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!