Netherlands - Salter's travels

It is a relatively short hop from Rome to Florence (Firenze), the capital of Tuscany. Our immediate concern arriving here was the ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitato). This prohibits through traffic and limits access to residents with permits. Fortunately for us, it turned out not to apply to motorcycles. Happy days and further evidence that a bike really is the ideal tool for an Italian road trip. As we had been travelling around I had been considering how things might have worked out if we had brought Baloo. Overall, I think it would have been terrible. Like in many European countries, we would have essentially been confined to the motorway network and finding parking would be very difficult. Visiting popular cities and other tourist destinations would be possible, if restricted, by bobbing in on the small motorbike for a few hours. The national parks all have weight restrictions and would be completely off limits. Meanwhile, we found our B&B, parked the bike in a secure garage, had a shower and were out wandering the city in a thoroughly comfortable and relaxed way.

Florence is a lovely place. Far less of the tourist hustle than Rome. Some fantastic architecture, shops, restaurants and bars. We happily wandered around for a few hours taking in the artisan street traders, the artists and street musicians. All very comfortable and relaxed. Eventually we came across a small restaurant that offered us a vegetarian tasting menu. A lot of very small courses that showed off their culinary skill. Each course was matched with a wine and the whole meal took well over two hours. It was spectacular. A remarkable range of flavours and textures served in imaginative ways that allowed you to really focus on, and enjoy the food. Throughout Italy we have been consistently impressed by the food and this feast was the perfect highlight.

Next day we left for Barolo. Sadly we could not stay longer in Florence but one day I would like to come back and explore it a bit further. The fastest way would have been the coastal motorway but we took to the mountains. Yet another beautiful area of Italy and a fantastic place to travel on a motorbike. Arriving at another lovely agriturismo just outside of the town of Barolo we asked about wine. Barolo wine is one of Diane’s favourite so we really wanted to get a local bottle. We were directed to the building at the end of the agriturismo, which turned out to be a winery. Here a lovely couple made wine from their small vineyard. Within 30 minutes of getting off the bike we were tasting some of most fabulous wines with locals. Sometimes everything just seems to work out really well.

Due north in the morning up into the Aosta valley. First we crossed the wide flat plains as we passed Turin and then the Alps began to rise in front of us. Entering the mouth of the valley, the mountains start to close in around you. This is a beautiful drive despite the motorway carving its way up the valley. To the right is the Matterhorn and left is Mont Blanc. At the city of Aosta we leave the busy valley and go right up a much smaller valley to the Colle del Gran San Bernardo at 2472m. The road works its way steadily upwards. There was little traffic so we could lean into the wide open corners a little. The sun was shining. The valleys opened up beneath us and the views were spectacular. Coming south, the Splügen Pass had been cold and bit tricky. The Gran San Bernardo was just a simple, easy pleasure. In 1045 a large hospice was built near the top of the pass to given shelter to travelers. From the 16^th century, the canons of the hospice bred the large Molossian dogs that eventually became the famous San Bernardo with their reputation for finding safe trails through the snow and rescuing travellers from bad weather and avalanches. We were reminded of this proud historic heritage by a box of stuffed toys as we crossed the border into Switzerland.

I had been a bit concerned that by the time we were heading north again, the weather might have started to turn cold. In fact, I had carried a pair of long, thermal leggings all the way around Italy just in case of this eventuality. It was not cold. In fact the weather, for a drive through Switzerland, was perfect. The first snow of the year was clean and white on the mountains. The forests were resplendent with the colours of autumn. The sun shone and the road was dry. We left the main road after Martigny and took a loop over the hills by Gstaad to Bern just for the pleasure of it. By the evening we were in Germany and a lovely hotel in the Black Forest.

Next day we dropped down onto the Rhine autobahn and unleashed the KTM. It really is very fast. Much faster than I am. On the autobahn, where this sort of thing is legal, I took it up to 230 kph (142 mph). The bike was still keen to go faster and urged me on but it was enough for me and I throttled back to a more comfortable cruising speed. One where I can relax a bit instead of having my buttocks permanently clenched. Even so, the bike can devour the miles. We skipped past several roadworks and traffic jams without barely slowing. By late afternoon we were in Amsterdam.

We enjoyed our stay in Amsterdam back in July so we had booked a hotel for a couple of nights. Autumn was clearly advancing on the city but there was still plenty of street life. We pottered around for a while enjoying the city and reflecting on the end of the road trip. All too soon we were on the ferry back to Newcastle. In the ship’s restaurant, we had prepaid the evening meal. Apparently this covered two of the three possible courses. Diane examined the menu and asked if she could just have the soup and pudding. This seemed quite acceptable however, the waiter considered a single dessert to not be the equivalent of a full main course and so he brought Diane three Crème Brulé. And she ate them all.

Amsterdam is another busy capital city but completely different to Paris. Whereas Paris got to feel a bit frantic and very commercial at times, Amsterdam is altogether much more laid back and relaxed. The whole city exudes an air of tolerance and tranquillity. Apart from the cyclists – they will run you down if you get in their way. Away from the cycle lanes a heady mix of cheese, tulips, legal prostitutes and cannabis seems to keep most people cheerful and good humoured.

The city was built on a swamp. Amsterdam’s history is all about ships and commerce so Amsterdam is all about canals and dams. The whole city is criss-crossed with canals. Rather surprisingly, to me, it does not smell swampy and there are very few mosquitos. I don’t know how this is done but it is very impressive. The canals are lined with houseboats and packed with a wide variety of vessels, many of which are carrying tourists. The possibilities span a full gamut from a private tour in a smart, flashy boat with a bar to bumbling around on your own in a pedalo. We chose a middle route with a company called “Those Dam Boat Guys”. I liked their sense of humour and found their website especially irresistible when I noticed that the language options included “Swashbuckler”. We turned up to find a smallish boat with a dozen fellow tourists. Our guide did indeed have sense of humour and the whole tour turned out to be great fun and very informative. In his introduction concerning eating, drinking, smoking or whatever he explained “Do what ever you want just don’t be a dick about it”. This seemed like good guidelines and I suspect much of Amsterdam runs along similar lines.

Diane and I are vegetarian. We enjoy eating out but sometimes this can be a bit tricky. The situation is generally improving with each year but even so we occasionally get treated as if we have a disease. Once place we visited last year simply said “No”. More precisely they said “Non” and explained that this was because everyone ate meat. Another place helpfully offered to pick the pieces out meat out at no extra cost. We are regularly offered fish and once got told that it was ok for vegetarians to each chicken. I tried to explain that there are no rules, just personal preference but the notion of voluntarily not eating meat was well beyond the waiter’s experience. So a genuine vegetarian restaurant where we can relax and enjoy the food without worrying about what we are eating is like a breath of fresh air sometimes. Amsterdam has loads of vegetarian and vegan restaurants. We only had enough time to choose a handful and some of the food was terrific. Punjabi Crème Brulé – a very well executed Brulé with Indian spices, flame grilled whole aubergine with a creamy sauce, roasted cauliflower with fried polenta. Some of the street food was really good too. I particularly liked a soft tortilla filled with mixed forest mushrooms and onion.

We walked the streets, looked at the buildings, explored the red light district, meandered through street markets and sat out in the pavement cafes. We also visited a couple of coffee shops. In Amsterdam “coffee shop” is a euphemism for cannabis seller. But only when the sign outside the shop states exactly that “coffee shop”, no more or less. There are many cafes and other establishments that sell coffee so signs like “fresh coffee”, “finest coffee to go” or simply just “coffee” abound but you will not find the weed here. To confuse matters further, coffee shops often sell coffee along with the finest bud. Back in the 70s the Dutch government chose to differentiate between ‘hard’ drugs, those which were clearly harmful and ‘soft’ drugs, like cannabis that are far less of a problem. The authorities decriminalised soft drugs so that they could concentrate resources on solving the anti-social impact of hard drugs. This was, for the most part, very successful and since then over 200 coffee shops have opened in Amsterdam. A whole cannabis culture has developed around the city attracting many tourists each year. The coffee shops cannot advertise but inside you will find racks of hashish, weed, oils, ready-rolled joints and so on. Also, many people happily sitting around blowing smoke and looking comfortably relaxed. We did indulge. It was fun, like a flashback to my student days when, of course, I never inhaled. Realistically, I did not like the actual smoking part so maybe, if we ever go back, I’ll try a cookie.

After a week in Amsterdam and good dose of relaxed tolerance we headed for the UK. Time to start thinking about a new kind of life without a truck.