I left home at 7.20 am. Started down the M7 highway towards Slovenia in a rather chili temperature. Only 6 degrees Celsius. Only 50 km on the trip and I already found myself having a break. Had to visit a friend on the way. Had a great coffee and we chatted for about an hour before I moved on.
Temperature had risen a bit by then so I was feeling rather comfy. Next stop was for fuel in Slovenia. I grabbed a sandwich and another coffee and I realised that I forgot to bring spare bulbs so I bought a pack of two. That turned out to be a wise decision as I was already dressed in full gear and started the bike just to read on the computer “LAMPF!”. Great! I decided I will change it at my next stop.
After another 250 km on the road i stopped at an Autogrill to grab another coffee (indeed, I drink a lot of those :-)) and decided to change the bulb at least only to find that the bulb has no problem. It was the electric connector that melted.
Throughout the day I tried to find that piece at various petrol stations. the last one being an Agip station near Verona where the owner told me his brother will take me to a garage that might be open. He did as promised. I followed him on his scooter to a garage dating from the early 80s where cars were covered in dust so thick you couldn’t tell the colour. The guy was just great. He replaced the part in no time and for a cost of 5 EUR. While we were chatting a Fiat stopped by and a young lady jumped out of the car seemingly looking for me. As it turned out i forgot my credit card at the station and she brought it to me. What a positive surprise. That really made my day. I just started the trip but I was stupid enough to leave my card at the station. What a noob!
After my little diversion I headed into Verona. It was around 6.00 pm and temperatures were nearing 30 degrees Celsius. I was overheating. I still had three layers on as the morning was rather cold. I had to quickly find a place to settle for the night and take a shower. I found a small hotel where they had a tiny room available. No parking though. They helped me to park the bike in an enclosed are but that was around 20 minutes walk. No worries. Still better then a fine or worse: a stolen bike. but before heading to the parking are I took a fresh shower that just felt unbelievable. Changed into street clothes and took the bike to the agreed place and left it for the night. As I parked next to a vintage Ferrari I reckoned it’s not my bike that will be gone should someone hunt for a transport that night.
At around 7.30 pm I headed for the city. Found a great pizzeria (what else?), had an excellent dinner then I watched a Real Madrid game on TV with a couple of beers casually watching as the city burst into life as night started to fall then went back to the hotel for a well deserved sleep.
I had better nights to be honest. It was so hot I had to leave the window open for the night but was sleeping just above a wine bar hence party was going on until 4.00 am.
Good night 🙂
Daily data
Total mileage: 837.2 km
Total time on bike: 7h 04m
Average moving speed: 118 km/h
Max speed of the day: 187 km/h