The Dream

Its May 2007 and I've got a chance of 10 days off in mid August, so where shall I go?

Being a fan of riders like Ted Simon's round the world adventures and Ewan & Charlie on their "Long way round" and many more, it had to be a motorcycle road trip and camping so I can go and stop where I please, but where shall I go?

I've always wanted to ride to the African continent, so Morocco is possible, but mid August in the Sahara? I think not. It needs to be Europe.

Just looking at the MotoGP calender convinces me the I am going to Brno in the Czech Republic. Valentino Rossi is having a tough time taming Ducati's new boy Casey Stoner, so the Doctor need all the support he can get.

So an embryonic plan takes shape, 2 days to get there, see practice on Saturday and the race on Sunday, then where?

In the remaining 6 days available I have several options, maybe North to Scandinavia, East to Odessa, a Ukrainian, Red Sea resort, or maybe South East to Istanbul? What a great trip that would be.

But I didn't want to spend most of my time riding hot dull motorways for days on end. I love almost any road running along a sunny coastline and I love fresh sea food, so I decided after Brno I would go via Bratislava and explore Croatia down to Dubrovnik then follow the Adriatic then over the Alps home. My route would take in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland.

The Dream is now a plan.