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Belgium to Italy by Bike - 4

5/30/2016

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A day in May in Switzerland

We knew there was a cost for entering Switzerland. On a bike it was only €40 euros for a year  the policeman at the border was smiling and happy and generously guided us to the office to pay by card for the vignette.
 
Payment was swift - all easy, until the time to stick it on the bike.

The guy who gave us the vignette has a motorbike and tried to convince us to put it on the underside of Noel's seat.

The uhmming and arhhing and explaining of this took several freezing minutes. The temperature had dropped, we'd been on the bike an hour longer than we'd wanted to (between stops) and I was cold.
 
'Just put it on the windshield!' I said.
Noel took a breath and started to say, 'but...' and then he saw my face, stuck the vignette to the windshield and off we went.

'Where shall we stop?' he said

'Anywhere, soon, the first place you see, I'm cold.'
 
We stopped briefly for a coffee and snack at a motorway stop. It ‘s amazing how just a few minutes stretching and a hot coffee fortifies you for another few hours on the bike.
 
And then everything changed...
 
‘Oh my goodness - how long has this been going on?’
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Straight out of a brochure - but even better!
We swept around a corner into Switzerland. The jaws of the green mountains opened up to reveal their splendour, the world changed.
 
We squinted... and Noel held out his hand as if to say 'would you look at that!’
 
We'd had no desire to go to Switzerland, only because we couldn't get there on our canal boat. We knew about the Alps, of course, but we were not ready for the real thing.
 
It's so much better than the brochures - that's only ever happened to us once before, at Machu Pichu.
 
The peaks stretched out toward the sky, tearing at the odd wispy cloud - our eyes widened, I smiled and rubbernecked my way through the streets.
 
And then the traffic stopped.
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Traffic backed up for miles - the evening and the following morning.
The 38 mile Gotthard Base Tunnel loomed up in front. We had quickly learned that Switzerland has numerous tunnels. Traversing umpteen tunnels already we saw no point in spending an hour sucking in exhaust fumes starting at a concrete wall and brake lights.
 
Como was our loose destination today, we weren't going to make it.
 
I tapped Noel on the shoulder as he battled with the throttle, stop start, stop start. Ahead was a turning into Wassen, a small village up high on our left.
 
He eased the bike from the line of metal and we scooted along the hard shoulder. My shoulders became tense, they'd shoot you in Australia for riding the hard shoulder – no questions asked!
 
We turned off the highway and circled around into the main street, which was two hundred metres long, sporting many hotels, a garage (closed), a small shop (closed) and an old school house and church.

​​

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School - Wassen
We investigated three hotels - all similarly priced, but the nicest was the most competitive with our own bathroom and breakfast included.
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Our plan of exploring without plans, had paid off. We had no fixed place to be, allowing us to indulge in this unexpected slice of heaven.
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View from the Church, over the valley - Wassen.
Our day in May in Switzerland would become one of the most memorable - one of those special, unplanned days. The next blog will share all those wondrous details, movies and pics! Here's a movie from the back of the bike, up the pass behind Wassen, in the meantime.
 
Join us on the ride along mountain passes.
 

Next: Stupidly Blue!
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Belgium to Italy by bike – 3

5/28/2016

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Lifetime holiday - Luxembourg anyone?

An impersonal highway hotel in Thionville, France, was our first stop. It was surprisingly clean and comfortable. McDonalds sat next door, inviting us in for a quick fish burger and beer – how civilised!
 
After a good sleep and a breakfast mix up (‘no’ to the €10 croissant breakie and locked doors at MacDonald’s!), we scooted through France watching the scenery flash by. Thoughts and memories arrived in my mind, but didn’t linger - moving on making room for the next memory, that felt ‘delivered’ into my head with the movement.
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My view from the back, is not so bad!
I love being a passenger on the bike and without exception, every time I am on board, I feel I must lift my arms, and shout Yeeeehaaaaah!
 
Then suddenly we were in Luxembourg. Travelling from green splendour into concrete crap.
We were also in so much traffic, I am sure the population of French drivers had followed us there.
 
Grey city buildings, exhaust fumes, masses of people fighting to get somewhere so incredibly important - all marred our view. Unfairly probably - if we had the time and money to stop and explore each city we would, but we had to keep a balance, in our timing and bank account.
 
We just wanted to find a reasonable hotel.
 
As we were in the middle of the city we thought we'd investigate accommodation. You'd think we'd know better – €170 for one night, no parking, no breakfast, no nothing 'is a bed included?' This was not a place for budget travellers.
 
Noel and I have travelled most of our eighteen years of being together. The majority of that time has been within our own home, on a sailboat. Ninety nine percent of that time we were on anchor and avoiding costly marinas. Our horse trip was spent living in a tent. 
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Living in a tent, while trail riding in the bush - we'll be going back to a tent soon - but that's another story!
During land travel, I usually find cheap hotels that have saved us money but were memorable for all the wrong reasons.
 
It may sound funny with our constant life of travelling - but we've never had a holiday. Actually, that isn't entirely true; I think we had two days in a caravan park after our wedding day. We stayed in a wonderful cottage that over-looked the sparkling Pacific Ocean, on the most incredibly bright, wonderful winter’s day in Kiama, NSW.
 
So, while we didn't intend to stay in plush hotels, I was skimming over the back-packers and 1 star venues and looking at the best value 3 star hotels/motels and of course AirBnb.
 
I bet you're thinking, 'they've been on a holiday all their married lives, travelling around the world.' Well, we haven't. Much of that time we've not had a regular income, no monthly salary to gauge our worth. Through our travelling life we've rented property (when we’ve owned property) but found that too stressful with horrid tenants. We have no house now, just land and cows – cows are far nicer than people as renters.

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Sometimes cows are much nicer than people! Image courtesy of James Barker at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I earn money from articles and books. It's a nice income but it doesn't make you rich, as a lot of people wrongly assume.
 
So, this was our holiday - a moment for us to spend a bit of time together away from the demands of a boat. They are like kids - constantly demanding attention, they can scare you silly, make you cry and laugh. But there are good sides to it of course; you travel with your own home, your own cup, pillow... But now we were staying in hotels and places we’d not given thought to.
 
Next: A Day in May in Switzerland

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Belgium to Italy by Bike - 2

5/27/2016

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Flying By the Seat of our (many) Pants

​We left Ypres marina at 1 pm. The midday planned departure time eaten into with boat jobs to ensure there was no way the boat could fill with water while unsupervised.
 
Sea-cocks switched off, electrics shut down, fridge emptied (to a very happy harbour master and his wife) - lines checked, boat secured, decks cleared, panniers packed, and then we tried to mount the bike.
 
I wore four jumpers, a t-shirt, and a lined leather jacket with padding; long johns under my padded leather pants, thick woollen socks, boots, a scarf, leather gloves and, of course, the helmet. Walking was a problem, let alone hauling myself and my entire wardrobe onto the back of the bike.
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All 'geared up' and ready to go. And a taster of where we end up - spectacular!
But we both stretched our legs up and over the bike, loaded the TomTom with “Italy” and Noel twisted the throttle so we could glide away from Ypres.
 
We tend not plan our trips too much. Seeking a hotel each night can be tricky, but the regimented system of pre-booking doesn’t suit us, it curbs the freedom. Flying by the seat-of-our-paints means plans can be changed - we are flexible, we can turn left when we thought that perhaps we'd be going right. And those plans paid off. But not immediately.
 
I hope you'll come along for the ride...
 

Next: Lifetime Holiday – Luxembourg Anyone?
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Belgium to Italy by Bike - 1

5/25/2016

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Realising our fifteen-year-old dream

​'Can we book a bit earlier?' I asked my friend, Lynne.
'Any time in May is okay, just give me dates.'

I couldn't give her a precise date. We weren't sure how long it’d take to get there on the motorbike.
We found a secure and reasonable spot for the boat in Ypres and planned to scoot through Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, reaching Italy to head for Abruzzo, east Italy, where Lynne owns a recently renovated ('I warn you it isn’t finished yet!') property.

​My friend would be in the UK, trusting us with her house.
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Our 'stead' for the next few days. Usually we have a sheepskin on the seat for comfort.
I know little of Italy. Noel and I spent a few days on her toes, in a port on our sailing escapade around the world, some fifteen years ago. We'd sailed up to Sardinia and Corsica and spent more time there, before traversing the French canals and sailing on to the UK. We made a promise to return on a motorbike - and here we were with that very opportunity.
 
Keen to spend most of our time in Italy, we rented Lynne’s house, to avoid lingering in impersonal hotels.

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A grand house for our stay in the village of Tornelli, municipality of Palombaro- it is even grander inside!
What transpired was the greatest adventure: remarkable sights, memorable sounds, surprising people, and mind-boggling foods – so much we didn’t expect.
 
That journey begins here… every few days I’ll share a short story. I hope you enjoy the ride.
 
Next: Flying by the Seat of our (many) Pants.
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France Here We Come!

5/5/2016

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We're heading back to France. (Here’s why).
 
Initially I didn’t want to go, I wanted to see other parts of Europe. But we’ve found the rules and regulations in Belgium a little stifling.
 
So with our super-duper motorbike we’ll do some land travel between seeing parts of northern France on the boat, which are new to us.
 
We took a trip across the border to France the other day and it reawakened my love of the country and language.
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I love that ‘boating’ in French is ‘Nautisme’
 
I like to think it is like:  ‘naughty is me’ or ‘I have a ‘naughty-isme!’
 
I love the language, it's poetry but I do struggle with deciding on whether things like tables and chairs are feminine or masculine!

But, of course, the wine helps!
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We have enjoyed our winter in Belgium, it's been quite different from France, but safe, peaceful and with plenty of friendly folk. There are no real complaints…
 
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. William Arthur Ward
 
We're looking forward to practicing our French again - click here for some funny french phrases.

Find our what else we get up to here.
​Would you like to look around our boat - it's for sale.
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Red Bean Moussaka

5/4/2016

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I followed a recipe! And it worked!
 
If you read my previous blog on Walnut and Lentil Laugh (Loaf) – you would have seen that I am not that great at following recipes.
 
I enjoy cooking when I have time, but I usually think I know better than the recipe, don’t ask me why. So I was determined to follow the recipe, during my next foray in the galley (with vegetarian Moussaka) carefully.

It’s amazing it worked at all, as mid-cooking I had to move our 28 tonne boat and lift a motorbike onto it, read here as to why.
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I am quite a messy cook!
Rose Elliot, author of The Bean Book has outdone herself with this one – and I am rather proud of my efforts.
See what else we get up to here.
Our boat with our fabulous galley is here to look around (and for sale).
Red Bean Moussaka
 (serves 2-3) depending on how much you want. I probably double it for 4 or more people
 
1 large aubergine
sea salt
1 large onion, peeled and copped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons cooking oil (olive/sunflower/vegetable)
1 (400g) tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato puree
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3-4 tablespoons red wine
8oz (225g) tin kidney beans, drained
 
To finish:
1 egg
3/4 pint (400ml) well-flavoured white sauce
3oz (75g) grated cheese
 
Slice the aubergine in thin rounds, sprinkle with sea salt and leave for 30 minutes to draw out bitter juices, then rinse and dry the prices. (If it’s a good ripe aubergine you will not need to do this).
 
Set the oven to 350F (180C) mark 4.
 
Fry the onion and garlic in the oil in good sized pan for about 5 - 8 minutes, but don’t brown them, then add the tomatoes, tomato puree, a good grinding of pepper, the cinnamon and wine and let the mixture cook gently for another 5 minutes or so, before mixing in the beans, mashing them slightly as you do so. Add more sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste if necessary. Make the white sauce.
 
Beat the egg into the white sauce;  grease a shallow casserole dish. Put half the aubergine slices into the base of the dish, cover them with half the bean mixture and then half the white sauce. Repeat the layers, ending with the sauce.  Then sprinkle the top with the grated cheese.  Bake in the moussaka in the oven for about an hour.  Serve with a cooked green vegetable or green salad.
 
(From the Bean Book by Rose Elliot 1981)
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I will live until I’m 100 years old!

5/2/2016

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​I’m not half way there yet – almost but not quite!

I’m proud (and a tiny bit disbelieving) with what I’ve achieved and experienced in my life already. But there’s so much more I want to do. I won’t fit it all in, but I’ll have a good go at it.
​
Believing that I’ve not yet lived half my life fills me with such motivation and joy.
​“This Is Not Where I Wanted To Be!”
I’ve heard this phrase a few times recently. Sadly, from people who have great lives with lovely-happy-healthy children, a great job, a roof over their head, a career.

Why do so many people focus on the negatives in their lives instead of the positives?

It’s a phenomenon that I find quite despairing.

We don’t know how lucky we are!

​Living in Belgium this winter and reading the local history, I am humbled and doubly grateful for the easy times I live in and what I have.
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​I am fortunate to be healthy, I am not fighting a war, I have enough money to feed and clothe myself, I have family and friends – I have a good life.

Our Next Plans
I mentioned on another blog that we had some big news/changes to our life coming up.

Well, we’re selling our boat and heading home to Australia. The reasons are numerous and complex.

It all came about while we were toying with buying a sailboat to sail home (this still hasn’t been totally dismissed!), and then I received an email.

“The boys (my horses) are fine, but I am so busy I am not spending as much time as I’d like with them, they are becoming a bit silly – would you like them back?”

​YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! 
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​Sudden decision
A few people we’ve chatted to about our plans said, ‘oh, that’s sudden!’

But it’s not. We’ve been chatting about swapping our barge for a sailboat for about a year… the note about my boys just sealed the deal of heading back to Australia.

Here’s the ad for our barge – take a look around - I’d love plenty of shares. Fortunately, we don’t need to rush and we'd like to see more of Europe. The horses are happy and cared for until we return.

Our boat has just undergone a two-year renovation/refit/update – someone is going to get a wonderful boat that’s ready to go (and very fairly priced).

Dare you follow your dreams as we do?

​See what else we get up to here.

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