Having been inspired by the Horizons Unlimited website, as well as the ARR podcast and Graham Field's books, I decided to make my big holiday for 2016 a motorcycle trip. I didn't have the time or budget for an around-the-world endeavor, but I would do what I could, with the time and the bike I had. The bike in question being a 2002 Honda VFR800 VTEC - something that definitely loves solid asphalt!

This would not be my first adventure. In my very first season of solo riding, I'd taken my first bike - a Suzuki Gladius - up to Nordkapp, which was a relatively easy undertaking, given that I was starting from Tartu, Estonia - just one country over! Since then, I'd done a long bike trip almost every season: took the Gladius to Trollstigen and the Atlantic Road, and then the VFR to the Lofoten islands. Only in 2014 did I miss out, because I'd sold the Gladius in the early spring, and didn't get around to buying the VFR until mid-July, meaning that I only had the time for a long weekend out in the Estonian islands. But my previous trips had taught me something: on a road-focused bike, what you really want is mountains.

The choice of destination - or rather direction - was driven by two things. One, I'd learned about a benefit of the Louis.de loyal customer card - you can book a berth on any of their lines and have your bike travel with you for free! (The same card also has discounts on other Baltic carriers, but none quite so huge.) So on New Year's Eve, 2015, I spent 39 euros to book myself and the VFR from Tallinn to Stockholm. I now knew when I was leaving - June 1st - and I knew when I had to be back: Midsummer is a major holiday in this part of the world, and for many years I've spent the 23rd and 24th of June with a particular group of friends that gathers in Latvia. So I had to be back in the Baltics by then. I also knew for a fact that I did not want to ride all the way across Poland: I'd done it a few times by bus and relatively recently by car (on a mad non-stop 30-hour drive from Tartu to Florence in an Audi Allroad with two drivers and two 14-year-olds in the back seat), and very little of it would be enjoyable. I have a subjective dislike of doubling back on my trips, so retracing my route through Sweden was out; the solution was in the German-Baltic ferries. Unfortunately the one going directly to Riga is not running these days, so my choices were Rostock to Ventspils or Liepaja, or Kiel to Klaipeda; the latter one fitted my dates.

So I knew the start point and the end point, and I knew that I wanted mountains. I also knew that this would not just be a ride for the ride's sake: it's my big holiday for the year, and I wanted to do stuff and see friends. Fortunately, I had a few standing invitations from a few places around Europe, so I contacted the people involved and cashed them in. Couches were waiting for me in Bremen and Berlin, and s were waiting in Saarbrücken and Prague. From there, it was a matter of tracing a rough circle.

There were a few points that I needed to check off my list - random curiosities I'd heard or read about, along with more obvious motorcycle attractions. My friend in Saarbrücken had mentioned that his town has a tram service that goes all the way into France, which sounded wonderfully kooky to me. Then I remembered another oddity: Wuppertal, a town with an upside-down tram, suspended from an overhead rail. Choosing overnight stops led me to Aachen - I'd heard great things about it from a tourist perspective, and it was certainly a better choice than Cologne. I'd been to Cologne once before and seen the Dom; and once you've seen the Dom, you've seen everything worth seeing in that city. Tracing south, there was an obvious stop: the Nürburgring.

Beyond Saarbrücken, I knew I would head further south, into the Alps and towards the great famous passes of Switzerland and Austria. A friend from far away randomly shared a video from an alpine slide in the Swiss countryside, and I figured that was as good a place to aim for as any. The Grimsel and Furka passes were a must, and they would take me to Liechtenstein - somewhere I had to visit just because who the hell has been to Liechtenstein?

From there I would head south to the Stelvio Pass, and back north to the Grossglockner; then north into Munich for a few days, including maybe a daytrip to Castle Neuschwannstein, before continuing to Prague - a famed tourist destination that I'd never gotten around to. Then it was on to Berlin, which I'd visited only very briefly, and north to Kiel for the ferry up to Lithuania. Klaipeda was further away from Riga than I'd have liked, but it would give me a chance to see the Kuronian Spit. After the Midsummer party, I had a few choices: hang out with friends in Latvia for the weekend, head down to a festival in Lithuania which I'd auditioned to host, or go north to the Estonian border where there was a triathlon being covered by the moto marshal team where I volunteer.

Of course, no adventure plan fully survives contact with reality.

Attached Thumbnails