Aug 10 2007: Tow to Monte Carlo & Slab through Italy on 4 Wheels

It's only right there should be a car icon on this map for this leg of the trip

We're up at 5AM today. The tow truck leaves from the garage at 6AM, so we quickly pack our gear onto Neda's bike and ride the 1/2 km away. Cavalaire is very small and everything's closeby. The driver is ready to go when we get there, so Neda hops in the truck and I ride behind the whole two hours to Monaco.

My bike on the truck, me on Neda's bike

Monte Carlo is beautiful, but we can't stay for long, we're going to visit Neda's family in Croatia for a few days

So we rent a car for the weekend...

Just kidding. We rent a car for the weekend. Saab 9-3 Turbo Diesel Convertible. This thing gets over 800 km to a tank of gas.
And diesel is cheap! Too bad we never got the top down because of all the motorcycle luggage we stuck in the trunk.

Monte Carlo from out a car window. So we're on four wheels now. With the way things are going, we're probably
going to hang glide over the Swiss Alps next week and then coast around the Adriatic in a sailboat!

Neda's mom lives in Pula, a small coastal town on the Adriatic, close to the Slovenian border. It's over 1000 kms from Monte Carlo, but much more doable in a car than on a motorcycle. The drive is pleasant, the car is very comfortable and Neda falls asleep in the passenger seat, a luxury that she's obviously missed from the last two weeks on the motorcycle. It really does feel good to be moving again, the last few days being stuck in one place was like torture!

As we cross the border into Italy, Neda starts to feel at home again. She's fluent in Italian, so I now let her take over communications duty, as I was doing most of the talking in France. For the first time since we've left the UK, we are now in familiar territory - at least for one of us! I still can't get used to paying a Euro just to use the washroom! WTF?!

We listen to the English songs on the radio and even buy a couple of English CDs in one of the petrol stops along the way. I feel kind of bad cocooning myself in a North American bubble (GM car & Guns'n Roses and The Police blaring on the CD player), but it's a guilty luxury for this weekend! 1000 kms of twisty Italian highways flash by in a blur and I'm reminded why I ride motorcycles instead of drive cars - there's no connection with the outside world besides visually. You can't feel, taste and smell the air as it changes subtly over the miles, temperature and smells permeating your helmet; you can't hear the tires and engine rumble beneath you, litle stones kicking up into the bodywork as you run over them; you don't feel the vulnerability, yet the oneness with the environment as you move through it...

We pass through Slovenia and into Croatia as the sun sets. Neda's sister is also visiting their mom and we try to get her to book us a hotel room in town to no avail. Apparently, Italian tourists have over-run the coastal town and there are absolutely no rooms in Pula. Neda's brother-in-law's parents graciously offer to put us up for the weekend, and we pull into their place a little before midnight. It's nice to be with family again!