MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

In her younger days, Shirley Jackman, one of The Travel Group’s owners, travelled all over Europe with her boyfriend on a motorcycle. Twenty-two years later, we thought it would be interesting to revisit the experience. Here is our interview:

TTG: When did you & Bob go on this adventure?
SHIRLEY: 4 months, June to September, 1983. An eternity ago.

TTG: Why did you pick Europe and what was unusual about the way you chose to see it?
SHIRLEY: We had never been to Europe and it was the "in" thing to do. Wardair and CP Air had charters to London and Frankfurt and they were offering an incredible deal to ship a motorcycle across the pond. Bob had an 1100cc Honda Gold Wing motorcycle at the time, so he thought it was the perfect way to get around. The cost to ship the motorcycle was $250.00 return, cheaper than the cost of one Eurail pass!

TTG: What was the stupidest thing either of you did?
SHIRLEY: Well, the dumbest thing I did was misread the map, I thought the rivers were roads and to this day Bob has not let me forget that. I have since become a much better navigator. The dumbest thing Bob did was lose his travellers checks. Fortunately, there was an American Express office in the town and he was able to make a claim and receive a full reimbursement.

TTG: What are some things that have changed from the 80's in terms of travelling around Europe?
SHIRLEY: Certainly security is a big issue now, and it has become so expensive to travel in Europe. In 1983 the southern countries, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece were very inexpensive and you got great value for your money.

TTG: So, did you stay in hostels?
SHIRLEY: We had every intention of using hostels. We bought a Hostel card and took the proper sleeping gear with us, etc. At our first hostel stop we discovered that we could not stay together as they had separate dormitories for men and women. Consequently we never did stay in a hostel.

TTG: Do you have a language/communication story?
SHIRLEY: A lot of people think that if you speak in a loud voice or move your hands as if you are playing charades, they would understand you better. When looking for a place to stay I would go ahead and check out the rooms to make sure they were okay and then our next concern was where to park the motorcyle. Early in the trip I checked into a small hotel in Evora, Portugal. When Bob came into the hotel he started to move his arms and body as if he was driving the motorcyle. While he was doing this his voice got increasing louder and he kept repeating the words "grande moto, park eh, grande moto". The check-in agent and I looked at each other and started laughing as he replied in perfect English, "You can park around the corner in front of the Police Station, my brother works there and he will keep an eye on the motorcycle." We all had a great laugh over that one.

TTG: What surprised you about Europeans?
SHIRLEY: A few things. Everywhere we went they assumed we were Americans and they thought we were rich because of the type of bike we rode. At that time, the Europeans were driving 250hp Suzuki type bikes. Nobody had the large touring bike except for tourists like us. Also, when we were in Spain they warned us about the Italians, the Italians warned us about the Greeks and so on, yet we never had a single problem with theft or vandalism.

TTG: Any motorcycle stories?
SHIRLEY: Well, first of all we never had a single problem with the bike: it never broke down or ran out of gas or anything like that. But, everywhere we went we drew a crowd as they were not used to seeing that type of bike. They always wanted to know two things, how big the motor was and how much money it cost. What really surprised me was how respectful they were, they would never sit on the bike or touch our things. They took pictures and admired it from a distance. One hotel we stayed in were so worried that someone would steal the bike that they made us park it in the lobby at night so they could keep an eye on it. We have pictures to back up that story.

TTG: How about a foreign food story?
SHIRLEY: One morning in Quateira, Portugal we were craving some good home-style bacon and eggs for breakfast. We spotted a sign that said English spoken so we decided to give it a try. As it happened, the family that owned the restaurant were from 100 Mile House (BC)! We had a wonderful breakfast and some great conversation. We had quite a time adjusting to the late meal times in Southern Europe. Quite often we ended up sitting on the sidewalk outside the restaurant waiting for it to open. We would be too tired and too hungry to do anything else, but it was always worth the wait.

TTG: Would you two ever do anything like this again?
SHIRLEY: Yes, I would definitely travel around Europe again, but a Mercedes is more my style now. I'm a lot older, maybe a little wiser, and a tad spoiled!

TTG: How did this trip change your life?
SHIRLEY: I can't say it changed my life but it certainly influenced me. It was an incredible experience to see all the historical places that I had only read about in school or seen on TV. I met so many wonderful people and discovered so many different cultures. To this day I still think about and talk about those experiences.

In spite of fond memories bumming around Europe, Shirley’s online bio states that her favourite place is “onboard a cruise ship, anywhere.” Did she mention she was spoiled?