Richard, look at the size of the expansion joints, they look really scary the first time you cross the bridge and they don't get much better.
Marjorie, you would not have liked this at all, too high, too fast, and too open.
So So Cal
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Riding over the Vincent Thomas Bridge
Check the video riding from San Pedro to Terminal Island over the Vincent Thomas Bridge, California.
Richard, look at the size of the expansion joints, they look really scary the first time you cross the bridge and they don't get much better.
Richard, look at the size of the expansion joints, they look really scary the first time you cross the bridge and they don't get much better.
USS Iowa
Today we rode over to San Pedro on the scoot to check out the USS Iowa in her permanent berth.
Of course when you go aboard there is a photo op, we bought a couple of pictures.
This is a little bit about the ship known as the battleship of presidents.
She carried FDR, Ronald Reagan and George W. H. Bush (the better one of the two)
The nickname of the ship is "Big Stick" for obvious reasons.
Her armament was impressive when she was commissioned and was added to or modified as developments took place. Her nine 16" - 50 caliber guns made her one of the supreme battleships of all time.
Six forward and three aft 16" guns. The turret armor was capable of withstanding a direct hit. Each turret when fully armored and carrying ammunition weighed as much as a WW 2 destroyer, about 2,000 tons.
The ship has only recently opened to the public and much modification is taking place. In the future expanded tours and facilities are planned. Anne and I will be returning periodically to check out the progress.
This is the cabin used by presidents when they were on board.
Not exactly the Ritz but a great security team!
On the lounge deck with Palos Verdes in the background. No drinks with little umbrellas here! In fact no drinks at all, nor are there any bathrooms on board.
Well not for the public, they must have had bathrooms otherwise the cruising range would have been very short.
In the mess hall, Anne has a replica WW2 food ration book from the UK sent to us from Bletchley Park by Mike and Mary Irwin. Bletchley Park was the home of the WW2 code breakers and specifically Alan Turing the pioneer of modern computing science. Boy I wonder what he could have done with the computing power of a modern PC.
Looking back from the ship towards the Vincent Thomas bridge.
Note the Disney Cruise liner in the left of the picture.
The parking lot for the battleship visit is gigantic, there should never be a problem finding somewhere to park. The hard part is finding your way out.
Looking from the ship I was able to spot my bike. How one might ask oneself?
Because the sun was blinding me with the reflection from the chrome.
The reason it looked so great was because whilst I was in Europe, Leon took my bike and gave it the mother of all detailing.
Barb bought him the ultimate in chrome polish and he put it to good use.
I'm almost afraid to ride it in case I get it dirty.
I took a video riding over the Vincent Thomas bridge, after a bit of editing it will be posted to the blog.
Those of you afraid of heights or of a nervous disposition should not watch.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Of course when you go aboard there is a photo op, we bought a couple of pictures.
This is a little bit about the ship known as the battleship of presidents.
She carried FDR, Ronald Reagan and George W. H. Bush (the better one of the two)
The nickname of the ship is "Big Stick" for obvious reasons.
Her armament was impressive when she was commissioned and was added to or modified as developments took place. Her nine 16" - 50 caliber guns made her one of the supreme battleships of all time.
Six forward and three aft 16" guns. The turret armor was capable of withstanding a direct hit. Each turret when fully armored and carrying ammunition weighed as much as a WW 2 destroyer, about 2,000 tons.
The ship has only recently opened to the public and much modification is taking place. In the future expanded tours and facilities are planned. Anne and I will be returning periodically to check out the progress.
This is the cabin used by presidents when they were on board.
Not exactly the Ritz but a great security team!
On the lounge deck with Palos Verdes in the background. No drinks with little umbrellas here! In fact no drinks at all, nor are there any bathrooms on board.
Well not for the public, they must have had bathrooms otherwise the cruising range would have been very short.
In the mess hall, Anne has a replica WW2 food ration book from the UK sent to us from Bletchley Park by Mike and Mary Irwin. Bletchley Park was the home of the WW2 code breakers and specifically Alan Turing the pioneer of modern computing science. Boy I wonder what he could have done with the computing power of a modern PC.
Looking back from the ship towards the Vincent Thomas bridge.
Note the Disney Cruise liner in the left of the picture.
The parking lot for the battleship visit is gigantic, there should never be a problem finding somewhere to park. The hard part is finding your way out.
Looking from the ship I was able to spot my bike. How one might ask oneself?
Because the sun was blinding me with the reflection from the chrome.
The reason it looked so great was because whilst I was in Europe, Leon took my bike and gave it the mother of all detailing.
Barb bought him the ultimate in chrome polish and he put it to good use.
I'm almost afraid to ride it in case I get it dirty.
I took a video riding over the Vincent Thomas bridge, after a bit of editing it will be posted to the blog.
Those of you afraid of heights or of a nervous disposition should not watch.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:San Pedro, California
Friday, September 14, 2012
Home Again
Now that we are back home, here is a wrap up from the trip.
The bikes performed really well, no problems apart from the color, I can see why they rented them, they could never have sold them with that sparkly blue and purple paint job.
I will add a video of autobahn riding later when I have it put together.
Here is a salute to the people who made it possible,
Anne and Kelly.
And to my riding buddy Jeff, never complained about anything, even when I made him eat that giant pizza!
OR
That giant Wiener Schnitzel!
That is another one crossed off the bucket list.
More Travels with Norm real soon.
The bikes performed really well, no problems apart from the color, I can see why they rented them, they could never have sold them with that sparkly blue and purple paint job.
Here is a salute to the people who made it possible,
Anne and Kelly.
Thank you!
And to my riding buddy Jeff, never complained about anything, even when I made him eat that giant pizza!
OR
That giant Wiener Schnitzel!
That is another one crossed off the bucket list.
More Travels with Norm real soon.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Ready to head home
A rainy morning in Munich, looks like winter is about to start here.
We are on the way back to sunny SoCal.
We have a few pictures of crazy stuff we saw on our trip.
The red light district kinda sorta in Munich.
Men's room in Innsbruck.
Beer vending machine in the hotel in Innsbruck.
On a bike in Bressanone.
10 Euro ($12.25 each) beer in St. Marks square Venice.
On the banks of the Danube.
A welcoming sign in Faak Am See.
Full English breakfast in Austria?
Bongs 20% off.
And these were the choices of bongs.
This is a picture of the Sofitel in Munich, the hotel is just outside the main train station.
This is a picture published in Life magazine in the 1930s, at that time the hotel was called the Post,
More from the airport.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
We are on the way back to sunny SoCal.
We have a few pictures of crazy stuff we saw on our trip.
The red light district kinda sorta in Munich.
Men's room in Innsbruck.
Beer vending machine in the hotel in Innsbruck.
On a bike in Bressanone.
10 Euro ($12.25 each) beer in St. Marks square Venice.
On the banks of the Danube.
A welcoming sign in Faak Am See.
Full English breakfast in Austria?
Bongs 20% off.
And these were the choices of bongs.
This is a picture of the Sofitel in Munich, the hotel is just outside the main train station.
This is a picture published in Life magazine in the 1930s, at that time the hotel was called the Post,
More from the airport.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Munich
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Last Night in Europe
Here we are at the end of our European motorcycle tour, everything went really well.
Our first day out of Munich to Salzburg was in heavy rain, the second day was wet on the road but not raining, after that we had nothing but sunshine.
It has been all in all a fantastic trip. Jeff and I spent a year planning and booking the trip and it all went well. Each hotel was ready and expected us, there were no surprises, just a really good experience.
I am going to claim a new worlds record, I have spent two weeks in Europe and have not got a speeding ticket (well not that I know of)
Tomorrow I will post a new blog with some of the strange and crazy things we have seen.
All the best,
Norm.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Our first day out of Munich to Salzburg was in heavy rain, the second day was wet on the road but not raining, after that we had nothing but sunshine.
It has been all in all a fantastic trip. Jeff and I spent a year planning and booking the trip and it all went well. Each hotel was ready and expected us, there were no surprises, just a really good experience.
I am going to claim a new worlds record, I have spent two weeks in Europe and have not got a speeding ticket (well not that I know of)
Tomorrow I will post a new blog with some of the strange and crazy things we have seen.
All the best,
Norm.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Munich
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Monday
We went out for dinner last night in the old part of town.
This time I was the one who had something that I just had to finish.
Before
After
It had to have been the biggest ice cream I have ever eaten!
The hotel, Die Grauner Baum, is very large and is in fact several hotels combined.
Whilst they have done a very good job of modernizing and adding features, there are some things that just defy fixing. The sound insulation for example, the church bells start at 6 and there is no way that you will not hear them.
The plumbing is very loud.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
This time I was the one who had something that I just had to finish.
Before
After
It had to have been the biggest ice cream I have ever eaten!
The hotel, Die Grauner Baum, is very large and is in fact several hotels combined.
Whilst they have done a very good job of modernizing and adding features, there are some things that just defy fixing. The sound insulation for example, the church bells start at 6 and there is no way that you will not hear them.
The plumbing is very loud.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Bressanone
Cortina to Bressanone
We walked around Cortina this morning and found a lot of car club type activity.
The Ferrari owners club were there showing off the cars and maybe a bit of ego!
We ran into two guys wearing tee shirts, one said Cor and the other said Tina, they were from, wait for it, the Cortina owners club.
We chatted for a while and they were surprised that I got the connotation, I told them about a Cortina parked next to our hotel. See below.
This was an iconic car of the 1960s, if you had a Cortina 1600 GT you were the cats ass back then.
Of course the motorcycles parked next to it have bigger engines.
In fact that Cortina engine would not run the A/C on my truck.
We rode out by Lake Misurina with 14 hairpin turns in short succession.
Big old Harleys, poor handling, no performance at low revs, not ideal, but what else would we ride?
The scenery was absolutely stunning,we came out through the Dolomites into a long valley and headed to Bressanone.
We stopped at a ruined 15th century castle, largely because we thought that there might be a useable 15th century rest room.
No such luck, we had to ride on to the hotel.
OK it was not far away, but Ms. GPS got us into a pedestrian only zone, fortunately a young guy came and asked where we were headed, he gave us directions out of the zone.
Down town.
The main drag.
Norm
More from Innsbruck tomorrow.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The Ferrari owners club were there showing off the cars and maybe a bit of ego!
We ran into two guys wearing tee shirts, one said Cor and the other said Tina, they were from, wait for it, the Cortina owners club.
We chatted for a while and they were surprised that I got the connotation, I told them about a Cortina parked next to our hotel. See below.
This was an iconic car of the 1960s, if you had a Cortina 1600 GT you were the cats ass back then.
Of course the motorcycles parked next to it have bigger engines.
In fact that Cortina engine would not run the A/C on my truck.
We rode out by Lake Misurina with 14 hairpin turns in short succession.
Big old Harleys, poor handling, no performance at low revs, not ideal, but what else would we ride?
The scenery was absolutely stunning,we came out through the Dolomites into a long valley and headed to Bressanone.
We stopped at a ruined 15th century castle, largely because we thought that there might be a useable 15th century rest room.
No such luck, we had to ride on to the hotel.
OK it was not far away, but Ms. GPS got us into a pedestrian only zone, fortunately a young guy came and asked where we were headed, he gave us directions out of the zone.
Down town.
The main drag.
Norm
More from Innsbruck tomorrow.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Bressanone
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Evening in Cortina
We went out for dinner, Jeff wanted typical Italian pizza, we found a really nice place.
Unfortunately the worst kind of British tourists were there, 12 of them at one table, and Dougie was holding court. Anne can explain that one too.
The food was very good.
Before!
In fact Jeff had a whole big pizza to himself.
After.
I just had a small house salad and a yoghurt.
We ended up in a beer STUBE and met a very nice young couple from Colorado.
We drank a few brewskies together and shot the breeze for a while.
Tomorrow we head out for Bressanone or Brixen, depending if you are Italian speaking or German speaking.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Cortina D'Ampezzo
At the top
Having a brew at the ski hut.
What view!
More if we make it down OK.
This mobile hotspot makes it possible to blog from anywhere.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
What view!
More if we make it down OK.
This mobile hotspot makes it possible to blog from anywhere.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Cortina
We are headed up the mountain on the Faloria cable car.
It goes up to 2113 meters, or 6900 feet.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
It goes up to 2113 meters, or 6900 feet.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Leaving Venice
El is all dressed up and ready for the trip to Cortina D'Ampezzo.
The hotel is fantastic, very modern and with all facilities such as A/C and elevators.
The restaurant was available on the patio in the evening and was very good.
There is also a full bar, very important.
More from Cortina later.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The hotel is fantastic, very modern and with all facilities such as A/C and elevators.
The restaurant was available on the patio in the evening and was very good.
There is also a full bar, very important.
More from Cortina later.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Mestre
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