10.15 am. Good morning! The sun has been up for some times now. It’s time to get up! The air is rather humid and hot. But as yesterday has been very long no one was in a hurry. We took our time packing up and we notice it must have rained during somehow during the morning as the bikes were covered with thick sandy drops so we had to spend some time cleaning the main parts. We agreed to take our time today and be very casual about the destination. We’d rather rest and start of in the afternoon when the heat will be more bearable. Anyways we didn’t have anything booked so we were flexible.
We put on some more casual clothing and tied down our biker outfits to the backseats. Our first stop was a bike store to stock up on inner tubes before heading for late breakfast/early lunch and then go to the beach for a refreshing dive.
We took the main road from the hotel towards town. It was really hot by then. My computer showed 38 degrees and cars were only advancing at snail’s pace. We decided to follow the local habits and used the middle line to overtake the traffic. We stopped in about 2 km at a Honda dealership where John and Ocsi both bought spare tubes and we got a tankpad for Csabi in recognition for his repair work… He put it on immediately only to realise it wasn’t straight. He was in stress until we stopped for lunch and he could correct the mistake. John also found a nice Bering jacket that went well with his outfit so he bought it. He just couldn’t leave it…
We found a nice place near the train station and we immediately parked the bikes. the owner immediately arrived and greeted us in French (salut les motards) and brought us freshly squeezed lemonades. Zsolt told me he has been here before with Andre and remembers that the guy has a special V-Max so I should ask him if he’d show it to us. I didn’t need to ask twice. In a couple of minutes he appeared and parked the bike in front of the restaurant’s terrace. It was just amazing. You could tell that he really loved the bike and put a lot of effort and money to tune it. He told us the machine is 20 years. As in France the power output for all motorbikes is maximised at 100 HPS he bought it that way. Today the bike’s max power is 215 HPS if you count the Nitro pack that is built in (190 HPS without Nitro).
Once we were done admiring the beauty we sat back to order some food and sip our lemonades and coffees.
We couldn’t complain about the service nor the portions. They were so big even Zsolt could not finish it which never happened before. Two pizzas could not fit next to each other on the table…
after lunch we gathered some info on where to take a bath where we could leave the bikes unattended and moved straight on. It was 41 degrees and we were sweating. We didn’t have to go far though. There were parking all along the road throughout the 6 km stretch of the beach. We stopped at the first occasion and opted to change into our swimming shorts by the side of the road attracting some attention and went for a swim.
The water was great and the sun was really strong. We stayed there for more than an hour before taking a shower and drying ourselves on the sun. We then changed back to our clothes and headed for Nice and Monaco. In Nice we took the beach road (Promenade des Anglais) in a rather slow pace as a result of traffic.
We then took the mountain road and arrived in Monte Carlo from atop. the city was full of life and full of tourists. We went through the F1 track and parked the bikes. Ocsi, Zsolt, Attila and Csabi headed for a walk with their cameras while John and I opted to have an ice cream in the shade next to the bikes. To be honest even though it is a very rich city we still didn’t rust that all our gear (including helmets, gloves, et all) would remain on the bikes as we left them.
Once everyone was back we rolled in front of the Grand Casino to stare at the cars and we were really happy we do not need to wear tuxedos in that heat…
It was 6.00 pm by the time we left Monaco. We only did 40 km until now. We wanted to get to the lake Garda but agreed that it is not realistic unless we want to ride again during the night. We didn’t want…
On the map we spotted a small town named Tortona and we thought we can easily make it today and will surely find accommodation.
We took the motorway in the direction of Genoa and were making good progress for about 15 km…until we arrived to the Italian border and the related toll boot. We don’t how but the two Varaderos came through without getting a ticket. Everyone else did. So we stopped near the two border patrol guys ad explained the situation. They advised us to cross the whole length of the motorway (approximately 10 lanes with chaotic traffic) to the toll boot where they’ll print one. We only stopped for fuel once before exiting the highway at Tortona. The toll was €19 for the trip. Just right from the exit we saw a sign “Motel 2” so we checked it out. It is a motel out of town near the busy motorway and double rooms cost €75 w/o breakfast. We moved along to find something else so I used the GPS to find hotels in the area. The first option was €95.. While searching Attila fount an “Albergo” sign so we followed it to the hills above the town. It led to a small villa (Villa Viola – N44 52.949, E8 52.035).
We went in and after a short negotiation we agreed a fee of €75 for a triple room including breakfast. We parked the bikes and took our stuff in the rooms. We showered and ordered some beers (even Attila drank a beer for the first time in his life!) to the terrace while watching the daily pics and videos that I uploaded to laptop. Temperature was in the 20s and the view of the town was quite nice. It was a well renovated private villa with a wine cellar and beautiful garden and had nice spacious rooms. The only downside was that we arrived late so the kitchen was already closed hence we had to content ourselves with beer instead of dinner…
