Our 2 week European tour 2016
Discussion
Salgar said:
TimmyWimmyWoo said:
Andy XRV said:
Great blog and some really nice photos. May I ask what camera you used?
It's a Canon Powershot S110. 
A993LAD said:
What a fantastic thread. It looks like you had an amazing time. I certainly envy you that long trip with such brilliant roads.
The section when you are going through the Swiss Alpine passes reminds me of the trip we did in our air cooled 911 a couple of years ago.
The Grimsel and Furka passes were amazing, but I did struggle to keep the power on through some of the tighter hairpins given the rather unnerving and sometimes unfenced drops on the outside of the bends. In fact, I'm pretty sure cyclist rather embarrassingly overtook me on one of the downhill stretches but my excuse was that I was admiring the view.
:-)
We must get back there some time with the motorcycles and try and take in some of the Spanish roads as well.
I like the idea of riding down, enjoying the good roads and then coming back on the Spanish ferry rather than trying to slog back quickly on the motorways.
Thanks! I will try finish up the thread in the next few days.The section when you are going through the Swiss Alpine passes reminds me of the trip we did in our air cooled 911 a couple of years ago.
The Grimsel and Furka passes were amazing, but I did struggle to keep the power on through some of the tighter hairpins given the rather unnerving and sometimes unfenced drops on the outside of the bends. In fact, I'm pretty sure cyclist rather embarrassingly overtook me on one of the downhill stretches but my excuse was that I was admiring the view.
:-)
We must get back there some time with the motorcycles and try and take in some of the Spanish roads as well.
I like the idea of riding down, enjoying the good roads and then coming back on the Spanish ferry rather than trying to slog back quickly on the motorways.
That shot looks like you stopped exactly where I took this:
Furka & Grimsel Passes by Paul Robinson, on Flickr
Day 11 - 252 Miles - Andorra to Pamplona - N260 Part 2
We woke up and set off back out of Andorra, I counted 9 fuel stations in 1 mile. It's an odd place. We did the second half of the N260 today, such a good road, we saw a wonderful town on a hill. There were great sweepy bits and beautiful mountainside riding.
There was one bit with a very straight piece of road and I decided if I was ever going to accelerate at 100% throttle this would be the place to do it. I thought that the anti-wheelie in 'road' on the S1000R allowed for a bit of lift, but, I can conclusively say it doesn't, what it does do is accelerate faster than I probably ever will in my life again; combined with the quickshifter, going at full throttle, it's f
king nuts. I was actually trying to wheelie but I didn't put it in Dynamic because I'm a girly man.
I digress, we then rode into Pamplona after a brief stop under a bridge to put winter gloves on because it rained just before we arrived. We had to go round the block 3 times when we arrived to go down a mega steep ramp. Pamplona was a very nice town, had some good (Italian) food and beer.
Andorra
N260 Views
I was annoyed I didn't stop half a mile sooner for this, was a great view
Pamplona
We woke up and set off back out of Andorra, I counted 9 fuel stations in 1 mile. It's an odd place. We did the second half of the N260 today, such a good road, we saw a wonderful town on a hill. There were great sweepy bits and beautiful mountainside riding.
There was one bit with a very straight piece of road and I decided if I was ever going to accelerate at 100% throttle this would be the place to do it. I thought that the anti-wheelie in 'road' on the S1000R allowed for a bit of lift, but, I can conclusively say it doesn't, what it does do is accelerate faster than I probably ever will in my life again; combined with the quickshifter, going at full throttle, it's f
king nuts. I was actually trying to wheelie but I didn't put it in Dynamic because I'm a girly man.I digress, we then rode into Pamplona after a brief stop under a bridge to put winter gloves on because it rained just before we arrived. We had to go round the block 3 times when we arrived to go down a mega steep ramp. Pamplona was a very nice town, had some good (Italian) food and beer.
Andorra
N260 Views
I was annoyed I didn't stop half a mile sooner for this, was a great view
Pamplona
Day 11 - 83 Miles - Pamplona to San Sebastian
We started the day with a loaf of bread and some Nesquick on our dining room table (did I mention how variable the Airbnbs were? very.)
We had originally planned slightly more for this day, but it was a wet rainy day, and I think we were both fairly knackered by this point, so we just did a brief 2 hour blitz over the mountains briefly back through france and on to San Sebastian, where we had the mother of all faffs trying to get the keys to our Airbnb, the guy was so weird it was unreal. He had us ride a mile across town to park in the middle of nowhere and walk around trying to find him, with him getting angry at us for making him be late for work on his lunch break.
After that he gave us the key, but didn't tell us where it was! He said he would meet us at a cafe on a certain road, which we had to wait about another hour for. Then he walked us up to his flat and said his neighbours were horrible so we should try and be discrete. Then it turns out it was a 4 bedroom flat full of airbnb people and it smelled of damp. Oh well. San Sebastian was a lovely place, we actually spent the afternoon in the sea, jumping in the waves. Then went back and had tiny burger tapas and other good food. It's a really nice city and would like to go back sometime just to look at and eat all the things.
Where we waited for an hour
San Sebastian Beach
Odd mixture of people wearing coats and people wearing nothing
We started the day with a loaf of bread and some Nesquick on our dining room table (did I mention how variable the Airbnbs were? very.)
We had originally planned slightly more for this day, but it was a wet rainy day, and I think we were both fairly knackered by this point, so we just did a brief 2 hour blitz over the mountains briefly back through france and on to San Sebastian, where we had the mother of all faffs trying to get the keys to our Airbnb, the guy was so weird it was unreal. He had us ride a mile across town to park in the middle of nowhere and walk around trying to find him, with him getting angry at us for making him be late for work on his lunch break.
After that he gave us the key, but didn't tell us where it was! He said he would meet us at a cafe on a certain road, which we had to wait about another hour for. Then he walked us up to his flat and said his neighbours were horrible so we should try and be discrete. Then it turns out it was a 4 bedroom flat full of airbnb people and it smelled of damp. Oh well. San Sebastian was a lovely place, we actually spent the afternoon in the sea, jumping in the waves. Then went back and had tiny burger tapas and other good food. It's a really nice city and would like to go back sometime just to look at and eat all the things.
Where we waited for an hour
San Sebastian Beach
Odd mixture of people wearing coats and people wearing nothing
Day 12 & Day 13 - San Sebastian to Santander to Portsmouth to Essex - The End - 133 Miles + 154 Miles in the UK
By now we were pretty tired, as displayed very early on by Tim attempting to put his bike on his centre stand, and you can see how well that went below... Luckily only some minor damage, scratch to a pannier that was already scratched, and a bent brake lever. That made it one each on the dropping-a-bike-that-is-off front.
Our ferry was leaving early afternoon so we just did the 2 hours on the motorway to Santander, had a last McDonalds and spent a couple of hours boarding the boat and all the shenanigans that entails. Had a nice afternoon with a beer and a couple of crepes, booked a film then went for a nap. This may have been a mistake because I woke up feeling super woozy/seasick, the whole boat seemed like it was moving, so I didn't watch the film and just went back to bed/sleep. The water was a bit choppy to start with but eventually had a good sleep. Then it was just the monster faff of getting off the boat and getting through customs/passport control. Then it was a small half-loop round the M25 before getting home.
Total miles since leaving home: 2916.5
Tim takes stuff like this much better than I do
I'll do one final post on gear and I have a few photos that didn't make it into the main thread.
By now we were pretty tired, as displayed very early on by Tim attempting to put his bike on his centre stand, and you can see how well that went below... Luckily only some minor damage, scratch to a pannier that was already scratched, and a bent brake lever. That made it one each on the dropping-a-bike-that-is-off front.
Our ferry was leaving early afternoon so we just did the 2 hours on the motorway to Santander, had a last McDonalds and spent a couple of hours boarding the boat and all the shenanigans that entails. Had a nice afternoon with a beer and a couple of crepes, booked a film then went for a nap. This may have been a mistake because I woke up feeling super woozy/seasick, the whole boat seemed like it was moving, so I didn't watch the film and just went back to bed/sleep. The water was a bit choppy to start with but eventually had a good sleep. Then it was just the monster faff of getting off the boat and getting through customs/passport control. Then it was a small half-loop round the M25 before getting home.
Total miles since leaving home: 2916.5
Tim takes stuff like this much better than I do
I'll do one final post on gear and I have a few photos that didn't make it into the main thread.
For gear, I used this:
a 40 liter Givi Waterproof bag:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006V1SYWS
It was very good, had a great opening along the full length and was extremely waterproof, and had a shoulder strap. It came with two bungee cords which would probably be ok at fixing it to the bike (although you're meant to mount it lengthways), but instead I mounted it sideways because the pillion seat is pretty small, and I used 3 rokstraps instead which made it solid as a rock. I would say that it was a much more convenient, and bigger bag than the 3 Kriegas I had last time, which were more 'snazzy', but in reality just involved a lot more strap faff. The only downside of this setup was that it did end up taking a bit of paint off the rear fairings when I tightened the straps up. Luckily I had already dropped the bike and made an even bigger scratch so I replaced both sides when I got home.
Inside it, I used packing cubes, which made it much much easier to manage and made unpacking and repacking at each stop very easy, would thoroughly recommend if you're taking a bag like this. When my wife first showed me these, I rolled my eyes with disdain and said "Pfft, this will never catch on, why are we packing bags in bags", but once I'd used them for the motorbike trip I was more like "WHAT IS THIS WITCH MAGIC".
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014VBGUCA?ref=spks_0_...
Other essentials to this trip:
* Sena - being able to talk really helps, from 'I want to stop to take a picture', to 'oh god I've gone the wrong way', to 'shall we race here?' and just to alleviate the feeling of being alone for 14 days.
* Small transparent tank bag - http://www.2wheel4.com/autokicker-tank-station-two... - I used this to put my wallet in (for tolls) and my phone and an Anker battery in for GPS, it did very well, although wasn't waterproof at all so I had to remove my phone when it started raining a lot.
* Bigger Anker charger for the couple of nights we didn't have charging
I took 7 days of clothes and made sure we booked an airbnb with a washer for about half way through the trip, and just did all the washing once, which saw us through to the end.
I won't review my actual motorbike gear because it's st and I knew that before I went. The only new thing I bought were some boots, which were very good, but my summer gloves had holes in them the size of tennis balls by the end (they were my original gloves from before I did my CBT in 2010) and my original jacket which isn't waterproof anymore (again 2010) and my trousers have a hole in too now (2010). Nice boots though, very dry feet...
And lastly, here are some panorama shots that somehow went to the end of the collection even though they're distributed thoughout the trip.
Thanks for reading.
a 40 liter Givi Waterproof bag:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006V1SYWS
It was very good, had a great opening along the full length and was extremely waterproof, and had a shoulder strap. It came with two bungee cords which would probably be ok at fixing it to the bike (although you're meant to mount it lengthways), but instead I mounted it sideways because the pillion seat is pretty small, and I used 3 rokstraps instead which made it solid as a rock. I would say that it was a much more convenient, and bigger bag than the 3 Kriegas I had last time, which were more 'snazzy', but in reality just involved a lot more strap faff. The only downside of this setup was that it did end up taking a bit of paint off the rear fairings when I tightened the straps up. Luckily I had already dropped the bike and made an even bigger scratch so I replaced both sides when I got home.
Inside it, I used packing cubes, which made it much much easier to manage and made unpacking and repacking at each stop very easy, would thoroughly recommend if you're taking a bag like this. When my wife first showed me these, I rolled my eyes with disdain and said "Pfft, this will never catch on, why are we packing bags in bags", but once I'd used them for the motorbike trip I was more like "WHAT IS THIS WITCH MAGIC".
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014VBGUCA?ref=spks_0_...
Other essentials to this trip:
* Sena - being able to talk really helps, from 'I want to stop to take a picture', to 'oh god I've gone the wrong way', to 'shall we race here?' and just to alleviate the feeling of being alone for 14 days.
* Small transparent tank bag - http://www.2wheel4.com/autokicker-tank-station-two... - I used this to put my wallet in (for tolls) and my phone and an Anker battery in for GPS, it did very well, although wasn't waterproof at all so I had to remove my phone when it started raining a lot.
* Bigger Anker charger for the couple of nights we didn't have charging
I took 7 days of clothes and made sure we booked an airbnb with a washer for about half way through the trip, and just did all the washing once, which saw us through to the end.
I won't review my actual motorbike gear because it's s
t and I knew that before I went. The only new thing I bought were some boots, which were very good, but my summer gloves had holes in them the size of tennis balls by the end (they were my original gloves from before I did my CBT in 2010) and my original jacket which isn't waterproof anymore (again 2010) and my trousers have a hole in too now (2010). Nice boots though, very dry feet...And lastly, here are some panorama shots that somehow went to the end of the collection even though they're distributed thoughout the trip.
Thanks for reading.
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