A Brief Visual Summary

Long time no write! In the 3 weeks since we left Italy we have covered 6000 kms and we are now in Samara, Russia. Our route is a little more zig zagged then originally planned but it has been nothing short of awesome.  Today it is melting hot along the Volga and so we are taking the day to do all our internet stuff and the evening will be spent exploring. I am going to write up the events of the past few weeks and then use the nifty post option to publish the posts over the next couple of days. That way there should be some more regular posting even if I do not have the internet access to do so! (That also means if I am not ignoring your email even if posts are going up, I did it all today! Waha!)

 

The first couple of days were more or less just riding, my pictures total perhaps 50 for 5 countries. So a few of my favs, before the trip reports start!

 

 

 

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The Vacation Before The Trip

Presently we are finishing our last couple of days in Italy. There has not been much to post as the past 8 days have been eating, drinking, and reading.  Only one day was even spent on a motorcycle! So really this is the vacation before the trip, because as most overland motorcyclists will tell you, a trip is much more of an adventure than a holiday. For those of who craving a little more action (although I would argue family vacations do have danger and action, just of a different variety  ;-)  ) Andi has finished the sneak preview to our Iceland video!

 

Posted via email from Unleash Your Adventure

The Vacation Before The Trip

Presently we are finishing our last couple of days in Italy. There has not been much to post as the past 8 days have been eating, drinking, and reading.  Only one day was even spent on a motorcycle! So really this is the vacation before the trip, because as most overland motorcyclists will tell you, a trip is much more of an adventure than a holiday. For those of who craving a little more action (although I would argue family vacations do have danger and action, just of a different variety  ;-)  ) Andi has finished the sneak preview to our Iceland video!

 

Posted via email from Unleash Your Adventure

The Vacation Before The Trip

Presently we are finishing our last couple of days in Italy. There has not been much to post as the past 8 days have been eating, drinking, and reading.  Only one day was even spent on a motorcycle! So really this is the vacation before the trip, because as most overland motorcyclists will tell you, a trip is much more of an adventure than a holiday. For those of who craving a little more action (although I would argue family vacations do have danger and action, just of a different variety  ;-)  ) Andi has finished the sneak preview to our Iceland video!

 

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World Trip A Go!

Although our start has been more in the style of a machine lurching and cranking itself into existence than smooth sailing, we have officially begun our world trip!  And given that it is us I am talking about it I will gladly take that!

Rather than riding off into the sunset on Wednesday, we broke our golden rule of motorcycle travel - never ride at night.  At 12:30 am we left Oma's garage and began the ride to Patrick's parent's in Switzerland. Given that this meant we were only 6 hours past our planned delayed this was some sort of miracle. That we arrived at 3 am and that the only casualty were my ears was the second! (they blew off on the autobahn.  :-(  )

The joy was also slightly tampered yesterday when the bill for my Russian and Mongolian visas arrived via email: 650 Euro in total.

But on the bright side that means I HAVE Russian and Mongolian visas, and tomorrow we begin our ride to Italy! With my 2 co-riders:

And the two of the human variety:

It hardly feels real!

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2 Week Countdown!

This time in 2 weeks we are homeless! We pass our keys over to the guy who is renting our apartment, our bikes will have our worldly possessions for the next year strapped to the back, I will teach my class and then Patrick will meet me and we ride to Switzerland!  (Our first 2 nights of homelessness will be spent at his parents place, where we plan a family exodus to Italy. Not such a terrible situation.  ;-) ) 

So with the 2 week countdown bearing down upon us, what do we still have to do?

Visas

Apparently being Canadian comes with more trouble and pain than just having Harper as our Prime Minister. It means that unlike the Germans who need to shell out 200 Euro for a multiple entry visa, I need to shell out 200 for the invitation alone. Then another 200 for the visa.  And another 35 for regular processing fees. PLUS another 40 for processing outside the country.  We found this out after the agency already had my passport.  A quick online check to see if sending it to Canada would have made more sense proved futile. In Canada it would cost me about 400 dollars, but toss in there express posting both ways and time, the 100 Euros is no longer worth it.

The good news is that my bike is fixed! And for significantly less than quoted.  BMW quoted 1200 for the whole process. But the guy told us if we bought the handle bar and did that part ourselves it would be significantly cheaper. By we I mean Patrick, as my only contribution was to pay for the handle bar and pick it up.  The German did the elbow sweat part.  But with parts and then dropping it off for BMW to do everything else, the total cost came in at 800.  So that at least covers my Visa......

Patrick's bike is something else. The BMW dealer is saying that ABS should be fixed, but the ABS light keeps glowing that it has not been.  Word to the wise: don't drop your bike in a river.  It short circuits shit.

 

Posted via email from Unleash Your Adventure

2 Week Countdown!

This time in 2 weeks we are homeless! We pass our keys over to the guy who is renting our apartment, our bikes will have our worldly possessions for the next year strapped to the back, I will teach my class and then Patrick will meet me and we ride to Switzerland!  (Our first 2 nights of homelessness will be spent at his parents place, where we plan a family exodus to Italy. Not such a terrible situation.  ;-) ) 

So with the 2 week countdown bearing down upon us, what do we still have to do?

Visas

Apparently being Canadian comes with more trouble and pain than just having Harper as our Prime Minister. It means that unlike the Germans who need to shell out 200 Euro for a multiple entry visa, I need to shell out 200 for the invitation alone. Then another 200 for the visa.  And another 35 for regular processing fees. PLUS another 40 for processing outside the country.  We found this out after the agency already had my passport.  A quick online check to see if sending it to Canada would have made more sense proved futile. In Canada it would cost me about 400 dollars, but toss in there express posting both ways and time, the 100 Euros is no longer worth it.

The good news is that my bike is fixed! And for significantly less than quoted.  BMW quoted 1200 for the whole process. But the guy told us if we bought the handle bar and did that part ourselves it would be significantly cheaper. By we I mean Patrick, as my only contribution was to pay for the handle bar and pick it up.  The German did the elbow sweat part.  But with parts and then dropping it off for BMW to do everything else, the total cost came in at 800.  So that at least covers my Visa......

Patrick's bike is something else. The BMW dealer is saying that ABS should be fixed, but the ABS light keeps glowing that it has not been.  Word to the wise: don't drop your bike in a river.  It short circuits shit.

 

Posted via email from Unleash Your Adventure