The ride to Delphi Gone are European highways, instead what counts in Greece as main roads. Bends, hairpins, pot holes and vehicles going too fast, oh and as the afternoon went on an increasingly strong gusting wind. So we drifted along at a leisurely pace taking in the amazing scenery and enjoying the ride as much as possible, which was fun after getting out of Patras. The bridge crossing from the south coast of the Gulf of Corinth to the north coast was impressive as a piece of engineering, then the coast round to Itea, winding around mountains and bays, then [View Full Entry]

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Thoughts so far: Some random thoughts on the trip so far. The high (good) points. The Alps, climbing out of the rain into glorious sunshine, and the run to Mt Blanc. The Valle De Aosta and stopping in Pont St Michael. Eating in Bourg En Bresse, regional French food of great quality. The hotel had antique bikes, They let me sit on a pre-war Guzzi. The low (bad) points The rain in France, learning that my boots leak. Being able to to wring out leather. Being wet. The ugly. The rain from Dijon to Bourg en Bresse, the spray. An hour [View Full Entry]

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Made it to Ancona today, a short trip. It was pretty uneventful all the way. We found a hotel without much of a problem. Then we thought it might be a good plan to book the ferry to Patras so off we went to the ferry terminal. The booking office for Superfast Ferries was closed. After a thunderstorm and a revisit things turned out as I expected, not going to open until tomorrow morning. The ferry sails at 13.30 tomorrow so no big deal. It is a pleasantly warm evening. I've had my second ice cream of the day, and my [View Full Entry]

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We made some amazing distance today. From Ponte St Martin (in Valle De Aosta) to Castello St Pietro (just beyond Bologna). The ride was fine at first, via Alessandria rather than Milan, I had been warned about motorways near Milan, best avoided. From Alessandria towards Bologna, 2 lanes at first, light traffic, 120kmph, Slowly more motorways feed in, 3 lanes, 90kmph, then from Parma, 4 lanes and 60kmph. Plus accidents, zero kmph for bits, some nastily trashed trucks, but it looked like dazed truckers rather than anything worse, cannot be sure of course. Motorway code in Italy. Truck [View Full Entry]

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On to Italy We got decent weather. The first part of the journey was OK, then there was a lot of low cloud which as we climbed towards Geneva just kind of dropped away, leaving clear views. We made good time to Geneva where we had an adventure at a service station. The bike's immobiliser refused to respond to the fob and we were immobilised. Call to assistance who, after taking details asked if we were near a mobile phone mast. We were. We pushed the bike round to the other side of the building and off we went. It may [View Full Entry]

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Location is inaccurate we are somewhere in the Adriatic. On a ferry. Now on a ferry from Ancona to Patras. I'll leave Hilary to comment on some bits like getting on-line and general ferry stuff. Getting the tickets was, as expected, no problem. The ferry eventually arrived, but as said this is for Hilary to comment upon. I did not get to do much riding the Harley today, from the hotel to the ferry terminal. Then onto the ferry. It was raining a bit, the steel ferry ramps were slippery, then they wanted me to take the Harley up to the [View Full Entry]

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Le Bressan, Sarl les Girolles, 34 rue de la Republique Not expensive either. We had the 17 euro set menu. Help youself h'ors d'oevre buffet, chicken with cream sauce (we could have had snails or lamb) with a very good pommes dauphinoise and choice of dessert, cheese or fromage blanc. The cheese board was excellent and they gave us more bread. We had a creditabe bottle of Muscadet for less money than we paid for one very similar last night. Place was pretty full of locals. Service was friendly and efficient. A certain amusement that English people were eating there but [View Full Entry]

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I think tomorrow we will make an attempt to get into Italy. The weather is not looking great, the prediction seems to be a rise in temperature to over 20C along with thunderstorms, patchy rain and the occasional sunny period. This is so much better than anything recently, or what we experienced getting here. After tomorrow the weather is set to get worse for a few days, so I think it worth the try. The plan is to make an early start, head for Geneve, and onward to the Mont Blanc tunnel. The early start means we have a chance to [View Full Entry]

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Having finally found an internet connection... 5th June This morning we went to work. Met up at Ashley's office and got onto the road at around 13:30. Caught the 3:50 shuttle to Calais - traveled chatting to another motorcyclist who was traveling for work. After Calais we drove down the motorway. The countryside gradually grew less English looking. Mostly the proportions of different types of trees. And the smell. The air got warmer and safter and wetter. We got the hang of how tolls are paid. This road has stopping places every 10 Km or so. Some have more facilities than [View Full Entry]

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Pretty much everything is sorted. No more shopping to do. The bulk of the bags are packed. Tomorrow (or later today I suppose) I'm going to load the bags into the panniers and the others onto the fender rack. Fit everything exactly as it is going to be for the 4,500 mile trip to Istanbul and back. Then a bit of fun. I load Hilary and do a few miles, get a final feel of how the Harley handles fully loaded. It will be nowhere exciting, Denham maybe, the point is to test how things work. Might do some photos. On [View Full Entry]

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