Thu 28.04.2011 – After leaving Gap we made for the town of Digne Les Bains about 88 km along Route 85. We stopped first at a very small town named Sisteron built on the side of a mountain with a fast flowing river bisecting it. The mountains were vertical in parts with rock climbers having an outing. And they reckon bikers take risks? A sign said the rock was formed from when limestone was laid down in the Jurrasic Period when this area was under the sea. ...

Wed 27.04.2011 – After Milan we decided to depart Italy for France. On the Autostrada you have to pay. You collect a ticket at the start and then before exiting you place it into a machine that calculates your toll, insert the required coins, boom gate opens and away you go. All good until we (Greg) took a wrong exit and somehow got back on to the Autostrada minus the ticket. We still can't figure out how we did that. Anyway, we reach the toll booth with no...

Tuesday 26.04.2011 - we rode the short 114 km to Milan and rocked up early at our the Hotel Monopole that was about 4 km from the centre of the city. The main aim of our visit was to fulfil a basic need that Kerrie has - shoe shopping! We walked to the Metro about 300 metres from our hotel. On walking through a small park on the way we noticed several low lifes sitting down watching us. As we approached a ticket vendor machine one, who had obviously followed us, ...

Monday 25.04.2011 - ANZAC Day. The first time in many, many years that we have not been up at the crack of dawn to attend a Dawn Service. We did take a moment however, to remember those who have served our country. We had decided the day before to ride to St. Moritz as it is only 80 km each way. On the way up we reached a plateau and wondered why it suddenly became so much colder. We soon found out as we rode around the edge of a lake covered with floating, bro...

Sunday 24.04.2011 - after the disappointment of not riding Stelvio Passo we decided to find a place on the shores of Lake Como so that we could ride around it, a journey of about 155 km all way round. Being Lake Como, most digs are expensive. Luckily Kerrie found on the net the Residence Gerano that is right on the lake. It is a bit tired but was clean and tidy and had secure, underground parking for the P-D. We booked in at about 11.30 am, dumped our panniers e...