Second week of the Christmas trip

Wednesday 29.12.2010

Traveltime: 09:15 - 15:15
Distance: 484km
Route: Garda - Innsbruck - Reutte - Ulm
Temperature: Few degrees below 0
Weather: Sunny, fog

Last day of the trip!

Temperature was few degrees below zero when I started today´s ride. I was a bit worried when thinking in what kind of condition all the roads are. I checked Öamtc´s road cameras yesterday and whole Austria seemed to have snow blizzard... All roads (what I need to ride today) were totally covered with snow...

In any case, in the morning sun was shining and road was in good condition, so I could really enjoy this last day!

I had no problems to cross Brenner and same thing also in Austria, no issues, roads were well salted and sun was smiling to me.

I stopped for a coffee at Fernpass and then started last stretch towards home.

Fog and light drizzle welcomed me to Germany... Same thing continued actually all the way to Ulm.

  • Total distance for the trip: 4526km.
  • Total time spent for the trip: 11 days.
  • After that one day in Malta, I did not had any problems with the starter motor.
  • Christmas trip was excellent again! Enough time to rest, cleaned my head for the coming year and charged my batteries. Ok 2011, what do you have in store for me?
  • Happy New Year 2011 to everyone!!!

 Nice winter scenery Fernpass

Tuesday 28.12.2010

Traveltime: 08:00 - 18:15
Distance: 1041km
Route: Sapri - Salerno - Naples - Roma - L´Aquila - Giulianova - Ancona - Rimini - Bologna - Modena - Verona - Garda
Temperature: At the morning around 7C, later close to 0
Weather: Partly cloudy, sunny, fog

Day´s ride started as planned, on time. Several layers of clothes ensured that I did not feel cold on a motorway.

While passing Naples I noticed that also top of Vesuvius had been covered with snow. Close to Rome, I turned towards east and Adrian sea. A24-motorway goes quite high, so (as expected) there was some snow next to the road. Italian road service had done a good job by putting enough salt to the road. Temperature was quite low on the mountains, but not too cold :)

I had to see how does the Mediterranean sea looks like at this time of year, well it looked wet... A14-motorway follows the seashore. Temperature here was quite mild, possibly around 10C. Close to San Marino weather got much cooler, so I had to stop and put on my neoprene mask and winter gloves.

Road construction close to Forli caused long queues, so I was lucky enough still to be able to swerve between the lanes this year :) This helps to keep you awake and brings nice change to othervise so boring motorway ride.

Red sun went down right after Bologna. After passing Modena I faced really thick fog.

Fog didn´t make me feel any warmer so I decided to make last stop before my destination and had a refreshing cup of espresso.

Now I am at Garda again, same hotel and same hotelroom as in the first night of this trip.

Tomorrow I plan to cross the alps and head home.

No photos from today.

Monday 27.12.2010

Traveltime: 05:15 - 16:45
Distance: 566km
Route: Sliema - Pozzallo - Catania - Messina - Cosenza - Lagonegro - Sapri
Temperature: At the morning around 10C, later only few degrees
Weather: Partly cloudy, cloudy, rainshower

Wake-up before 05:00, ride to ferryterminal at 05:15.

Got almost immediately in to the ferry. There I had short chat with fellow GS-rider from Malta. He was interested how to install big adventure tank to standard GS. After this I sat down and next thing I realised was that we were just arriving to Pozzallo.

My original plan was to ride to Messina by making loop to the west, but I actually rode straight to Catania and from there to Messina. Close to Catania weather suddenly got much cooler, so I had to stop and switch summer gloves to intermediate ones. Also when I approached Catania, I noticed it had snowed at Etna. Top of the volcano was totally white. Some steam was coming out from the crater (quite sure about this because there was no clouds).

In Messina ferry terminal I just passed all the cars (good thing to be on a bike, so you can pass all queues and nobody cares because bikes are so small that they can fit any small gap). During short boat trip from Messina to mainland (20 mins) I was able to take nap while sitting on top of the bike :)

On a mainland, I just jumped to the motorway, relaxed my sholders and headed towards north. Somewhere around Castrovillari I had to stop and put on neck warmer and also windprotectors for my hands because clouds in front of me were really dark and temperature was also going down.

Soon I rode in to quite heavy rainshower and after this to thick fog. I was just wondering what the heck has happened to a warm weather during the Christmas?!?!?

I decided that I need to find hotel before it gets dark and cold. This time I decided to spent night in a town called Sapri. I still have fiew from my balcony to the sea :)

Actually, even I see also palmtrees, it is not warm here... I guess only around five degrees.

Tomorrow I will look again like "Michelin-man" because I have so many layers of clothes :D

No photos today.

Sunday 26.12.2010

Traveltime:
Distance:
Route: Valletta
Temperature: Around 15C
Weather: Partly cloudy, cloudy

Today was "tourist day".

In the morning I tried to open couple stuck nuts from the starter motor, but no luck. I just have to get some WD40 from Italy (just in case). I did not want to use "too much" force, because othervise I might need to search new startermotor...

I walked around whole day in capital of Malta, Valletta. In the morning quite many shops were open. For some reason I did not feel the urge to buy anything. I am just wondering I feel sad later because I do not have "I love Malta"-shirt... Well, for sure, not :)

Valletta "main" Church was really breathtaking from inside. It was decorated so much that I even cannot describe it here... At the point when I was there, they had Sunday service ongoing, so no photos allowed at that point. Later when I tried to get in, it was already closed.

Tomorrow I´ll have really early wake-up due to start of return ride to home.

 Smaller church from inside Why this school has nets in the windows? Gate to harbour area What is this huge bell? WWII watch towers Valletta is not flat Balconies Having a nap Roof decoration City hall? (State rooms) State rooms State rooms State rooms State rooms Decorated helmet in armory Decorated chest plate Protection Decorations Even more protection Decorations Troops Horses were also protected Helmets Over decorated More headprotection Guns Small cannon Swords Big cannons... Other shore Something... 50 years of piece Bell from other angle Balconies again Bus-stop fountain Bus Busses

Saturday 25.12.2010

Traveltime: 09:45 - 17:00
Distance: 109km
Route: Sliema - around the island - Sliema
Temperature: Around 15C
Weather: Partly cloudy, cloudy, few raindrops

I did not had any specific plans for today, so I just decided to go around the island by clockwise (following the sites from a touristmap I purchased yesterday).

I follow the instructions from my GPS. Really often it guided me to really small and rough surfaced roads, but it did not matter, because I had no hurry to anywhere. I stopped here and there and took few photos for example from St Thomas Tower.

In Marsaxlokk I stopped to take few photos of colorful boats. When I wanted to continue my ride, bike did not want to start. I tried several times but nothing happened when I pressed started button. I checked and rechecked everything (killswitch, sidestand switch, cluch and brake levers, gear on and gear off), but nothing helped. At this point I thought that it is time for a coffee and rethink what could cause this problem. I also called my brother and one friend in Finland to try to dig out some info from the internet.

During the coffee, I started thinking that if something from the electronics had failed (starter switch, battery drained, starter stuck). After starting to go through different options, I found really oxidized contacts in starter. Cleaned them the best I could (couple nuts were so corroded that I could not open them without WD40). After this cleaning operation bike started, started also second time and also third time. Then I decided that it is time to continue and if problem would occure again, I could put my focus to starter.

I tried to visit couple historic temple sites (Mnajdra and Hagar Qim), but unfortunately site was closed due to Christmas.

First town where I parked and had a short walk around the city was Mdina. I could have easily spent more time over there, but unfortunately all interesting places were closed (due to a Christmas).

Dome Church in Mgarr was really nice looking from the distance and from the inside. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the world biggest dome churches after Dome Church in Mosta. Unfortunately it was so dark inside the Church that I could not take any photos there.

I noticed marking of the Roman baths in the map so that was my next target. Road which Garmin guided me got smaller and smaller, finally it was only a foot path, but still Garmin told me to continue... I did not want to go any further, so after u-turn, I found better route.

I found the sign pointing towards this Roman bath site, but could not really tell a difference from surrounding rocky terrain. So after this disappointment, I headed back to the hotel via Mosta.

Day flew by really fast. Problems with the starter brought some exitement and nice problem solving tasks for today. After Mdina I put too much attention to the GPS and after awhile I noticed that I was riding on a wrong lane (right lane, here is left side traffic). Garmin maps are good resource for roads, but do not fully trust them if you do not want to ride/drive on really small, rough surface- / gravel roads.

On Sunday I am planning to have a tourist day and just walk around Valletta.

 St Thomas Tower Boats in Marsaxlokk Scenery close to Blue Grotto Verdala Palace (President´s summer house) Gate of Mdina Alley in Mdina Entrance to the Museum St Paul´s Cathedral Corner statue Door bell :) Flat Garmin pointed this as At this point I did not believe anymore Tombs Dome Church in Mgarr Closer Dome Church in Mosta