London -> Greece

In the old days, I would have replied "No because Lozzo will rip the piss" but
now he's a BMW fan I think I can keep my street cred. Thanks for the link by
the way, those geeky types would appear to be a mine of information.

 

Interesting. Er, how do I contact said individual?

 

That's a very unstable and potholed road you're walking down there, old
son.

 

if you stick to motorways then you can get to Venice with 1 overnight stop
on your ST, easily. 2x 450 mile days which allow you to have a leisurely
dinner and breakfast at your overnight stop. Personally, I'd take longer to
enjoy the Alps & Dolomites along the way.

http://www.aferry.co.uk/ has all the ferry permutations and prices

 

Last time I did over 300 miles in a day, I nearly binned it at the end due to
fatigue. Admittedly there had been lots of twisties and it was dark, but
still. I'm thinking maybe a week, but my plan was to go down to Brindisi and
get the ferry from there. That's *much* further. Also, I might be naive on
this, but I might not wish to cane it as much on roads I'm not familiar with.
Then again, motorway is motorway and I assume (again naively perhaps) most of
the trip would be motorway-ish roads.

Sweet. Very reasonable prices too, albeit "deck space" doesn't sound like the
most comfortable way to spend a night.

 

On my CBR600 I could average 70mph on continental motorways. That was
with soft panniers and included toll, fuel & comfort stops. Your Duke
should be able to manage similar.

The main issue once south of the Italian Lakes will be heat so stop
every hour to take on fluids and rest in some shade. Start early in the
day and get 200 miles knocked off before lunch.

On the equivalent of A roads, 350 miles per day is comfortable.

probably more comfortable than a non-aircon cabin across the Adriatic in
August

 

AOL, french runs i did at least 650 on the way home on the BMW, i was a
tad tired.....

 

Oddly enough, I'm thinking about riding to Greece or Turkey.

Now the route to Turkey looks fine (France, Belgium, Germany, Austria,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey). I've skipped Serbia but this
(probably) isn't necessary if it's anything like Croatia.

However, the shorter route to Greece goes through Albania, is this
somewhere to be avoided I wonder? I know people at work who have spent
time there and said it was fine in the cities but they weren't meant to
go wandering around the countryside. However the FO website doesn't
seem that negative, just that it's a 'bit' dodgy in the north east
border due to unexploded ordnance and poor road conditions. Anyone been
through Albania?

And in other news... just realised I should have checked if I had
insurance when in Croatia. Whoops.

 

No fair, you snipped my excuses.

 

I thought those barges were good for long distances.

 

Agreed. I used to ride to Bee's on a Friday evening after a full day at
work - 375 miles. Then spend a good night with her, followed by all
sorts of things usually including a long ride-out over the weekend, and
then ride home on Sunday evening ready for work on Monday. I was never
knackered.

 

I did find 600 miles in a day - partly in snow - a bit tricky.

 

When I was doing my grand tour of collapsing Stalinist states twenty
years ago the Foreign Office thought so - which is why I never went, to
my cowardly shame.

 

I would, it's crawling with Russian mafia doing the people trafficking
into Italy isn't it?

 

<delurk>

The route to Turkey might also the better route to enter Greece, as it means
that you don't leave the EU area among other things, but it's far too long.

Albania is still one of the poorest countries in Europe but it's slowly
getting sorted; still, you'd have to be more careful (like Croydon, but with
Kalashnikovs). Roads in the Balkans can range from rather poor to "who
bombed this place?" - literally.

Relevant posts in a Greek biking forum where I frequent don't mention any
serious problems neither in Albania nor in F.Y.R.Macedonia. Most Greek
bikers seem to prefer the latter, which should also have to do with the fact
that roads in Macedonia (the Greek region) are better than in Epirus and
therefore you have better access to/from the rest of Greece.

Note that I'm a southerner who hasn't been op norf since I was ten years
old, so I don't have any first-hand info.

 

Poof...

Kevin

 

We had a really good time for the couple of days we were in Serbia in
2008. The recent history obviously isn't pleasant but everyone we met
was.

http://thewellers.net/trips/Europe08/Europe08part3.htm about halfway
down the page (12th June) talks about Serbia.

Can't help you there. I was mostly free to wander but Albania and
anywhere that ended in 'stan' was verboten by the baggage. My
suggestion of going to Kosovo once we were in the Balkans wasn't a hit
either.

Kevin

 

snip>

Some of the ex-soviet states ending in stan are great to visit but
heading further east into Pakistan was one of my worst trips abroad. I
loved every second of my trip to the Karakorum but the rest of the
country was as shit as shit can be even comparing it to shit holes
like Nigeria.

 

I was looking at a trip to Uzbekistan the other day but I can't see V
slumming it quite that much.