Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Thumping through Europe

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Col de la Boaire, Liguria area between France and Italy

“The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
― Christopher McCandless

Although Christopher McCandless ended up starved to death in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness, he did make a point.
It’s time. F*ck it! F*ck cancer. F*ck work, being sick, failed relationships, tragic loss of loved ones, layoffs, traffic accidents, canceled rent contract, daily routines, rain, urban lifestyle stress and crappy attitude. It’s time to ride. It’s time for adventure and new experiences, in the best possible company.

We, THE woman and me, are thumping through Europe. A ~10 week ~10000-15000 km ride through Europe on our single cylinder metal companions. The goal is to experience, to see and mostly to ride. We are two small and fairly young Swedes departing from Stockholm, traveling on a XT660R and a F650GS. Modified, packed and ready for the rough stuff. Traveling will be done on dirt over tarmac, where ever possible. We will be on the road starting 2014-06-30 in Stockholm, taking the ferry to Gdansk in Poland, arriving back in Stockholm by September.

We are navigating by the old saying “all roads lead to Rome”. So will hopefully ours do. Planned route is roughly:

Ferry from Stockholm to Gdansk, cross Poland and stop by Warsaw/Radom/Lublin/Krakow, ride over the Tatra mountains into Slovakia, sick-sack the Alps via Austria-Slovenia-Switzerland-Italy-France. Do the Ligurian border crest roads. Aim south down to Sicily. Skinny-dip in the south Mediterranean. Maybe take the route north over Sardinia. Hop on a Ferry to Barcelona. Cross the Pyrenees, drop in and say hello to Andorra. Stomp some wine in the wine district, continue along the south cost of France. Take a left up the French Alps and head home to Sweden. Or if things turn out differently, maybe take the east route home via Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia. Or turn back home by Rome, if my butt hurts too much. Or something completely different and shorter than planned. Time will tell.

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Accommodation will be done via camping, couch surfing (awesome community, always meeting awesome people), dropping by friends and family, and letting the body rest in a comfy hotel bed once in a while.

Please share your opinions of route selection, your personal “what not to miss” on our route, awesome routes/places/events in areas we are passing by. There is so much information to take in, and we have probably missed a lot even after spending months planning our trip (or at least spending months to buy cool gear and servicing the bikes).

We are warm and open minded people, somewhat nerdy and newly converted from sport bikes (+3 years of riding for the lady, +12 years for me). If we pass your home turf and you have a story to share, a space for us to pitch a tent or a couch to lend, please give us a shout out! We gladly host motorcyclist in our home when possible, if you happen to drop by Stockholm on your journey (maybe heading to Nordkap this fall?).

We are specifically interested in YOUR feedback regarding:
• Routes to choose when crossing Poland and the Tatra mountain area into Slovakia, heading for Vienna (Gdansk – Warsaw – Radom – Lublin – Krakow – Bratislava - Vienna).
• Routes to choose in Italy from Livorno down south to Catania.
• Obvious “best off-road experiences” in the Alps for bigger adventure bikes.
• Any personal route recommendation or GPX-tracks to follow, if they are within proximity of our planned route.
• Local events not to miss.
• Spontaneous meetings with motorcyclists that can show us around and give local advice.

9 months of preparations are soon over. Progress will most likely be tracked on a blog. Updates to thread will follow.

As the Italians say: Avanti! :scooter:

From Stockholm, Sweden
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