MotoLindy

Final Stats: Moto-Kevin

2005-10-18T02:01:00.000-07:00

Name: Kevin St. Laurent
Age: 33
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Miles Moto'd: 10,630
Countries Moto'd: 13 (USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Andorra, Belguim, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Russia)
Moto: 1997 BMW F650 ST
Primary Riding Gear: AeroStitch Roadcrafter Two Piece (a.k.a Jellybean), Nolan N100 Flip Lid Helmet, Alpine Star Gortex Boots,
Gear: GIVI 47 Liter Topbox, 50Liter Sidebags (way too big, never again). Customized ICON tankbag, brush guards, 1 DC power jack for charging cell phone and laptop. Note - successfully carried 13inch Sony Vaio Laptop in one side bag packed between clothes. 10,000 miles of vibration and one 10mph crash...still using laptop.

Favorite Week of Dancing: 5 all night nights of dancing at Herrang Dacne Camp, Sweden
Most Excilerating Riding: Full throttle riding on Auto-bahn in Germany. Bike maxed at 105mph with full bags and tucked riding position.
Favorite Day of Riding: Cassis to Nice (France) at Sunset riding two-up with Italian Girls Isabella & Monica.
Favorite Day of Trip: Everyday when I turned to my riding buddies and asked..."Any Complaints?" 100% response of "Nope." No matter what happened, where I went or who I was with...I was on a Moto in Europe. Life was Good.

Final Stats: Moto-Dave

2005-10-18T01:39:00.000-07:00

Name: Dave Trier
Age: 34
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Miles Moto'd: 10,525
Countries Moto'd: 13
Moto: 2003 BMW R1150R
Primary Riding Gear: BMW Savanna jacket, pants, and boots. Nolan flip helmet, Frank Thomas gloves, earplugs.
Secondary Riding Gear: spare passenger helmet
Misc: Ritter marzipan chocolate bars and bottled water

Favorite Night of Dancing: St. Petersburg Russia
Favorite Day of Riding: Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy.
Favorite Day of Trip: All the all-nighters: Aux-en-Provence, Paris, Herrang, St. Petersburg.

Final Stats: Moto-Joel

2005-10-18T01:20:00.000-07:00

Name: Joel Tornatore
Age: 41
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Miles Moto'd: 5100 km
Countries Moto'd: Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria
Moto: 2005 Honda TransAlp 600
Primary Riding Gear: AeroStich Roadcrafter Two Piece (AKA, the blue jellybean, or blue razzleberry), Shoei Syncrotec helmet (in Anthrocite), random gloves, hand-me down boots from Randy, picture of MotoHank on the back of my helmet

Favorite Night of Dancing: The Final Friday at Herrang
Favorite Day of Riding: The Super Long Day from the ferry arrival in the south of Sweden all the way to Herrang
Favorite Day of Trip: Showing up in Salzburg, Austria, (after driving from Hamburg and hitting an amazing rain storm near the Austrian border) to meet up with Doug, and he had a beer (and more!) waiting for me.

2005-09-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Final Stats: Moto-Mark

Name: Mark Palatucci
Age: 26
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Miles Moto'd: 7,800
Countries Moto'd: 13
Moto: 1997 BMW F650 ST
Primary Riding Gear: AeroStitch Roadcrafter (a.k.a Jellybean), Shoei RF-1000 Helmet
Secondary Riding Gear: Joe Rocket, HJC Helmet
Misc: Gloves and Boots by Alpine Star, Luggage by GIVI

Favorite Night of Dancing: Apollo Jazz Cafe, Montpellier, France
Favorite Day of Riding: Oslo to Flam, Norway
Favorite Day of Trip: Riding through the Loire countryside and sleeping outside of Chateau de Chenonceau (France)

Moto-Mark arrives home!!!

2005-09-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

I made it home!!! I arrived at my Mom's place in Philadelphia. It was unbelievable to see my bike parked in her driveway. A few days earlier it was 5000 ft above a fjord in Norway. The bike performed magically and never gave me an ounce of trouble through 13 countries and 8000 miles . With incredible irony, the bike died as soon as I rode into Mom's driveway. It just refused to turn over and pop starting wouldn't work. With no time to fix it before leaving for grad school, I rolled it in her garage and unmounted my luggage cases for the final time.

It was difficult to contemplate the magnitude of the journey. Where would I even begin? No time to wonder...tomorrow I leave for Pittsburgh and my new life at Carnegie Mellon..

2005-09-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

I hit a rest stop to fill up and get some food. In Norway, I was paying $6 *per* gallon. In the US, I paid $10 to fill up the whole tank and get a Whopper. Welcome to the land of fast food and cheap oil! It's great to be home!

August 12th: Toronto to Philadelphia

2005-09-03T23:49:00.000-07:00

August 12: I spent a few hours in customs and managed to get my bike out. I started the ride to my mother's home in Philadelphia - the last stop on my Motolindy tour. I made it to the Canandian-US border. (might I actually pull this whole trip off?). I was pretty exhausted and when the border guard asked me what country I was coming from, I said, "Canada". She put her hand in her face and just shook her head.

2005-09-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

The club has live music every night. Wow. The band that night featured the fantastically sexy Janice Hagan. Tory Cassis, the male vocalist who usually performs Saturday nights sat in for a couple songs. He has an incredibly rich voice in the true crooner style. We need to get this guy to perform for us down in the US..

August 11th: Moto-Mark arrives in Toronto

2005-09-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

August 11th: I arrived in Toronto. Despite the jetlag of a 10 hour flight, I quickly found my way to the Reservoir Lounge - a really cool jazz/swing club in the basement of some building. It reminded me of the club in Andorra. Here's Steve (my great host), Val, and me..

Mark's last photo in Europe...

2005-09-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

The ride was long - over 20 hours. I spent as much time as I could sitting on the deck watching the sea and pondering the experiences of the last two months. This was the last photo I took in Europe. I slept that night on the floor of Deck 10 with all the other holders of steerage tickets.

The next day I arrived in Keil and rode to Frankfurt. My last ride in Europe was great - I was on the Autobahn in warm weather, on my way home to start my new life as a gradate student. I was so happy. I spent an uneventful day preparing the motorcycle for air shipment. I then flew to Toronto to wait for my moto to arrive...

August 8th: The ferry to Keil

2005-09-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

August 8th: I boarded an overnight ferry from Oslo to Keil, Germany. The ferry is similar to the one we rode in Puttgarten - you just roll up and strap your bike down. I'm not sure if it was my jellybean, my "CAL" plate, or my Givi side bags, but I got a couple of strange looks from the other motorcyclists. But being that this was the North Sea, and that the rider farthest from home is always the coolest, I confidently locked my jellybean down and headed up to the sun deck.

2005-09-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

Laerdal - right at the end of the beautiful Sognefjord. This was my last photo of the fjords and of the day. 6 hours after I took this photo, I found myself back in Oslo..

2005-09-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

There were plenty of streams leading down to the fjord..

2005-09-03T22:26:00.001-07:00

Approaching Laerdal..

2005-09-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

I winded my way down the mountain pass into Laerdal..

2005-09-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

Ahh life..It was great to have some company..

2005-09-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

I continued on realizing that my motorcycle was the only thing between me and a sticky situation. It's moments like these that cause riders to develop emotional attachments to their machines.

2005-09-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

I stopped for a quick stretch..when I took this photo I felt a strange sensation. It was fear. It was the first and only time in the whole trip that I felt it. I was completely alone and hadn't seen anything living in quite some time. It was cold and the road seemed endless. Before deciding to take this pass, I got the GPS and did some calculations to make sure that a breakdown wouldn't be a castostophic event. Well, I re-did the calculations, re-checked the GPS, and realized that my destination wasn't far away. Nevertheless, I was *really* glad to hear the engine turn over..I buried the fear, put the kickstand up, and rode on.

2005-09-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've been riding about 1 hour in wilderness in almost perfect isolation.

2005-09-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it felt like I was on a different planet. These rocks actually appeared green in real life - they weren't really green - they all had moss covering one side..

2005-09-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

The landscape seemed somewhat alien..

2005-09-03T21:57:00.001-07:00

Nearing 5000ft..snow = cold.

2005-09-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

Wow. There's no one up here. I'm really in the middle of nowhere.

2005-09-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

The clouds moved past very quickly, creating interesting shadows on the mountain tops.

2005-09-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Leaving the Aurlandfjord...I'm at about 4000 ft, nearing the top of the mountain..

2005-09-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

Altitude 3000 ft..getting a bit chilly but the view is great. Time for heated grips..

2005-09-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

The roads were empty. I could have counted the total cars I saw on 1 hand.

2005-09-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's hard to get a picture of yourself with your bike when you're the only one on the road.

2005-09-03T21:47:00.001-07:00

Near the top, looking back at Flam..

2005-09-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

The road winds you up the side of the mountain and provides an amazing view of the Aurlandfjord..

2005-09-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

On the way back I decided to take a detour to travel the "Aurlandsvegan"...a.k.a The Snow Road. Basically, this is a mountain pass that goes from Aurland to Laerdal (right over the 15 mile tunnel that we went through a couple days back). I had wanted to take this road on several occasions but the weather wasn't cooperating..luckily, the weather was holding today..

August 7th: The beginning of Mark's voyage home..

2005-09-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

August 7th: Day 1 of the voyage home. I left Bergen for Olso. It will be a grueling 10 hour day of riding. The route took me back to Flam, the wonderful village we found about a week earlier.

2005-09-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

Ah, Room 313. 313, has a lot of meaning for me. I lived with my three best friends (hey Lou, Mike, and John!) in college in apt #313 - and we became known as the 313 guys. 313 is also the number of beats in the famous Hellzapopin dance number. 313 is also on the T-Shirts Kevin designed commemorating the famous Hellzapopin dance number. You can see the 313 shirt in many of Dave's GQ photos below.

2005-09-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

On the way back to my hotel, I passed the greatest of all mimes (and we've seen a lot on this trip). There were many real statues in the Bergen square that looked similar to this guy - bronze, pedestal, chain fence (he went all out). I thought he was a real statue - and when I walked by he moved and I jumped. Wow. I then chilled on a bench and I watched him freak out other tourists as they walked by.

2005-09-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

The view from the "work" hut..The weather was perfect and I sat on a bench outside the hut for about 2 hours. This was the first day I was completely by myself..Despite missing my friends, it was nice to have some down time and reflect on an incredible two months..

2005-09-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

About 100 ft from the house, Greig had his 'work' room. Basically, it is a small hut with a desk and piano. He composed most of his works there.

2005-09-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

The BMW dealer was only a few miles away from the Edvard Greig house. Edvard Greig was Norway's most famous composer - I'm sure you would recognize many of his pieces.

August 6th: Julia flys home to Amsterdam..

2005-09-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

August 6th: I took Julia to the airport in the early morning and spent the rest of the day running errands and preparing for the journey home. My motocycle was in desperate need of new tires. Luckily, the BMW shop in Bergen was able to replace them fairly quickly. While waiting for the tires I grabbed a soda. For some reason, all sodas in Scandanavia have what I call the "soda cap syndrome". Basically, the cap never detaches from the safety ring. It happens on all their bottles and I just don't get it. Clearly the fatigue was getting to me. It's time to come home.

2005-09-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

We found a small cafe and had a quiet dinner. Unfortunately, this was Julia's last night in Norway. She had to attend a workshop in France, and was returning home to Amsterdam the next day. We were both sad that our journey together had come to an end - yet thankful for an incredible experience and a new good friendship.

2005-09-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

On the way to dinner we passed this 14 year old Norwegian kid named Eirek. He was an absolutely amazing guitarist - one of the best I've ever heard. I guarantee he will be a rock star some day. There was a huge crowd around him and everyone was incredibly impressed - I watched him collect several large bills from people passing by.

2005-09-03T20:47:00.000-07:00

Bergen is old..and like any old city, there is the strip of old buildings that have been converted into tourist traps.

2005-09-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

Do we find lindy? Or does the lindy find us? By accident, we stumbled across a small Swedish cruise ship with a great swing/jazz band. We danced some Bal in the streets and got several strange looks from the other tourists..

2005-09-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Bergen, a charming seaport town right on the coast. The weather had cleared, and we had a relaxing time exploring the city.

2005-09-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

We boarded a ferry to take us across the Sognefjord to the town of Vik. Unfortunately, this was the last photo that we were able to take during the ride. It started raining on the ferry and got progressively worse as we traveled south. We crossed a mountain pass on the way to Voss - with any decent weather the ride would have been fantastic. Unfortunately, we hit the terrible conditions. Pouring rain and tremendous cold at 5000 ft. You win some, you loose some.

August 5th: M&J leave Solvern for Bergen

2005-09-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

August 5th: We left for Bergen, a small sea port town on the western coast of Norway. Along the way we saw some animals that I had never seen before. Apparently, they are 'Yaks'. They look like hairy cows.

2005-08-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

Simone (Kevin's sister), Charlie, and Allison, host Dave for a day in New York City en route to Vancouver, Canada.

2005-08-24T09:38:00.001-07:00

Monica and Dave hanging out in the historical port town of Genova, Italy. Que bellisima.

2005-08-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Laia and Kevin in Gracia (neighborhod of Barcleonia) after a kickass night of dancing to live music in the streets.

2005-08-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Another team goes for eight levels. What looks like the bottom level is actually the second level standing on what looks like the crowd.

2005-08-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Catalan Paparazzi were out in full force in Barcleona. Kevin & Laia make the local paper during his first night of dancing in Gracia.

2005-08-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Here's the same castle, but eight levels complete. My camera was too small to capture the whole thing.

2005-08-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Traditonal Catalan Castle buidling. Here we have three levels with the Mayor of Gracia watching from the balcony.

2005-08-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a better shot of Laia's whopping 50cc moto. Two up? No worries.

2005-08-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

Kevin's perspective while staying in Barcelona. He had no moto, so this is his perspective from the back of Laia's scooter in the two up position.

2005-08-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

Christopher Columbus's home in Genova, Italy.

2005-08-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

We got back to Solvorn and Trond warmed us up with some hot raspberry juice straight from the pasteurizer. Glaciering was great, but we were going through a lindy withdrawl. We put on some Lisa Ekdahl, danced a few tunes, and passed out from total exhaustion.

2005-08-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

4 hours on the ice and we're still smiling.

2005-08-17T20:47:00.001-07:00

The hike down was almost as tricky as the hike up.

2005-08-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

To go any higher, we'd need to ice camp. We called this our summit and started back..

2005-08-17T20:44:00.001-07:00

Style and grace..

2005-08-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

As Kevin and Dave said earlier, fashion is priority one.

2005-08-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

Don't want to fall in there. The pressure in the ice forces the oxygen out - thereby affecting the ice crystal formation and reflection of the light. The less oxygen the more blue the ice appears.

2005-08-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

Time for a lunch break..

2005-08-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

I check out Julia's bum while she skillyfully navigates the ice crevasse.

2005-08-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

Here's Mark after climbing 1000 ft of glacier in his jellybean.

2005-08-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

The team ascends...Climbing in full riding gear was a challenge - at least I was warm and dry!

2005-08-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Ingville, our Norwegian ice-commander, teaches proper clamping and ice axe technique.

2005-08-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

I just strapped the ice clampers right over my riding boots.

2005-08-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Time to climb. We prepared for a 4 hr 'blue ice' hike through the glacier..It was raining and cold and we were about to spend 4 hours hiking on a big piece of ice - where could I get some warm and waterproof clothing? I know - JELLYBEAN!

2005-08-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Wow. That is a huge arse piece of ice.

August 4th: Glaciering on Jostedalbreen

2005-08-17T20:25:00.001-07:00

Question: What's that funky grey thing in the background? Answer: Jostedalbreen, the largest glacier in Europe. It happens to be in Norway, about 50km north of where we were staying in Solvorn.

2005-08-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

Hmm..let's take a boat across the lake and see if we can get closer..

2005-08-17T00:05:00.000-07:00

Coming back from Russia we passed back through Stockholm and were able to catch a breakfast with Marie for a few hours. The Swedish love sandwichs for breakfast.

2005-08-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

Russian style apartments. No where is safe from graffiti artists. Kevin busts a move on the jungle gym

2005-08-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

Everybody loves a 3am aerial session. Kevin and Violeta attempt the 'snatch'

2005-08-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

Violeta and Elenora made us traditional Russian food for lunch. Rakhim opened the pickles. Dave loves Elenora's Soup.

2005-08-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

Rakhim's pad was on the 7th floor. He has a washer, but not a dryer. Dave stepped out to the balcony to hang his pants...oooops. That blue speck next to the car in the grass would be Dave's jeans. That's Rakhims moto on the right. Click on the photo to enlarge.

2005-08-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

Traffic jam at 4am. Most bridges are raised in the middle of the night in St. Petersburg. Occasionally one will come down for 15 minutes to let traffic through. Of course Rakhim's pad was on the other side so we wait.

2005-08-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

Violeta displays typical Russian Fashion.

2005-08-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

Swedish Motorway Stop: A Big Tasty or a Big Nasty? Getting a McDonalds meal deal with a citron mineral water and side salad was a new experience for Kevin. Hey, it cost the same as fries and a coke.

2005-08-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

Kevin, Katia & Dave. She was the one who did all the annoying Russian bureaucratic paperwork that got us to St. Petersburg.

2005-08-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

After half a night's dancing, Rakhim only has half his glasses. The Russian women just can't get enough of him.

2005-08-15T23:15:00.000-07:00

Dave's Bike, Kevin's bike, and our host Rakhim's bike on the right. Oh yeah, that's some famous Russian Church in the background.

2005-08-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

Kevin - "Is the camera on?" Dave - "Don't know, all I can see are bugs"

2005-08-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

FInnaly found it, the motorcycle part that goes...BING!

2005-08-15T23:10:00.000-07:00

Dave and Katia tearing it up!

2005-08-15T23:08:00.000-07:00

So many Russian women to dance with, I started to dance with two at a time. Katia, Marina, and Dave at Cafe Latino.

2005-08-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

"Uhh, hey baby, want to dance?" Rakhim, Vanya, and Daniel resting during late night lindy and salsa dancing at Cafe Latino.

2005-08-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

That night we rode a couple miles into the town of Hafslo looking for some food and a cash machine. We found this pizzeria owned by an Iranian couple. It was a very interesting story about how this couple found each other and came to live in the middle of nowhere in Norway.. It was pretty late and all the other customers had left - we were about to order a pizza when the wife came in with an Iranian Lamb Biryani for her husband. It smelled great and we asked if we could order that. So the wife went back to the house and came back with two more dishes. We sat and ate awesome Iranian food and talked to this couple for like 2 hours.

2005-08-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

We made it to Solvorn! We found the most amazing place to stay. It is called "Eplet - Bed and Apple". It is a small hostel/guest house situated on a working raspberry and apple farm. This is the view from our balcony. It is one of the most relaxing places I've ever been and I can't wait to go back. The owner, Trond Henrick, is an awesome guy. He sat with us for over an hour gave us lots of info about glacier hiking, motorcycle roads, and Norwegian geology.

2005-08-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

After the church we continued the ride to Solvern..we cruised on a small car ferry to the other side of the Sognefjord.

2005-08-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Many of the decorations on the church are identical to those on Viking ships of the time..

2005-08-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

The churches were built right around when Christianity first entered the region. The churches are Christian - but have a very pagan feel..They are called 'stave' because of the wood beams (staves) that provide the primary support for the structure.

2005-08-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

After we got through the tunnel we decided to take a quick detour and stop at the Borgund Stave church. This church was built in 1148! This particular church hasn't had much restoration..

2005-08-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Entering the cavern..you can pull over and take a break if you want. The lighting is really sweet..

2005-08-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

This tunnel is awesome. To break up the monotony, they build these special caverns every 6km to simulate daylight and a tunnel 'exit'. The idea is to make people feel they are going through 4 smaller tunnels rather than one super long one. As you approach the cavern..

2005-08-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

We didn't have any place to stay that night in Flam so we decided to head north to a town called Solvorn. Solvorn is very close to the Jostdalbreen glacier. During the ride to Solvorn we had to pass through the "Laerdalstunnelen". This is the longest drivable tunnel in the world - over 15 miles!! (BTW, the second longest is the St Gottardo in Switzerland - check out our Swiss photos below for that one).

2005-08-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

The train arrives at Myrdal. I saw this girl that looked exactly like my friend Lili from the back and side..I jumped off the train and chased "Lili" down to the gift shop. Turned out it wasn't Lili but the resemblance was scary.

2005-08-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

During the ride, the train stops at the beautiful Kjosfossen waterfall. A nymph comes out and music starts playing - it's all a bit cheesy, but the waterfall still rocks.

August 3rd: Flam to Solvorn

2005-08-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

August 3rd: Just for fun, we took the Flamsbana train to Myrdal and back. Myrdal is a small village 3000 ft above the fjord. The ride on the train is pretty spectacular (very similar to the ride into Flam - beautiful views of the valley, waterfalls, snow covered mountains, etc..)