First trip to Europe - from UK to Europe 2006

I was most reluctant to believe anyone I hadn't met; regardless of the fact they had done travel logs regarding long trips. After my first 250 mile day around Wales I was convinced at least of the seamless undies idea.
NESS: Our trial trip was planned for Wales, as I was keen to go, having never been before. As 'absolute beginners' we were unsure which advise was sound and which was not, the trial helped dispel myths and to find our personal truths about travelling as we wanted.

LORENZ:To fettle,one '88 VFR750 for 5000 mile trip,having spanked it verily for the last 5 years.
1)Bars needed raising.One up is active riding but two up needs to be at least a bit ergonomic so up go the clip-ons by 7 inches courtesy of two hours of lathe work/ally welding at the Smalley Emporium of Great Skill(Rick and Andy's garage in Yeadon)
2)Luggage.One set of ex Guzzi Krauser luggage supplied at extortionate expense (£60)by Mark at Moto Strada in Shipley in need of some fettling and adjustment to fit aforementioned shabby VFR(more welding at the Smalley ranch)

LORENZ Well,what fun(!) The miles to Dover ground along with a welcome stop at Grantham to see Ness´s folks then off with time to spare for the 4pm ferry,unless some geezer plants his motaaa into the central barrier...3 miles of lane skipping/white lining and HO for the Dartford tunnel.

NESS: Well, we are at Passau, about to travel into Austria after several big days of riding and no internet cafes. We spent the first night in Bailleul in a field with the blessings of a local who told us that no police would bother us and it was 'cool'.

Slovenia is great and Dober dan to you all!NESS: Slovenia is great and Dober dan to you all! We started in the North and Bled, which was rather Butlinsesque. Lorenz quickly whisked us past, foiling my attempts to hang in a town and catch a band and art gallery, to Bohinjska Bistrica. We were told by our first cafe owner that they must speak English, (a very depressing approach, I thought, but oh well). The older people loved being greeted in their own language I found.

Slovenia is a well kept secret,tell no one how good it is or it ll be overrun with touristsLORENZ Slovenia is a well kept secret,tell no one how good it is or it ll be overrun with tourists!Beautiful scenery,warm friendly(and usually English speaking to some extent)helpful people,mountainy,hilly and not great lumps of industry.OK so I m from the Cleck/Huddersfax/Brad/Keighley conurbation so anything s an improvement!Sorry for the odd syntax/punctuation but this is not my form of keyboard layout....Z and Y are swopped for a start.

We made it to Roganska Slatina, stopped for coffee, started again...but the bike didn´t.NESS: (Mon 3-7) Well...we set off from Dolenjske Toplice today for Ptuj. We made it to Roganska Slatina, stopped for coffee, started again...but the bike didn´t. We checked the petrol pump; no worries, the sparks; only get a spark at the end of the try, as we drop the ON switch. Lorenz figures the CDI and his friend Edgar, he thinks, happens to have one for a 1986 VFR FG. Uno problemo: his friend Edgar is in England.So three local mechanics come out, play, dry the CDI, open the unit and look at it.

Lorenz and Stephen jetted off to check out Shed 20 and walk and I hung back at the tent and had a massive feast with the long awaited fried cheese dish, that ended up being quite bland- but hey you have to try these things!NESS: (Sun 2-7) Well yesterday it rained and we chilled out in Dolenjske Toplice near Novo Mesto. We met a chap called Stephen who was in a car with French numberplates, lived in Switzerland and had a Lancashire accent. A nice surprise and his pleasant company was appreciated.

It´s a tough slog and although Edgar managed to ring for a while it ended all too soon with no warning. So now we are hoping that Linda may be able to do something from home-NESS: (Tues, 7-7) We walked down to use the internet at the local hotel. No contact from the only Slovenian community member. Lorenz´s phone is now out of credit, we seem to be unable to use local phones for international calls, the hotel will only let us if we check in.

About 5pm Jernej arrived, on the VFR! We were very excited and he had ridden it from the next village. Tues 4/7, Linda managed to help us out by topping up our phones from home and contacting people. One of our original mechanic's (Jernej's) boss picked up the bike and took it to the next village for a mechanic there to look at.

Well that was a bit of a turmoil.Sorry I've been so lax about updating,my tech skills are legendary for their absence so Ness has been the blogmeister..Well that was a bit of a turmoil.Sorry I've been so lax about updating,my tech skills are legendary for their absence so Ness has been the blogmeister..
I've missed a chunk out so here's a recap of the first week...

we had: beer; red wine with water; red wine with coca- cola (which I admit I would not usually drink but was surprisingly good); some tequila type stuff; and local mead. If we drank anything else I don't remember!Friday, 7/7, our last full day. Lorenz was thinking about a day trip, but I just decided to hang at the vineyard. It was quite sad leaving here, even though I really was craving a warm shower. The cold shower I had had on Wednesday had been enough to cause much shrieking and lead to washes instead from then on, not very good.

Maybe that's over dramatising it a bitMaybe that's over dramatising it a bit.The next day dawned damp and uninspiring but a bit of encouragement from Her Indoors and a conflab with Steve(the chap from Colne)led to us rugged blokes hi-ing us off to the forests in search of Camp 20,a partisan camp which stayed undiscovered by the Italians in WW2...the next 4 hours gave us an idea why!OK so the signs were in Slovenian and vestigial to say the least we managed to footslog it (suffer suffer)o'er mountains and valleys dank and bear infested(once long ago)finally emerging triumphant and bloody hun

The tidying up of loose ends..So here's May '07 and I'm a VFR hooligan again!
After most of a week loitering in Slovenia we were flown home(courtesy of Footman James)to the saddest sight of the trip,a pile of bike luggage in my kitchen with flight tags on them!
Ness buzzed off back to Oz(something to do with winter...)and the bike sat at Vito's garage where it wintered happily.