After two years of delays and many more years of wasted opportunity, we did finally get that Norway trip done. Seven thousand plus kilometers of roads, road works, mountains, fjords, ferries and fantastic fun. Or if you look at it the way I chose to do it, 3000km of motorway across multiple countries and about 4000km of actual Norway. Having the bike shipped directly to Norway from Ireland just seems like cheating. It’s not a holiday until you’re stuck forRead More
Instead of writing one of my usual long and bewilderingly boring all-in-one holiday posts (which I’ve already got half written thanks to some 2am insomnia a few weeks ago), I’ll try something a little different this time around. As I’ve probably mentioned in the past, Switzerland is a country that I’ve been wanting to stay in and explore more of for several years. I always seemed to bypass it for what seemed like legitimate reasons in the past. Primary amongRead More
Waaaay back in May, I bounced the thought around in my head and eventually here on paper that I needed to be procrastinating less and doing more of the things I love doing. At the time I’d been forced to completely give up on the idea of getting to Norway this year and cancelled or rebooked everything. Ironically, it turned out that we could almost have gone, with travel to Norway opening up again less than 24 hours before weRead More
I’ve been trying to structure this post in my head for a few weeks, with only marginal success. I partially blame not being able to get out on the bike for this, as that’s when I usually do my best thinking. When I got the new bike at the start of the year, I made one of those plans. The ones that end up being carried out about 30% of the time. I was going to wait until the weather gotRead More
The five reasons you haven’t gone touring yet. I originally wrote this back in mid-February and planned to edit and publish it not long after that. However, with current world events as they are, I really tried to stop thinking about being on the bike so much. After a few weeks in the Covid-19 uncertainty bubble now, I’m coming around to the realisation that life must go on. Whatever that life ends up looking like. A recent post got meRead More
When my mind drifts, it’s usually to the same old recurring thought. “Wouldn’t it be grand to live on the doorstep of the Alps”. Even my wandering subconscious is ruled entirely by thoughts of being on the bike. To be able to ride into the tallest mountains on perfect roads at the drop of a hat or at the slightest passing fancy. But more recently, albeit mostly when I’m looking out at some fantastic scene such as the above, IRead More
This, like many others, is a post that came out of an extended journey on two wheels. I got thinking about miles covered, places seen and where it all began. It was back in 2002 when I got my second bike, which was also my second that I’d bought from new. Back then I had more money than sense. Having written that, even now in 2020 the balance hasn’t quite reached equilibrium. It was my second bike, but my firstRead More
It’s been quite a number of years since I last went to a vintage car or bike show, but I quickly found that on visiting the show at the Cork airport hotel a couple of weeks ago, my unrealistic dream to own a late 1960’s Mustang Fastback is alive and well. The turnout at the show was impressive, both from the exhibitors and visitors. Although while strolling around, I did hear someone moaning about “low turnout”. Can’t please everyone. Anyway,Read More
I had originally mapped this meandering waffly mess out as a 10 part saga. The kind of thing that’d keep on giving all the way to the end. As this is supposed to be a photoblog and not a repository of short stories, I’m going to squash all the final detail in this post. Parts 9 and 10 would just have been text anyway. I didn’t exactly take many photos once leaving mainland Europe. If you take any fantastical revelationRead More
This ‘fire & ice’ route was also hastily borrowed from my friends down the road at the bike rental outfit. Lots of low(ish) roads with scenic vistas and rides through valleys. That kind of thing. Except it’s never really that easy, is it? ‘Another cold start’ I thought, as I stepped back inside the hotel and began thawing out my frozen eyeballs with copious amounts of black coffee over breakfast. Colder than yesterday and as a special extra treat, it’s alsoRead More
I sat eating breakfast with the other guests, less than a dozen people at this time of year. Mostly (if not all) bikers. We watched the rain move over in worryingly heavy and increasingly persistent sheets and tried to plan our escape, all going in different directions. It seemed inevitable that at least one of us was going to have a very soggy day indeed. I packed up, paid up and said my goodbyes and got on the suspiciously dryRead More
As I already said, it was a cold start for both me and the bike. The sun beating down on me made it bearable, and gave me some shred of hope for things to come later in the day. I worked my way through what seemed more affluent suburbs of Folkestone, beyond the shuffling hordes of school children, and back onto the motorway heading in the opposite direction. In only a few minutes, I was at the eurotunnel check-in, wavingRead More
I had a grand plan. It was mostly successful. With the summer doing it’s usual death rattle in mid July, my window of opportunity to actually see something outside of Ireland was closing fast. As we had started looking at the possibility of buying a house in March or so, any possibility of going anywhere off in foreign parts was written off as luxuriously frivolous. But if we know anything about me, it’s that I’m a stubborn little shit. InRead More
During this ‘extended Christmas break’ I’ve been indulging in before I start the new job, I thought I’d take advantage of the unseasonably mild winter weather we’ve been having so far. Take advantage of as in get out on the bike. This decision was also partly brought on by having the wind knocked out of me in mid-December when I got the renewal for my motorbike insurance policy. It’s an awfully large expense for something that (lately at least) getsRead More
With the lavender fields, rolling hills of Provence and daily (hourly) thunderstorms now in the rear view mirror, we were off to spend a few days in the Alps. Nothing really new here, they’re just mountains and in previous trips we’ve pretty well covered this ground here. In the French Alps anyway, anything outside France is still very much unknown territory. We were heading back in the direction of Gorge du Verdon and we’d only be on the road forRead More
Leaving Carcassonne, today’s journey was about 350 km. In the name of it not taking all day (and because we had to be at our destination within an hour of a time I’d set with the property owner), today was going to be very much a motorway day. As luck would have it, this also included my favorite piece of French motorway; The ring around/avoiding Montpellier. I’ve sat baking in the heat waiting for the toll in the past soRead More