End of the Monster Motorbike Tour

Back in the cool, cool North and enjoying a bit of rain to go with our
sunshine. This year's motorbike trip was our most ambitious so far and it
turned out to be the best. Steve's planning (rather than someone else)
ensured that we were able to stay exactly where we wanted (except for one
locational challenge!) and we were able to go to and stay in places never
seen on prefab motorbike tours. It was a lot more time intensive for him,
but a much better tour for us.

Total tour - 3500 miles. Highest temp - 109. Lowest temp - well, there was
snow! Best meal - the agritourismo on the 'instep' of the Italian boot.
Best location - Amalfi, on a balcony overlooking the Med Least favourite
region - Calabria. Favourite region - a toss up between Tuscany, Umbria and
Lake Como

Here are some of the 491 pics I took!

Freiburg to Dinant - Not Lost Today!

Left Freiburg for our last mainland Europe stop on the trip before heading home. We headed up into the hills and then dropped down onto the plains of France for most of the day.

We did a run around Verdurn, an area where many WWI battles were fought. We'd been in this area before, but never in summer. In addition to roads weaving through forests and up and down rolling hills, the French houses and villages are all decorated with flowers - flowers everywhere!

We did the Alsace region in the morning and the Ardonne in the afternoon. And we found a really motorbiking road! After going through Verdun, Fumay and Givet, we reentered Belgium along the Meuse River. This road goes for miles along the banks of the Meuse following the curves of the river through flower decorated villages, past castles and chateaux. Steve is already trying to figure out how to add this route to our next trip!

Dinner in Dinant was tricky, there was some sort of music festival on and the place was packed! We checked restaurant after restaurant and no tables anywhere. We finally decided to take a risk on a Belgiun Chinese, a high risk proposition for us as we always like to focus on the local food when in a country, but one that turned out to be surprisingly good. I love the English translations, 'damp dumplings' was one of the best I've seen so far!

Freiberg is Not Friedburg!

Merrily zooming around Europe and temporarily uncertain of our present
position, that's us! We used to worry about getting lost, but now
it's all part of the adventure.

We left St. Moritz and headed off into the Alps. It was a glorious
morning, sharp, clear, sun glistening off the snow on the mountains.
Sadly we have returned to non-Italian coffee and I have donned my
Michelen Woman costume (but I am NOT complaining about being cool,
just describing the differences!). We had a great time weaving
through the valleys and zigzagging up and over the mountain passes.

We went over one, the Fruilipas (sp) that climbed well above the
snowline and we were riding up through the snow fields! It was
beautiful and thanks to my trusty MW suit, I was toasty! Snow fields
around us and craggy snow covered mountains towering above us, an
amazing experience in July!

We were zipping through a valley when Steve said, "The sun is rising,
we're heading north, making great progress!" The rising sun was over
my left shoulder, "We're going south." "That's a problem," replied
Steve quite calmly. No road signs and we were on a lovely road so we
kept going until we found a cappocino and map review stop. Yup, wrong
way, heading back to Italy, it was a lovely bit of road though!

On to Bregens by Lake Constance where we have been been before on
another motorbike trip, just for lunch and then up the side of the
lake and through the hills to our destination of the evening, Freiburg.

So often on this trip, the national language spellings of names are
different than the English ones (Genoa / Genova) that I didn't really
pay any attention when Steve kept saying Freidburg and I kept seeing
Freiburg. We knew the town we were going to, had been there before
and had specific ideas for dinner once we got there. And we arrived
as planned, yup, right town, there's the cablecar up the hill to the
restaurant we ate at last time, well done!

Steve gave me the map and we started the hotel hunt. Now, we really
need a GPS to do this well, but I do have to say, I'm getting pretty
good at spotting the signs and navigating to the hotel from the back.
We drove around and around and around and I couldn't spot a single
street that matched any of the ones on my map. Several times we
stopped so Sreve could try and figure out the map too, but we still
couldn't find anything that matched. We finally broke down and
stopped at a petrol station and bought a map - and still couldn't find
any of the streets on the map!

What the two maps did have in common were postal codes, each area on
our purchased map had a postal code labeled and the postal code was
labeled on the mapquest map - now we're getting somewhere! We
scrutinized the purchased map searching for the code that matched
ours. The codes on the map were all in the 70000's and our code was
in the 80000's, ours wasn't even on the map!

Then we looked at the town name. We were exactly where we wanted to
be, Freiburg (remember, we've been here before!). However, our hotel
was in Friedburg, a couple hundred kilometers away!

(Can you believe we used to be entrusted with millions of pounds?!)

Och well, we're in the right place even if the hotel isn't, time to
find a new hotel - which we did in a matter of minutes and in a matter
of a few minutes more, we were showered, togged up and sitting in an
outdoor restaurant in the main town square listening to a band play
and admiring the view of the cathedral.

The Friedburg hotel had never received our reservation so we didn't
have to suffer the indignity of being in the wrong town AND paying for
two hotels. While the Freiburg hotel was a bit pricy, after St.
Moritz Steve wasn't phased. "I paid this much for a beer last night,"
he commented.

Dinner on the town square was just as we expected, very Germanic food,
lots of it, some good music, Vicebeer and a glass of local wine. A
perfect ending to a perfect day!

What a Difference a Thousand Miles Makes

A thousand miles and 6000 feet actually. Sicily, Italy, to St.
Moritz, Switzerland. It snowed 3 inches the day before yesterday
(please note, this is July!). Luckily it was gone when we arrived -
motorbikes and snow don't mix!

We left Genoa before the heat came on and headed for the Alps. The
day started out lovely and cool, and as we headed up into the
mountains stayed that way. We have a new appreciation for cool!

We came by Lake Como which is one of the most beautiful places in
Italy. Old towns scattered here and there around the lake, many with
tiny cobbled streets and restaurant lined squares. There was a great
deal of al fresco dining overlooking the lake along with beautiful
summer homes lining the shore. The lake is 25 miles or more, we want
to come back and see the whole thing.

After Lake Como, it was up into the mountains, over a pass and Into
St. Moritz. The town is 6000 feet up and Steve has named it 'The Most
Expensive Place in the World'. It's like someone took Knightsbridge
and stuck it on top of a mountain. But it is also gorgeous, with a
lake below and surrounded by jagged, snowtopped mountains. It's a
wonderful place even in the off peak summertime, but only for one night!

Since we were in Switzerland, traditonal Swiss food was in order -
chocolate and fondue. It was Sunday so most of the shops were closed,
except for the chocolate shops! And the chocolate was every bit as
good as you would expect locally made Swiss chocolate to be.

We walked around for a bit trying to find a restaurant open on an off
season Sunday and finally walked down the hill to La Margda which was
recommended by the very happy and very helpful Swiss man at our
hotel. His recommendation was spot on. We had the fondue in the tiny
downstairs restaurant matched with some local wine - lovely! When we
ordered, I was thinking Melting Pot with a cheese fondue followed by a
meat fondue. The waitress was adamant that that would be too much and
she was exactly right. The meat fondue consisted of at least two
pounds of meat accompanied by rosti's (potatoes), various pickles and
a variety of sauces. We made it a little more than half way before we
gave in, we were defeated by the volume of food. Swiss fondue in
Switzerland is very, very good

How Can an Entire Country Make Good Coffee?

We've been in Italy for 8 or 9 days now and have yet to have a bad cup
of coffee - posh restaurants, ferries, tiny town bars, cheap hotels,
made by a barrista or from a machine, the coffee is all great. How is
it possible for so many different people in so many different
establishments (no chains here) to turn out a consistently good product?

Italians are not big on breakfast, however. A sweet roll, an espresso
and go. The breakfasts have all been continental with crossaintes,
broche, musli, yogurt, fruit, toast, jam and nutella - all great for
Steve who prefers that stuff, but I want MEAT!

They are, however, very big on dinner! We have had wonderful meal
after wonderful meal at night - in some of the most unlikely places.

The ferry ride to Genoa was great, if a bit boisterous - force 7 winds
and waves so high our 9 story ferry ( think small cruise ship) was
rolling over the waves. It takes some pretty big waves to move a ship
that size. Lots of people were ill. We simply got up, found food and
went back to sleep. I think we had a total of 4 naps during the day!

Genoa was great, a lovely waterront city with lots of character left
in it. The architecture was ornate with many old buildings, churches,
and palazzos scattered about. We wandered the tiny streets until we
found an al fresco restaurant with a guitarist and parked ourselves
there for an evening of food and music.

The End of the American Dream?

Have you seen all the press lamenting the end of the American Dream? It's gone, it's come to an end, it's over. What a load of rubbish!

We're not experiencing the end of the American Dream, we're experiencing the end of a consumption-based pyramid scheme that was labeled as the American Dream. Labeling cod liver oil as syrup doesn't make it syrup and certainly doesn't make it taste any better! Labels can be misleading though and if we don't scrutinize labels, we can be conned.

The American Dream was not to be a cog in a consumption machine, it was quite the opposite - moving far away from being a cog in someone else's wheel. The American Dream was about freedom, from being locked into a certain place in society, from tyranny and oppression. It was
about opportunity, the opportunity to have your own home, to raise your children in a safe environment, to give them an education. It was about opportunity, the opportunity to start your own business and create something that a family could build together. Many American Dreams were about families being together.

There was nothing in the American Dream about selling yourself into wage slavery so that you could spend your lifetime acquiring ever-increasing amounts of stuff. That's not the American Dream, that's the American manufacturers', marketers' and advertizers' dream - a veneer label placed over the American Dream.

What's happened during this economic 'crisis' is the cracking of that veneer which attempted to cover up the strength and enduring core values of the American Dream. That weak veneer could never withstand the test of time, and broke under pressure.

However, when you push aside the pieces of that crumbled veneer, you find the original dream underneath. It's reemerging once again. People are returning to those core values, that strong foundation that is the American Dream - freedom, family, friends and the opportunity to build something (and not just make a buck).

The American Dream hasn't ended, the American consumption dream has. The two aren't the same at all.

Cruising the Med

Palermo to Genoa by sea! An overnight ferry and a day off, sort of!

We left the south coast of Sicily and Agrigento, beginning the trip
back up north. One more crossing of the hot middle bit keeping to the
coast for as long as possible until we had to cut across for Palermo.
Steve booked the car ferry which departs at 9:00 so we organized our
backpack so we could strip off the leathers as quickly as possible
once we got off the bike - which we were able to do after a scenic
tour of Palermo when we missed the sign for the Porto.

We were much too early for the ferry, but found a shady cafe where we
had a two and a half hour lunch, and then a shadier park which was
perfect for keeping cool and having a next steps planning discussion
(red booking). Then once it cooled down a bit, we headed for the
Porto to pick up our tickets and find the queue for the ferry. Steve
expected this to be 'a bit of a faff' so we left plenty of time, but
quite the reverse, it went swimmingly well and we were ready to get on
our 9:00 ferry at 6:15! So we found some shade, people watched and
had a nice chat with an American and his Irish wife, Bill and Miriam.

A German guy pulled up next to us in line and we chatted with him
too. He had a temperature guage on his bike and at 7:00 in the
evening by the water it was still 38 degrees - well into the 90's. He
said that he had parked it in a sun / shady area a couple days ago and
the temp was 46!

Italy is chaotic, particularly the traffic, but once you understand
that the rule is that there are no rules it becomes doable (if not
understandable). We now squeeze ourselves into traffic with the best
of them and I've even heard Steve beeping his horn a few times!

Sicilian Summer

The weather here is gorgeous and,when you're not wearing 30 pounds of
black leathers in the sunshine, quite comfortable. By the sea there
is a breeze and the temp is a bit cooler. The humidity is far lower
than Florida.

We left Calabria yesterday and took a ferry over to Sicily, a nice
cool ferry! Headed down the coast and turned inland to ride by Mt.
Etna, a smoking volcano. Nice houses this way with many restoration
opportunities, but somehow the lava in the front yards made them seem
less appealing.

Inland was hot, dry, rocky, brown fields, and cactus. Did I say hot?
Steve caught some comment about record breaking temps and 41c which
would be 106 in faren, but we'll have to validate that data, but we
know it was 35 the day before. The next time we get the urge to go
motorbiking in the summer, we're going to Norway, Sweden or the Artic
Circle!

Actually, heat aside, it's been a great trip and exactly what we
wanted, to see Italy in the summer when it's at its driest and worst
visually and see if we still like it. And the answer is a resounding
yes, in parts. We're much clearer about the parts of Italy we like
now (there's a reason why everybody moves to Tuscany and the hundreds
of thousands who have bought holiday homes there are not wrong).

Italy is big, much bigger than we thought it was. We've done over
2000 miles getting to Sicily and it could be a country all by itself.
We rode all day to get from Messina to Agrigento (of course part of
that was heading in the wrong direction) and will ride 2-3 hours to
get from here to Palermo - where we pick up an overnight ferry and
head to Genoa and cooler climes.

Wet T-Shirt Contest

35 degrees celcius yesterday and we're applying all sorts of
techniques to deal with the heat - mostly by trying to keep things wet
which then keep us cool when the bike is moving. Today we're going
beyond wetting the neckerchiefs to a full on wet t-shirt contest!

Yesterday was our last day in Calabria. We've come as far as Reggio
Calabria and spent three days exploring the region. Steve says that
was two days too long. The mountains and the roads through the
mountains are spectacular and being on the edge of a cliff looking
straight down to the sea was amazing. The mountainous part of the
coastline is lovely and would be great to sail to.

Lunch in outlying areas is tricky to find so we've been warding off
starvation with gelato and cornettos!

New Thoughts

Am rereading David Bach's Start Late Finish Rich book. I've found his books to contain some of the most useful and practical money management advice out there. Although the 95 percent mortgages are gone, the tax advantaged savings advice still applies.

The book starts out with a bit of a motivational talk focusing quite a lot on how to stop beating yourself up for past financial mistakes. One thing that he said really struck me, that 90 percent of what we think today are the same thoughts we thought yesterday. Each day we think essentially the exact same thoughts as we did the day before and the day before that.

So if thoughts translate into action then if we're thinking the same thoughts every day, we're probably doing the same things every day. Doesn't sound like a prescription for a very exciting life, or even a very interesting one.

Are you thinking the same thoughts each day? Is that what you want? How do you start new thoughts or new thinking?

And by the way, stop beating yourself up for past financial mistakes, that's an already thunk thought! New thinking is all of your options from here on in!

Boil in the Bag People

Italy is the Ape' center of the world, according to Steve. Apes look like a truck (see picture), but are actually a scooter wearing a truck costume. Tonka builds bigger trucks. Top speed uphill is 3 miles per hour, downhill is 60. They are either driven completely empty or with more stuff than a three ton transit could carry. They are only designed to carry one person, but often carry many more. Steve desperately wants one.

Southern Italy in July is hot. Southern Italy in July in motorbike leathers is REALLY hot! All the Italians are zipping by on their motorbikes and scoots in shorts and tshirts and we're in 30 pounds of hot leathers. It's like being boiled in a bag!

We're 1800 miles into this trip and all the way down almost to the bottom of Italy in the Calabria region. We've gone from pouring rain in Belgium / Germany to total sunshine once we got south of the Alps. This trip has been almost exclusively non-motorway roads so it hasn't been a fast blast down the highway, bit rather a slow wind up and and through the hills, mountains and valleys all the way.

We had a lovely breakfast on the patio overlooking Amalfi and the Med yesterday morning, after a slowish get up and then headed further south. Made it from Campania down to Calabria last night and guess where our Italian dinner waiters have worked? At their uncle's restaurant in ... Preston! Very small world. And they miss it very much!

Today continued the journey through Calabria and tonight's stop is at the 'instep' of the Italian boot, close to as far south as you can get. Calabria has been very interesting, the geography is great, loads of mountains, tons of seaside, but unfortunately the 'ugly architects' had a field day down here! Ugly architects are what Steve and I call the designers of cheap, cinderblock, boring, square buildings with no features of any architectural interest at all. There is mile after mile of tenament apartments. Only once in a great while do you glimpse an old stone Italian building. It's been very interesting and a worthwhile exploration, but cheap house prices aside, Calabria is not for us.

However, I think agritourismos are! Tonight's stop is a working farm which has been converted into a B&B / restaurant. Old stone building, high ceiling'd rooms and (after today's heat) a very welcome pool!

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

We're on a motorbike tour exploring Italy. We'd like to retire here when we retire in the more traditional sense so are checking out the different regions to begin narrowing the choices from an entire country down to a specific town.

Calabria is the area we're in now, right at the toe of the Italian boot. It is a drier, more mountainous region and one of the less wealthy areas of Italy. Long neglected, there are many half completed construction projects where someone has attempted to bring housing or facilities to a place and given up before finishing.

However, much of the region is by the sea and housing prices are cheap for Italy (two rather important criteria for us) so we wanted to check it out. Not surprisingly, the view matched the reports - lots of empty, half completed modern apartmenty type buildings, trash lying about, pretty neglected really.

So when we drove into our hotel, we weren't surprised to see a place that was a bit run down, but we were hot and tired and wanted food so we didn't care. The hotel restaurant didn't look like much of anything so we headed out into the town for a walk and a half hearted search for a good place to eat. A long walk later, no luck, so we figured we'd settle for whatever the hotel had to offer and have an early night.

Now on this trip we have stayed in Lake Garda, Siena, and Amalfi type places - beautiful surroundings with food to match. We placed our order and expected to merely fill the hunger void.

When the food came out, it was fabulous - it was the best meal we had on the trip! We should have known better and not gotten deceived by appearances. This is Italy, renowned for wonderful food and the surroundings don't change that!

Under the Tuscan, Umbrian and Neapolitan Sun

Big, big, big day today - from Siena all the way down to Amalfi. All
interesting country, except for the flat bits and the area around
Naples. Part of this trip is to scope out the different regions and
start to narrow down the areas we like and the ones we don't.

Areas currently in the running are Tuscany and Umbria, and of course
the Amalfi coast. Selection criteria, something in the mountains, as
far south as it is reasonable to go, without it turning into a third
world country (i.e. some parts of Calabria). Can be a house in a
town, hilltop towns are particularly appealing, must have shade and a
view (shady terrace) and room to grow stuff ideally.

The run over the mountains to Amalfi was gorgeous, terrifying and
rather tiring for poor Steve. The road heads up into the mountains
climbing higher and higher over the city of Naples until you are are
so high your heart is in your mouth every time you look over the
edge. Traffic is interesting with mopeds and scoots passing on
hairpin bends. Finally you reach the top and get to do it all over
again but going down. The view is even more incredible on the Amalfi
side with the Meditteranean spread out before you and lemon groves
competing with the grape vines for space on the hillside terraces.

We stayed at Hotel Grand Excelsior, where Jess and I went a couple
years ago. It was still fabulous. Dinner on the patio at the Tato
restaurant was great, the band was fantastic (especially the sax
player), the singer we wanted to pitch over the balcony and down the
mountain into the sea. Steve wants to come back for a week.

Temporarily Uncertain of Our Present Position

We don't get lost, says Steve, we're just temporarily uncertain of our
present position. We had a dose of that yesterday while trying to
find our B&B in Sienna. Twisting stone streets winding through narrow
archways meandering around this hilltop town - and very few street
signs!

We're changed the navigation process this trip, instead of Steve
driving the bike and trying to read the map, I take the map when we
get into town to navigate from the back (and he promises not to shout
if we have to turn the big, heavy bike around if we go the wrong way
repeatedly (actually Steve never shouts, but he's not allowed to
grumble either!)). This works exceedingly well when there are signs
to navigate by, it works less well when there are none. After about
an hour and a half, we eventually found our place.

At dinner, I commented to Steve, "I wish we'd had more time so we
could see Sienna." "You've already seen it all," he replied.

In Italian, domami means tomorrow. We tried to buy two waters when we
got here, but had nothing smaller than a 50 in Steve's wallet. The
shopkeeper gave us the waters saying,"Domani", bring the money
tomorrow. Can't think of too many places where that happens.

Started out the day with a 25 mile run down the side of Lake Garda,
and we didn't even make it to the bottom. That would be a great place
to bring the tandem.

Then a short blast down the autostrada to get us through the flat part
of Italy. "This bit's boring", said Steve, "like Begium with sun".
Then off the highway at Modena, a dose of position uncertainty, and
after a restorative cappocino and a map check we headed off into the
Tuscan hills. At least we think they were Tuscan hills, they had the
great stone houses and pointy Tuscan trees! No matter where we were
it was beautiful!

Hopped on the motorway again to avoid the traffic around Florence and
had a great run through more Tuscan hills, vineyards and beautiful
houses to the hilltop town of Sienna. After the navigational
challenges, a restorative shower and beer / glass of wine were in
order. I felt bad about taking so long to find the B&B, Steve wasn't
bothered at all, he was just glad he didn't have to do it!

Dinner was delicious and fun. We went to L'Osteria on Via del Rossi
where they serve great steak and pour red wine into your carafe from
two gallon jugs. We shared a table and stories with a younger couple
from Canada. They had been on all kinds of adventures and told us all
about visiting Peru and Manchu Pechu (sp?).

We managed not to get lost getting back to our room, mostly because it
was just steps away from the restaurant. We watched the people out
for the evening, young and old, chatting and having a stroll. Might
be one of our favourite things about Italy, the nightly promanade, the
mingle of people of all ages every evening, the cool teenage boy
helping his grandmother, no one particular age 'owns' the street and
all enjoy it together. Tthe streets are almost like a front porch
where people catch up at the end of the day, where they see, talk to
and know their neighbors, how nice.

Across the Alps

Some places in this world are jaw-droppingly beautiful and the Alps,
Austrian, French, Italian, are one of those places. Words like
majestic, awe-inspiring, gargantuan come to mind. Rather than the
quietly beautiful, rolling green, patchworked landscape of Lancashire
which I never tire of, the Alpine views are so big and so bold, so
enormous, you almost can't take them all in. Words don't do it and
pictures provide only the merest glimpse.

We rode over three mountain passes yesterday, the Fern Pass,
Timmeljoch, and the Gampenjoch. These aren't passes between
mountains, they are roads over mountains, with the Timmel being the
highest at approximately 8000 feet. There was still snow up there,
taller than the motorbike in some places!

We had lunch on the Italian side of the Timmel, after we dropped down
far enough to get warm again. The down into the 'apple basket of
Italy' with more apple farming than I have ever seen, surrounded by
the Dolomite mountains.

After a bit of a road challenge around Trento (it was closed - 'But we
only know one road!'), we found our way to Lake Garda, a huge lake,
again surrounded by the Dolomites. Monster day, but gorgeous!

Thank Goodness for Wet Weather Gear!

Although I look like the Michelan Woman in them, when it's pouring buckets in Germany I am so happy to be sitting warm and dry on the back of the bike. Steve and I spent the morning chatting away during a torrential downpour while crossing Germany yesterday.

Germany, like Belgium, is very tidy. Steve likes it here. Mercedes littered everywhere. It is also the only place we've been so far where Steve is a slow driver! We were doing 90 down the motorway yesterday and we were the slowest vehicle there!

We took a different route avoiding the autobahn this trip and it was much nicer - less boring roads!

Big day today, three alpine passes to cross and then on to Italy!

Where There's a Will...

About most things I am very organised, but things that cause me mental pain or distress I avoid - like writing a will. Ugh, that means I have to think about and plan for my death - ugh, ugh, ugh! Not something that I am the least bit interested in considering!

But what I have come to realise is that writing a will isn't about me at all, it's about the people I love and what their lives will be like after I'm gone. It's not about making the most of my 750,000 Hours, it's about making the most of theirs.

Aside from all the scare stuff about someone having to deal with your estate if there is no will, there are some basic assumptions that we may have regarding inheritance law which are inaccurate. Your money may not go where you want it to go and to add insult to injury (after
the 40 percent tax you already paid on your money while you were alive) the government is waiting to take another 40ish percent more plus intestate fees - if you're not careful.

Now we plan on spending all our money before we're gone (and you can hear our children commenting in the background, "And we'll help!" Actually it's a lot more fun to have a burster and spend it all when you're with the ones you love!

But if something should happen along the way, it would be really nice if your money went where you intended it to. Here are some things that we've learned about wills:

- Free will storage isn't (there's something in the fine print which makes the law firm eligible for fees upon providing the will)
- Check your exec - is your executor who you think it is or has a lawyer / law firm name been added in there too?
- If there is a law firm name in there, be prepared for you loved ones to hand over 4-5 percent of the money you worked so hard for to the lawyers.
- And if there is no will, be prepared for your loved ones to hand over your hard earned money to the government while the government decides where your money is to go (and you can bet it doesn't all pass on to your family!).

If there is no will, your money may not even go where you want it to. Without a will, your money goes to next of kin, period. So if something happened to me, my next of kin would be Steve. Now that's okay because I know he will ensure that my daughter gets her share of the estate - but what if something happened to him before he could do that? Luckily I have very honest stepchildren and again think this would be taken care of in the way that we would want. If the reverse happened and Steve went first, the same rules would apply. Without a clear document stating what you want done, the government applies just one rule, next of kin - okay for regular families, but should be spelled out for blended families.

The inheritance 'pie' is small enough after the government takes its first handful, we don't need to let both the government and the lawyers have a free-for-all with our loved ones' money after we're gone. A will isn't about you, it's about the ones you love...

Italy Bound

We left yesterday for Steve's annual long motorbike trip and my annual pilgrimage to Italy. This trip combined things we both really enjoy, the twisting roads across Europe and through the Alps for Steve and everything Italian for me!

The overnight ferry from Hull is a great start - even if we do have to sleep in bunk beds! There's a nice restaurant on board that we always go to and this trip they had dancing in the lounge afterward which was tons of fun. We love to go dancing and don't get to go very often - usually because the music doesn't start until 10:30 or 11:00 and I'm in bed at 9:00! We took full advantage, were on the floor for every dance and closed the place down.

After a slightly sluggish start, we breakfasted, togged up in our 30 pounds of leathers and headed off into wildest Belgium. Actually, there may not be any wilds in Belgium, it is the nearest, tidiest country I've seen, even the roads are straight. We had a leisurely day and
after a tootle down the winding road through the Not-Mosel Valley we arrived at our Hotel Karlsmuhle (for 5 years we thought we were going through the Mosel Valley and Steve discovered we weren't. It's not the Mosel Valley. We don't know where it is now, but we do know where it's not!).

Good solid German dinner, pork, cream sauce, locally picked mushrooms and locally produced wines - you can see the vineyards from the hotel windows. More music after dinner! A German band playing all American songs, and they were very good at it. We had a fun listen and
singalong with all the folks in the room, but managed to get to bed before any dancing ensued.

More Germany today.

The B&B Lifestyle

On our travels this summer, we've been staying at B&B's and I am fascinated by the lifestyle of the owners. Notice I said lifestyle, not business. The lifestyle is a very interesting one and seems to be fairly consistent, the business is what the individual owners make of it.

B&B's are quite popular as an economical alternative to a hotel here in the UK and in Europe. In the US, they often tend to compete with hotels, but provide a nicer experience (better food, better accomodations.

What is the B&B lifestyle? Find a lovely, good sized house in an area which people love to travel to. Furnish it well and fit out several of the bedrooms for guests, while maintaining a private owner's accomodation. Guests come in the afternoon, want some advice on where to eat dinner and maybe a cup of tea. They get a key and can come and go as they need to during the evening. In the morning, guests have a homemade breakfast and head out shortly thereafter. Rooms need to be 'turned' and readied for the next set of guests.

B&B owners, while not making a fortune, have a lifestyle. I've seen families working together getting rooms ready, in the garden. I hear parents talking with their children while making the breakfast for the guests. I see relaxed living where people have time to talk to the people visiting, to their families, to each other. Often folks who are tired of long hours, stressful work environments, living their lives away from their families find the B&B lifestyle quite appealing.

Of course running a B&B is work, it's not all beautiful country living and swanning about. Some of it can be quite manual and some is quite repetitive (the beds must be made every day, it must be spotless, renovations are work!). There are also customers, some are wonderful, some are less so. Depending upon the B&B, the money can be sufficient to replace someone's 'office' income or it can simply be a supplement. In some instances with the bigger B&Bs or guest houses, it allows both parents to stay home with their children or two partners to work together building a lifestyle-based business.

Some additional thoughts and links on the topic can be found here or do a search on how to start and run a B&B.

It's an interesting option for folks who want to spend some of their 750,000 Hours who want to transition from spending their time with the people they work with to spending time with the people they love.

The Hills of Yorkshire - Again!

Now that we've ridden the tandem for a few hundred miles, it was time to take it back to JD Cycles in Ilkley for a tuneup and check - make sure all is working properly and discover if any of those noises were significant! Since Ilkley is in Yorkshire and a 'mere' 40 miles away, we decided to make an overnight trip of it and ride over and back.

Beautiful sunny day leaving Blackburn, so nice that we decided to ride 'over the top' and drop down into Whalley. Then we skirted around the foot of Pendle, going through Whiswell, Pendleton and Downham, Rimington - some of the prettiest villages in the area.

There was quite a bit of uphill going on, and somehow we had a 'net uphill' all day! It was a good ride in what I suspect is Yorkshire's most beautiful time of year - all the gardens are in full bloom. Many of the stone houses are covered in climbing roses.

Very nice B&B in Ilkley and after an exploration of the town (a mini Harrogate perhaps), we went to Bar T'at named after the song Ilkley Moor Bhat 'at (translation: on Ilkley Moor without a hat) and had the place to ourselves, along with more than we could eat. On of the things we're finding is that many restaurants and tearooms are closed early in the week so finding a place to eat can be tricky, but this was very good!

Full English breakfast to fuel us for the day and over at the bike shop for our 9:00 appointment. We had a long list of things to be done and the final bits of kit needed for the big trip. Didn't find
most of the kit, but we did get a good tune up and some advice on braking and cornering. And after a very Italian coffee at a shop around the corner, we headed off for Austwick.

This was going to be our short day, about 20 miles - which was good because the day before's 40ish had been quite rigorous. Unfortunately the cookie we used as a map measuring device did not provide the necessary accuracy and our 20 mile day turned out to be 40! Ack! And guess what? Net uphill again!

We even came over that monster hill into Settle, from the opposite direction!

There were two 'I can't pedal anymore' stops, but we aren't totally pathetic. We are going further, faster and in higher gears so that's some consolation - I think!

Austwick is nestled in a valley (some downhill, yipee!), flower-covered stone houses many of which were built in the 1600 and 1700's. We stated at the Gamecock Pub, owned by a French chef and oo la la, the country French cuisine was wonderful! After a charcuterie platter with the best pork terrine we'd ever had, I had the cassolet and Steve had lapin. No dessert, we were too stuffed!

On the way back from Austwick to Pleasington, we went over a big hill - a very big hill! It took us two hours to get up it and 5 minutes to get down! Key learning for us - if there are no bicycles on the road, there must be a reason why!