Beura Guzzi friends rally and Switzerland ( and Lichtenstein)

We arrived at the Guzzi meeting early, one of the first arrivals and met Monica who I had been talking with as one of the organisers,  she gave us a few tips of where to put our tent. At this point we had almost the pick of the place and decided to camp under a tree offering some shade. 

After getting sorted out we went of for a well deserved cold beer. The rally is free and they make money from the bar and food, we had to get tokens for beer, a fiver for a beer which was a bit expensive but when you like at what you get for free you don't mind paying.  We heard an English voice and we made ourselves known, Paul, who had lived in Germany for decades and knew the rally well having been there many times. A few beers and we got on well, Paul said to get the ribs to eat, they were being cooked on a massive BBQ , the flames were so high they had to take the tiles off the roof so as not to set fire to the building, also using a hose to stop the timbers being burned! Paul got us a massive section of ribs which were incredible. 

Jake and Ali appeared at some point and the evening degenerated into one of these nights.

Saturday morning arrived along with the sun so we had to get up, after a coffee the Scottish contingent walked to the town for breakfast and an attempt to find a proper toilet, none of us were happy with the squat toilets at the site but unfortunately they seem to be a thing in these parts, this led to much moaning and to some unwanted squat exercises!,

The evening passed with the usual rally nonsense,  drinking, dancing at at one point Ali persuaded Jake to get his bike out of the van only to be told he couldn't drive it into the dancing area.  We met our pal Steva from near Genoa and one or two other Guzzi people until it was time for bed.

I was up early on Sunday and saw a fire at the end of the field, not good, especially when it appeared to be a mk2 lemans on fire, very sad . We said goodbye to Ali and Jake and done a quick exit towards Switzerland. 

Switzerland,  my almost least favourite Euro country,  not for scenery at which it excells but for the prices, robbing bastards,  of course that was before we went into lichtenstein for a quick stop, total robbing bastards,  but it was our 63rd country we have ridden our bikes in so it had to be done.

So all good, now in France for a few days camping so we will see what that brings, keepin on keeping on ....

 tent up

I want one  now, a Guzzi Ercole 

fully faired version

Paul and I shooting the shit

different but the same 

hidden from the sun

sidecar corner

ribs being cooked

jake And Ali

Alessandro, big fan of Scotland 

Steva 

we were pissed at this point, Steven and Monica 3rd 4th from left

sad

Switzerland 

English guy who works as a bus driver here bought this 3 years ago

warm outside our digs 

a castle in Lichtenstein 

really not worth the effort 

Nice passes

pino, German sicilian on his way to sicilia stopped for a chat

Nice toon

old school

And then a night at a former colleague from Fiona in bern for a catch up and today France 

We keep searching for the unexpected but so far it's still the same ........

My Italian home, a visit to Bra and Ameno

A fantastic weekend in Rocchetta Nervina, catching up with family and paying respects at the Cemetery,  Rocchetta seems to be getting busier and busier, so much that they had a police roadblock to stop the tourists parking their cars too close. OK if you have a parking space but if you don't and the village is too busy you have to park about a km away, such is the price of Popularity. 

The pictures tell the story ..

busy

party night, just for us...

looking good 👍 

swimming in the river

my favourite photo

Fiona enjoying the pasta

The band

early on

slightly later

even had our own garage

a braw night oot wi family 

Of course that evening we drank a bit much and left with a bit of a hangover. Taking the demanding  road  over Valle roja, always a sobering experience as its very high with extreme hairpins and big drops! The Col De Tende was open for the first time in years so we took the opportunity to take the pass and the tunnel ( it was ruined in a landslide a few years ago but is now open 15 minutes each way for single lane traffic) It was a bit quieter and we both agreed it was the nicest motorcycling we had for a while. A stop on the Italian side after a brief foray into France and then on to Bra for the night, Bra was a nice town and it's quite near to Alba ( the toon not the country )

lunch stop

a happy fiona

a side road in Bra

church of course 

schoolboy humour 

and the schoolboy 

From there we headed North to Lake Orta for a couple of nights, we took the small roads because we weren't in a hurry but be warned they are slow with roundabouts everywhere.  We were lucky to get into our hotel early because half an hour later thunder ,lightning and very heavy rain started but by the time for dinner it had cleared up, result

Nice view

Nice sunset, snow still on the mountain 

and again

That's all for now folks, keep on Keeping on