Europe Winter Riding Info needed
 

Hello ,

I am currently in Turkey (started ride from Singapore ).My plan is to ride thru Greece,Italy(by ferry),Switzerland,France,Spain and Portugal during the winter months.In Sprýng I will head for Northern Europe.
Any tips and info on winter road conditions etc will be most welcome.

Thank you.

Hello,

I should stay (as south as possible)near the coastline. So Greece, Italy en Spain should be OK.
Have you thought about Tunesia or Maroc ?

If you're going north in spring and come to the Netherlands. Your welcome here.
see; http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000038.html

Cheers,

Freek (NL)

Hello Freek,

Thanks alot for your info,yes I intend to go to Morocco as well. I intend to store the bike somewhere south and fly home(Singapore) for awhile before returning in late spring.

Thanks for the offer in Netherlands, if you should be in Singapore ,you will be most welcome too.


Best Regards
-Max Ng

Hý Max

I am ýn Turkey as well lookýng to go výa Greece/Yugo to Italy. In Olympos at the moment.

cheers

Hello Alec,

I am in Istanbul now, the weather here is not very encouraging.I will be in Turkey for another 3 weeks.My girlfriend will be flying in to meet me next week and we will tour Turkey for 2 weeks together, after that she will fly home and I will continue.

Cheers

-Max

Max, it's already too late to get through any of the mountain passes, there is snow there already. Zurich had its first snowfall this week, although it melted the next day.

You might be able to stay snow-free if you go up the Adiratic coast (Croatia), but even that might be dodgy - I recall riding from Pula in Croatia to Zurich last fall, mid September, and getting heavy snow once I turned north from Italy.

I think you are going to have to plan to stick very close to the coast of the Med to avoid cold weather.

You might want to consider taking a ferry from Dubrovnik over to Italy (Bari?), then riding up Italy to Genoa. Just a thought - at least that would keep you away from the area from Trieste to Milan, which I know from experience can be pretty cold (and pretty uninteresting) this time of year.

PanEuropean

Max,

You can probably store your bike in our garage, as long as you remove it by June next year.

Don't know about Yugo at this time of the year. To get there you'd need to go inland from Greece, unless you want to cross Albania (now there's a challenge!). I'd go to Igoumenitsa and then take a ferry to Italy from there. From there you have about three choices:

Up the coast either side. Expect lots of traffic and beton.

Up the spine. Could be cold and/or wet.

Cross to the other side and go island hopping vie Sardegna and Corsica. Very pretty, but slow and possibly expensive.

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Jenny & Peter.

Jenny and Peter

How ýs ýt ýn southern france over wýnter? I dont mýnd the cold but I have had my fýll of snow!

Those Turkish keyboards are a bastard, aren't they? ;-)

The road conditions here depend very much on where you go. We live 1km from the coast and we had snow on the ground once in 5 years. It lasted all of about one hour. But, the land rises steeply and in the hills/mountains 30km inland it can be another story. The problem inland is often not the snow, but the black ice. The main roads are almost always clear and the sun shines often.

Summary: safe near the coast and at low altitudes. We ride all year.


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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

Hello Jenny and Peter,

Thanks for the bike storage offer, I have no firm plans at the moment,will decide what is next after touring Turkey for another 2 weeks
with my girlfriend who would be flying here for a short vacation.

By the way do you know what kind of custom paperwork is involved in France for storing a bike? In Turkey ,they have a stamp on my passport saying I have imported a bike and I would need to store my bike at the Airport customs and get a waiver form as well.

Thanks once again.

-Max

Hi again,

AfaIk there is no paperwork in Europe, except that the Greeks will probably want to see your green card, which you must have anywhere in Europe. I crossed into Greece from Turkey in '89 with an NZ registered bike and I don't recall having my passport stamped.

Ciao,

Peter.

Peter:

A question for you (bit off topic for the thread, but forgive me): I am thinking of getting a pied á terre along the French coast somewhere between Marseille and the Italian border. I understand that there are some security problems (crime problems) in the Marseille and Nice areas. Is this correct? If so, where along the coast would you suggest? Does the level of security (and the price of simple lodging) vary much along the coast between Marseille and Monaco?

PanEuropean

Hi,

Yes, the Riviera is the crime capital of France. Anything that can get nicked will be, it's just a matter of time. A relly of Jenny got mugged in Antibes, although not hurt. However, the govt. tells us that crime has come down. The big Q is, do we believe anything the official crooks tell us?

Having said that, if you keep your wits about you you'll be ok.

For accommodation, personally I'd try and find some private holiday flats in the hinterland. The coast is not very nice: noisy, polluted, full of traffic and concrete. But if youi don't have a job to go to every day you can go inland a few dozen kms and you find lovely quiet and quaint little villages where in the off-season somebody should be happy to let you an apartment for a good rate on a monthly basis. We happen to know some people who rent one or two holiday homes, but they're on holiday themselves at the moment and I don't know whether they'll be back b4 you get here.

When we arrived 5 years ago we rented studios in a "résidence hotelière". Cost about €500/month then all inclusive. You'll find these probably on the coast only. We can help you find something once you get here.

Ciao,

Peter.

Peter:

Thanks for that info. I do have a job, it's in Switzerland, when I go to work, it's typically for about 4 to 8 weeks, then when I'm off, it can be for another 4 to 8 weeks.

So, my security concerns would be primarily about secure storage of the moto - I wouldn't have much of value in the flat itself.

If I do go inland "a few dozen kms", as you suggested, would I encounter much of a climatic difference - meaning, perhaps snow 30 km's inland vs. no snow along the coast?

Lastly, what about Monaco itself? Is it any better than France for security?

PanEuropean

PE:

You'll have to find a place with a lock-up garage, which will be more difficult. You may have to ask around in whatever village you intend to stay.

Snow-wise just make sure the place you pick isn't too high up. Lock the bike up and have insurance. In the country theft is not normally a big problem.

Monaco is very secure, the cops and cameras are everywhere. But it's for the rich only...

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.