I left the Villa Minka and headed for the Italian border at Ratece… The weather had closed in again, and all through the farmlands of northern Slovenia, mist hung low over the road… The ride up towards the Austrian border was a good one, winding though flat farmland, and then beginning to climb up towards the mountains…
Vapour trails over the Eastern Dolomites near the Italian border...
I spent a part of the ride on the A2 motorway, and this allowed me to cover the distance to Hrusica in a short space of time… The sun broke through the clouds, and began burning away the morning mist…
High above me the vapour trails from jetliners drew a big “V” in the bright blue sky, sending thoughts of her crashing through my brain… Stabs of pain, regret, loss… All of it washing over and through me… Numbing, hurting…
Strange how things like this hit you out of the blue… (Literally, today…!!)
The Dolomite Mountains loom up in the distance...
Hardly fills you with confidence, does it...!! But the warning was well placed... The road after this was filled with sharp curves...
Met these three bikers heading home to Austria and Italy... The lady in the green jacket rode her bike like a pro...!!
Bridge over the Sava River... This road made me want to grab a big handful of throttle...!!
Upmarket Bird House, Western Slovenia...
I rode into the countryside, trying to shake off the sadness that coursed through me, seeing the Dolomite Mountains rearing up in front of me, the bright green of the meadows at their feet, the villages nestled in the hollows…
The beauty of my surroundings helped to settle me again, and before long I was crossing the Italian border, the 50th country on my journey around the world…
And that got me all emotional again, thinking how far I had come, the places I had been and the highlights I had experienced so far; Cap Blanc in Tunisia, Nordkapp, riding the Transfagarasan, and of course, the amazing people I had met and stayed with along the way… I carried it all with me over the Italian border and for many kilometres after that… Great memories…!!
The road through the Dolomites was spectacular…!! It wound through steep valleys, along the white waters of the Sava River for the most part, and then along the Fella River… (I had to patiently explain to the Big Fella that it was NOT named after him…!!)
One of the prettiest border crossings I had seen...!! Italy lay just beyond this meadow and the little restaurant in front of us...
Goodbye Slovenia... (Little did I know that I would be saying "Hello again Slovenia" a few hours later...!! LOVE the slogan...!!
The jagged peaks of the Dolomites reach up into the morning sky...
Young couples eloping...
Me no needa vizza, me gotta EU passport...
I stayed on the road that ran alongside the A23 motorway for the most part… It twisted and crossed the motorway, far more interesting than being on the huge concrete behemoth that loomed above us all the way to Udine…
The only negative thing about this stretch was the Italian drivers, who seemed to believe they were on a race track…!!
They overtook going into “blind” corners, taking huge risks in an effort to get ahead of whatever was in front of them…
After a few close calls, which brought my ABS into play, I felt the “mutters” coming on…!!
The highway winds its way through the spectacular Dolomite Mountains of north-eastern Italy...
It got a bit narrow in places...!! Riding through the town of Marlboghetto...
I decided to get onto the motorway just after Udine, where there would be more space to avoid the lunatics… I pulled up at the toll gate at the on-ramp to the highway, to find all the booths deserted…!!
I had no idea what I was supposed to do, so I sat the bike looking around me, expecting somebody to come over and ask for payment…
Cars began pulling up behind me, and in true Italian fashion, began hooting at me… I threw my hands up in the air to indicate that I had no idea what I was supposed to do…!!
The hooting continued…
I had two choices…; hop off the bike and pop the nearest driver on the chin with a straight right; or ride around the boom that blocked the entrance onto the highway…
In the interests of International Goodwill and World Peace, I chose the latter, but not before swiveling around in my seat and giving the driver behind me a glare that told him he was on the verge of getting me REALLY annoyed…!!
Out on the highway, I took the Big Fella up to speed limit of 130 km/h, and held him there, passing hundreds of trucks in the slower lane… If anything, the Italians drove even more badly on the lesser roads… They would ride right up my tailpipe, almost nudging me out of the way…
In other countries, cars traveling faster than I was (which was a rarity in itself…!!), would ride up to about two car lengths away and then wait for me to change lanes before passing… Not here in Pasta land…!!
They would roar up behind me, seemingly out of nowhere, driving at speeds of over 160 km/h, and then either hoot, or put their front bumper right under my Top-Box… I am no slouch when it comes to riding at speed, but in heavy traffic on a highway, I try to keep it down to 140 km/h…!! For some of these guys, that was too slow…!!
We decided that we had experienced enough water over the last few days, so headed for Trieste instead...
The motorway split, one side going to Venice, and the other to Trieste…
“Wanna see Venice…?” I asked the Big Fella…
“Nah…!! I’m not in a romantic mood…!! Let’s keep going…!!”
I had to agree…and the black Audi trying to taste my back tyre helped make up my mind…
Just outside Trieste, the highway came to an end, and I pulled up at the huge tollgate, and reached for my wallet…
“Ticket please…” said the lady in the booth…
“Huh..? What ticket…?”
“You have no ticket…? How did you get onto the highway…?”
My blank look led her to explain that I was supposed to get an “entry ticket” at the unmanned toll that I had stopped at… I explained that there were no signs in English telling me what to do at the toll, but she issued me with a €60.00 fine anyway…
“Call the cops,” I said, “I’m not paying this…!!”
Brick Beetle... Check out Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the back bumper...
I switched off the bike, folded my arms and stared at her… Cars began piling up behind me… A few started hooting…
I flicked them double “birds”, right and left hand held high, middle fingers pointing at the sky…
In the mood I was now in, I hoped that somebody would come forward to protest… I was in a fighting mood, blood boiling, the “red mist” rising… The Italian public were getting right up my nose…!!
Cars behind me started reversing to find another lane… I pushed the side stand out, getting ready to get off the bike…
“I can stay here all day, and you can close this lane and take the rest of the day off, but I am not paying any fine…!” I said through gritted teeth…
“Ok, Ok… Go to that office there and explain to the officer in charge…! But please move your bike…”
“Well press the button that opens this boom and I will gladly do that…!!” I said with a forced smile…
I stalked into the office she had indicated, expecting to find a dis-interested official, but was pleasantly surprised when the guy there nodded in understanding, and canceled the fine on the spot, making me sign a few papers, all in Italian, but clearly indicating that the fine was “zero”…
Riding along the blue waters of the Mediterranean on the Slovenian coast...
I zoomed away from the toll gate, looking for a place to refuel, and deciding that the sooner I got out of Italy, the better…!! There was just too much scope for getting into trouble here…!!
The Italians I tried to speak to, spoke no English, or refused to… They certainly understood me perfectly…!! This kept my mood in the “red zone”…!!
I had intended to overnight in Grignano, just north of Trieste, but thought better of it, hating the crazy drivers and the traffic… Besides that, it was just after 1.00pm, and I had plenty of fuel on board…
I pushed on, going over my planned route in my head, trying to remember the towns and cities ahead of me, that I had planned to ride through, choosing one that I thought might be worth stopping off in…
I rode out of Italy, and back into Slovenia, staying on the motorway, wanting to cover distance and try to shake off the foul mood I was in… I headed for Koper on the coast, and then followed the road along it until I came to the Croatian border…
A new road was in the process of being built, but most of it had been completed, and I flew south, down to the tip of the Istra Peninsula, concentrating on trying to make the last part of my ride today, a “perfect” one…
The bike responded magnificently, feeling as light as a feather as we tore around the sweeping bends, over low hills and across a series of massive bridges spanning deep valleys…
We hardly put a tyre wrong all the way down to the city of Pula, and by the time I got there, my anger had dissipated and I was enjoying myself again…
I stopped at this roadside diner for a late lunch... Istra Peninsula, Croatia...
I kept a sharp eye out for the cat, but he was nowhere to be seen...
The Hotel Riviera in Pula, on the tip of the Istra Peninsula, Croatia...
I rode down to the harbour area, and then began searching for a place to stay… I settled on the Hotel Riviera, close to the massive ruins of the Amphitheatre, which dominates the old part of the city…
The wide ornate staircase, leading to the upper floors... Luckily for me, the lift was working...!! I was up on the fourth floor...
The hotel was built in 1905, and must have been quite something in those days… The Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz-Josef had once stayed here…
Pula was the Empire’s only naval base on the Mediterranean, and was therefore of strategic importance, housing over 60 000 troops… The hotel manager proudly explained the history of the town to me, and ended by shrugging his shoulders and saying, “But that was long ago…”
Looking around the area I was in, I could see that it had all gone to seed… The buildings had seen better days; plaster cracked and paint peeling, rusted pipes and rotting gutters…
But despite this, there was still a pleasant mood about the place… A strong Italian influence was present (before WWII, this used to be part of Italy…); small restaurants overflowed onto the sidewalks, where locals sat sipping their espressos and talking up a storm; laughter rang out from time to time, smiles decorated faces…
“You can park your bike in the garage,” said the manager with a twinkle in his eye… He then indicated the patio right outside the front door…!!
In the "garage"...!! The Big Fella spent the night on the patio...
Later, Marina, one of the waitresses, sat down with me, poring over my map of the Balkans, giving me advice on which places to see all along the Dalmatian Coast…
If the weather held off, I was in for a great ride through Croatia…
©GBWT 2010
Hello Ronnie, it was very nice and interressant to meet you
and and I wish you good health and all the best for your journey!
Beautiful photo’s Ronnie. Hard to believe that someone drives that brick beetle around. Glad you stood your ground about that fine, its ridiculous that there are no signs in ENGLISH at the toll booths.
Okay – you really became a bit moody today – understandable. The V’s in the sky must, in future, remind you only of good times. You might even find that the Italians are okay and that it was your mood that was reflected by them. Stay strong and enjoy every minute of your journey. You are really blessed by the opportunity !