A very special road trip with my Son

[speedmaster58]

My wife has a framed picture that says: "Make new friends but keep the old; one is Silver the other is Gold" These words sum up my recent bike trip with my son recently.

We set off from England on Sunday 19th April & took the tunnel to Calais & then rode 500 miles to Mulhouse, France in 12 hours, me on the KTM, Luke my son on a Suzuki GSXR 600 We stopped for the night in a Formule 1 & dined on Quick Burgers & Cokes.

Early start next morning after a continental breakfast & the weather was not looking good but the Gods were smiling on us as we always seemed to be behind the rain. As we entered Switzerland via Basel we paid for our Motorway passes & were given a Swiss coin each to "buy chocolate"
At the first fuel stop we got fuel, food & coffee & could have got more goodies we were so inclined!



Then back on the road, passing snow topped mountains & through the Gottard Tunnel as most of the passes were still closed due to snow



As we entered Italy the driving & speed instantly changed by late afternoon we arrived in Iseo to meet up with an old friend:



Tuesday was a lazy start as we only had a couple of hours on the road before we arrived in Venice & as the ferry for Greece didn't leave until the evening, it would have been rude not to have a walk round this great city



That evening we boarded the Ferry for Igoumenitsa in Greece



Now I have to say that Anek Lines Ferries are first class & as a smoker, I was in heaven. No having to go on deck & freeze my nuts off for a smoke & we even had a cabin with a window, sweets & a bowl of fruit. Anek Lines I salute & thank you
The next 25 hours were spent in great company, eating, drinking, laughing and putting the world to right .We passed Albania, Corfu & finally arrived in Igoumenitsa, Greece at 8pm on Wednesday.
We arrived in the port of Igoumenitsa at 8pm and were met by Kathy & Tolis who had driven up from Athens to meet us. Kathy took some photos as well as some videos of the ride (some of which I have used in this report, thanks Kathy)



After refuelling we set off for Ioanna for a quick coffee & the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten on mainly empty roads with some interesting wet hairpins covered in gravel. We arrived at the only hotel that had rooms available that night at around midnight and as a last resort hotel it wasn’t too shabby! It was the first time that I had ever seen electric blinds in the bathroom and I was gutted that I didn’t have any room in my bags to fit the freebie white slippers into!



The next day, refreshed ad fed we set off for Athens via the amazing monasteries at Meteore





As I pulled into a fuel station at a place called Domokos, Tolis noticed that my rear tyre was flat but hey no problem; I had a spare tube & Luke my son a fully qualified motorcycle technician with me.



It turned out that the valve had rotted away from the tube

We finally arrived in Gyfada at 1am & checked into the hotel & I slept like a baby. Now I must explain something very important… I am English and a planner. I clock watch, what is the time now? What time will I get there? How many hours sleep will I get? What time is breakfast and so on? Well it doesn’t work in Greece, as Thanassis told me, “We are on Greek time now, and you don’t need a watch”. Meet at 10.30 means 11.00 0r 12.00, Lunch is 3 or 4pm, Dinner is Midnight & every where is open 24/7.



Friday was a chilled out day, went to change my rear tyre & fit a new tube & visited the local KTM & Ducati dealer and then on for lunch at Sounion. In the evening Luke went off with Kathy to a local Dance school & then on to a club… He is now taking bookings to teach the moves he has learnt.

Saturday 25th April

Got up early & walked across to the beach for a smoke and watched an old man who obviously lived on the beach, remove litter from his little area and hang out his washing to dry. Further along I watch the fisherman come in & set up stalls to sell their catch… sometimes in life, the simple things are always the best and when you are always rushing about, you can miss them. This is why I love travelling so much.



Thanassis picked us both up in his car and we went to the ancient Epidaurus Theatre near Korinthos which was started at the beginning of the 3rd century BC! And then on for coffee & cakes by the sea (Yes I do have a sweet tooth and in Greece I was in heaven)



In the evening we went into Athens for dinner & a tour of the sights by night

Sunday 26th April

I slept for 8 hours, yippee! Sorry Thanassis, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks and I like my watch!
We all rode into Athens to have more coffee and buy goodies at the flee market and then rode up to the Acropolis for a photo shoot.



Dined on the best Crepes in Athens in the evening & Luke went off to a Bouzouki night (sorry if my spelling is not right but it’s all Greek to me!)

I walked back to the Hotel as it started to rain and packed my gear ready for the ride up to Thessaloniki in the morning


Monday 27th April

We all met at the Boom Café in down town Gyfada which Thanassis informed me is a bit of a tradition for all of his bike trips & set off for Thessaloniki:

We rode through the pass that the famous 300 Spartans defended, which is now a motorway! & on to the square in Thessaloniki for more coffee & cake, checked into our hotel & then went for our last meal as the 3 amigos and what a meal! Followed by a walk along the seafront and passed the statue of Alexandra the Great.



The following morning after breakfast we set off for the last time with Thanassis who kindly guided Luke & I to the right road for Bulgaria and as we waved & hooted goodbye, my heart became heavy for now 3 would become 2 and I was already missing my friends company……

Tuesday 28th April

As we cleared the suburbs of Thessaloniki heading for Serres on the E79, you could smell the rain ahead but once again we always seemed to be just far enough behind it to miss the down pours and we were content to just ride in and out of the puddles left on the road.

The formalities at the border crossing in Petric were minimal; Helmet off, passport, a smile & where are you heading?

The E79 is a main trunk road and continues all the way to Sofia the capital, so I guess that would explain why there were so many “Working Girls” strutting up and down the lay-by’s in the middle of nowhere waving at us (by the way this continued all the way to Hungary) maybe I need to get some new glasses as I haven’t seen any on the M25 lately.
At one of the first fuel stops, Luke got talking to one of the petrol attendants about his GSXR, usual questions, how fast, what size engine, wheelies etc.. So I wasn’t surprised as we pulled out that he pinned the throttle, dumped the clutch & pulled quite an impressive wheelie considering that he was fully loaded! The landing looked interesting!



I exchanged some Euros for leva in Rila and we continued on towards Sofia. Just outside the city we stopped for fuel, coffee & a smoke, when a brand new BMW GS800 with knobblies pulled up covered in mud. The guy spoke good English, much better than my Bulgarian! and was waiting for his friend & then they were off dirt riding. We asked about hostels or hotels in Sofia but I think he came from the posh side of town as he said he didn’t know of any cheap hotels in the centre. Maybe the brand new BMW, Shoei Hornet Helmet & Rukka suit might have been a clue.
Ah well, “head for the centre and then follow your nose” as my old despatch controller used to say. (That was easy for him to say, his nose wasn’t broken).

As with a lot of Ex Eastern block countries, there are a lot of cobblestone roads, pot holes & tram lines. No problem for the KTM but I think Luke was feeling it on the GSXR. After following my nose, I spotted 2 Private Security bike cops on Suzuki 600 Enduro’s parked up next to a café.

What top guys, one of them had lived & worked in Northern Ireland for 5 years & spoke great English with a strong Irish accent. They jumped on their bikes and said follow us and took us to a Hostel & a Hotel, went in and got the prices, found us secure parking for the bikes across the road & even helped us carry the luggage into the hostel. I tried to buy them a drink for all their help but he said no politely as when he was in Ireland the people had been so helpful & he was just passing it on.



After checking into the Hostel, we changed & went for a walk round Sofia & dined locally on KFC, coffee & a shot of some locally famous fire water /paint stripper.



Wednesday 29th April

In The morning I picked up the local freebie newspaper to read over breakfast, well when I say read I mean look at the pictures & more importantly the weather. (Well I am over 50 and English). I think if my Bulgarian is right we will be having rain, wind, snow & locusts today.. Nice!

After negotiating the ring road with only one wrong turn we headed for the border crossing at Vidin via Vraca and Montana! Wow! Eastern Europe & now Montana. Must have been that wrong left we took in Sofia.

We arrived at Vidin & the River Danube at around l pm to catch the ferry across to Romania. With clear blue skies and the sun reflecting of the river and my son on his bike next to me, it was one of those “Life could not get any better” moments. Even the local mutt was sunning himself, lying flat out on the ferry ramp.



First the foot passenger scrambled on with their bundles of goodies, then Luke & I rode on and then it all stopped with much shouting and hand gesturing!. Apparently the crew had not had their lunch yet, so the cars & trucks had to wait while they cooked it, ate it & washed up! Maybe they have it right and we are wrong, lunch on the go only gives you indigestion.

After getting cleared through customs in Calafat by a guy in the world’s largest peaked cap we headed for Drobeta Turnu Severin on the E70 which follows the Danube in places and has some spectacular scenery. Well, that is if you get a chance to look at it because the road is so bad that if you’re not concentrating it might be a case of “Oh, that’s what my backside looks like then”!
We reckoned that the Serbs used this road for Artillery practice during the war and the Romanians just left it! This together with mad truck drivers and locals on horse and carts meant that by 7pm we decided to call it a day and found a great bed for the night at the EMA Cafe in Caransebes. Apparently all the Enduro and ATV boys stay there.

See Luke, it wasn’t only my boots that were stinking the room out; it was all those previous occupants!

After eating a great omelette and comparing tattoos with one of the locals we retired and I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow.



Thursday 30th April

After several cups of strong coffee we set off Timisora and Arad. The sun was shining and even the roads were getting better.



Now usually when I ride in a new country my senses become more tuned to the dangers of the local drivers and I don’t worry too much about other Europeans! Having both successfully overtaken a line of trucks, Luke and I were just in that perfect zone. See traffic, mirror, signal, overtake, sweeping bends, biking heaven. Then in my mirrors I saw one of the Dutch plated 40 foot container trucks we had passed overtaking the same line of vehicles that we had! With on coming traffic in the distance! He cleared me and then had to cut in front of Luke causing him to brake sharply! I don’t know if he had run out of magic cakes or Ajax were playing that night but all the way to the border he drove like a complete nutter. Overtaking on blind corners, undertaking, I was hoping he was going to the same crossing as us as I was going to kill him! (Paternal instincts & red mist had by now kicked in big time) He didn’t and so another Anglo / Dutch diplomatic incident was averted. I pulled in to a café car park for a smoke and took a picture of this church, life was chilled once again.



After Arad we ended up crossing into Hungary further up from Nadlac and as we didn’t have any Florins and they wouldn’t take credit cards at the border for a motorway pass we rode into Budapest on the old trunk road, the A5. Hungary had a better class of working girls in the Lay-bys according to Luke!

Note to self: get eyes tested when I get back.

Budapest, what can I say? Other than you need more than one night to see all of its beauty





We decided to treat ourselves and booked into the Great Western Premier four star Parlament Hotel which also included free underground parking just round the corner and free internet access.
I am beginning to think that this camping lark is overrated sometimes or maybe I am just getting too old for sleeping on the ground! The only problem I can see with hotels is where to put your smelly boots so as not to gas yourself but until then, I will keep splashing Brut all over them! (Sorry, only people over 45 will understand the Brut thing!)



After a walk around some of the touristy sites we found a restaurant by the Bank of Budapest & I tucked into the best Goulash I have had in a while washed down by a cold and ice cream. Isn’t life just great sometimes?

Next day we would be off, heading for the KTM factory in Austria and then on to the Nurburgring… “The final leg”

The Final Leg – Budapest to the KTM Factory & the Nurbergring

Friday 1st May

After a good breakfast we collected the bikes from the high tech underground car park, once I had worked out how to get in; I’m sorry to say that at my age bloody key codes and automatic lighting is just too much for my brain first thing in the morning; I need more caffeine before I can attempt any Krypton factors.

We found the right motorway out of Budapest, the M1 and pulled into the first service to fuel up and purchase our “Vignettes” to use their motorways. Now that was fun! It took Luke an hour of sign language and pigeon English to get relieved of 1,530 florins in exchange for two paper receipts.

Still the motorways were good quality, the sun was shining and in no time at all we arrived at the services close to the Austrian border. This time Austrian efficiency ruled 15 litres of fuel, a Twix and “Vignette” in 60 seconds and you got a sticker thrown in as well, Cool!

There is now no formal border between Hungary and Austria but you just know that you are in a different country, the scenery, houses and the smells all seem to change. We pulled into a lay-by for a pee and a smoke and to set the SatNav up to find the Holy Grail.. The KTM Factory!

I only have Western Europe loaded on my SatNav, so since Italy we had been navigating the old fashioned way.. Maps; call me a Dinosaur but I like maps, they create a real visual picture of the country for me. If it wasn’t for that fact that I need to put on reading glasses to see the road numbers and towns now, I wouldn’t bother with a SatNav.

After leaving the motorway we found some fantastic winding roads down to the Factory at Mattighofen. Shame it was a National Holiday in Austria and the factory was shut but at least I had kept my promise to the bike and taken her back to her birthplace!.





Later that day we found a great campsite “Panorama Camping” in Obernberg, 11 Euros each which had large pitches, free showers, ant nests and friendly rotund German Caravaners.



After dining on a carefully nutritionally balanced diet of a “boil in the bag” meat balls & pasta, Shortbread biscuits and a Mars Bar, we sat and watched the storm building in the sky.



We retired to the tents just as the first golf ball sized hail stone hit the ground, call me weird but I love lying in a tent listening to the rain or in this case hail stones; same principle, just louder. I suppose it is the self sufficiency of it all that appeals to me and I usually have a great night sleep when camping….

Not this night though, bloody freezing and couldn’t be arsed to get out of the sleeping bag to find my woolie hat and just as I was starting to doze off, Luke’s bike alarm decided to go ballistic and I needed a pee! Got up in the morning looking like an extra from Thriller but at least the sun was shining and after a breakfast of tea, Shortbread and flat coke cola, life was good again.

Saturday 2nd May

We waited still the sun had dried out the morning dew on the tents, loaded the bike and headed for Nurberg… Now I know they say that you should not always believe what the SatNav says but! It said we were six hours away but the map & road signs said 200km and that’s how we came to spending two hours riding round Nurnberg asking bemused Germans where the race track was…One said we were on it, after I asked for directions to the “Ring” turned out to be the ring road and Hans in the Burger King directed us to the local Athletics track! Finally I switched the SaNav back on and discovered that we were 236 miles away.. “Oh deep joy!”

So after a mad blat down the motorway, we finally arrived at the Nurburgring at 6pm and booked into a small hotel five minutes away from the entrance. Luke was so relived to finally be there that he even paid for the room!. We parked the bikes next to several thousand pounds worth of Ferrari’s, Porsches and BMW's I hadn’t even finished my ciggie before Luke had stripped his bike of its entire luggage ready for the track.



Sunday 3rd May

For the first time in 10 days, Luke was up before me, dressed, breakfast, fuelled up and at the ticket office by 8 am!

I took my time and wandered down to the start area, got a coffee and watched all the “Petrol Heads” arrive. I reckon that there was enough money parked in the main car park to clear off all of the third world debt. Luke pulled up next to me with one of the biggest grins on his face. He had already done two laps and was hooked.





We were then ushered into the bike parking area by “Her Goring” in a Florescent Marshalls jacket and met a couple of English characters from Oxford, Frazer and James who had come across for the weekend. Their stories of the previous nights camp site antics with a mad wild haired German and a “Rossi” Italian had us in fits.

Now I had already bought myself a “Nurburgring” sticker and had no intention of taking a fully loaded KTM Adventure around the track with all these nutters but Luke, James and Frazer conspired against me & the next thing I know, I have a ticket and I’m on the track!

Whoa! Where did that Ferrari come from?, Oh my god is that Porsche really coming sideways passed me? Shit, was that Luke that just took me on the bend?

Well I survived and thanks to my son I can say I have been round the Nurburgring. Luke did a total of eight laps, wore down not only his knee sliders but the Velcro and part of the leather. His laps got faster and his grin got wider. To quote a great writer and Journalist, Dan Walsh..

“These are the days that must happen to you”



At 3pm we picked up Luke’s luggage, set the SatNav for Dunkerque and hit the motorway. By 8.30pm we were at the port waiting for the Ferry back to Dover. As I sat waiting for the ferry to load us, I turned to Luke high fived and shook his hand and thanked him for a great trip.
I feel incredibly privileged that I had had the opportunity to do this trip with my son and that I now have so many great memories and images inside my head. Memories that will stay with me for ever, friendships that will last a lifetime and the conviction that the only way to travel is on a motorcycle.

[Stephano]

Nice one!

[pete123]

Great ride, great story.
Sums up motorcycling to a 'tee'!
Thank you
Pete

[PocketHead]

awesome!! Europe is beautiful

[McCrankpin]

It's a wonderful thing to do these trips with your children.
But try to keep the memory of it alive for your son.
I did two long trips with my daughter over ten years ago when she was in her teens. She's forgotten a lot about those trips now! Although the fact we did them is still special.