After HUBBUK, I was supposed to be attending a web developer conference in Milan (yeah, I know, hard life) and really had little time to get there.

Leaving HUBBUK, I went straight down to Portsmouth for my fast ferry to Cherbourg and on to a friend’s house near Caen. They have just bought a lovely place they are doing up and would love to have stopped and helped but the weather was not looking good for the next day so tried to make an early start.

Reality was, I had an utterly miserable day crossing France. Virtually the whole way was wet autoroute. Don’t get me wrong, I love Idris to bits but an S1000XR doesn’t give a lot of protection from the elements and, even in my fancy-pants Klim suit, I was soaked by Dijon. Actually, keeping going as far as Annemasse gave me a little time to dry out in the wind...

The next day dawned a little brighter, though, and it was time to get out the more dry weather gear and head round Lake Geneva a little and up and over to Chatel before making my way into Switzerland and the Col du Grand Saint Bernard.

Oh my! I only passed my bike test in November 2013 and Idris is only my second motorbike. Letting a BMW S1000XR loose on that climb was amazing! I’m sure more experienced people would be all no big deal but to me it felt like almost limitless power and speed. Loved it!

From top of the Col, it was a beautiful ride down into the Aosta valley and then onto the Italian autostradas to Milan - wow, those Italians will race anything, anytime! 😜

I made it, though. And loved it too.

I was struck by quite how far I had come in two years as a rider. I remember that first time out on the road on a 125cc Yamaha and how exposed and nervous I felt. Now, I was riding around the centre of one of the busiest cities in the World, with cars, scooters and bikes flying all over and feeling happy.