We're doing it again!

Well we have decided to do it again, ride around Europe on a motorcycle for a few months. Before we head off I thought I would remind you of our earlier 2009 and 2013 exploits, two 15,000km tours of the continent and the UK two up on a motorcycle, a different one each time. With so much packed in it’s hard to pick highlights but I’ll try.

Our 2009 tour aboard the Honda Deauville, I'm still amazed how much ground we covered!

The first started with a trip under the English Channel on the train and on to France where we spent a bit of time in and near Paris, so romantic in the city and verdant in the country. This was followed by a concerted ride down to the west coast of Italy before we gave up trying to get to Sicily and cut across to the Trulli country and on to Lecce, the “Florence of the south”.

Agropoli, Italy 2009

Spring in France, 2009

It was then time to ferry across to Dubrovnic and Croatia, a side trip up to Mostar in Bosnia, before heading back to Italy and north to Austria where we began a friend hop in Vienna, then on to Stuttgart, Switzerland, Belgium and back to the UK. There we had a short rest before making the pilgrimage to the north of Scotland and back again.

Our 2013 tour which included 4 ferry journeys, Portsmouth to Santander in Spain, Barcelona to Civitiveccia Italy, Bari (Italy) to Igoumenitsa in Greece, and the shortest and coolest ferry trip, the 100m wooden cable punt at Butrint in Albania!

The 2013 trip started by ferry from Portsmouth to Santander in northern Spain, down to Madrid, Salamanca and then across to Portugal (Porto and Lisboa). Southern Spain (Andalucia) was a real highlight, Seville and Cordoba in the spring are a real treat. The people are friendly and in party mode.

Spain is a motorcyclists paradise, great weather and great roads all to yourself.

Best of all were the wonderful country roads, lots of curves and very little traffic, a bikers paradise. We ferry hopped to Italy, then two days later took another ferry to Greece! There we met our daughter and her husband and began a great ride up through Albania and Montenegro and on to Dubrovnic, before visiting my fathers ancestral home on the island of Korcula. This touring with family was a real highlight of the trip. Up to Llubjana, which I loved, then time again then to do a friend hop back to the UK, much like last time.

Happy and younger in 2009, we're still very happy and definitely no less adventurous ten years on.

Meeting up with friends along the way has always been a real highlight, but this time we will be doing a bit less of that, so stay tuned for our adventure which starts on June 20. Just where from and to you will have to wait and see, so come back real soon!