Euro-hug...
 

1 continent, 2 motorbikes, 50 states and 30.000 kilometers...
From Gibraltar to Nordkapp, from Ireland to Russia... an adventure trough all states on the European continent...

The adventure should start in the middle of May 2010, and the route should be like this:

Skopje-Sofia-Belgrade-Sarajevo-Zagreb-Ljubljana-San Marino-Roma-Vatican City-Valletta-Monaco-Tarifa-Lisbon-Madrid-La Vella-Paris-Dublin-Reykjavik-London-Brussels-Luxemburg-Bern-Lichtenstein-Amsterdam-Berlin-Copenhagen-Stockholm-Oslo-Nordkapp-Helsinki-Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius-Minsk-Warszaw-Prague-Wien-Bratislava-Budapest-

Bucharest-Chisinau-Kiev-Moscow-Baku-Tbilisi-Yerevan-Ankara :confused1:

-Nicosia-Athens-Tirana-Podgorica-Skopje

Any suggestions or advises?
Tnx in advance:smartass:

P.S. the outcome of this adventure should be an photo encyclopedia "EURO-HUG", and the official web page is Euro-Hug

This question wins the prize for the "Broadest Question Ever Asked" on this board :rofl:

:confused1::confused1::confused1:

Sounds like a crazy, fun and fascinating ride!

My only advice would be take your time: that is a LOT to see. Camp as hotels are NOT cheap in most European countries, get a smallish bike and start saving!! I was hoping to do a trip around Europe this summer, but this plan has fallen through.

However, I did look at EU petrol prices and it looked like the average was about 1.1 EUR per litre. Based on a bike doing about 5.5 l/100km (about 18km per liter), I estimate about 1700 litres of fuel for that trip. That is a lot of money!!! So the less your bike drinks,I thinknthis will be your best way of keeping costs down...

Good luck

I can only speak for part I know because it is my home country, so...
Chisinau-Kiev - IMO this is by far not best route and definitely bad crossing from Moldova to Ukraine...
Plus that route to Kiev will take you through boring plains, side to industrial part of Ukraine and really little to see there. Unless you drop route to Ukraine seaside of course aiming at Crimea peninsula.

Better to cross to Western Ukraine from Hungary through little part of Slovakia and then ride to Kiev IMO.

Also part Moscow - Baku sounds a bit generic...it's 2000 km actually ;) I am sure you will have a lot of planning to do - it sounds like will be great and super interesting ride!

Tnx everybody...
There were maybe some lack of informations on the first post, but, here are some details:
Me and my friend, together with our wifes will be going on that tripp, so 4 persons on 2 motorbikes.
For the time being, I ride a Kawasaki Tengai, and my friend a Honda VT500C, but in 3-4 months we plan to have new motorbikes (still researching about the brand and model)... so until next year we should run them in, and prepare for the trip...
We'll see how things will come out, whenever there is anything new, I'll write here :mchappy:

dvormak

It's hard to know where to start with advice and suggestions, but having ridden 70,000km through 31 countries around Europe in two and a half years, I should know a thing or two! Try asking questions one country at a time? Or on specific themes?

--Mike
*very* jealous of your plans..

I.m specialy interested about this part:
Moscow-Baku-Tbilisi-Yerevan-Ankara
road maps for this route are preety hard to find:helpsmilie:

As I know land boarder between Russia and Azerbaijan are closed for foreign people because of increased risk of terrorism and the border is located in really danger region Dagestan.
When we were in Georgia and ask locals about that side near Caspian sea they told us that we are lucky that we didn't travel there.
So I think that there are only one way to get from Rus to Azer - by ferry or boat.
Next - Armenia has border with Turkey which is closed, so you should go back from Yerevan to Georgia and then to Ankara.

and last thing - 30kkm? and two couples?? With a girls? Sound not so...
Is it your first trip? Have you done any smaller trips, lets say more or less 10000km in one time??

30k km is not enough. For comparison, I covered 30k miles (i.e. 50k km) and didn't go everyplace you're planning. Unless your goal is to take the shortest possible routes from one place to the next in order to check countries off a list of some sort, you'll spend a lot more time winding around taking in the most interesting sites. This will add up to thousands upon thousands of km.

All of which suggests strongly that it will also take longer and will be more expensive than you are thinking. You don't say anything about how much time or money you've got, but I'm going to suggest that you double it. This will take you well into winter, and you'll want to be prepared for this fact. Maybe you already are.....but all those northern European capitals listed towards the end of your trip make me nervous on your behalf. Are you planning to take a year and a half? Or are you planning instead to arrive at Nordkapp in January? Brrrrr.

I agree that this is probably not the way to introduce your g.f./wife to long-distance motorcycling. But maybe you know this part, too.

Suerte!

Mark

Sure!
 

If you feel like it, at least get started. If along the way you find yourself running out of money or time, or you find you spend too much time on the bike, ... change your plan.

Take into acount that Armenia with Azeri stamps in your passport might be difficult (maybe no longer?), and you'll have to work out a way from Russia to the Kaukasus. The border between Armenia and Turkey is closed, so either you head back to Georgia (easiest) or you get there through Iran.

I don't see what's wrong with heading from Chisinau to Kiev. A great opportunity to add Tiraspol to your list of capitals (and stop at Odessa, and ...).

I can't offer you accomodation in Brussels, but I can offer you a roof in Gent, Belgium, and some russofile friends that will be happy to practice their Russian...

;-)

the problem with fuel costs is, they're always changing. I've been through Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, into the UK the past couple weeks, and I'd say more like 1.30 Euro per liter (and climbing, along with crude prices).

And gee, my F650GS gets more like 25 km per liter. But then again, I avoid the autobahn as much as possible, where kpl drops considerably. (is it kpl? - we Americans use mpg!)

but anyway, no matter what the price, how many k's per liter, its still damn expensive.

Thank you everybody for the advises. I'm very happy that you are all offering your knowledge and experience... I appreciate it :thumbup1:
I'll try to answer some of your questions:
@Edas50: By now, my longest was this May, we travelled 4053 km. (exactly ;) ) from Skopje to Teningen (near Freiburg in Germany) and returned trough Switzerland, Italy and the Adriatic coast, and all that in 10 days... my self, my wife, and 70 kg of luggage (as we learned, most of it unnecessarry), on our Kawasaki Tengai 650. When we arrived in front of our house, stilll sitting on the bike, I asked my wife if the trip was too difficult for her. She replied: " we should just take clean clothes from home, and we can continue in 10 minutes":mchappy: She likes travelling with the motorbike, so I think she can manage it.

@markharf: Available time and budget is still on discussion... The first plan was like that, just to go from capital to capital the shortest and easyest way, but as we get deeper into the planning... well you know already...

In any case, we are all preety excited about this, talking every day, planing, discussing... we'll see how things will develope... :D

yebbut, which gallon? :tongue3:

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland at least they use "liters per 100km".

Its kml or a bit more correct km/l