Here we goooooooooooooo. My next trip is well into the final booking stages and is due to start at the end of the month so the 27th of October.
This is the proposal, I am not very good at planning and I prefer to keep things fairly loose especially when travelling long distance because you never know what you may find en route in terms of weather, traffic and the rest of course…….
(and ps before I leave I have already filled the van with fuel and checked all of the fluid levels, tyre pressures etc as I always do before a long journey)
- Day 1 Tramonti to Orte (only about 300 km so very gentle, I always like to play myself into a trip very gently to ensure that the van is good etc) and stay in the wonderful Hotel Lazio, one of my very favourite stopping places in Italy. The hotel is JUST off the motorway junction, the car park is massive and the rooms and beds great but the real star is the wonderful restaurant. I hope to eat with at least 1 if not 2 mates and perhaps my son too. Very close to the hotel is an excellent petrol station.
- Day 2 Orte to Bergamo (550 km). I have booked a room at the Best Western Cappello Doro in the centre of the city and both the hotel AND the city of Bergamo are truly lovely. The plan is that the Brian the Barnes will arrive that evening with RyanAir and we will eat together either in or near the hotel. I must have two cold beers ready as is our meeting up tradition!! We stayed here two years ago.
- Day 3 The next morning we head north east direction Croatia (450 km). I have booked a room with a mate who lives in Rijeka and this is all new to me as I have never visited Croatia before. His lady wife is Croatian so she will surely explain some of their culture and stuff.
- Day 4 Next morning we will head to Austria to a small town called Heimschuh near to Graz, (only about 300 km). Here we will visit the great YART (Yamaha Austria Racing Team) as the guests of Manfred Kainz, the Boss. Manfred is a great bloke and this year I saw them in action BOTH at the 24 hours Le Mans as well as the 24 hours Bol Dor at the Paul Ricard circuit and there I saw them WIN the 2023 WEC World Championship!!!!
- Day 5 From Austria we will then head to Calais France which is some 1300 km away so I guess that we will stop for a night somewhere along the way.
- Day 7 Then from Calais (booked the wonderful Hotel de la Plage) we will load the van onto a DFDS ferry for Dover and then up to Cambridge and then Coventry where I can get rid of Barnes!!!
So thats the plan guys, lets go for it!!!! And ps I will load my Yamaha XT660X (above) into the van cos Martin the Cole and his team at Alf England Motorcycles (the best motorcycle dealers in the world, as far as I know!!) will sort out the suspension for me. Lovely little bike will hopefully ride even better!!
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