Previous Events - Europe 2001

Ludicrous mileages on some of Europes most incredible roads, and blazing hot sunshine made this trip one of the best ever, maybe a better name for the trip would have been 4 go mad abroad!! 

Setting out on this journey involved turning the 350 mile journey down to Portsmouth into a 500 mile fun run through the best that Wales had to offer, someone somewhere liked us because the Sun shone so untypically for the entire day. An overnight stay at a friends place, was followed by a dash for the ferry the following morning, once again in glorious sunshine. A quick settling down on the ferry, followed by breakfast and papers left us anticipating the delights to come. Chris Johnson managed to prove that even a ferry can be made to look small if you spread out enough (See centre picture). The obligatory beers were followed by a chill out sunbathing on the upper deck, but after falling asleep for 3 hours, we came to the extremely painful realisation that the sun was a lot hotter than we realised, as sunburn set in. Only Peter Thornton had enough sense to sleep in the shade, and oh how he laughed. The following morning saw us in Santander in Spain, and having to don helmets and leathers on limbs and heads that even copious quantities of after sun lotion couldn't persuade to stop objecting!!! Once again red hot sun, but tilting your head carefully could shade your face so that the pain was at least bearable. 40Deg temperatures saw us find accomodation for the night in a small town at the foot of the Pyrenees. The following morning, we rode up into the Pyrenees where at least the overcast sky  provided a little welcome relief to the stifling conditions. The scenery here is absolutely breathtaking, and must rank as some of the best in the world. (Centre Right, and lower left pics). The road down, whilst wet from a rain shower that we had been lucky enough to miss, was too good to ignore, and the pace rapidly became insane once the red mist took us, occasional slides and step outs reminding us of our mortality for a few moments, until we stopped in the French town of Lourds for lunch, wide grins aggravating the tightening skin of sunburnt faces. A new tyre was looking on the cards for my ZX12, 1300 miles in 40+ temperatures, whilst not being at all conservative with the throttle had finished the soft 200 section rubber. We continued on to Pont d'arc where a quick check on the state of the tyre resulted in Panic - NO TREAD AT ALL!!!! A quick call to the RAC resulted in location of a garage that stocked them, and a careful 46 miles to the said garage to have it fitted. Luckily, no blowouts occured and the garage fitted it fast and efficiently, and for HALF the UK price as well!!!! The mechanics thought it amazingly funny however that the tyre was now so thin that they could push their fingers through it!!!!! All this lost time resulted in an unitended stay in Southern France, but we found wonderful food in an outdoor restaurant, and large beers (See lowest picture). Continuing up through Valence, we arrived in Chamonix, Mont Blanc for a night in France before crossing into Switzerland. The Simplon pass offers incredible views, and the roads are just wonderful, but the base of the pass offers nothing but congested roads and town after town, very frustrating. Eventually we left the hassle behind and crossed the St.Benedict pass over into Italy, through dense fog. This pass is around 20 miles of hairpin after hairpin after hairpin, and would have been bliss but for the fog!!! Italy failed to impress with its heavy industrialisation and cramped roads, but a few hours later and we were heading back up into Austria, for a nights stay at the Hotel Stern, west of Innsbruck. Unfortunately, one of our group had to return home at this point, but the rest of us would soldier on. At least my sunburnt face had finished weeping from the blisters and was now peeling, which a) looked marginally better and b) was infinitely more bearable. The next day we followed one of the best roads of the trip, from Birchesgarten (Hitler's Eagles nest) towards Vienna. Some local scratchers were waiting at the top of a particularly fast twisty stretch, which they obviously knew extremely well, but the fact that it took them 2 miles to pass us, and a further 3 miles to realise that we were still in their mirrors when we didn't know the road at all gained us a salute as they pulled in to turn back, and a huge amount of self pride!!! Just South of Vienna (Wien), we went to Rachau for the annual hill climb event (Top Left Picture), and spent a whole Sunday in Glorious Sunshine (Yet again) watching idiots attempt to get motorbikes and trikes up a near vertical 210m high mud slope!! Leaving mid Sunday afternoon allowed us to get to LINZ for the night, a city rather similar to Vienna, full of character and life (and seedy night clubs). Next day up into the Czech republic for the day, and the roads in this South-western part were MUCH better than we expected, although the 56mph speed limit for bikes is a real pain. A night's stay in a local 4* hotel (1 down from a dos house by our standards) provided accommodation and a base for a night out. It is impossible to spend money in this place, everything is for coppers, accommodation for 3 of us, including cooked breakfast, coffees, etc. was around £11.00!!!. Over into Germany and a few hours at the Nurburgring for a change of riding (Speeds were the same but now it was legal!!!!) and then a nights accomodation in Monschau a quaint little fairy tale village in North Western Germany. Apparently this town is famous for its XMas market, which is one of the largest in Europe. The final day was spent riding up to Amsterdam for a couple of hours stop, before heading for Rotterdam at 50 mph up the middle of the stationary traffic that had formed for 30 odd miles of the 50 mile journey. We arrived at the Europort ferry terminal with just 2 minutes to spare, only to discover the ferry was delayed for 1.5 hours because of traffic problems!!!!

Altogether we covered around 3,560 miles in just 10 days, 1 of which was spent searching for and fitting replacement tyres, and 1 lying in the sun watching a hill climb. Thats an average of 445 miles EVERY day, 7am starts, 9pm finishes, virtually no motorways, not a drop of rain, the best twisties you will ever find, perfect fellowship, lots of beer, lots of fast food, and memories that will live with us forever. Just can't wait till next year.