Hi Everyone,

Well, we sat down and made a rough plan for our journey. We have decided not to keep it too stringent as we may want to vary some of route when we are on the road, but at least this gives us something to go by for the time being.

The plan so far is that my partner and I (my partner has family in Austria) will head over about the beginning of August to have a look around and buy a motorbike ready for the trip.
Our friends are going to rent a bike and so will come over mid August and we will meet them in Heidenburg (I think that is right, please excuse any spelling, I dont have my map handy).

So, we will leave (near Frankfurt) in mid August and head down to the Austrian and Italian border .. I want to ride that road that I see everyone post pictures of (I believe it goes through the Dolomites).
We will then head through Hungary to Budapest and onto Bucharest in Romania and then Burgas in Bulgaria then follow the coast as closely as we can (on main roads) to Istanbul.

From Istanbul we will follow the coast of the Aegean Sea around to Athens (if we get time, we would like to see Crete) then cross over to the coast of the Ionian Sea and head back up through Greece. Following the coast up to Dubrovnich we will then catch the ferry across the Adriatic Sea to Bari.

From Bari we will cross to Naples and head north through Rome then onto the coast of the Mediterranian Sea and follow that around to Nice and still further to Barcelona.
We will then head west to Bilbao and then back into France to Bordeaux and Geneva. Where we will then head into Switzerland briefly on the way back to (near Frankfurt) Heidenburg.

We intend to do this over 2 months. We average this to be about 200kms a day (or 1000kms a week) which shouldnt be too hard...we hope.

Once we drop our friends off back in Germany my partner and I will then head back to Austria to decide what we want to do next (spend the winter in Europe or head elsewhere).

I am hoping you wonderful people here can give me any tips or advice about this trip. We are all from Australia and thus used to long distances and open roads...we understand we may have underestimated the roads and 1000kms a week may not be possible, dunno.

I will be on a bike (hopefully) bought by my partners family (Austrian citizens) and my friend will be on a rented bike. So Im hoping that means we wont need visa's or carnets...is that correct?

We intend to camp as much as possible, but will stay in hostels if its too wet or we need a break from the tent.

I think we have it timed right so that we miss the worst of the peak season, but also hopefully wont get too many icey/ snowy roads.

Please, if there is anything else you can think of I will very much appreciate your input. I have been keeping a close eye on these forums, but there is so much information its easy to get lost. Ive been buying books and intend to brush up on my Spanish and German (with my partners help).

Thank you very much for any help.
Hopefully we will even get to meet some HUBB members on our trip...now that would be cool.

__________________
\"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didnt do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.\" - M.Twain