I like Parma, not only for the excellent food...
Well Parma went roughly to plan with certificates signed by the deputy mayor for Ljubljana, but also a whole lot of other funny experiences with anglophile Topo, Garage Retro, Motor Passion, Due Gatti Pizzeria, Gazzetta di Parma and the lads from The Souls Scooter Club. I like Parma, not only for the excellent food...
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After a day in the Alps the next official destination was Parma, but I stopped off in Turin where my first experience was a road closed for a burning car.
I was kindly hosted by Alex and Laureana despite invading her birthday party. I also had a chance to do a little servicing at Cosmoto (Alex's shop in Turin) and photographed his completely outrageous skinhead skelly for Scootering Magazine. Thanks folks! While riding up an Alpine pass on my Lambretta I came across these guys riding down so I had to follow them for a bit. We are way high up in the snow-line.
What an ace way to spend a weekend, but you have to hope they get picked up afterwards... Roanne was a worry because I didn't know anyone there, but by being a bit cheeky I made friends in five minutes and had a beer in my hand within ten.
The people of Roanne can be very proud of their motorcycle club Seven's Motor Corporate who showed hospitality beyond the call of duty to another two wheeled traveller. I did not have time to meet the mayor who was out of town for the weekend, but Jo, the President of the club signed the certificate for Nuneaton and accepted the photos and certificates from Nuneaton and Guadalajara on his behalf. Hey a president is one up from a mayor anyway and Jo knows the mayor anyway. What did I find out about in Roanne? That it has a magic Road where you roll uphill and that the town has its own superhero called Super Skunk. My second beer came from a man dressed in WW2 German army uniform and I found out what frogs legs taste like. Thanks to the people of Roanne and particularly Seven's Motor Corporate. It would not have been a success without you. Bon voyage, next stop Parma in Italy with some scooter boys. It's like coming home! Yesterday was a perfect day in Guadalajara. I was guided around the town most efficiently by Javi, Esther, Pepe, Miguel and Angel from Scooterist Factory. We met the Mayor - Antonio Roman - who gave me photos and signed certificates for Gudadalajaras twin towns. The visit was extensively covered in both local and national newspapers in Spain: http://www.abc.es/comunidad-castillalamancha/20150505/abcp-nuneaton-guadalajara-unidas-viaje-20150505.html http://www.guadaque.com/guadalajara-ciudad/itemlist/tag/Martin%20%E2%80%9CSticky%E2%80%9D%20Round.html http://www.nuevaalcarria.com/jlocal/general/158886-nuneaton Next twin town in the chain is Roanne in France, but so far I have no response from either the council or any of the local newspaper editors. What will await me in France - find out in the next episode of Twin Town Courier. Angel, Esther, Javi, Pepe and Miguel consult the guide book The Mayor signs certificates for the other twins. Guadalajara is great - no bull!
The folks from Scooterist Factory really pulled out all the stops here, meetings with the mayor and even getting the municipal museum opened on a closed day for a private guided tour. I hope the next towns go as smoothly as this but without scooterist power I think it might be difficult.
Big success today with the mayor of Guadalajara. It is a great place, but the main similarities I see with Nuneaton are the industry of logistics and a perverse affection for speed bumps.
Thanks to the mayor of Nuneaton and Bedworth for being such a good sport today, larking about doing Stig poses and playing with his Wallace in public.
Thanks also to all my chums who also turned up on Scooters (and a Camphill Chopshop Cub) to see me off. Next stop, Nuneatons twin town Guadalajara for a scooter rally on Saturday night. Boat docks at 5pm and it's 450km. It'll be getting dark and I'll be wearing sunglasses. HIT IT! In less than 10 days I'll be setting off on this Lambretta on a massive adventure, riding as far as Ukraine to deliver photos from one twin town to the next. Details of the daft plan are here.
This image was taken on the Lambretta Club of Great Britain's recent Coast to Coast ride, climbing Buttertubs in Yorkshire which was a stage of last year's Tour De France opener. I'm glad I had an engine. The scooter performed admirably over 540 miles in two days but there is still plenty of work to do on it before next week's send off at 9am on Friday 1st May from Nuneaton Town Hall. Everything is going swimmingly for the Twin Town Courier Tour, apart from the fact that my fuel tank has split, I'm waiting on new piston rings, my exhaust has only arrived today, my clutch plates need changing etc etc.
Thanks though to the following for pulling out the stops:
I could go on much longer with that list, but that's just this week's one... Hopefully I'll get it all back together, but only after this weekend's knees-up at the RLC open day. |
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February 2024
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