alana goes away

outdoor kitchen and pizza oven slowly sinking in the 33 degree heat breakfast time at camp fishtello standard geezers sammy looking pleased even though i just paid €20 for these two ice creams florence - my dream boat city After Portofino we decided to get an airbnb for s couple days so we could offload the bikes and do some washing, and get to sleep a lil better not being in a tent. We booked this place a 20 mins drive from Levanto which is on the coast and close to Cinque Terre. The temperature in the mountains is juuuuust that little bit more bearable wth motorbike gear on hahah. Intermission Last year Greer and I were going to stay in Riomaggiore which is the first of the 5 little villages of 'Cinque Terre'. I'd seen a picture of one of them on a bus, we thought we would go to Pisa, Florence and Riomaggiore for the week, and so I googled, 'how to say Cinque Terre'. Keep in mind this is a place in ...

Italian road side assistance to the rescue. Putting the travelling plans on hold for a few days while we wait for BMW to open so I can get a new belt. The literal only thing that is fricken BMW specific, for gods sake. As Sam assured me, there are many worse places it could have happened. Fingers crossed the BMW shop opens on Monday, has one, and isn't on holiday for the rest of August like the whole rest of Italy....eeek 

Sam and the makeshift jacket looking at the Furka Pass bogan excellence Hey hey hey. So we are on day 6 and have made it to the Italian coast. Mmm sea. But to backtrack a bit... We left Switzerland heading for the Furka Pass, which would get us to the lakes at the Swiss/Italian border. There is a slightly smaller pass before it called the Grimsel pass, and as we were heading up that one in slowwww fog like the other day, except now there was traffic added,  we thought shit we'll just skip the Furka cos the main idea there is to get some super amazing views over the alps and I can hardly see Sam in front of me. As we were on the way down the other side, the skies started to clear and we got this amazing view up the the mountain and changed our minds. About 3 bends from the top (2429m) our luck gave way and we were back in fog. Ah well we got some good views. Great views even. The southern half the road gets much slimmer and bumpier and genera...

After leaving the little airbnb place we went through Reims and on to the Lighthouse at Verzenay, a champagne vineyard just out of town. It was kinda random, for there to be a lighthouse in a vineyard but it did make an excellent 360 degree lookout...got quite a bit of history too: 100 YEARS OF HISTORY A lighthouse in the midst of a sea of vines, such was the ingenious brainwave of Mr Joseph Goulet to promote his brand of champagne. This creation does not fail to surprise. At its summit a rotary lantern emits a light beam scanning the plain of Champagne. The events of the First World War put an end to these good times. The lighthouse was then used as an observation tower by the French army and suffered shellfire from enemy troops. In the aftermath of the war, only the reinforced concrete tower remained, the adjacent buildings were destroyed. For many years, the Lighthouse of Verzenay was left disused. It was pervaded by vegetation and fell into obl...

The first of probably many many many petrol top ups THIRSTY So yes straight on in to the updates, mainly because where we are staying tonight has wifi and we aren't sure where we'll be tomorrow aaaaaand did I mention I was just so excited? Imma start back in London... Sam was determined for us to take the panniers on my bike, me not so much. One, I wanted to keep the amount of stuff we were taking to a minimum. Two, panniers make you wider (obvs) and I'm only juuuust used to how wide Hobs is - yeah I named it, and Three, I knew I'd end up with everything but the kitchen sink strapped to me. Hello, I'm still learning...anyway, so the panniers happened and somehow I'm the packhorse...we brought a bunch of food with us, like easy just add water stuff cos we are planning on doing a lot of camping just wherever and not being in big towns, so I guess we will free up space as we go.... It's SUCH a nice upgrade to get going with though the n...

Hey! So Sam and I are about to embark on a little trip... I am fairly new to the motorbike transport option, with less than a years riding under my belt. Sooooo why not grow that experience by doing a two and a bit week bike trip into Europe haha I actually got my 'learner' licence last August, after sort-of joking to some friends and Sam that for his 30th I should get MY licence so he has a pal to do trips with...fast forward to two weeks before his actual birthday, we are out for dinner with Sam's brother and his girlfriend and she asks me if I'd ever get my licence...in my head I'm like shit, I have step 1 out of 4 booked in a weeks time, and if I tell now then fail, I cannae just sweep it under the rug and not tell anyone it ever happened haha...but I am also terrible at thinking of literally any other sentences when I have a real answer so I spilled the beans...no going back once people know it is happening eek...to be honest thank god she asked, I w...