Another European trip

[Enn]

It looks like the European tours have been pretty popular this season here in the forum, and with your kind permission I will post also some humble pictures from my month long trip from Estonia to France and Italy. It all happened already back in May-June, but I was a bit too occupied to write the report before, sorry for that.

We started off on an early May morning, in the middle its me, Sverre on the left and Toomas on the right.

By the evening of the first day we were camping at a lake close to the Lithuanian/Polish border

A day later we found ourselves in a nice small Chech town called Decin, where at the hotel we were immediately surrounded by a curious crowd bombing me with questions about the farkles on my superior GEN II

They turned out to be fellow bikers from Belgium, few of whom were riding on familiar looking vehicles which some guys here gently call gen I

By the way, first time ever I saw a front fork solution like this, do you call it fork?

we loved the cars in Czech

Further we headed to Germany where we visited the Königstein castle which offers some great views

checked the beer and dessert in Dresden

saw some nice cafes and cute fire departments

and climbed up to the Brocken mountain to see if we can meet any witches

the forest looked really dark & scary and every now and then I had a feeling that somebody was following me

After some racing on the German autobahns we arrived to France and eventually stopped at hotel in Verdun which was invaded by French bikers, pay attention to the few feejs in the line, they seemed to be rather popular in France

a frenchman needed some moral support in fixing the punctured rear tire

One of our guys is a kind of war history fan, so we also spent some time at the WW I memorial in Verdun

From there we rode towards Normandy through a beautiful French landscape and made a rest stop at charming castle

arriving at hotel De Paris in Barneville-Carteret

To be continued ....

 

[wheatonFJR]

wow...great stuff Enn! Great photos so far and fun commentary.

I enjoy your humor...

Looking forward to the rest of the story...looks like it was a great trip. :yahoo:

 

[SacramentoMike]

From there we rode towards Normandy through a beautiful French landscape and made a rest stop at charming castle

Where Prince Charming lives?

Nice RR. Thanks.

 

[nik.hisham]

Awesome! looking forward to the next installment.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Thank for sharing the ride with us Enn!

--G

 

[MEM]

This is great!

Thank you

 

[Bugnatr]

Very nice indeed! They seem to have more stock colors than the US.

Have you seen any of those FJR French cop bikes?

 

[Enn]

thanks for nice replies, and yes, I did see a lot of French police fjr-s, but never had a chance to take a shot, the moved so fast!

Back to the trip report.

Normandy is a great place, although we had some fog in the morning

but it all cleared up when we did some model shooting in Cherbourg harbour

By the time we arrived to Sainte Mere Eglise, the D day was in full swing

we were quickly forced into a glider

and kicked out above the church

when we were finally on the safe ground again, we met an ATGATT biker and his gen1

Well, Normandy is so nice indeed

We shared a hotel with an English couple who had opted for a bit more relaxing touring equipment

So after couple of wonderful days in Northen France we took our course to south, passed Le Mans

climbed up to Pui de Dome

and dropped some gum in Bensancon

Ok, I see the sun has come out now after a week of rain, so I desperately need to go out biking. Will post more later.

 

[leedavis]

Thanks for the report. I can never see enough pictures of olde European villages. Very cool.

 

[Enn]

I was just posing at French Alps when I heard some metal crashing sound in the back

and when I turned around I saw Toomas wrestling with his heavy-duty Kawa

so I had to run to help him, but the cameraman obviously enjoyed the show in full

After first couple of weeks of joint travel my buddies had to return home, while I was waiting for my wife to fly to Milan to help me finish my tour. So few pics of the Verdon Canyon, which is a sort of European version of Grand Canyon

I stayed couple of days in Castellane and walked up the rock to see a charming small church

From France I continued to the Riviera and admired a flower creation in the front of a church in small Italian town of Cervo

then to Lake Como and Mandello del Lario, where is Moto Guzzi factory and museum

So finally my wife Marina arrived and we did some more travel in Italy. Met a nice Goldwing team and enjoyed cold beer in Bellagio

admired lake Como

drove back to Riviera and held our premier in Cannes

looked at the Casino in Monte Carlo

and the beauties in Monaco

And then soon it was time to drive back home, we made a 2 days stop in Pörtschach am Wörthersee in Austria

So that was it for this year trip. Altogether 34days and 13 000 km. Many thanks to everyone who bothered to take a look

 

[luvtoride]

A day later we found ourselves in a nice small Chech town called Decin, where at the hotel we were immediately surrounded by a curious crowd bombing me with questions about the farkles on my superior GEN II

when we were finally on the safe ground again, we met an ATGATT biker and his gen1 (a pic of a war veteran with full gear... gas mask & all)

I see the Gen2 elitists don't stop at the US border.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Great report!

 

[madjackdog]

Excellent! Loved the pictures.

 

[Boomer612]

Great pictures... I would love to get over there but I'm sure the wife would need to go with me and that would eliminate the bike part and I would need to win the Lotto... but I still love seeing the pictures.... thanks.

 

[nik.hisham]

Fantastic RR! Unfortunate about the tip over - but still looked like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.