May-June 2014 Distance: 16'600km Ferry trips: 4 Vehicle: BMW R1200RT
asdf: make sequence & pictures flow better!
I set off in this endeavour after convincing my boss that I needed to work part-time for "research purposes" (echem!). I stuck all my holidays and overtime in big chunks of 2 or 3 weeks in order to complete this trip. It involved very meticulous planning as I could not have done this trip in one go, but had to go to back and forth by plane. It all started in Zurich in May 2014, direction Lisbon.
25 Apr I set off on a Friday evening straight after work with dry weather which unfortunately turned into heavy rain after reaching the city of Lausanne. I pushed on and reached Annecy, France, just before dusk (golden rule: avoid driving at night especially when it's raining due to hindered visibility). In Annecy I checked in at the local camping and started pitching my tent. That was the moment where the rain intensified and droplets turned into jucy drops. I was still wearing my rain coats and decided to wear my helmet and continue setting up the tent. I continued as the rain got stronger and stronger and suddenly it became a cascade of water pouring in full wrath. At that time I had just managed to insert the poles and pitch it so I immediately jumped in before digging the pegs into the ground. I waited paitiently but the rain would not recede until hours later. I bit the bulled and drove into town to find a restaurant to feed my houngry stomache and dry my clothes.
26 Apr Fortunately the next day the skies cleared and I did not encounter any more rain untill Lisbon. The first major stopover was at Lyon, and right after Vienne.
I set off in this endeavour after convincing my boss that I needed to work part-time for "research purposes" (echem!). I stuck all my holidays and overtime in big chunks of 2 or 3 weeks in order to complete this trip. It involved very meticulous planning as I could not have done this trip in one go, but had to go to back and forth by plane. It all started in Zurich in May 2014, direction Lisbon.
25 Apr I set off on a Friday evening straight after work with dry weather which unfortunately turned into heavy rain after reaching the city of Lausanne. I pushed on and reached Annecy, France, just before dusk (golden rule: avoid driving at night especially when it's raining due to hindered visibility). In Annecy I checked in at the local camping and started pitching my tent. That was the moment where the rain intensified and droplets turned into jucy drops. I was still wearing my rain coats and decided to wear my helmet and continue setting up the tent. I continued as the rain got stronger and stronger and suddenly it became a cascade of water pouring in full wrath. At that time I had just managed to insert the poles and pitch it so I immediately jumped in before digging the pegs into the ground. I waited paitiently but the rain would not recede until hours later. I bit the bulled and drove into town to find a restaurant to feed my houngry stomache and dry my clothes.
26 Apr Fortunately the next day the skies cleared and I did not encounter any more rain untill Lisbon. The first major stopover was at Lyon, and right after Vienne.
On the way I saw the Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans aqueduct and right after that a very scary ride at the edge of an 800m cliff which nearly gave me a heart attack near the village of Saint-Jean-en-Royans (don't believe? click here and see for yourself).
After that came the city of Orange (not the fruit), Tarascon and Nimes.
A great highlight was the Palais des Papes in Avignon, unfortunately heave rain ensued all day. The next day I visited the fortified city of Carcassonne.
From Lisbon I was kindly accommodated by Margarida (not the pizza) and Henrique who showed me around town, took me to the nicest restaurants, showed me a few of the famous 1001 recipes of how to cook Bacalhau. Of course no visit of Lisbon is complete without reserving a table at Pasteis de Belem to devour on the best Pastel de nata in town. I had tried pastel de nata on my first trip to Lisbon in 2004 and have been an addict to these pastries since then.
I then took a flight back to Zurich to move the mouse left-right-up-down-click at work. 3 weeks later I was back on the saddle. From there I followed the coast directoin North through norther Spain, the Basque Country, and then drove to Bordeaux. From Bordeaux it was a straight drive direction East back to Zurich, and of course back to work for a few weeks.
I then took a flight back to Zurich to move the mouse left-right-up-down-click at work. 3 weeks later I was back on the saddle. From there I followed the coast directoin North through norther Spain, the Basque Country, and then drove to Bordeaux. From Bordeaux it was a straight drive direction East back to Zurich, and of course back to work for a few weeks.
The real stretch of the trip started after setting off from Zurich with direction Nordkapp, yes the northest place in Europe. Passing through Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Hamburg (ferry trip 1]from Rostock to Gedser, Denmark), Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo, Nordkapp. Endruing extremely low temperatures, ca. 3 Degrees during the night and max 6 Degrees in the day, I asked myself numerous times "what am I doing here". Needless to say that I was one of the very few bikes on the road, most people were travelling in a camper van. I stopped at the Arctic Fjordcamp, the name speaks out for itself for how cold it could have been, and engaged in an interesting conversation with one of the locals. If you want accurate information always consult the oldest local. After the occasional small talk I asked him if it's normal to see snow at such low altitues (just a few meteres above sea level) at this time of year, for which he replied "in my 60 years of life I have never seen snow in June". There, question answered directly. Nordkapp was just a stone-throw-away from here (ca. 300km) so desided to press on the next day. I did reach this God-foresaken place finally on mid-June, a beautiful summer day with extreme wind and horizontal rain. As soon as I got there, took a memorabilia-photo, warmed up at the local petrol station by sipping hot chocolate, I couldn't wait to do a 180 degree U-turn and head south. I could confidently say "bin there, done that" and now the only think occupying my mind was how to keep warm.
Before pressing the ignition I looked at my gear, scratched my beard (makes you think better), took a step back and said to myself "now what?", one of my goals had been reached so there was nothing left to do. Then I just whispered in the air "Istanbul here we come" and set off South, direction Turkey. I didn't even believe myself when I said it but... [read on].
Before pressing the ignition I looked at my gear, scratched my beard (makes you think better), took a step back and said to myself "now what?", one of my goals had been reached so there was nothing left to do. Then I just whispered in the air "Istanbul here we come" and set off South, direction Turkey. I didn't even believe myself when I said it but... [read on].
I did do a stop over at Helsinki, took a flight to Zurich, worked for a month, and came back (faster said than done) but as soon as I was back on the saddle the journey continued as if time had paused for that month. I left my bike under a ramp here at Helsinki aiport to find it exactly the way I left it a month later. Having rained heavily through the night before packing my tent and sleeping bag meant that all my belongings were stored soaking wet (thanks to a leaking tent) in the panniers. Leaving closed, wet panniers invited all sorts of flora and fauna growing on anything humidity could get its hands on. Please learn from this mistake and never leave things soaked in confined spaces for so long. There was a foul smell coming from everything I had left unattended for so long, including my helmet. The helmet reeked of mould for the next few weeks. Nevertheless I was back on my saddle and headed towards south.
A ferry [ferry trip 2] took me from Helsinki to Estonia, full of Finish youngsters who do the same trip to buy cheap alcohol on the other side and come back the next day. My path took me through Tallinn EST, Riga LTV, Vilnius LITH, Warsaw & Krakov POL, Slovakia, Hungary, Dracula's castle at Bran, Bucharest ROM, Bulgaria and finally crossed the border to Turkey and entered triumpanlty into the first city called Edirne. Having endured heavy storms and buckets of rain from Helsinki all the way to mid-Romania, I can say with confidence that the storm was over as soon as I reached Buchurest. That was the time to pack my waterproofs into my panier where they would stay for the remaining trip. 240km more to go and I was in Istanbul, the only city spanning two continents. This was the perfect time to take a few days off driving, stretch my legs, discover this very vibrant city, and service the bike. It too was tired after being my companion for so many kilometers.
After a few days in Istanbul, where I visited the Sultan_Ahmed, the Agia Sophia, the Dolmabahce, among other sites, stuffed my face with obergine, which seems to be everywhere in the turkish cuisine, and drank Ayran till it came out of my ears, it was time to twist the throttle once again. I set off for Ankara where I realised that it was the wrong place to be in the scorching heat, so I headed straight to Antalya to cool off in the brisk sea. On the way I visited one of the oldest settlements in human history called Catalhöyük and of course no visit to Turkey is not complete without seeing Cappadokia and nearby Kaymakli and Derinkuyu underground cities. In Antalya I expected to cool down but unfortunately the exact opposite occured. It was 36 degrees that day and as soon as I entered this coastal city the temperature stayed the same but humidity rose making the heat much more unbearable. In Antalya one can admire Hadrian's gate, one of the few remnants of the Roman enpire situated in Turkey, together with Aspendos not far from there. A couple more days of driving and I found myself in Bodrum and visited the Mausoleum of Alicarnassus, one of the seven ancient wonders.
From Antalya destiny took my north to Izmir, Troy and finally Ayvalik. From there it was just a ride to the port, a couple of Giric (=exit) stamps on the passport, and I was on a small ferry [ferry trip 3] to Mytilini, Lesbos. Another ferry [ferry trip 4] took me to Kavala where one can see the famous Kavala aqueduct. From there it was 150km to Thessaloniki where I picked up my brother Stev-O from the airport who had just obtained his motorbike licence so couldn't wait to get on my bike and drive. I reluctantly gave him the keys to my expensive piece of german engineering and he decided to get on the Egnantia Highway and test the top speed of the bike. Having accummulated at the time almost 100'000km on two wheels I knew that riding fast will not get you there faster, just more tired and probably deaf from wind buffering. He, being a novice driver, was having none of that "safe drive" and "let's get there in one piese" talk. Without hesitation he twisted the throttle and checked if the claimed top speed of "over 200km/hr" was true, and yes unfotrunately it was... 220km/hr to be precice. Needless to say that I have never felt so scared in my life. My novice *beep* brother took me for the scariest ride ever. I did try to deter his idea of having fun by tapping him on his back and shouting "YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO 200 TO FAVE FUN" only to become even more scared by him abruptly turning his head around and shouting "WHAAAT???" causing the bike to swerve from this sudden jerk. I realised that shouting just made the situation worse so let him have fun and just pray we don't get a puncture at this speed. This was a once in a lifetime experience and I can now confidently say that I have "been there, done that", came out alive, so there is no need to go that fast ever again. Yes we made it to Athens in one piece and yes mum we will never do it again.
From Thessaloniki we did a stop at Meteora, then to Athens. In Athens I left the bike at little brother's garage, placed a cover over it, did the "wuka-wuka dance of triumphant arrival" and let the bike hybernate for winter. As you can see on the map above the trip abruply comes to a halt in Athens. The plan was to leave it as far south as possible to make my next adventure possible (see Trips Done/2015). So back on a plane the next day, back to Zurich and of course back to work moving the mouse in left-right-up-down spasms.
From Antalya destiny took my north to Izmir, Troy and finally Ayvalik. From there it was just a ride to the port, a couple of Giric (=exit) stamps on the passport, and I was on a small ferry [ferry trip 3] to Mytilini, Lesbos. Another ferry [ferry trip 4] took me to Kavala where one can see the famous Kavala aqueduct. From there it was 150km to Thessaloniki where I picked up my brother Stev-O from the airport who had just obtained his motorbike licence so couldn't wait to get on my bike and drive. I reluctantly gave him the keys to my expensive piece of german engineering and he decided to get on the Egnantia Highway and test the top speed of the bike. Having accummulated at the time almost 100'000km on two wheels I knew that riding fast will not get you there faster, just more tired and probably deaf from wind buffering. He, being a novice driver, was having none of that "safe drive" and "let's get there in one piese" talk. Without hesitation he twisted the throttle and checked if the claimed top speed of "over 200km/hr" was true, and yes unfotrunately it was... 220km/hr to be precice. Needless to say that I have never felt so scared in my life. My novice *beep* brother took me for the scariest ride ever. I did try to deter his idea of having fun by tapping him on his back and shouting "YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO 200 TO FAVE FUN" only to become even more scared by him abruptly turning his head around and shouting "WHAAAT???" causing the bike to swerve from this sudden jerk. I realised that shouting just made the situation worse so let him have fun and just pray we don't get a puncture at this speed. This was a once in a lifetime experience and I can now confidently say that I have "been there, done that", came out alive, so there is no need to go that fast ever again. Yes we made it to Athens in one piece and yes mum we will never do it again.
From Thessaloniki we did a stop at Meteora, then to Athens. In Athens I left the bike at little brother's garage, placed a cover over it, did the "wuka-wuka dance of triumphant arrival" and let the bike hybernate for winter. As you can see on the map above the trip abruply comes to a halt in Athens. The plan was to leave it as far south as possible to make my next adventure possible (see Trips Done/2015). So back on a plane the next day, back to Zurich and of course back to work moving the mouse in left-right-up-down spasms.
