Sunday 22 May 2011

Road Trip to Croatia

This morning, my friend Ian Solley of 7Ages Custom Motorcycles and I set off for an eight day trip to Croatia in Eastern Europe. We are going to the 20th Harley-Davidson European HOG Rally in Biograd and we have something like 1,600 miles to do across France, Italy and Croatia to get there.

I left home at 0730 for the nearly 500 miles we covered today. I met Ian in Folkestone, at the Channel Tunnel rail terminal, where our bikes and us were loaded onto one of the high-speed trains that travel under the sea to get to France.

This is the view of the rail terminal looking down on the tracks and one train, just before departure....




















This is Ian, about to ride his 1970 H-D called Richard II onto the train. You ride along the platform before turning into the train. The opening where the car and guy in the hi-vis vest is actually the train....




















Ian’s Richard II and my bike, the Leading Ladies, on the train....




















Today’s ride was a very simple one, with the aim being to get through at least half of France (the boring, flat, northern half) as quickly as possible and get to the much more interesting, twisty and mountainous southern half. We therefore blasted down the French motorway network and arrived 495 miles later in Beaune this evening. It was a very long day, but getting that many miles done on day one will make days 2,3 4 and 5 much more interesting as we can take our time on much more stunning roads.

This is Ian, just behind me on the motorway....





















Arriving in Beaune, we did nothing more than find a restaurant, drink some excellent local wine and have an early night. It was a shattering day, hence just a short post post! This is the town hall in Beaune that we walked past on our way to/from dinner....




















Tomorrow, we ride across the Alps to Turin, in Italy!

9 comments:

redlegsrides said...

Long day on the road Gary....looking forward to the twisty parts.....

dom


Redleg's Rides

Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner

Oz said...

Sometime we all have to ride through the non exciting part to get to the good stuff. Looking forward to more photos and the posts.

Nick said...

Fantastic ...... So many countries so close together ....... So lucky ... Enjoy !

Jackie Blue 999 said...

Cool building, MD...
Don't wear yourself completely out!! :-)
Kz, J xoxo

RoadTrip said...

The Ladies are on the prowl again. Very nice.

mq01 said...

EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!! :) enjoy the alps!!!!!

Gary France said...

Charlie6 – The twisty parts were oh so much more interesting than the motorways....

Oz – Riding through the poor quality bits are well worth it in order to get to the good stuff.

Kiwionabike – I have been away, so it is time for me to catch up on comments and especially your blog!

Jackie Blue 999 – It was hard going on that first day. Too long really, so I should have listened to you....

Radar – On the prowl again. I like that!

mq01 – Two words say it all. ROAD TRIP!

BeemerGirl said...

Is that a nitrous bottle on Richard II? ;)

Great and smooth start always bodes well for a journey.

Gary France said...

BeemerGirl – No not a nitrous bottle. The bike has a small gas tank, so that bottle holds a couple of pints of spare fuel in case he runs out!