April 16

Near airport in Philly: 2 bald eagles on street lamp over I95
discovered that Salvo had to go back to Turkey,
could not host

Kennedy Airport: flight overbooked by 37 seats!

volunteered to get bumped

upgraded to 1st class (35 seats in 1st, all filled by
passengers who volunteered)

treated very well on plane,never slept so well.

April 17

Felt like we had a head start in a.m.! Sunny, beautiful day. Never saw air so crisp in Milan.

Walking day in Milan (searching for Nokia accessories)
found liners

Went into the Duomo. Impressive for it's scale, but somehow not the
most religiously moving church I've visited.

Enjoying Brera. Went into the art school building...up to the collection
of antique astronomical instruments displayed by the physics institute. Fantastic
merger of funcion (precise machining, delicate movements around arcs, etc.)
resulting in beautiful form (polished metal, delicate screws and joints, etc.).

Wonderful old instruments, and a nice view out the back of the building to
a vine covered terrace.


Dinner (apperitivo) @ Okiba, left just as rain started--delicious dinner and very reasonable

lots of walking, then running to train!

April 18

Slightly overcast @ breakfast time, turning to a warm, sunny, nice day.
Overcast again by ~6pm.

Mototouring
confusion about insurance...spoke w. Eligio...will get
green card faxed to Hotel on Monday

extended hotel stay

Ride back to hotel was uneventful (confusion about
when to exit for hotel resolved by realizing that it was
500m away!)

Walking day in Milan
stopped at "Breck" cafeteria-style, quite good, very
reasonable.

Wandered around fashion zone (Via dela Spiga), and
through the public gardens (*todo* lookup Ingo Montelli)
and then into the museum of natural history (lots of
terrific mineral specimins and fossils and dinosaurs,
many display with secondary text in English) and
then back to the Duomo. Geting chilly, decided to head
back to the hotel area for jackets & then dinner.

jet lag hit a little harder today, lots of strolling

April 19

Rainy in the AM

Breakfast @ AutoGrill near hotel...cheap, popuar, good

Wandered through castle courtyard, stumbled upon MotoGuzzi & Aprilla
demo tent, demo'ed moto airbag. Good concept, noticible bulk. How to aviod
inflation if you walk away from the bike but forgot to unplug? How to ensufre vest
is properly snapped & zipped? Feels very solid when inflated, easy to recharge.
Could they even do demos in the US w/o waivers? Amazingly long time-to-market
(as a concept, not this compay)...I saw a similar vest (neck ring only?) for sale in
Spain in 2001.

Triennale Design Museum
Fantastico!

Amazing objects, good museum layout, good text. Highlights:
streamlined AlphaRomeo (1913), bio-influenced plane (STOL w.
15m of space, looks like a bat), innovative display of the sounds
of objects.

Downsides: no photography, much of the museum was closed as
new displays were being installed for Design Week (Apr 22-29)

Lunch in museum cafe.

Brera Museum. Free for Cultural Week. 1 3/4h visit. Short,
but (just) enough. Interesting examples of the changes
in painting (perspective, realistic depiction of musculature)
over time.

Fascinating to go from 16 cent. room of religous paintings
to Picasso.

Wonderful media presengation (:15 min loop) of the
history, technique, restoration of Raphael's "Marriage
of the Virgin"

Good dinner @ another apperitivo.

Fretting about the weather, what direction to head.

April 20

20.04.2009 11:46:36
Waiting for insurance fax from Mototouring.

Late start (1:00 for fax, :15 to load bike)

Autostrada blast. Stop for gas + oil (e39)

Fat rain drops, heavy at times, but light traffic...moving @90,
faceshield clear, visibility good.
Chose to stay on Autostrada to go north (the road around Lago
di Garda would have been miserable in the rain -- BTDT)

Put on glove liners & electrics, but didn't turn them on much,

North of Trento, the sun came out, and the mountains and
steep, narrow valley became more and more dramatic.

Strong memories of our first trip in Italy (1999) in the scenery,

North of Balzano on Autostrada...beautiful scenery & raod (for th highway).
Meredith & I were both reminded that this is why we do this!

Much stronger German infulence...more signs in both Italian & German,
often signed first in German.

Gas just before exiting at Bressanoe (Brixon). 15.6L, E22.60(?).
185.5mi at 80~90+ most of the time!

Doing 90+...need to watch the rear view mirrors closely for the overtakign
BMW/Mercedes/Audi (MLM-mobile station wagons) doing 110+.

Brixon...pretty little ski/resort town. Not as chi-chi as Cortina,
but very beautiful.

Very good dinner...local asparagus specialty.

April 21

Very slow start from Brixon. Wandered the town a little,
sought (and found) maps, net connection.

Repaired electric vest switch (cut & soldered, as the wire had
broken about 2cm in from the plug, inside the sheath).

Photos inside church.

Headed across SS49 (Italy) to Austria (100). Fantastic views of Dolomiti --
tre Cimini in particular).
Heavy cloud cover, very intermittent rain (never heavy), chilly at times but never cold.

We out-rode the storm as we went east...the sky turned blue
almost as soon as we entered Austria.
The road descended and gradually got straighter as we went East.
(Highest point that I noticed was 1200m...must check GPS.)

Playing "tag" w. 2 appliance repair vans, lots of high speed passes
in sweeping right turns (good visibility--500+ m before the turn,
then no visibility in turn...a bit nerve-wracking),

Spittal am Drau...nowhere near as charming as Bessone, a bit
more "downscale"...but a fine place to stay. Surrounded by mountains,
but with fewer dramatic views from the town.

April 22

Spittal to Salzburg

Previous night's concerns about the weather erased by the morning's
blue skies.

Took local road north. Beautiful countryside and steep road,
but not very technical (no true hairpins, though the elevation
changed +800m and then -1200m.

Comfortable weather, ate lunch outside @ 1750m and watched
skiers. There were a few other riders. Not one drop of rain! First time in 5 days!
We've been colder in the Dolomiti in July.

More technical roads along river and through forests at lower
altitude, w. beautiful mountain panoramas surrounding.

Heavy traffic entering Salzburg, but very courtgeous drivers (backup
up to give us room to cross traffic, kids on scooter backing
up slightly to keep wheels off white stop line @ red light).

Pulled into restricted area (past pay parking gate) at city centerf for Meredith
to search for a hotel. (22.04.2009 16:53:46, 433710, trip: 463.6)

Wandered a bit after checking in, stumbled into the sole vegetarian rest. in Salzburg...
good semi-Indian food.
Watchecd a few minutes of a dance piece rehearsal on the street
in front of the restaurant.

April 23

Slow start, morning threatening rain.

Went to weekly farmer's market (think Dolac). Got cheeses (yum), bread
(yum), marinated mushrooms (yum-yum), cipolini (yum^3).

There was a bit of rain while shopping, but it turned sunny again.

Went back to the room as it was turning chilly and we needed to get
silverware if we were to eat outside in one of the many squares.

On the way back to the room, we went into an acution gallery and
looked over various things (3 antique motorcycles...the sight that drew me in),
a very unusual Iranian carpet (about 3' x 4') depicting the Last Supper,
but with Arabic wording in the lower center.

Minutes after returning to the room, shortly before noon, the rain started in Earnest (and in Salzburg).

Meredith volunteered to get wine, and once she returned, we had a lovely
hotel picnic for a few hours.

Suddenly, by about 2:30, the rain stopped, and it began to clear...though
the temperature had dropped.

We wandered into the town center, vaguely in search of a charger
for the gps. We got that, and then found our way into a modern
art gallery, attracted by the paintings by `Heidi Popovic`.

The upstairs featured a room dedicated to the photos of Princess Sayn, and the `office`
space. The office featured a grand piano (which looked small), a table that would seat at least 10,
a fireplace, 20' ceilings, a full bar (liquor & espresso)...and showing the
rest of the Popovic collection. The woman staffing the reception desk spoke excellent English
and was very helpful about explaining the work of both artists.

The Salzburg castle is perched high above the town center...so high that most
tourists take the funicular rail up to the top. Meredith & I chose to walk.

This gave us great views and good exercise. One thing that struck me early on the walk up was the
songs of the birds along the walkway. The birds...probably an Amsel, is about the size of a robin, were fliting through the bushes, singing and displaying tail feather fans. It may have been a touch chilly and rained hard that
morning, but there were definite signs of spring.

At the top, the castle was filled with tour groups, mainly teenagers. We elected to skip the
castle and began walking on the path near the top of the hill and castle. As is common in Europe,
there were signs indicating distances to attractions such as scenic view points, refreshments, a hotel, and alternate
paths down to the town. We had the path almost to ourselves, and quickly found ourselves at
another part of the historic Salzburg defences, with a great view of the castle, good
historical signage (in German and English), and a `sighting table` (compass-like table, where aligning the pointer
with an object on the horizon gives a reading of the object; ie. spin the pointer to
toward the large mountain, and you can see that the corresponding engraved text on the
table says that the mountain is the Grossglockner--3750m).

Heading down from the castle, we followed a very narrow walking path between houses, and
were treated to views of beautifully kept gardens and the steeples of Salzburg. The angles were very special, some of the
steeples seemed to be growing out of the front lawns.

Skipping the vertical subway of the funicular gave us terrific views and experiences.

We then stopped in a cafe to rest and read for a bit. The coffe, pastry, and atmosphere were all very nice...of couse,
they've had since 1703 to get it right!

Dinner was at a Turkish restaurant (one step up from a curbside kebab joint). Good food, and the atmosphere inevitably lead Meredith and I to a disussion
about travel, living in Turkey, and future plans and hopes.

April 24

Salzburg to Cesky Krumlov

Grey start, turned sunny quickly but stayed chilly.

Beautiful scenery around Fuschl & Modensee

Circular hotel(?) complex

Like Italian lakes.

Fast-food pizza in 60s American-muscle-car themed roadside stop,
but not bad.

Rt. 1 before Wels...nicer than expected. Wels: lost track of the numbered
road, gut-instinct navigated out of town -- U-Turn score still 2.

Rt. 1 between Wels & Linz: yuck! Horrible ugly plasticky big-box
mall stores.

In Linz, heavy traffic and getting warm, followed an "All Directions"
sign when I should have gone straight...ended up doing a huge loop,
back to the point where we came into town...finally escaped, and
almost immediately the road clibled, got some
curves, and everything got nicer.

Czeck non-border crossing.

Road to CK: Good road surface, minimal signage, nice curves, first castle sighting.

Arrived ~5:30.

CK: confusion finding pension, finally found it (excellent location).

Strolled until dark, including walking by the old schul (basically facade only now).

Great dinner @ the vegetarian restaurant in town. Slightly Indian/hippie leaning.

April 25

Walking day in CK.

And walk we did!

Moto museum: A restaurant has a 'museum' (ie. collection of random old things in
the upstairs rooms, with an admission fee), largely consisting of motorcycles. A fairly comprehensive collection
of Jawas from the 50s and 60s, some NSUs from the 30s, and two Harleys. One harley, with a sidecar,
still had US military plates & fittings, and clearly seemed to have been abandoned during WWII. The other
Harley was newer, and had a weird contraption, operated by a foot pedal, that pressed a spinning shaft against
the rear wheel. I believe that it's a siren, and the bike may have been used by the police. Every bike in the room had
trays underneath to catch the dripping oil, with the Harleys leaking the most.

We went into the castle & up the clock tower (162 steps, fantastic views).

Unfortunately, the Rennassaince theater in the castle was closed. :(

Searching for dinner...decided to walk back toward the previous night's restaurant...
getting foot-tired, hungry, a touch cranky...found a great place literfally
next door to the previous...16th cent style "vegetarian Bohemian feast"


Overall, CK leaves me with mixed feelings about the UNESCO World Heritage Program, or at least the side effects. CK is a beautiful town, and the
street plan and building facades look `authentic' 14th-17th century. There's been a great deal of work to preserve and restore that appearance (repaving
streets with cobblestones, repairing masonry, painting. removing streetlamps and overhead electric wiring, etc.), but the town feels like a stage set...beautiful, but unreal.
Every building is a pension or restaurant or souvenier shop. I truely wish that the (considerable) UNESCO funds had come with stipulations that regulated the
advertising, signage, and exterior graphics, and that each building had a plaque that identified it's `period' purpose (when known). In other words, I'd rather know that
a paticular building was the miller's house first, and then need to check the sign--standardized as being on the right side of the doorway, 1M high, with a regulated size and shape and font and color--that
tells me that the building is now a hotel.

April 26

612 mi @ start
CK to ... Sopron

Terrific roads in AT...wooded, sweepers to tighter, fast, some gravel.
Lots of bikers (100s) out on their Sunday sport ride. Kept up with some of the locals,
and clearly was on the right roads in the area.
Unfortunately, forgot to put the GPS in `record` mode after lunch.

Most technical riding of the trip so far, staying interesting much closer to Wiener Neustadt than
predicted.

back through Austria--again,beatiful roads. Friendly gas station owner, who races a Yamaha F700.
He'd been all over the States, esp California.

Last few KM (east of Wiener Neustadt) was overcast and very windy...my experience told me
that there was a huge storm about to break, but in reality this was typical--though more windy than usual.

Somewhat disorienting roads leading across the border, and with the overcast it was hard to tell what direction
we were heading...it felt like we were going N or S, not E.

Sopron (outskirts) were a medium-sized city, with distinct industry and suburbs, ie. not solely a town that
exists on tourism. A stark contrast to Cesky Krumlov.

Arrived in Sopron around 6 p.m. Old, old, old -- Scarbantia, on the ancient amber route, built between 24-35 AD.
Roman ruins juxtposed w/Austro-Hungary, and a touch of art deco.

Nice room, w/pool and sauna--hottest thing (110C) we've ever been in.

A surprise: Sopron is a haven for plastic /dental surgery -- both were available
at our hotel. An inventive way to bring in Euros!

Challenge: food. Hungarian / Vegetarian less compatible than other places we've encountered.

April 27

Winged species in Sopron:

after breakfast, short drive to Neusiedler See, one of the windiest places in Europe. Clearly true--full of wind junkies
not only wind- but kite-surfing. Very choppy water, but very shallow and calm without the wind--not for beginners!

People calling in 'sick' because the wind was up.

We were hunting other winged species--this is among the best bird-watchingsites in Europe.
Sights and sounds: a crane in flight, a persistent cuckoo, a tree alive with songbirds.

Beautiful fields with cut & gathered bundles of reeds.

April 28

Sopron to Zagreb

Threatening weatherforecast and first thing in the AM. By the time we left
(~11) it was sunny and bright, but cool. As we headed south and west it quickly
became overcast and we had a few drops of rain, following the theme of the Wet'n'Wild
EuroTour2009 Bohemian Biking.

Wed were out of Euros, and the search for a lunch stop that would
accept plastic, or which was near an ATM, finally lead to a Spar and the adjoining bank.
"Self-catered" lunch on a park bench with a beautiful view of a castle, and the dark clouds
moving in from the South and West.

There were some nice roads through Austria, some techincal and most were
fast, except when we were stuck behind a pair of army trucks near the Slovenian
border.

It was interesting to see the new highway and major construction (additional roads, shopping centers, etc.)
at the border to Croatia, This was a symbol, literally in concrete, of Croatia's
embrace of foreign visitors and capital, and was a stark contrast to the
deliberately unimproved road in Slovenjia--two lanes and bumpy--that
preceeded the boarder, and which clearly showed that Slovenjia, now in the
EU, didn't want to simply be a transit route for traffic to Croatia and points south. This
was further emphasized on other Slovenjian roads that we traveled on
May 1.

Our arrival in Zagreb itself was some of the hardest driving of the trip. After
watching building clouds for a while, we pulled over at the last rest stop--
still under dry skies--to
put on rain gear. Before we finished, the rain began. After dodging rain the whole
trip, reversing our intended 2-week route due to weather, spending days
in cafes or hotel rooms watching the rain outside, this was the first heavy
rain while riding since our intial riding day almost 2 weeks ago.

Within 5km we went from no rain to a driving, blinding downpour, to a light drizzle,
just in time for the toll booth at the end of the highway. If you've got to ride in
heavy rain, a straight highway at a good pace is probably the very best environment,
and that's what we had on both of our brief heavy rain days.

As we rode into the city limits, things began to look more and more familiar,,
though my basic east-west orientation was confused. I'll blame that on the
continuing rain, obsucuring any sign of the sun's position, and on the fact
that we came in from an angle--a highway and exit--that I had never taken
when we lived in Zagreb 7 years ago. Finally, I saw something that I recognized
without question and that provided immediate orientation--our road to the
city center went right past the entrance to my former office!

Heading toward to the city center to find a hotel, we got caught in rush hour traffic
while the light rain persisted and the temperature rose. Combined with
the road conditions--cobblestones bisected with tram tracks--this was
a stressful end to the day, but we found a good place to stop, at the
edge of a pedestrian zone in the heart of the city, while Meredith went on
a quest for a hotel room.

Zagreb looked strangely familiar--the downtown cafes, the central square, the infopoint.Uncannily, I
knew where things were, and also I didn't, and found myself wandering down Vlaska
to search fora hotel. And also strangely, I found my Croatian coming back almost
instantly, as I negotiated (or attempted to negotiate) a room at the Hotel Jadran.
I then moved on to the Hotel Maksimir, in Zagreb's Maksimir neighborhood (about 20 minutes from the centre).
THe kindness of the people there (and the right price) made clear that this was
the place. Took the tram back to the Square, where I got disoriented by the many spokes,
and found Mark waiting for me.

Tired, hungry, and wet, we made our way back to the hotel and ventured out for dinner--again,
weirdly familiar. Same restaurants, same prices, same vegetarian dilemmas.

Next day, we went down to the Filosofski Fakultet, where the ninth day of a student
strike was in full swing. Over the next two days, I would hear different stories oft his strike
from former colleagues and friends--like _Rashomon_. The students had two main complaints: the cost of
university education (some of which is subsidized by the state, some paid for by the
students), and the Bologna Accords, which are attempting to bring a common structure (if not
curriculum) to European education. Initially, I was impressed with the calm and organization
of the student protests. Students seemed quite placid, camping in their lounge, stargin
each day with yoga practice, and screening poliitical films and videos. But my
colleagues made clear that if they were to enter a classroom, the students would block
their way (nonviolently), and announce their intention to disrupt class. All faculty
were on campus waiting for a resolution; two friends referred to this period
as the "interregnum."

My time at the Faculty--despite the uniqueness of this particular episode--felt
surprisingly normal. I made my way to the same office I had used seven years before,
caught up with a then-graduate student who is now a colleague, and married to an art
historian on the faculty. The topics had changed, but the mood and tenor of
conversation felt comfortably familiar. We also caught up with a Fulbright
Officer who coordinated many aspects of our stay--and the above still applies.

Experiencing the city as a tourist was different from viewing it as a resident. We know
Zagreb well enough that in a strange way , we were doing both--buying tram tickets
at the kiosks and looking for places to do dry cleaning. But we also ventured
into places we had never entered in our expat life. On the first day, we were
given an impromptu tour of the National Theatre, a lovely late 19h-century
building in late Baroque style. Our very articulate guide led us into the theatre's
hidden corners, including the VIP rooms off its boxes and a fin-de-siecle toilet in blue and whtie
porcelain. This first day, as well as the next, we dodged raindrops.

Finally, dinner with a work colleague and friend of Mark's, who has left her
career as a systems analyst and teaches and performs full-time as a belly dancer.
It was impressive to see someone who dares to leave the comforts of a lucrative
career (especially for Croatia) and goes after a dream. And you can't beat the costumes!

We had a typical Zagreb day in many ways--coffee with friends, strolling through Dolac,
and not eating much (Croatians tend to take their main meals at home). By evening's end, we were starving! When we returned--anoher
rainstorm later, with flooding streets--the hotel staff filled a plate with bread and cheese and pickles for us.

April 29

Zagreb walking day 1

A bit of running around, looking for a laundramat (apparently, the city only
has one, located near the University).

Strolling through Dolac (the huge indoor/outdoor farmer's market),
enjoying a coffee while watchng the typical daily bustle). Amazement as my limited
Croatian language ability--never strong--returned and at how comfortable
the city felt. Two days earlier, I don't think I could have counted to 10, asked for
bread, etc. in Croatian, but somehow that returned.

April 30

Zagreb walking day 2

RANDOM NOTES & Quotes

Sounds in Milan:
Ducati open-clutch covers, sputtering scooters, and every streetlight is like
a race start.

Much less street noise (performers, music, boom-boxes, etc.)
around the Duomo than similar large squares in other countries (Mexico
city, etc.).

Very clean, even at the Duomo.

Good dogs!

Moto observations:
Scooters with chains and locks that weigh more than the bikes.

Smart cars and municipal bicycles everywhere.

Many BMW C100s.

Girls with cute helmets, bright colored vespas.

On the plane:
...with the stunned expression of passengers who awoke
in the middle of an intercontinenal flight, ungrounded
physically as well as in time and space, their minds, suffering
the indignity of being displaced
multiple timezones while their bodies are pushed through the
sky in a small metal tube, their eyes slowly resuming focus, their
brains beginning to resume processing, only to realize that the
stimulant facing them, forcing them out of sleep, was an Adam
Sandler movie.