Dustin's Official 2014 Trip Report Thread

[Dustin]

Photos!

Stopped for a coffee about an hour and a half from Vancouver and saw a Tesla Model S plugged in. Great to see more and more of these awesome cars out on the roads

Roadside stop to send a goodbye message to a dear friend who leaves Canada for a while

Scored two nights free on Canada Day weekend! Woohoo

Arrived in Penticton and took a photo of their 'famous Hollywood sign'

Map of the area. This city is jammed in between two fantastic lakes, Okanagan Lake and Skaha Lake

Checking out the beachfront just a block from our hotel

Spotted an Osprey hanging out nearby! He spotted us, too

Also spotted this beauty of a BMW

And a mama duck with her babies on the lake

The view of Penticton from the Kettle Valley Railway trail

Vineyards all over the Okanagan region of BC. Amazing area

Taking a picture of taking a picture

 

[FZ1inTX]

I wish I had this much time to travel. Thanks for sharing and letting us live vicariously through your camera!

 

[Dustin]

We're home after a great day of riding together. We took the long way home today and ended up doing 500 km (300 miles). It was exceptionally hot for BC today, reaching 35c (95 F) with humidity. It was a really great day, though. I'll post up the rest of my photos below!

Another bird photo

Various photos from the top of the Cascades Lookout at Manning Park. This is a 5 mile climb up from the main highway and you get spectacular views

Mister Frosty and his story

We hit up a highly recommended winery on the way home. Sandra bought two bottles of very lovely wine

A photo of me at our lunch stop yesterday Hillside Winery. Great food

Walkway to another beach along Lake Okanagan

Another shot of the lake

 

[Dustin]

Sunday afternoon my gal and I leave for Europe. This will be my first time ever outside of North America and I'm all kinds of excited. I will be sure to post up in this thread with photos and little bits along the way.

We fly Vancouver to London Heathrow and stay overnight in Gatwick. We'll spend the day in London, probably on a tourist bus tour as we'll no doubt be knackered from the flight and time change. The following day we are flying from Gatwick to Munich and will spend a week with her friends and family in the area. The following week we travel to Italy, primarily in Tuscany and Southern Tyrol. The MotoGP race at San Marino will be happening while we're there and I really want to try and catch the race on TV if I can.

Watch this thread

 

[returnrider]

You will have have a great time, may I be the first to say safe journeys my friend!

 

[Lonney]

Have fun and be safe man. Keep the pics coming!!

 

[Dustin]

Thanks, guys

 

[Dustin]

Today is the last day of my Europe trip and I will be flying out tomorrow morning. I'll start working on posting photos when I get home to a PC I had a tremendous time

 

[Dustin]

Ok! In no particular order:

The oldest public bath house in Munich. Unfortunately, they were closed for the day but we still went to another massive bath house. They call it a sauna landscape and everyone is naked and very European in saunas together

A lovely old Peugeot 205 GTI. We never got these in Canada!

A little bit of Autobahn driving in our rental Opel Adam

A piece of medieval wall in Wasserburg, Germany

More of Wasserburg

The biker hangout of Wasserburg?

Caught a jet at the right time during sunset

Our rental car, the Opel Adam. 1.2L of fury with an Autobahn-verified top speed of 200 kph. I loved driving this little cough lozenge, it's a brilliant little car.

A photo of me at a rural airport

I was driven here for a surprise. Any guesses?

Surprise!

Time to view Bavaria from the air

Every piece of land is cultivated. Even the forests are man-made. Very different from BC

A lovely village on the shores of Lake Chiemsee

King Ludwig's holiday home

Sandra's plane!

 

[Dustin]

Heading through the Alps

Sandra's pilot was a veteran stuntman and he gave her a few loops

Me and my pilot Matthias

Heading through Austria on the way to Italy

Stopped at Lake Garda and the first thing I see is an olive tree!

A lovely little cove at Lake Garda

The dock of our hotel in Sirmione at Lake Garda

Dusk at Lake Garda

Very Italian things in Sirmione

 

[Dustin]

More Italian things

Cars driving through our restaurant

An old dock on the lake

The old castle of Sirmione

Sunset

After some extended rain and mist, we cleared a tunnel in the mountains and arrived in sunny Tuscany

Always taking pictures of bikes and scooters

Random Italian villages

 

[Dustin]

Driving through a tunnel laden with vineyards

Looking at the city of La Spezia from a hilltop

Lots of this in Italy. Brilliant place to drive

UNESCO World Heritage Site of Cinque Terre, Italy

 

[Dustin]

Aprilia RS125. This one was knackered and the chain fell off the rear sprocket

Very Italian

These tiny old roads were brilliant. I absolutely loved driving here, threading the needle between cars and cliffs

Visiting the Mediterranean for the first time!

 

[Dustin]

Immediately went for a swim after this photo. It was so nice, so clear.

Plenty of little lizards on the beaches

Selfie

Ancient village of Populonia. People settled here as far back as 750 BC

This wasn't part of the original settlers but it rocks

This car probably was

Another car in our restaurant

 

[Dustin]

We stayed in the Alpine village of Santa Maddalena right in the Funes Valley at the foot of the Dolomites. It was incredible

We arrived in perfect time to check out the festival they have when they bring the cows down from the mountains into the valley every year

COWS!

They had an oompa band of course

Plenty of beer and laughter to be found

Obligatory bike photos

Our hotel was beautiful and had a hell of a view

The Dolomites

My favourite photo from the trip

 

[Dustin]

Out hiking below the Dolomites. Check out the 'rock' that fell down into the open meadow

2006 metres up and there's an alpine cafe

Alpine meadow

Baa!

Bunny!

The fun mushroom

Sunset on our last night in this lovely valley

The Alps as seen from a service station in Austria

Taking a cab ride to Oktoberfest in Munich. Mercedes cabs are the most common

 

[Dustin]

One of many beer tents. These are temporary structures like only the Germans can do

Taking a carousel ride to see Oktoberfest from above

Another temporary structure

Cute doggie balloon

Old steam train demo

The old fellow operating it was loving the response

Another beer garden

Oops, you lost your lederhosen

The statue of Bavaria

Yes, more

 

[Dustin]

Courtyard of the Munich city hall

More oompa band

Glockenspiel

Royal burial chamber below a church

Old churches abound

Police in Europe are not at all scary and intimidating fear mongers like in North America. As a local told me, 'they are public servants and not oppressors'

Mushroom lady

Flock of... pigeons

Neptune's fountain

The old bath house I mentioned earlier

 

[Dustin]

Visited BMW HQ and their lovely museum while the Rolls Royce exhibition was on

Old Rolls V12

New Rolls V12

BMW Art Car

Lovely colours

Bubble car!

Great displays

Bikes, of course

More old BMWs

The outside

Electric C650!

BMW i8 Electric

BMW HQ

Olympic tower

 

[Dustin]

When you buy a new BMW, you can come here to pick it up. The MotoGP safety car drives you around inside the building to get your new car and drive it away

Trying on the S1000R for size. It was extremely nice

Visited the UNESCO World Heritage City of Regensburg

Old Roman wall from 179 AD

Civilized parking spots for two wheels in Europe

A real snow tire for your scooter. Now we're talking

Regensburg