapidated place and extremely poor.

The next day we headed to Cefalu, a mecca for sunseekers and for its historic centre. It is a beautiful old town situated on the Med coast about 80 kms east of Palermo, and a world away in tourist interest. Our B&B for this day was up in the mountains a few kms. East of Cefalu called Case Saporana and was an old farmhouse with 4 rooms in it and Nino who ran the place by himself. We seemed to be his first guests for this year, and he treated us very well with a splendid breakfast the next morning of locally produced eggs, lemonade (which he gave us more of to take to drink), croissants, cheeses, and cappuccino.

But our tour took us back into Cefalu where we saw the old town centre,

Hot and Sunny Cefalu

bought locally produced red wine for the evening, and had a late lunch/ early supper at Molo 19 a trendy café right on the beach. I had spotted someone eating mussels there and once my radar locked on we had an appetizer of them and Sandra had pesto and shrimp pasta while I had the pasta Aglio, just amazing food. As we walked the concourse past the beach we saw another local favorite, Gelatto briochette. While we didn't try them a French tourist posed for me so that I could get a good picture, and she said they tasted so good.

Gelatto in a Bun

That evening we watched the sunset from our balcony high above the village, a glass of wine in hand, the end to a perfect day.

Agrigento

From Cefalu we backtracked a bit to A19, an autostrada that heads off to Catania, the main airport city on Sicily and close to the base of Mt. Etna. We took this elevated highway for 150 kms. Yes it was elevated about 25-50’ above the ground the whole way, supported on piers, over some of the most beautiful  mountain vista terrain, eventually ending as we turned due south toward Agrigento, and the Valley of the Temples.One thing the Italians can do is engineer great roads.

Concordia Temple - Most intact Greek temple in the World

On arrival there we changed and headed out to the Valley of the Temples. You see, Sicily was first populated by the Greeks, and today, the best and most intact pagan temples to Zeuss and others are on display in Italy,

Central Walls still in place

and the archaeological museum is arguably the best outside the British Museum  in London and the Louvre in Paris, and bonus hardly any tourists. We found a great  hotel to stay in there for very cheap and if you stayed for supper they offered a free night bus tour of the Temples to see them lit up. This place, Hotel Costazzurra, was great value, with a very good supper, and the most friendly staff. We really enjoyed our time there.

Night Shot

Necropolis Tombs

Warrior insitu, note Agrigento in backgrd.

Warrior in Museum 7.6M tall

Scale model of temple that warriors were placed in It was Huge!

Ragusa and Modica

From Agrigento we headed east along the south coast of Sicily which looks out toward Tunisia, Africa. It was hot, and sunny and we took a winding set of roads from Gela to Caltagirone (known for their ceramics)  and then onto Ragusa and finally Modica where we found a great B&B that Sandra had selected. Modica is known for its 100 churches and we walked through several of them, some restored, some in disrepair but with a village/city that is attached to every one of them. Over the gorge associated to this town is the highest bridge in Europe reportedly at 300 mt.

Main Cathedral

Inside Restored

Ceiling Frescos

Bridge Span in Distance

UPDATE 2026

In late January 2026 the town of Niscemi, between Gela and Caltagirone was seriously impacted by Cyclone Harry to such an extent that the town has been evacuated as cliffs surrounding the town began collapsing into the valley below. The longevity of this event and the extent that it will continue are unknown at this time. It is best to avoid this area and pay attention and be vigilant in other areas of Italy at present. A Youtube video covering this news event can be viewed here.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4R3O616fxI

Siracusa

As we headed out today to our base at the foot of Mt Etna, the only active volcano currently in Italy, actually mainstream Europe we headed to the old port town of Siracusa

Siracusa

and the old town centre which hosts a very large central market every day at this time of year. Vendors hawk their wares there and the local produce  and seafood is amazing. One of our purchases is antipasto and another local cherries, both excellent. Tomorrow we head up Mt Etna, unfortunately she is quiet at the moment.

Antipasto Stall

Anyone for Eel?

Geneva - One Amazing Centre for Promise

We are now in Geneva (May 28), after 2 day ago riding autobahns in Germany (boringly fast) and a day ago the last 4 ½ hrs on some of the most scenic rural highways in east central France, particularly highway 437 from outside Belfort to Pontarlier. While the day was cool, never much above 14 C, and definitely down to 8 C as we crossed the Jura Mountains (snow near the top and a bit of rain), we just loved the drive. The bike is performing flawlessly, from fuel economy, to ride, especially handling with hands free capability, and our new packing techniques we have lowered the centre of gravity some more.

United Nations Geneva

Geneva                - One Amazing Centre for Promise

This is Sandra’s place, I’d say her city. And her research that has yielded such an amazing experience over the past two days. Knowing that we wanted to get the Geneva Pass which allowed entry to a number of attractions, plus provide transportation if you needed it (we didn’t) it was a great value. Of course we arrived on Ascension Thursday a holiday across Christendom in Europe which meant that the tourist bureau opened later and some attractions are closed, like the watch museum Sandra wanted to see. But the List below is what we did see.

• The Red Cross/Crescent Museum
• Palace of Nations ( United Nations)
• Reformation Wall – Train tour of Geneva
• Boat Tour of Geneva
• C.E.R.N.  “Lord of The Rings”   Caution!! This can blow your Mind

Front Entrance

Starting at the Red Cross/Crescent Museum, a person should dedicate about 1 ½ hrs.t o this site to see it’s permanent exhibit. Positioned using a series of Interactive ‘Witnesses’ the Museum shares the experiences of these witnesses in a variety of settings. Your entrance grants you an English guided tour via headphones and electronic  RFID trigger points that initiate a witness to share their story with you if you position yourself in front of them, or place your hand on theirs. This methodology engages you in committing to listening to their story and making a connection with them. Pure genius in dealing with an audience. 

Many Posters

It details how the Red Cross started in the late 1800’s until today, openly addresses their failures during WWII, and really presents a war criminal case against Pres. Bush of the US and Rumsfeld for their crimes against humanity  with Abu Grebe and Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Complete avoidance of humanitarian treaties the United States was a signatory to.

1000's of Unidentified Children

Great Tour and nice Guide

From there we walked across the avenue to the Palis du Nations, or United Nations setting. Our Chinese born guide provided a great tour with lots of personality mixed with some serious messages. We visited the Human Rights and Alliance Room, which deals with country human rights reviews in open audience,

Human Rights Hall

Disarmament Hall

and the Disarmament Room which addresses ongoing talks which currently include both the Iran nuclear talks, and the Syria chemical conflict. Of course our piece of memorabilia from 1991 when we brought Shannon and Blair here is the 

Entrance follows you

Chinese pagoda, whose entrance follows you down the corridor. Sandra didn’t believe we had been here before until she saw that. This is an excellent tour and building that makes you humbled to the fact that there are greater things on earth than the day to day problems we have, but that face humankind on earth, and, how we can become more engaged in those struggles. Architecture here is effectively used to impart this message. Lastly there are several monuments on the grounds that are worth noting, from Gandhi’s life statue to the Broken Chair’s symbol against Land Mines. Powerful stuff we need to think more about.

Library Central Hall

Gandhi My Life is my message

Land Mines

We then turned our attention to lighter matters with a boat tour of Lake Geneva. It is worth noting to sit on the starboard side of the boat for the tour since the tour is done in a counter-clockwise rotation. This one hr. on the water yielded us with a mild sunburn as the day had turned quite warm.

Geneva Fountain

From there we headed for the Reformation Wall. Geneva is seen as the home of  the start of protestant religion and a Wall is there to commemorate some of the early reformers of Christian belief, Calvin, Knox, Luther and others.

Reformation Wall

It was here we caught another Geneva Pass freebie, and that is the train tour of the Old Town, which we completed after many hours on our feet. The day was completed by returning to our hotel where we were met by Heiko who had come down to take in the CERN tour Friday with us. We had a very nice visit and dinner out at Charly’s Pub that evening.

The LHC Lord of the Rings

CERN – Lord of the Rings

Our final day in Geneva was to attend our pre-arranged by application, appointment to visit the CERN facility.

CERN and Sandra

Sandra wanted to go here and I felt bad about not getting here last year until I learned they didn’t offer civilian tours until late October 2013. Heiko drove the 598 kms yesterday to join us as well.

This facility will blow your mind. I told Sandra I was sad, because I learned that I really knew “nothing  “ after visiting the microcosm lab in advance of the formal tour. I never had heard the term neutrinos, or quarks.  Did you know neutrinos are capable of passing through the earth from one side to the other without impediment by matter?  Now, I have graduated to knowing what I don’t know and I hope that one of my grandchildren will work at closing that gap for me more in future by visiting here, getting inspired and advancing their education in nuclear research, or in humanitarian causes vis a via, the Red Cross or UN. You might think I have lofty ideals for my grandkids, but then you don’t know them like I do. They are capable, and well positioned and have brilliant parents. And then there is my nephew Brad Lafortune who is extremely motivated in this area as well.

The Lord of the Rings term is coined based on the LHC, or Large Hadron collider, a particle accelerator  27 kms in length, well read the images here for better detail. It is part of three rings which include 2 former experiment rings. Our tour ended in the Atlas Control Centre and an amazing 3D film that allows you to experience the areas without going down below, which are currently closed for maintenance.

Just imagine protons being accelerated to collide at a rate of 11000 revolutions a 27 km circuit per ONE SECOND below Geneva, that is meant to recreate the environment one millionth of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang theory, and where at that moment ‘Matter’ and Anti-Matter’ co-existed, and “mass” developed as the result in the reduction in matter slowed after the Big Bang.

On a lighter note, the tool you are using to read this blog originated here, yep that’s right the WWW, which was made public in 1993.  CERN developed the World Wide Web after responding to the need to share its data amongst its 70 some research facilities world-wide. I’m pleased to have one of the first Smith WWW email addresses issued in 1993 in Calgary, before that I used the web through a Police Bulletin Board I belonged to. Lastly, CERN is 60 years old this year having been started in 1954 to offset the USA’s nuclear development and brain drain.

This is a must see bucket list place to visit. And oh, just to add icing to the cake, we ride into the French Alps and take the Mount Blanc tunnel a 12 km. engineering feat, through the Alps, into Italy where we have now finished our favorite meal of pasta and red wine. Life doesn't get much more interesting or educational!

In Memory of Nell Godwin

Just a short note in recognition and condolence to the family of Nell Godwin who recently passed away at the age of 102. She was a neighbor of mine when I was a child, a motorcyclist, a skier, and a musician. Her bubbly personality, and her femininity and her musical talent hid the fact that she was the second female motorcyclist licensed in the Province of Alberta riding an Indian motorcycle while her husband Don rode a Harley. When her husband Don became ill and confined to a hospital in the  mid '60's, she at around 50 yrs of age bought a Yamaha twin jet 100, which I maintained on her behalf, to travel back and forth to visit him. 
She truly was a believer in Two Wheels moving the Soul.
Her complete obituary can be viewed at http://www.yatesfuneral.ca/obits/obituary.php?act=addtrib&id=463410

So what’s next – a Re-invention?

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 we've stumbled across some of the best beaches in the world, not a target we had set for ourselves.

Ending where it began

We found on this trip that while we will never see it all, that we have now seen the best of the best and that with other regions of the world out there it’s time to re-invent our next travel plans. For sure we’ll be back in Europe, and have the friends we made here welcome in our home in Canada, but with we will now focus on eastern Asia.

And when I returned to Heidelberg today to turn over care of our beloved Strom to Stefan for it’s journey back home I met up with a BMW Motorrad group from Malaysia, coincidence?

I was introduced to “1$ ” the expedition leader of 24 bikes and over 40 travelers who attended  the recent 2013 BMW Motorrad gathering in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. As you can see the fleet was being readied to be shipped back to KL on Friday. It's too bad they didn't have 1 more pallet!

The group from KL

He invited us to look him up when we travel later this year and he’d work at arranging a ride with us.

Nice coincidence! and so the adventure continues.......

Splugen Pass - a day in 5 Countries

Home of the Moto Guzzi Factory & Museum - Mandelo de Lario

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.

Moto Guzzi Factory and Museum

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

Finally our Day 1 destination of Chiavenna was achieved and our great B&B was ready for us.

Breakfast served in our suite

After an enormous breakfast this morning we ventured out early again into the bright sunny skies. We have been so lucky throughout our trips that many people have to return to the Swiss Alps for the riding routes 2-3 times before finding a sunny day, us, we just arrive and it becomes sunny. It was 32C in the Alps at sunset last night and did cool down, but still very comfortable.

Our destination ride today was Splugen Pass, voted Best Motorcycling road in the World until the Transfargaresen in Romania unseated it. (See that blog entry back in August 2011). Now we mounted the helmet cam today, and while this is not our video on Youtube it is representative of what we experienced.  Splugen pass youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvprH4FEIBc.  

A view over a village on the way up

It is a difficult and technical ride for sure, especially when you meet oncoming buses while on the mainly one lane road and cascading switchbacks, tons of tunnels blah blah blah.

If Splugen wasn’t enough we made our way through the backroads of Switzerland to Chur and  happened upon a canyon that was obviously a connector to Splugen. It was one of the most dramatic canyons we’ve been in and I hope the photos do it justice. Again, we have lots of video shot here as well.

Bikers Paradise

Cascading Hairpins

Artsy shot on Splugen,        have you ever seen my bike? lol

The required snow shot at the top

Traffic at Canyon

Canyon Whole look near boulder for Cave and people

Here with the help of a telephoto lens

Finally we made our way through a total of 5 countries today, we started in Italy, entered Switzerland, then Liechtenstein, for the castle at Vaduz, Austria for a brief period around Bregenz, then Germany where we are now just off the Bodensee at a Gasthoff Zum Hirschen.