Hanging around the Alps
Update 84 (April 2025)
Leaving the Balkans for the Alps
Now that I was back in the EU, it was time to work out what comes next. My time limit in Europe’s borderless Schengen region had been refreshed since first entering in Bulgaria some six months earlier. So I could hang around Europe for a while but I was feeling it was time to move on.
At the end of each continent, I decide what comes next. I didn’t set out to travel around the world, but instead have just taken it continent by continent. At this point, I have actually travelled through every continent except Antarctica. But I haven’t actually crossed the Atlantic Ocean and hence circumnavigated the globe.
So I decided to take the long way home to Australia and actually return to North America.
I initially tried to visit the United States. As an Australian, it is normally very easy to visit for up to 90 days under the visa waiver program. But not when you have been to Iran. The ESTA system immediately rejected my application. Which I thought was pretty rude, taking my money and then rejecting me 5 minutes later. It was obvious my responses triggered an automatic rejection. It would have been good manners to reject me before taking my money. I started looking at applying for a visa, but it just became too time consuming, vague, expensive and potentially drawn out. So I abandoned the US and turned my efforts towards getting across to Canada.
In the meantime I turned the bike towards Germany. Germany is a good country to chill and organise things. The country is friendly, organised, has great roads and drivers (only eclipsed by Japan), and is relatively affordable if you stay in the regional areas.
Austria was eeking out the last of its ski season. This was the week before Easter.
I spent Easter in Lofer, Austria. I try to take a contrarian approach to finding accommodation during Easter. I initially started thinking I should go to Munich. But then I became aware that the crowds head for Italy and Croatia. The Germany Austria border was actually peaceful and nicely priced.
While in the area I also stayed in a nice German town called Bad Reichenhall. It was close to Salzburg where I found an upholsterer and had my seat recovered. The only problem is that it now seems soak in a lot of rain compared to the previous Australian reupholster job.
Looking over the German town of Taching am See, and the Austrian German Alps where I spent a relaxing week.
Continuing my habit of hanging out hotel windows to get a photo. This time in the little town of Schollbrunn, Germany.
Schollbrunn, Germany above. I was actually on my way to Copenhagen, Denmark. One of my favourite musicians, Steven Wilson was just starting a world tour for his latest album. Most venues had sold out something like 9 months ago. But I decided to have a quick look. I found someone reselling a single ticket row 7 centre in Copenhagen and grabbed it. I was 1,000km away at the time but what the heck.
In Copenhagen now. I found a hotel a few kilometres from the venue and decided to walk to the concert. I passed right through this post game football crowd. I think they must have won. There was a lot of singing and letting off some serious fireworks. The police were just watching from a distance. It all went fine.
It was a good concert. It was only the 3rd concert for the tour and they definitely weren’t match fit yet. This is my fourth time seeing him. The first was the Porcupine Tree, Fear of a Blank Planet tour in 2008. It does seem that each time there is a little less of that raw energy from the earlier days. The seated format does not help at all. I am glad I made the trip to Denmark though.
In the meantime, I had settled on a shipping company to get the motobike to Canada. I would use a US based company called Motorcycle Express. I opted to leave from Rome. The price was good and going back to Italy held more appeal than Paris or London exits.
From Denmark I basically headed south, apart from a detour to the Gigaset factory in western Germany to get my smashed phone screen and fingerprint sensor repaired. Above is Bernina Pass, Switzerland.
Bernina Pass, Switzerland
Bernina Pass, Switzerland
I arrived in northern Italy and settled in a small town called Ono San Pietro. The photo above is actually looking across the valley from the town. It was 7pm and I could hear the bells, and little else, ringing from the distant town across the valley.
The valley also has the UNESCO Parco nazionale delle incisioni rupestri di Naquane. The engravings range from 3,000BC to the iron age (500AD)
While I was in Ono San Pietro, exporting the motorcycle from Italy turned into one of my administration sagas. Italian Customs wanted proof of when the motorcycle entered the EU, to check I had not overstayed. It was probably a fair question and their position was clear cut, no proof, no exit from Italy. They would have accepted an air waybill if I had arrived that way. But I had entered via land borders from Central Asia. The stupidity of it all is that no EU country provided entry paperwork for the motorcycle. I had entered the EU on four occasions. At each border, the officials seemed to enter my motorcycle details in their computer but never gave me a printed copy of the temporary import. And it seems Italy Customs had no access to this computer information. So I was in the stupid situation where I was being told to prove the EU’s failed procedures. I tried to get EU entry evidence from my most recent entry at Croatia, but that was a failure. UPDATE – Croatia Customs did respond to me later on. They said that police information is recorded at the border but customs information is not recorded because I was only temporarily visiting with my own motorcycle. They did not know what Italy Customs wanted.
So the message is to try and have some type of proof of entry for your vehicle into the EU, just in case. After all of that I was able to arrange an exit from Paris. And I have friends in a similar situation that left fine from other EU countries. It seems Italy was unique in demanding this before I could exit.
So I abandoned a Rome exit. Fortunately Motorcycle Express was proactive in finding a solution, and one that did not cost extra for the freight. I did burn most of my passenger ticket out of Rome though.
I crossed over the Italian French Alps on Colle del Moncenisio D1006. It was a Sunday and a glorious clear day. The road was crammed with motorcyclists, maybe it was the first good weekend since opening after winter? And these were full on road racers, mainly Italians I think. I constantly had groups of Ducatis etc flying past my fully loaded old dear.
Almost at Charles de Gaulle Airport. I stayed at a nice home stay in a small village near Chaumont. My host prepared an impromptu dinner in the backyard. There was a really nice omelette still coming.