It was a little more than 1 month ago when I got the chance to catch a vacation to Cumbuco, Brazil.

My friend Gui was already going there and I thought that it was one of the opportunity I’m not gonna let go easily…. so I quickly made arrangements at work, sacrifice some days from the Christmas time in Italy and booked my 10 hours  flight Amsterdam-Fortaleza.

I stepped in the plane with -2 degrees and step out +30: enough to forget the previous 10 hours

Landed at Fortaleza, I found a Spanish dude sent there to pick me up with his truck and drove me 40Km in the north to the small fishermen village of Cumbuco.

Cumbuco is another world famous kite surfing Mecca, a places “100% wind guaranteed” confirmed by the fact that in some hotels you won’t pay the night if there’s no wind in the day

I loved the place and the life there.

It’s a touristic place, true, but nothing like big hotels or fancy restaurants…..  it’s an authentic fishermen village with some touristic infrastructures for kite surfers…. not really demanding people.

We stayed in a cool pousada, run by a curious Spanish guy that had left the rat race for an alternative lifestyle in Brasil. I lately got to know his friends, with similar inspiring stories.

Our room was beach front, with a nice veranda with amacas, so typical there, and chairs.

THE KITE SURFING

I was amazed by the weather conditions: +30 during the day, +25 during night, good wind (12-20Knots) from 10am till night, not only good for kite surfing but also to keep the humidity low.

We never suffered for the heat, and the AC wasn’t required to sleep like babies. Kite surfing was the best sleeping pill…

The kite surfing opportunities are different there.
Right in front of our room the large beach lead to the ocean, not a place for beginners and with waves 1 to 2 meters.
A shock for me, used to the flat water of lakes and lagoons

Surfing in the waves is a challenging option, but following a downwinder opens to a range of interesting possibilities.
Downwinder means kite surfing following the wind direction along the coast, moving from one place to another.
Going downwind for about 7Km allowed us to reach a nice – but crowded – lagoon, where locals were standing dangerously close to the water to look at the jumps.
A hat was serving aqua de coco and what I called the “ugly fish”… a dish with a whole grilled fish with a bad face, but good flesh, together with rice, beans, tomatoes and some salade.

Anyway, going for longer downwinder would take to a platform acting like harbor that was affecting the waves in a way that was absolutely fantastic, if I only had knew how to ride them
The place, Cauipe, was a doomed place as we got scared like hell by pales raising just above water and almost not visible, and a current drowning us just there.

Longer downwinds can take you virtually to Guyane and Suriname
The way back from these downwinders is guaranteed by buggy cars that, for a cheap price and some thrill, drive you on the beach as load as they can get.

So, an ocean with waves, downwinder and a lagoon were providing enough variety for my kite surfing week.

BRAZIL

No need to say that 1 week is nothing and I could not see much, anyway I report here what I can…

The food there is just great: great quality meat at the churrascaria’s, like picanha, carne do sol, costela (a whole cow’s rib served with the bone!) together with lots of beans (fajieao) and vegetables were easy to find.

To drink, the amazing juices of caju (my favourite), acai (with cereals, enough to give you energy for 1 day and 1 night, picture on the left), abacaxi and others fruits never saw before.
Or the “agua de coco” sold on the beach: they open an hole in the coconut and put a strow in it for you to drink it out.
And what about capirinha? freshly made, for less than 1 euro a glass….

OK, let’s move on.

I loved Cumbuco because the fishermen are still there, so you can choose to go to touristic places (cheap) or to local’s places (cheapest).

The restaurants for locals don’t serve fish, as they assume fishermen have enough of it, and a plate of meat with vegetables and a fresh juice were at 6 Reais, something like 2.5euro

People are talking to you in Portuguese assuming that you can understand them, in fact they can talk for ages without noticing your empty face showing confusion.

What I didn’t like? The girls.
Not because they’re not beautiful (less than expected, but some are really stunning) but because they play for money.
They would do anyway for free, but tourists are a nice source of income for the low class.
That’s the problem, Brazil has high class and low class, but nothing yet in between. As in many other countries, this separation increase criminality and prostitution.

Can’t really say much more about Brazil, such a big place requires months and some travelling to be evaluated, but at the same time I’m happy that we found a touristic place with some genuine elements in it!

All the photos:

If you’re a Salsa addicted like me, when you travel for pleasure or work you wanna check the local Salsa scene and have a taste of the best clubs and parties around

So many people are asking:
Where to dance Salsa in Amsterdam?
How is the Salsa scene in Holland?
What styles are more danced?

Well, let’s answer one by one.

First of all, I should say that I’m from Milano, Italy, and there the Salsa scene is HUGE… so I was spoiled in a way, but also feed up by the attitude of the dancers there.

Well, after almost 4 years of living and dancing here in Holland I can say that Salsa scene is small but very active!
It’s possible to dance in Amsterdam almost everyday – seriously from Wednesday to Sunday.

For the Salsa tourist coming to Amsterdam is disappoiting to notice that there are not many Salsa Club.
This is because the Salsa scene in Holland is mainly made by parties and school socials that are not very easy to find for the tourists… unless you read this post indeed

About styles, here everything is danced: on1, on2 (that is growing), cuban, chacha, bachata, merengue (as it’s very popular in the ex colonies like Antilles), and even Zouk!
Below some tips about the best clubs and parties to check out.

Clubs

There’s only one Salsa club that I recommend to visit in the city:
Cantinero – Taberna salon de baile – in Marie Heinekenplein.
This is THE place that you don’t wanna miss to see how the local scene is.
If you’re accustomed to big “Salsodromo” like Tropicana (Milano), well you’ll think “is that all??” but don’t understimate this bar/restaurant.
Cantinero is small, rustic, cheap, but still the place where you have a great welcoming warm feeling with the wood decorations and soft lights, together with a crowd that is, well, 100% Amsterdam style with latinos, africanos, Dutch and everything in between

The biggest Salsa school in town, Extremos Dance Company, is teaching there every week day from 7pm to 10pm.
When the classes are over the floors (small and big room) are available for free dancing.
Almost (but never totally) empty on Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesday start getting better but the best day is usually Thursday, when you can dance among beginners as well as professional top dancers in only 5×5 square meters
Fridays are the most busy days, cool before 11sh, become impossibly crowded afterward… good for sociaizing, bad for dancing.
Saturday are less busy then Fridays but not much of dancers around, and Sundays is considered the Cuban night for music played and crowd and can be great.

There are other misleading places in town with attractive names, like La Rumba, El Punto Latino, Brazil Bar… well let me tell you: if you like latin clubs with people looking around and no much dancing then go there.
If you’re looking for Salsa places when you can dance and get to know people, then go somewhere else

Anyway, we’re talking about dancing here so let’s continue with the options.

Badcuyp – this is the cuban club in town – really difficult to find NY or LA dancers there
The best night is on Wednesday, and good thing is that is close to Cantinero if the night is not going as you expected.

Parties

This is actually a too complex and too long list, so I recommend you to check this great agenda at http://www.salsa.nl/Agenda/home.html for a full list.

I just put down a list of the parties I recommend absolutely to go:
- Copa Cabana (every other Friday): it’s out of the center and you’ll probably need a taxi, but crowd is good and goes on till 3am. Also, you can see there people dancing ZOUK, a dance that is popular in few other places outside Holland but still interesting to see.
- SalsaLounge (last Sunday of the month): once more popular, now still attracts many mixed people because has a latin-house room and a Salsa room. It’s good fun and the location (Hotel Arena) is just great to see, even if the floor is unfortunately far to be good.

Recently Amsterdam has lost some of the Salsa action in favor of other cities that now have great parties… the top for me is Utrecht (40Km away from Amsterdam, 30m by train).
If you really want to have a great Salsa night don’t miss these parties:
- Salsa Casa Loca (last Saturday of the month): I always have a blast there, absolutely the best location/dancers/music!
- Winkel Van Sinkel (1st & 3rd Sunday of the month): Very good location and floor, sometime the level of dancers is not very high but I would check it out! Watch out that close at midnight… so be there Dutch time (=early)

I know that is difficult to find updated list of clubs/parties… I remember once in Copenhagen ending up in adresses of clubs that have been closed years ago and was really annoying.

So, feel free to contact me if you’re coming to Amsterdam and will be nice to go out dancing in the right places!

1. beside the historic http://daniele.itvc.net URL (the domain is 5 years old!) the blog is now also reachable at http://www.danielebesana.com

2. As I’m feeling somehow internationalized, I started writing post in both Italian and English languages. To switch from one language to the other, look for the flags on the right column (I’m sure you can find it)

Extremos Show Team performing 2009 show “James Bond” at “I’m not a tourist” Expatica fair, expo for expat living in Netherlands!

Couples: Magda-Zayaad, Linde-Eric, Tatiana-Daniele… before and after the switch

That’s why, after 3 years I’m here again at the starting point of the Amsterdam Half Marathon.

This year I could write a book: “How-NOT-to prepare an half marathon”…

Problem is, after the DamTotDamloop race I didn’t run more than 5km total: first the vacation, then the injury at the little toe and eventually a hell of a busy week for other things.

Furthermore, I was so pessimist about this race that the evening before I went out dancing Salsa till late with access to backstage and free drinks!!!

Well, Sunday morning I woke up at 11 to realize that was a gorgeous fall day, breakfast with pasta “in bianco” (grained bouillon and olive oil, light and effective!), concentration and then go to the Olimpic Stadium for the starting at 2pm.

As usual, thousands of people around with the same passion: run and personal challenge.

Race starts and strange enough I’m not stuck in the people jam, maybe is the pasta, maybe is the perfect temperature, I’m immediately feeling great and I find my pace… to find out after 5K that I was running too fast because the pessimism of the day before became an uncontrolled positive feeling

Till 16K everything good, then the little toe came back bothering me getting swollen, enough to make me think about finishing the last miles barefoot…. worldly!!

But I’m too attached to (these) shoes and I keep on going even if the energies are long gone.

Along the path is always great to see people participation but I’ve to say that after DamTotDamloop night edition… this was more similar to a funeral!!

Positive final result (1h50m), but next time I have to train more ’cause it’s not always possible to try surviving!

Startnummer 24040

Naam Daniele Besana Woonplaats Amsterdam Land NED Afstand Halve marathon Categorie Mrecr Totaal plaats 3555 / 9033 Categorie plaats 3153 Snelheid 11,501 km/uur Bruto tijd 1:54:46 Netto tijd 1:50:04 Netto tussentijden (verschil) 8,9 kilometer 44:05 13,9 kilometer 1:10:31 18,9 kilometer 1:37:54 Uw relatieve finishpositie in het totale deelnemersveld van de Halve marathon: Persoonlijke video Persoonlijke foto

It has been a very special experience!
Just imagine the Sahara dunes falling into a blue lagoon… with a bunch of colored kites.
Forget about hotels, tourists, (in)civilization.
Put instead a camp with tends, bungalows and just a big hut for restaurant and bar.

This was our holiday accomodation in Dakhla, a place where people go for kite surfing of fishing

Wind everyday, sun (but we had 3 drops of rain one morning!) and ~30degrees mitigated by the wind breeze.

We have been freed by any decision for 1 week.
Only thing to choose was the size of the kite so use, also the food was provided with no alternative option…

Our days were like this:

- 7am: natural wake up
- 8am: breakfast with sweet bread, honey, jams, coffee or tea
- 9am: kite surfing
- 1pm: lunch + siesta
- 4pm: kite surfing
- 7pm: sunset
- 8pm: diner + 2 beers
- 9:30-10pm: sleeping like babies

Especially the first days, it was very tiring to kite surf so long!! But has been curious to notice how the body quickly adapt to the strenuous activity and the more we kite surf the less tired we were feeling

After 2 days, the wind during the morning became less (~10knots) with nobody in the water, waiting ~11am for the wind to pick up before starting…. it was a kind of relief for our muscles!!

After a week there, we took the jeep driving us back to the airport, this time with daylight, and we really could notice how far we were from the world, connected with rallies that remember the old glorious Paris-Dakar…

From Dakhla we had fly back to Casablanca for a quick tour of the city, that we maximized visiting the incredible Mosque (so modern, but in antique style!), a nice Hammam (with massages and body scrub), and a great diner in an outdoor restaurant with the last tagine with olives

All the pictures below:

Now I want to describe how is possible to buy an house in Holland and explain why:
- it’s more difficult to be ripped off
- it’s better not to use your savings
- it’s actually like rent from the bank

Buy vs Rent

Renting prices, since I arrived here in 2006, went up of something like +30% in 3 years, and I can assure that they where not cheap before either
The rental market is split between a social system, where there’s a rank-based system to assign houses to a relieved price, and the free market where is normal to pay 1200-1500 euro/month for a decent apartment inside the city.

For people relocating to Netherlands, once realized that this is a place where to stay some years, buy is the best option.
They say that at least 3 years are required not to loose money on the buy/sell procedure, but should take into consideration that NOT buy means pay rent for something like 13-16K euro/year anyway…

House searching

It’s very important to have clear ideas.
Consider that in Holland the banks can load up to 5 times the annual salary: know WHAT we can afford is only one of the important elements to base our research on… city’s neighborhood, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, surface, floor number (ground floors almost always came with some garden) are all things that the sooner you decide less time you’ll loose.

The website of reference for the house search is www.funda.nl
Funda.nl reunites the associations of house agents (makelaar) and lists 90% of the house on the Dutch market.
Spend some time on Funda is a good idea to understand what is on the market, what are the prices and what are the timings… yes, because a good deal in the city is sold in 1 day while appartments on sale since months are indication that something is not good (or is not nice!).

Suggestions: be REALISTIC and QUICK if you don’t want to loose time and opportunities.

Makelaar’s mafia

In Italy we use to have an house agency to whom the owner gave the task to sell.

In Netherlands the system expect an agent of the seller (like Italy) and an agent of the buyer.

This way during all the procedure of searching, negotiation, buy there’s an agent that represent the seller interests and one that represent the owner interests. (at least in theory)

It’s not mandatory to have your own house agent (makelaar), but for who like me has a language bareer, is not familair with the laws, doesn’t want to spend time and wants less risk this should be seen as a sort of insurance to pay…

What a makelaar does?

A makelaar requires “instructions” with details of what we’re looking for at the moment we’re signing the contract (that is exclusive).
From that moment on the makelaar helps the client:

- in the search phase (they get new deals 1-2 days before they’re listed on Funda.nl…..)

- during the house visits (also more than one per house if needed)

- to evaluate the building especially in regards of registry, foundations, checks about apartment and building

- in the negotiation phase, acting on behalf of the client after consultation

- participate on the meetings with the notary for the sale contract and the property change

How-to choose a makelaar?

If someone recommends you one is much better. I entered in the one closer to my place (20 meters).
The contract conditions are more or less standard:

1.5% of the buying price of the house, or an expense refound of ~400euro if you decide to cancel the contract and stop looking for a place. (to avoid people not serious about it)

OK I like this one

Once you find the house you like, the makelaar does more in deep checks in order to verify that everything is OK and provide all the required info: foundations, status of the ground property, owners association…
Valutation done, you can continue with the negotiation.
Nowadays there’s more room for negotiation compared to the past. In my case we lowered around 10% between asked price and final buying price, but don’t take this as a rule because if the asked price is already good can happen that someone will offer even more…

There we go to the notary, already

This is, they say, the only place where first you buy and then you ask the mortgage.

First meeting with the notary is to write the sale contract, that stops any other negotiation, and has around the table the notary, the buyer and both makelaar.
The contract ahs a clause that allows to cancel it if no bank will guarantee you the load… but is always good thing to check with a financial advisor as a first thing to understand if there’s any risk to don’t get the amount we need.
By law, who sell MUST give all the possible information about the property.
If you buy an house and after you discover, for example, that there are toxic materials and the seller was aware of it, the owner will be responbile.

The second meeting with the notary will be after the delivery of the house and once verified that everything is as agreed (the house is still there and nobody damaged it or took something out for example).
In this meeting, where a translator MUST be there by law for all the non-Dutch citizens, the ownership will be officially transferred.

The notary acts as a warranty that everything has been done according to the rules, and can be involved also later if any problem arise… I personally called him because of a delay on the money transfer and he was available to talk and give me advises without sending me any bills (hehehe)

Mortgage hunting
The mortgage, and in general the banks, are working in a very different way compared to Italy… also because the finance business is a pillar of Dutch economy with colossus like ING, Amro, Fortis etc.
Maybe this is the reason why Italian banks are so solid (according to someone) while here they have been bail-out to avoid collapsing…

But we’re trying to buy house so let’s stay focused on finding the best mortgage, right?

First of all the bank can finance up to 125% of the property value.
The property value (execution price, executiewaard) is calculated by a third makelaar, teoretically indipendent, that estimate the value that the house has if the bank needs to see it via auction to a broker.
Usually this is calculated as -10% of the buying price, and is the amount that the bank considers guaranteed with no risk.

125% is calculated over this execution price, and by consequence will be around 110% the buying price.
This allows to have a mortgage that covers the price of the property plus the 10% of associated expenses, in summary:
- 6% is buying tax
- 1.5% for the makelaar
- 1500 euro for the notary (yes, you read well!)
- 300 euro for the execution price calculation (the third makelaar)
- 200 euro for the tranlator (mandatory by law for non Dutch citizens)

So, the first truth is that a down payment is not required to buy an house.

Now, the kind of mortgage is a topic that was difficult to digest and be digested by others…

The most common mortgage type is “interest only”, but what does it mean?
It means that for 30 years (standard time) we pay the interest over the loan, without giving it back to the bank.
So, if you load 100, for 30 years you pay for example the 5.5% of interest over the 100 but at the end, the 100 is still of the bank.

Basically, we’re renting from the bank, but how much will be 100 in 30 years? probably much much much less then your house.

This kind of mortgage is popular also because here in Netherlands there’s a tax relief over the mortgage interest for the house where you reside, so that the government refund the interest in the same percentage as the tax paid…

To clarify: if we’re in the 42% tax bracket, the 42% of interest of the mortgage will be refund.

For example, if a monthly rate is 1400euro gross and is interest only… the tax office will give back ~400 euro.

Clear?

All this will be better explained by a financial advisor. This is not a consultancy really necessary: you can do it yourself if you’ve time and will to go visit banks to find the best solution for you.

There are discussion going on about this financial advisors, because many of them are paid by the banks and not by the clients, and this is not giving warranty that they’re offering the best mortgage rather then the one that gives them more commissions…
I personally choose an advisor with a fixed fee (2750 euro) paid by me (inside the mortgage indeed!) but with no commissions from the bank (by law, the system is transparent now).
He suggested me an interesting mortgage schema and the bank accepted it

There’s still lot to say about the whole procedure, considerations and thoughts…

Dam tot Damloop e’ una corsa di 10 miglia (16.1Km) che parte dalla stazione centrale di Amsterdam e finisce nella vicina cittadina di Zandam… DAM e’ diga in olandese, quindi la corsa e’ da diga a diga.

Solitamente questa gara si svolge la domenica pomeriggio e l’iscrizione va fatta in anticipo perche’ i biglietti vanno a ruba, ma per festeggiare il Giubileo (25 anni) hanno organizzato una corsa aggiuntiva “night edition” che ha attratto ben 25.000 persone!!

Ora, correre mi da’ certe sensazioni, ma correre un evento simile insieme ad altre migliaia di persone e’ una cosa fantastica!

La partecipazione della gente e’ incredibile, con famiglie fuori casa ad incitare i corridori, bambini con mani tese cercando un “gimme five!” e gente che applaude, per non parlare delle bande che suonano lungo il percorso.

Correndo la sera poi aggiunge il fattore luce, con pezzi corsi quasi al buio alternati a zone illuminate a giorno o da candele…. davvero non si vede l’ora di vedere cosa sta per arrivare!!

Parlando della gara, son soffisfatto perche’ non ho avuto modo di allenarmi molto ma dopo i 10Km ho preso un bel ritmo e non mi son sentito stanco!

Qui le foto, specialmente quella dopo l’arrivo col mio amico Casper (e’ un nome).

Ho concluso in un buon 1h 23m, qui sotto i dettagli.

Startnummer 67376

Naam Daniele Besana Woonplaats Amsterdam Afstand 10 Engelse Mijl by night trimloop Categorie 2139e Mrecr Totaal plaats 2378e van 12914 finishers Snelheid 11,601 km/uur Netto tijd 1:23:14 Netto tussentijden (verschil) 2,5 km 13:23 5 km 26:20 (26:20) 7,5 km 39:24 10 km 52:39 (26:19) 12,5 km 1:05:37 15 km 1:18:10 (25:31)

Uw relatieve finishpositie in het totale deelnemersveld van de 10 Engelse Mijl by night trimloop:

Persoonlijke video Persoonlijke foto

Nog meer loopplezier, schrijf je in voor een van de volgende evenementen: Amsterdam Marathon Zondag 18 oktober 2009 PWN Egmond Halve Marathon Zondag 10 januari 2010 Groet Uit Schoorl Run Zondag 14 februari 2010 Voorkom een teleurstelling en schrijf je nu in

A distanza di 2 anni, e dopo aver spergiurato che non avrei fatto mai piu’ una cosa simile, i brutti ricordi se ne sono andati ed e’ tornata la voglia del viaggio in moto Amsterdam-Albiate.

Complici sono stati un calendario favorevole, con giovedi’ 21 Maggio (Ascensione) e lunedi’ 1 giugno (Pentecoste) che hanno consentito di fare una bella settimana a casa con 4 giornate riservate al viaggio.

Il programma e’ stato la fotocopia di 2 anni fa, cioe’ molto semplicemente: guidare fino a Berna, ballare SALSA al Salsa Congress venerdi’ sera, ripartire sabato mattina per raggiungere Albiate.

Il tutto, evitando problemi e intoppi

Bene, venerdi’ 22 Maggio partenza alle 7:30am, direzione sud.

Il tempo e’ bello e si trotta tranquilli verso la Germania, passando il confine e iniziando a godersi l’Autobahn, una delle poche strade al mondo senza limiti di velocita’ per molti tratti.
Questo non significa che e’ una jungla piena di pazzi, pero’ si puo’ fare quello che si fa di solito(cioe’ andare un po’ oltre i limiti)  senza infrangere la legge!

Seguo erroneamente per Hannover e mi ci vogliono un 20Km per capire l’errore mentre viaggio in direzione Russia
Faccio dietrofront e si accende la famosa spia della riserva che mi tormenta per un po’, finche’ non son forzato ad uscire dall’autostrada visto che in Germania c’e’ un benzinaio ogni 60Km e se ti capita come a me di sbagliar strada si resta fregati con le distanze.

Passo Koln (Colonia), Frankfurt (Francoforte).
A volte i nomi italiani son talmente differenti dagli originali che non riconosco le citta’.

Il tempo e’ bello, ogni tanto vedo un nuvolone avicinarsi, un po’ di pioggia e poi me lo lascio alle spalle.

Poco dopo Karlsruhe succede il fattaccio del giorno: mi si apre lo zaino e i vestiti iniziano a volare via! hehe
Perdo 1 paio di jeans Armani e una maglietta Trussardi…. mannaggia mannaggia, ci ero affezionato!!
anche questa e’ capitata!

Inutile tentare di cercarli tornando indietro, per prima cosa non li ho visti e poi anche se li avessi trovati… recuperarli in un’autostrada senza limiti di velocita’ non e’ impresa facile ne’ intelligente.

Seguo anche le indicazioni per raggiungere una stazione di Polizei per vedere se possono aiutarmi, ma poi mentre mi avvicino penso che potrebbero multarmi per non aver curato i miei bagagli….. meglio proseguire: direzione Berna.

Tra benzina, caffe’, stretching e cibo mi fermo piu’ o meno ogni ora.
Finalmente la Germania e’ finita, pago il bollo autostradale svizzero e mi prometto di andarci piu’ tranquillo con l’acceleratore

Dopo 830Km sono a Berna, e mi accordo che fa un caldo boia!
Dopo una giornata col maglione sotto al giubbotto, ora sudo e tolgo tutto il possibile… cercando l’hotel che ho prenotato, quello dove c’e’ il SALSA congress guardacaso.

Arrivo poco dopo le 6, orario perfetto per sistemarsi in camera e rilassarsi un po’.

Scendo per stirarmi una camicia ed incontro Magna, una ballerina che ora sta ad Amsterdam e mi unisco a lei e altre persone per la cena. Potere della SALSA! dove vai trovi gente.

Piu’ tardi son stato alla festa di questo congress, pero’ devo dire che ero abbastanza stanco e non me la son goduta molto… inoltre non mi e’ sembrata niente di eccezionale, quindi la prossima volta (se ci sara’!) meglio evitare questa tappa forzata!

Nanna e poi sveglia alle 10 per lasciare l’hotel e rimettermi in strada: il tempo e’ bello, fa molto caldo e si viaggia bene.
Ma si sale anche, e la temperatura scende quando mi avvicino al Gottardo: che coda!
Macchine e bus fermi, gente in strada a chiacchierare e passeggiare, e io che ci passo in mezzo con la moto chiedendomi cosa c’e’ che non va… e invece e’ perche’ al Gottardo c’e’ un semaforo per far entrare pochi autoveicoli alla volta.
16Km di tunnel, e il passo e’ ancora chiuso per tutta la neve di questo inverno.

Si viaggia bene ed in direzione Lugano dove ho appuntamento col Conso che, buon uomo!, ha organizzato un comitato di benvenuto
Mi fermo a far benzina, alla cassa mi parlano in italiano e neanche me lo aspettavo.
Arrivo li’ intorno alle 2 e poco dopo ecco apparire Conso, Biom e il Viga: che spettacolo, gli amici di sempre ancora tutti in moto!! Yeeeeeah!!

Beviamo qualcosa, 4 battute e poi via per l’ultimo tratto di strada insieme! Ma che caldo!

Infine arrivo a casa e devo confermare quanto detto 2 anni fa: e’ un viaggio lungo  ma fattibile.

Foto qui:

COSA E’ ANDATO BENE:
- moto
- tempo

COSA HO IMPARATO:
- chiudere bene borse e zaini
- non fermarsi piu’ a Berna
- nella Svizzera Italiana… parlano Italiano

Qui e’ tutto ghiacciato!!

Non accadeva da 12 anni… foto del canale in fronte a casa mia e un giro sul lago in Vondelpark Temperature constantemente sottozero, pattinatori su ghiaccio ovunque!