Friday 1 July 2016

Home to Dubrovnik

We left home Thursday, referendum day after Fiona finished work and blasted down to Durham our culinary needs refreshed by what I though was a bizarrely placed Indian restaurant at a service station on the A1. No dramas and up the following morning to find out collectively we had voted to come out of Europe, this may make for an interesting (and slightly more expensive) trip I thought.
We followed the A1, busy as hell and then when we just got into London it pissed down, torrential rain! as always it stopped as we got the waterproofs on so we were now a pair of boil in the bag rice really. We struggled to find the Ace cafe but after several detours and asking directions we finally got there. First impressions were that it was great to be at this motorcycling mecca but after eating the food served mainly by non uk staff I was left feeling underwhelmed , another box ticked though. We left at 5pm to be led right through the centre of London City by Mr Garmin (GPS) what a fantastic experience, 15 miles took 2 hours, I saw places in London I'd previously only seen on a monopoly board or on the TV, the cyclists, scooter riders, despatch riders, taxis and others tried their best but despite 2 close shaves we survived. I was glad to get to our digs in Maidstone for the night.
Saturday the channel tunnel, a new experience for me and not a bad one i have to say. A blast along Northern France to about 50 miles short of Verdun saw us stopping for the night and having some issues with the Guzzi but thankfully fixed reasonably quickly. Sunday a long ride through to the south of Zurich, still pissed at the Swiss ripping us off, we paid 80 Euro for our vignettes to allow us to use their motorways, we should start reciprocal charging these jokers. A basic hotel room for luxury prices didn't help.
Monday a fantastic blast across at least 5 passes, from ice covered lakes to 30 degree heat, fantastic day which ended near Garda to meet up with Hacko and Lorraine, the evening as expected ended in a bit of a drunken mess and Ian showed us his breakdancing skills or at least thats what I thought he was doing as he rolled around on the ground.
We parted on Tuesday and headed to Bassano del Grappa to meet Dan and Sara, now on year 4 of their Round the World trip (www.ridetheworld.ca) A nice evening relaxing in this old town catching up with travel stories.
Wednesday we set off through Venice, Slovenia (luckily we avoided paying the toll for their very short motorway system) and through Croatia to just north of Split, a small town where we got an apartment near the beach for £30, superb, food and beer was also cheap.
Thursday we arrived in a very sunny and hot Dubrovnik, 2000 miles since we left home, its nice here but tourist hell, this is Friday as I write this and we've just returned from the old town, super pretty but my god busy busy busy. Tonight we get the ferry to Bari in Southern Italy to begin week 2 of our adventure, some pics to keep you amused; Apologies to Mr & Mrs H for not putting a caption on but this got screwed up and my patience with poor wifi is wearing this , you'll recognise him, he's wearing a KTM and a beer
Ace cafe

Manx Norton, cool!
Waiting for the eurotunnel
First night in France, post breakdown!
Chilly at the top of this pass
Superb motorcycling
Another pass another photo
Nice
You get the picture, it was cold but nice


Monument to the Alpini
Bassano del grappa, wobbly bridge
Fi & Sara
Grappa museum 
One for the road!
Fi enjoying a beer on the beach in Croatia
Panoramic entering Dubrovnik
The Old town
George is even famous here
This guy had a unique way of removing ear wax
The old harbour
The town from the top of the city walls



1 comment:

  1. Yir fair crammin' a lot o' great stuff in...yi'll need a brek when yi get hame... wid yi believe zero degrees up north last nicht..don't hurry back.
    Geordie

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