Well, again it’s been a little while since
I wrote one of these, and so I will write one right now, while eating some
sunflower seeds.
Ok, so it’s now Wednesday, and I returned
home after travelling 2500 miles around a tiny bit of Europe on a motorbike on
Sunday.
It was fun, wet, cold, hot, exhausting,
boring, and entertaining.
From the trip, there are a couple of tips
that I will advise;
Get a throttle locker! Keeps that cruising
speed, and you don’t have to hold the throttle!
Don’t camp in the Alps, unless you have
winter gear! Bloody freezing!
Get a comfy cushion, or your bum will ache!
Some knee sliders to try and get that knee
down!
Don’t do stupidly long distances in a day!
Avoid toll roads when possible!
Extreme filtering is fun!
Oh, and don’t go riding through torrential
rain unless you have some good waterproofs on!
Now Spain was fantastic! Excellent weather,
hardly any rain (except the torrential one that we rode through!) and some of
the roads are amazing!
I must thank the family out there who made
it awesome, lovely house, good company, and excellent hosts!
While in there I got to walk through some
fire/burning embers and get covered in smoke. Got to make some wish for the
following year (I think). Got attacked by some people with fireworks. Watched
some fireworks synched to music, and also got to watch a massive display get
set on fire! But I didn’t get to run will bulls, Maybe that’s something for
next year if I go again.
However my thoughts on Spain, Very laid
back, friendly, and lazy! I can sort of see why they have no money left… But
they sure know how to party!
Most of the time when I went out it was
during the siesta.
Not helpful as most of the shops were closed during this
time and when they reopened they only have about an hour left of trading time.
They do have some good food, and very nice
tapas.
The trip back was fun, from Xabia to
Valencia, to go on the F1 track. Had to miss out Barcelona, as time was a bit
tight. So missed out on circuit de
Catalunya. Visited Perpignan, worked our way up towards Montpellier, Marseille,
stop over at Cannes. Then along the French Riviera, Nice, Monte Carlo to have a
look around and go around the circuit! (shame the tunnel was closed).
Into Italy, where we found an extremely
expensive stretch of toll road! and up through some of the alps to Cuneo.
Absolutely amazing roads! (Knee slider moments!)
From there to Torino (Turin) to have a look
around at the city of the Italian Job. Up through the Alps again towards
Switzerland!
The Swiss border was interesting as there
was signs for Italy, Switzerland, and No Mans Land! (couldn’t get a picture as
the border guards were looking at us very suspiciously!)
We did have an interesting conversation
with one of the guards where he was making sure we knew about the vignettes for
using the Motorways/express ways.
The guard asked us where we were going, and
I responded about five to ten times trying to say the destination of where we
were heading.
Now I don’t know if the way I was saying it
was incorrect, or he just didn’t know where it was. But I was pretty sure I was
saying it correctly! The guard looked slightly confused and after that he just
asked if we was using the motorway/expressway. We both shouted “NO” in
response, and with that we got a nod and an “OK”.
From there we headed down the alps, towards
Lake Geneva, in the direction of Montreux, towards Lausanne, and then towards
Saint-Cergue.
I must say, the area around Lake Geneva is
very nice! We saw an old-fashioned style passenger boat chugging along which
looked absolutely awesome! A real postcard moment!
That
night we camped somewhere up in the Alps, and boy was it cold!
In the morning I managed a small
conversation in French with a local person who said that night was freezing
compared to the previous nights! Obviously we picked the correct night to camp
there then!
From there on we had a slightly bit more
time to work our way through France, and save some pennies by avoiding some
toll roads!
We went from Saint-Cergue towards Poligny,
and into Dijon for lunch! Dijon looked a very weird and small city that I didn’t
really like. I just found it really strange.
Onwards form Dijon to Troyes, and ending up
in Reims.
Yes we avoided Paris. We assumed that it
would be too much traffic and with the luggage that we were carrying, it’s a bit
hard to filter with it. And would have been stuck with the rest of the traffic.
And finally from Reims to Saint Omer to
visit our local watering holes, and then onwards to Calais the next morning for
the Euro Tunnel.
Well, That’s a brief-ish note of what I did
in the two weeks I was travelling around, and no I don’t have any photos to
upload yet as I have not sorted them!
When I do sort them I might link them somewhere
for you all to have a look!
If you read this far, I am impressed!
And thanks!
Mike
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