As per this thread, in 2007 we did a Grand Tour of western Europe. I certainly encourage others to post pics and videos of their travels.
In 2006, Catherine and I read the Shirley Hardy-Rix and Brian Rix story about achieving their dream - an around-the-world motorcycle tour on their BMW, covering 56,671 km across 27 countries (see
http://www.aussiesoverland.com/). Early in their book, "
Two for the road", Shirly talks about her sister dying of cancer and they quote simple advice from a friend about going on the trip:
- "Once you've made up your mind, tell people. That way you can't back out." and,
- "Don't leave it until you retire. So much can happen. You might never do it."
A few years before that, Catherine lost her brother to cancer when he was only 51, and we both lost our Mums to cancer when they were each aged 68. We had close friends who were battling serious illnesses and all these things weighed heavily on us; so by February 2007, we’d taken the author's advice and started telling everyone we were going - we had bitten the bullet.
We departed for London on 1st May and nearly 5-months later, we landed home. We had the time of our lives on that trip, covering 22,115 kilometres (13,740 miles) on the roads: visiting England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Austria (& Luxembourg and Lichtenstein) and numerous ferry rides - like Newcastle UK to Bergen Norway; and Bari Italy to Greece, then across the Med to Santorini back to Athens & up to Vienna.
Norway and Switzerland were highlights with their scenic fjords, mountains and twisties; Italy has such friendly people; Amsterdam for a great night out; southern France for the best relaxing getaway; too many other highlights to list here. But we must mention the annual European Pan Gathering hosted in2007 by the AuSTrians. That year time in Altlengbach (near Vienna) at the Pan AuSTrian Tour with so many other ST owners was tops.
To see a selection of our trip photos (about 300+) go to this album in Photobucket:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v681/John_Meara/Europe%20on%20an%20ST1300/The only downside of our time away in 2007 was that 2 of our terminally-ill friends passed away while we were overseas (Ian Mathers and Ron Buhmann). This did however reinforce that life is too short to put off until tomorrow what you can do today!
So if you are considering doing such a trip -
Do it now! You won't regret it.
Cheers