Urbania , but it could any one of many towns in Europe

chains/locks on bridges...they're everywhere

but not as much as these babies are!

road behaviour

 click these links for a tongue in cheek but  someimes accurate commen..not always of course but enough times to ring true

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeSzFtqLxQ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkInkNMpI1Q&feature=related

La mia casa

Tuesday 5/7

Yay Cadel…you little ripper! 

The TV in my apartment actually worked and I was at home just in time to watch the final stages of the race and then see it repeated and dissected for an hour…fantastico! Complimenti Cadel, brava!

Today was the first full day of Italian lessons with grammar (conditional and prepositions) in the am with a group of singers from America, Latvia and Monaco then a 2 hour break followed by conversation in the afternoon with some dancers from America and Canada!  Very cultural!  

I’ve managed to avoid going on a trip this evening to a next door village for a concert given by a group of singers from another school ….it begins at 9pm and will go on til at least 11:30 or even later.  I’d be asleep within minutes of it starting.  However I will definitely *not* be avoiding the concert our school singers (the group I’m with in the am) are giving here in Urbania on Thursday. It also won’t commence until 9:00 but only lasts for an hour or so.  However it will be a long night anyhow ‘cos there’s a street party every Thursday during July and my apartment is in the town centre…speaking of which

La mia casa...and yup..it's the orange house!

Basic but more than adequate and yes, I tidied it up especially for the pix!..I opted not to include one of the bathroom…..it has all the usual bits and is nothing special either good or awful. 

Urbania

Urbania....the winner of the best flower box competition last year..in with a shot this year?

seems like in small towns there's often a bike sculpture somewhere 

ok so its hot, the roads are cobbled, the town small and my apartment is one roomed, somewhat basic but with  a bathroom and a kitchen it's also centrally located in the old part of the town.  Parking the car is an issue..there is a spot right outside my door but a vigilante in the shape of the neighbourhood nosy vecchia donna has already been aggressive towards me 'cos I don't have the required resident's sticker.  So it's in the public car park and I visit it twice a day to let it know I've not forgotten it(!),...and also to make sure it's still there.....

The morning class was conversation and a test and in the afternoon we were shown around the town and visited the Chiesa dei morti, where there are mummies, skulls galore and a chandelier made  of bones.  Quite fascinating.

Today I  woke up at 5 rather than 2 or 3am  of the previous days.  Then I went for a short ride...all up hill.  It's a bit hard warming up for the effort when first of all you're riding on cobbles and then a rather steep hill...think I'll try a different direction tomorrow!  at least my hill climbing should improve, although TT skills will not.

So its 8.30 and I'm in a cafe where there is free internet...the place is heaving and noisy with many breakfasting on cappuccino and doughnuts...yeeetch!  Better dash for Sculoa I guess

Austria to Italy..added to on 4/7

Jet lag and fatigue meant that I went to bed at 7pm yesterday and woke up at 2am...I must have crashed the moment my head hit the pillow...

Today's trip is ~700 km with just the first and last bit not on freeways..actually they're not "free" at all..I've bought a 28 euros vignette that allows me to drive the motorways in Austria for 2 months and will fork out ++euros to toll booths along the way in Italy .

As there is quite a difference in driving here and in Aus, and not just the right hand/left hand side of the road issue, I've decided to do a series of posts on my experiences on the road.  They'll just be personal, uninformed comments but as a regular recipient of demerit points due to speeding, I'm interested in the "speed kills" attitude of our law enforcers.

Sunday 3/7

• The journey today took 7 hours. I left St J with a shiver at 10 degrees and arrived in Urbania at 30 degrees.
• During my trip I stopped at petrol stations twice and at both places the staff replied in German to my Italian ….well at least I didn’t sound like a Pom!
• Since I was clearly the ONLY driver keeping anywhere near to the posted speed limit, here are some  Autostrada speed limit thoughts:Speed limits in Italy are considered to be

1. ·         advisory only
2. ·         a challenge
3. ·         the legal minimum speed

Urbania..photos wil follow

On arriving it was clear that both my planned alternative routes via the Google earth map were both impossible due to the one way system, so I drove to the school and started to try and make phone calls..with no luck at all…first because there seemed to be no service and eventually because there was no reply.  Luck was on my side because someone I asked for help happened to work at the school…she called one of the directors and the rest is history!  My guide from the apartment couldn’t speak English and so I HAD to speak Italian..2 hours later my fluency was much better!

Monday 4/7

Today I’ve just finished my first class..the group I joined are all singers and are in their final week.  There are 3 levels and I think I’m in the middle one, this afternoon I get another guided tour around the town.

My jet lag still lingers but I’m now waking at 3am instead of 2 am(!).  Classes start at 9 and it’s light from 5am so the plan is to get out on the bike early while it’s still cool, but first I need to get the brakes fixed as I loosened them off to allow better packing and have no pliers here to reverse the deed.

Germany to Austria and ?to Italy

I left Karlsruhe very early in order to get to Sankt Johann in Tirol so as to to pick up some bike gear and get on the way to Italy.  However, the journey was very slow..there were a couple of long tail backs..the sort where  you get to the end of it and can’t work out why it happened, plus the weather over the hills was a bit feral and I began to think I’d only do a short hop after St J, perhaps to Bolzano, home of Otzi the Ice Man   Sooo, when Sieglinde and Hans offered me a bed for the night at our usual place in St J, I accepted with 100% gratitude. Tomorrow’s journey will be a full day’s one, but at least I’ll get a good rest tonight.  

I’ve taken the opportunity to buy food for a couple of days and am currently indulging in overdosing on bananas at 1.79 euros a kg and also that contraindication of health versus addiction, namely coffee flavoured yogurt!

getting there Melbourne to Dubai to Paris to Karlsruhe

1/7/2011

Dubai airport..transit lounge

13 hours down, 7 to go

It’s at times such as these you have to be grateful for strong legs and fairly flexible hip joints….ie the toilets are not western style.

So far everything has been boringly normal…except for the fact that I forgot to turn off my phone for the flight and when I finally twigged, the battery was noticeably “used”…I’m soooo hoping I wont end up with a mega data bill again. It also rather goes to show that perhaps phones don’t really affect the plane’s navigational system.

Paris to Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe.Germany and I think it’s Saturday 2^nd July or is it Friday 1st?

The second part of the flight, with an aisle bulkhead seat at the very front of the plane (and yet economy class)  would have gone brilliantly if my neighbours had been anyone other than a young mother and her 2 babies….enough said!

Despite the glazed eyes (jet lag and fatigue) and the really bad smell (no shower for a very long time), the reception at the Karlsruhe Novotel found a room for me...pix taken at 5.30 am!

Actually I would have happily driven on to Stuttgart in order to totally break the back of the first journey…all 900km of it,  but I had to settle for  500km done and dusted as I was getting low on fuel and the next autobahn petrol station was a bit too far away and finding a hotel really late at night is not easy.

The town appears really nice, the hotel is just as one would expect but the big surprise was in the hotel garage…

 apparently there a Classic/Vintage car rally here , this  Rolls Royce open tourer was the jaw dropper.

Definitely downhill in style is my current set of wheels:

 a Renault Megane which is great although it has electronic beeps that cause me palpitations..eg a loud one when approaching a speed camera, a softer one plus an arrow on the speed dial if you’re in the wrong gear and with 6 of them, I keep forgetting the final 2. 

I slid back into driving on the RH side of the road with ease although I am tending to position the car too far to the right when in the slow lane and have established an embarrassingly loving relationship with the kerb side rumble strips..if I don’t manage to kick this habit I’ll probably end up with badly worn RH side tyres.

Better stop and get going..it’s 5am ..I’ve a few car pix to take, brekky to eat and a bike to check before I get on the road....

What you missed on the road yesterday??  A town in France called Bitche!