Our little ride around Europe
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Our little ride around Europe
Wow, go away for a few weeks and everything has bloody changed - I like the upgrades thou...
Anyway, as promised, here's some of the best pics that were taken during our tour around Europe a few weeks back, it's not all of them by a long shot, but there's still quite a few here. Anyway, I hope ya enjoy them all the same.
On the train and the adventure begins...
Tom's mascot 'Blinky' comes along for the ride too
1st day; After a whole day of hard riding (stopping once for a bite to eat in a sleepy town half way across France somewhere) we rode into Strasbourg and parked up just before the heavens opened up and found that the spare link holding my chain together had lost its butterfly pin, on closer inspection it seems that the pin is in fact the wrong size - shit!
A quick stop off half way across France for supper
2nd day; Chris finds that he has lost his debit card somewhere between Folkstone and Strasbourg so only has one credit card to pay for the entire trip. After Tom amends the dodgy link with lock-wire, we're off across the border into Germany and heading towards the Black Forest and some wicked roads - and more rain...
The very first mountain that we come across, Black Forest, Germany. :o
Decending the mountain was done in bad weather - at this point, we're all kinda saturated...
The rain begins to clear up so off come the wet-weather gear and we race through the rest of the Black Forest towards our next destination, Tom's relatives house on Lake Geneva.
Don't make Lake Geneva, so end up in a lovely looking Swiss city called Basil for the night.
3rd day; Onwards to Lake Geneva... :o
4th day; After holding a Chinese Parliament, we all decide that the hospitality from Tom's family members was too good (and the weather far too grey) to ride off into the Alps right away, so the three of us stay on at the Lake for another day and night.
A day trip to Mont Blonc.
In side the huge glacier at the summit of the mountain./ :face:
Back at the bottom and time for a quick beer before we head back to Geneva
At this stage the bikes are filthy but I'm the only one who seems to be bothered!?!
5th day; We head off into the Alps with clear skys and the sun on our backs - unknown to us at the time, we wouldn't be seeing rain again throughout the entire tour. The lock-wire on my dodgy link get's a change, again!
The bikes double up as climbing frames. :joker:
Have fun riding the Furkapass and the two passes behind it in bright sunshine.
There's just enough time for a beer before we all race downhill and ride into Lake Como, Italy for the night.
6th day; The sun is hot, very hot, and by now all three of the bikes have odd looking bunches of protective gear strapped tightly to the back seat humps.
Race to Pisa, then onto a night of drunken debauchery in Florance.
7th day; Awake in the morning still drunk and notice that I've lost my wallet. I'm now going to have to ponce of the other two until we reach Czech - shit!
Reach Bologna and the Ducati Factory, being Saturday, it means that the museum is closed but we're not too bothered as it's 38 degrees so we all dive into the large Ducati shop across the road for an hour just to cool down using their air conditioning and bathroom basin. Chris is already wondering if he has enough doe to finish the trip... :shock:
Ride into Venice by evening, the whole place is wild and crammed with cars and bikes attempting to park somewhere - we find out that there is some sort of celebration taking place that night, which explains the huge Italian populace on the island when we arrive.
It's true; the Italians know their art... :king:
8th day; Leave Venice and race into the Alps once again in an attempt to reach cooler climates. Tom thinks that he might have maxed out his credit card, if this is true, Chris and me might just have lost our meal ticket - shit! My chain sounds as thou it's about to snap, so I buy a large can of grease and cover it with the stuff - and on goes some more lock-wire...
We all have fun on a long bit of road in Austria that's showing new tarmac and consists of one fast bend after the other, it goes on for miles - lovely. Tom's contacted an old school friend who says he'll put us all up at his place for the night in Vienna but I know that my misses is partying in Brno (CZ) that evening and I want to surprise her, so I take the lead and ride strait on to the Czech border. It seems that she's already returned home by the time we roll into Brno. We had rode over 750 miles by the time we parked up in the huge and empty Holiday Inn that night.
9th day; Reach Ostrava but as usual, get lost in this big city where all the major roads look the same. The heat is doing a good job of making us all irate. We eventually find my misses place and settle down for a few days break from the bikes.
Pizza's real touring grub - there's plenty of it and it's always nearly the cheapest thing on any menu!
10th day; after some phone calls and Internet banking, it seems that Tom's card is almost at it's limit, as to is Chris's and my misses has to bail all three of us out of the shit if we're to get back to blighty - thanx Kat, love ya babes!
11th day; the four of us climb the local Radegast mountain in sweltering heat.
12th day; we all spend the day at a local open air pool and attempt to tan other parts of our bodies other than the arms...
13th day; Tom and Chris decide that they will return to the UK earlier than planned due to the money problem that we're all now facing, it's kinda weired to see them both ride off without me thou.
A quick stop of in Prague on the return trip for Tom & Chris. :rendeer:
Day 14 - Chris crashes his blade failing to navigate road works in bad weather on the road to Calais, he has an outta body experiance as he's flung over the handle bars, does a 360 and hurtled down a ditch the other side of the crash barrier. Tom doesn't know anything and continues on to catch the train. Lucky for Chris, an English truck driver helps to put the bike strait and he contiues on alone...
Day 16 - I leave Ostrave and Kat and head home via Prague and Brussels. I want to reach Frankfurt before nightfall so to rub it in with Tom & Chris that I got further than they did but I get terribly lost in Prague and loose loads of time!
I take an odd Northern route into Germany and find myself racing down some wicked mountain roads, which is much more plesent than being stuck on the motorway...
Day 17 - get absolutly soaked riding from Frankfurt to Brussels.
Day 18 - I arrive back home
Anyway, as promised, here's some of the best pics that were taken during our tour around Europe a few weeks back, it's not all of them by a long shot, but there's still quite a few here. Anyway, I hope ya enjoy them all the same.
On the train and the adventure begins...
Tom's mascot 'Blinky' comes along for the ride too
1st day; After a whole day of hard riding (stopping once for a bite to eat in a sleepy town half way across France somewhere) we rode into Strasbourg and parked up just before the heavens opened up and found that the spare link holding my chain together had lost its butterfly pin, on closer inspection it seems that the pin is in fact the wrong size - shit!
A quick stop off half way across France for supper
2nd day; Chris finds that he has lost his debit card somewhere between Folkstone and Strasbourg so only has one credit card to pay for the entire trip. After Tom amends the dodgy link with lock-wire, we're off across the border into Germany and heading towards the Black Forest and some wicked roads - and more rain...
The very first mountain that we come across, Black Forest, Germany. :o
Decending the mountain was done in bad weather - at this point, we're all kinda saturated...
The rain begins to clear up so off come the wet-weather gear and we race through the rest of the Black Forest towards our next destination, Tom's relatives house on Lake Geneva.
Don't make Lake Geneva, so end up in a lovely looking Swiss city called Basil for the night.
3rd day; Onwards to Lake Geneva... :o
4th day; After holding a Chinese Parliament, we all decide that the hospitality from Tom's family members was too good (and the weather far too grey) to ride off into the Alps right away, so the three of us stay on at the Lake for another day and night.
A day trip to Mont Blonc.
In side the huge glacier at the summit of the mountain./ :face:
Back at the bottom and time for a quick beer before we head back to Geneva
At this stage the bikes are filthy but I'm the only one who seems to be bothered!?!
5th day; We head off into the Alps with clear skys and the sun on our backs - unknown to us at the time, we wouldn't be seeing rain again throughout the entire tour. The lock-wire on my dodgy link get's a change, again!
The bikes double up as climbing frames. :joker:
Have fun riding the Furkapass and the two passes behind it in bright sunshine.
There's just enough time for a beer before we all race downhill and ride into Lake Como, Italy for the night.
6th day; The sun is hot, very hot, and by now all three of the bikes have odd looking bunches of protective gear strapped tightly to the back seat humps.
Race to Pisa, then onto a night of drunken debauchery in Florance.
7th day; Awake in the morning still drunk and notice that I've lost my wallet. I'm now going to have to ponce of the other two until we reach Czech - shit!
Reach Bologna and the Ducati Factory, being Saturday, it means that the museum is closed but we're not too bothered as it's 38 degrees so we all dive into the large Ducati shop across the road for an hour just to cool down using their air conditioning and bathroom basin. Chris is already wondering if he has enough doe to finish the trip... :shock:
Ride into Venice by evening, the whole place is wild and crammed with cars and bikes attempting to park somewhere - we find out that there is some sort of celebration taking place that night, which explains the huge Italian populace on the island when we arrive.
It's true; the Italians know their art... :king:
8th day; Leave Venice and race into the Alps once again in an attempt to reach cooler climates. Tom thinks that he might have maxed out his credit card, if this is true, Chris and me might just have lost our meal ticket - shit! My chain sounds as thou it's about to snap, so I buy a large can of grease and cover it with the stuff - and on goes some more lock-wire...
We all have fun on a long bit of road in Austria that's showing new tarmac and consists of one fast bend after the other, it goes on for miles - lovely. Tom's contacted an old school friend who says he'll put us all up at his place for the night in Vienna but I know that my misses is partying in Brno (CZ) that evening and I want to surprise her, so I take the lead and ride strait on to the Czech border. It seems that she's already returned home by the time we roll into Brno. We had rode over 750 miles by the time we parked up in the huge and empty Holiday Inn that night.
9th day; Reach Ostrava but as usual, get lost in this big city where all the major roads look the same. The heat is doing a good job of making us all irate. We eventually find my misses place and settle down for a few days break from the bikes.
Pizza's real touring grub - there's plenty of it and it's always nearly the cheapest thing on any menu!
10th day; after some phone calls and Internet banking, it seems that Tom's card is almost at it's limit, as to is Chris's and my misses has to bail all three of us out of the shit if we're to get back to blighty - thanx Kat, love ya babes!
11th day; the four of us climb the local Radegast mountain in sweltering heat.
12th day; we all spend the day at a local open air pool and attempt to tan other parts of our bodies other than the arms...
13th day; Tom and Chris decide that they will return to the UK earlier than planned due to the money problem that we're all now facing, it's kinda weired to see them both ride off without me thou.
A quick stop of in Prague on the return trip for Tom & Chris. :rendeer:
Day 14 - Chris crashes his blade failing to navigate road works in bad weather on the road to Calais, he has an outta body experiance as he's flung over the handle bars, does a 360 and hurtled down a ditch the other side of the crash barrier. Tom doesn't know anything and continues on to catch the train. Lucky for Chris, an English truck driver helps to put the bike strait and he contiues on alone...
Day 16 - I leave Ostrave and Kat and head home via Prague and Brussels. I want to reach Frankfurt before nightfall so to rub it in with Tom & Chris that I got further than they did but I get terribly lost in Prague and loose loads of time!
I take an odd Northern route into Germany and find myself racing down some wicked mountain roads, which is much more plesent than being stuck on the motorway...
Day 17 - get absolutly soaked riding from Frankfurt to Brussels.
Day 18 - I arrive back home
motopsycho- CBT Novice
- Number of posts : 56
Age : 49
Location : London
Registration date : 2007-08-01
Re: Our little ride around Europe
great write up :study: with some brill pic's...
chilli- Admin
- Number of posts : 3876
Age : 65
Location : Glasgow
My bike(s) : yep!
Registration date : 2007-07-21
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Absolutely brilliant great pics
I wanna go, I wanna go
I wanna go, I wanna go
Firebladeradmin- Website/Forum Owner
- Number of posts : 3124
Registration date : 2007-07-19
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Bloody awsome pics dude some of those roads put the cat as a motorway pic 3 looks like hes having a pi55 into the fountain great story behind pics too nice to hear you all made it back to blighty
legins- MotoGP Legend
- Number of posts : 1051
Age : 59
Location : On the 7th day god created Manchester
My bike(s) : 93 Blade but hunting for an 06 Blade
Registration date : 2007-07-23
Re: Our little ride around Europe
I want to go too. Excellent photos. How many miles did you cover?
John
John
jallen- Admin
- Number of posts : 1750
Age : 51
Location : Luton
Registration date : 2007-07-23
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Great job there with the pics, did you plan for the wife to be there to bail you out
silverback- MotoGP Legend
- Number of posts : 2843
Age : 57
Location : Ellon
My bike(s) : R1 2008
Registration date : 2007-07-23
Re: Our little ride around Europe
glad you had a great time mate,and bought the blade home in one piece this time
918eds- Clubman Racer
- Number of posts : 165
Age : 53
Location : basildon,essex
Registration date : 2007-07-23
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Fantastic Photo's, sounds like a great trip, unlucky with the bump. Glad everyone made it.
fraserl- CBT Novice
- Number of posts : 44
Age : 66
Location : Carnoustie, Scotland
Registration date : 2007-07-24
Re: Our little ride around Europe
What an excellent read, really makes me wanna organise a trip like that right now!!
Heidi- CBT Novice
- Number of posts : 23
Age : 45
Location : Aberdoom
Registration date : 2007-07-30
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Thanks for the replys people.
The misses is Czech and shes busy building our house over there at the moment but she didn't plan on having the three of us roll into Ostrava with empty tanks and not a penny to our name thou. It really was that bad, at one point we parked up in some supermarket car park, using the shade from the trees as shelter from the heat and a local piss-head staggers over to us pleading for some dosh, which made me laugh as at that moment in time, this guy was probably more wealthy than the three of us put together!
And yep, that pics does make me look like I'm taking a wiz...
The trip was fantactic but there is a downside to it thou (only one mind you), that is, due to the time constraints we were simply riding in and out of all these fantastic towns and it stands to reason that no amount of planning in advance could have inabled us to see and apprieciate half of what they had to offer in just one beer moistened evening. I now have a list of places I want to revisit; Venice topping the list...
In total, we did just under 3000 miles.
Some of the roads were simply to die for, seriously smooth, good visability, fast and slow bends with hardly any traffic on - anyone planning a ride off down south and might want some tips, just get in touch.
The misses is Czech and shes busy building our house over there at the moment but she didn't plan on having the three of us roll into Ostrava with empty tanks and not a penny to our name thou. It really was that bad, at one point we parked up in some supermarket car park, using the shade from the trees as shelter from the heat and a local piss-head staggers over to us pleading for some dosh, which made me laugh as at that moment in time, this guy was probably more wealthy than the three of us put together!
And yep, that pics does make me look like I'm taking a wiz...
The trip was fantactic but there is a downside to it thou (only one mind you), that is, due to the time constraints we were simply riding in and out of all these fantastic towns and it stands to reason that no amount of planning in advance could have inabled us to see and apprieciate half of what they had to offer in just one beer moistened evening. I now have a list of places I want to revisit; Venice topping the list...
In total, we did just under 3000 miles.
Some of the roads were simply to die for, seriously smooth, good visability, fast and slow bends with hardly any traffic on - anyone planning a ride off down south and might want some tips, just get in touch.
Last edited by on Thu 02 Aug 2007, 17:14; edited 1 time in total
motopsycho- CBT Novice
- Number of posts : 56
Age : 49
Location : London
Registration date : 2007-08-01
Re: Our little ride around Europe
motopsycho wrote:
The trip was fantactic but there is a downside to it thou (only one mind you), that is, due to the time constraints we were simply riding in and out of all these fantastic towns and it stands to reason that no amount of planning in advance could have inabled us to see and apprieciate half of what they had to offer in just one beer moistened evening. I know have a list of places I want to revisit; Venice topping the list...
Superb read mate
I know exactly where you're coming from..
I been to loads of places over the water but only on very few occasions have i had time to stop & take in the sites..
Next time you go anywhere near Austria let me know let me know i'll pm you some mountain passes to try...
Guest- Guest
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Dave*** wrote:motopsycho wrote:
The trip was fantactic but there is a downside to it thou (only one mind you), that is, due to the time constraints we were simply riding in and out of all these fantastic towns and it stands to reason that no amount of planning in advance could have inabled us to see and apprieciate half of what they had to offer in just one beer moistened evening. I know have a list of places I want to revisit; Venice topping the list...
Superb read mate
I know exactly where you're coming from..
I been to loads of places over the water but only on very few occasions have i had time to stop & take in the sites..
Next time you go anywhere near Austria let me know let me know i'll pm you some mountain passes to try...
Thanks mate, I'll make a note of that.
motopsycho- CBT Novice
- Number of posts : 56
Age : 49
Location : London
Registration date : 2007-08-01
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Cool picys dude,nice views n all.and one serious minolta paint job.glad all made it back in one piece.[/img]
Rossi46- New Member
- Number of posts : 1
Age : 59
Location : germany
Registration date : 2007-08-08
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Looks like you had a fantastic time. The photo's are absolutely fantastic and show the places you visited to be well worth a visit. It must have took some planning in the first place though . Really envious, I would love to do that but alas ... I probably never will :021:
fleurdelyes- MotoGP Legend
- Number of posts : 1158
Age : 59
Location : Shropshire ( Gods County )
My bike(s) : Silver 929
Registration date : 2007-07-23
Re: Our little ride around Europe
Very impressive,i did France a rew yrs back,on a shoe string but had one hell of a time!!!
gr8 pics etc !!!
Si
gr8 pics etc !!!
Si
Gatso- BSB Racer
- Number of posts : 315
Age : 55
Location : Northampton
My bike(s) : CBR1000RR 04
Registration date : 2007-07-23
Re: Our little ride around Europe
fleurdelyes wrote:Looks like you had a fantastic time. The photo's are absolutely fantastic and show the places you visited to be well worth a visit. It must have took some planning in the first place though . Really envious, I would love to do that but alas ... I probably never will :021:
Never say never bud. As for planning, all I done was buy a map of Europe and all three of us penned in a route that we tried to stick to, the rest is history...
:rendeer:
motopsycho- CBT Novice
- Number of posts : 56
Age : 49
Location : London
Registration date : 2007-08-01
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