Celtic Adventurer - Riding the World

My Journeys end

Well as you can guess from the title I am finally home. It was an emotional moment as I rolled off the Irish Ferries boat from Hollyhead Wales into Dublin port, at 6 am on monday morning. The last few days have been hectic. I will post an update on the site soon with a review of the last days in Spain France and the UK soon. But now first I need to get my CV together. So if there is anyone out there that needs a Chartered Accountant, 1 year out of contact with some travel experience and a fondness of bikes let me know!!

For all the people who helped me along the way or contributed to the site, (you know who you are) You really are fantastic people, and I mean it when I say I couldnt have done it without you. Thanks so much.

Kev

Andorra

Well if anyone is interested in skiing there is still snow in Andorra! last weekend I made the trip to Andorra. From Spain I took the C16 up to France crossing at Puigcerdá, and followed the N320 up over Pas de la Casa. The road is cool, nice and twisty and cold! At the top of the pass at over 2400m there was about 2 foot of snow at the side of the road, and a freezing fog hovering over the surface. It was kind of Erie. My new instruments read in Fahrenheit and i am still not expert in conversion, but at the coldest it was reading 19F, which i think is around minus 7c. Kind of cold!!!

From Andorra

Stayed in a nice hotel in Canillo, and on Saturday did some exploring. I don't have a clue how to ski and now was not the time to learn so I went exploring trails. There are some cool ones in the direction of Llorts, with some really picturesque place.

The main roads are well salted and looked after, but once off the track there is plenty of snow!! So once again I got the opportunity to practice.

From Andorra

Canillo is a small town located about 8km north of Andorra la Vela, but it does have a cool, motorcycle museum, with a great collection of bikes from turn of the 1900´s to a 2004 Paris Dakar KTM. With some really interesting bikes. Like a DKW with a Wankel Rotary engine in it and a bike adapted for the snow.. But I was drooling too much so had to leave and explore the city of Andorra la Vela. 

Or is it a town.. not sure, but anyway its small with lots of expensive stuff. So if you want a new Tag Heur watch or Armani Suit this is the place for you. Ps it has some cool architecture also.

The ride back into Spain was lovely, with warm weather and all. I took route C14 which follows down a river valley past Coll de Nargó. Really nice. Tomorrow I leave for Aragon and hope to be home in around a week.

On the 3rd of April I visited Montserrat, a monastary on an unusual escarpment south of Manresa. Instead of me writing a history thing here you can visit the website at http://www.abadiamontserrat.net/angles/index.htm

From Catalunya

It was the 6th anniversary since my mother passed away so of course I lit a candel, its one of the many in the picture above.

From a bike point of view the road up to the Abbey is fantastic. It has loads of sweeping hairpin curves, which wind up along the mountain, going from near sealevel right up to the top. Really great to drive, and lots of fun to.

For the last few days I have had a bit of a cold so have not done much, but its off to Andorra on Friday and more adventure.

Well people it has been awhile since I have updated you on progress. Today I am in a small town called Santa Maria d´Oló just north of Barcelona, having an experience of Catalan rural life! Its really quiet here, but there are some nice rides around. Yesterday I did two and a half hours of on and off road riding through the countryside, and across some rural tracks. I have to try and upload some pictures here, but need a connection for my laptop first.

Taking up from Germany, I left Ottobeuren with the Fritz´s who were kind enough to put me up for a few days and give me some trips on good routes etc. It was Dr. Fritz who organized my bike service with Seitz in Ulm. Who were great. They fixed up my bike, gave me a loan bike, and even had dinner with them one evening. Great garage!! I recommend them.

The weather has been kind of nasty since I got home, we had some heavy snow in the days before leaving for Italy, especially the day before leaving. I was kind of scared at first, never having ridden in deep snow on a bike. But most of the Autobahns were clear, and it was only when entering into Austria and Italy that I started to come across some snow. Fern-pass on the entry to Austria was great, just fields and mountains covered in a perfect blanket of white snow. It was amazing. The road is nice and twisty but it was difficult to enjoy because of the large volume of traffic on it. It was not until we got away from the main roads that the riding got to be fun, and I must say there was something unique about riding through a snow storm and cracking the ice of my visor!!

The Alps In northern Italy are kind of special, some really nice roads and great scenery, I will have to return here another time when the weather is better. As you descended from the mountains the snow was replaced with rain so really it was not so conducive to staying around. The first night I stayed north of Lago di Garda, and drove around the lake the next day, following the western shore. It looks like a great venue for sailing. Hope there are some fireball events here in the future! Originally I was going to head to Verona, but with the bad weather I decided to go south to Bologna. Near Bologna I started to follow the signs then got lost, after awhile of driving and not getting any closer I started to wonder where I was, then I saw this sign for Firenze.... 15 minutes away!!! So accidentally totally missed Bologna and ended up in Florence. By now I was soaking wet and a little cold! the coldest temperature that day was minus 4!! So i took a room near the centre and hung up all my gear, cranked the heating up to full and left the gear to dry.

I was lucky in that the rain cleared up for the evening and I had a change to explore the city without getting soaked. First stop was the famous Cathedral, which I had studied in Art class back in school. Was great seeing it and Giberti´s baptistery doors in person. Then it was into JJ´s Cathedral bar on the plaza, (yes it is an Irish bar). Also visited the other famous sites, the pont vecchio and the Uffizi while walking around the streets at night. Its a nice city but a nightmare to drive in!! got hopelessly lost the next day trying to get to Pisa. 

So Pisa! It was great to catch up with Nicolo in Pisa and have more than a few beers. This was the first place I was ever on a motorcycle, and I now have a foto of the current bike alongside the first ever! kind of cool. As always the hospitality was great. After a few days I set off along the Via Aurelia in the direction of France. Again it was raining!! and the traffic was crap, so eventually I gave up and took the Autostrade for alittle while before getting back on the Aurelia. Some more great twisty sections especially near Imperia. But they really slowed my up, and it was getting dark when I entered Cannes. I decided to head north to Sisteron, but stopped shortly after in a small place in the Alps as it was too cold and too dark to keep going. I found a lovely little hotel at a reasonably price and despite not speaking any french managed to get the room and my dinner and a nice jug of wine and beakfast the next day. Dinner was great, enough soup for three people, pasta with meat, desert, and wine.. for €3. oh and I forgot the coffee. I left early next day for Sisteron. Some fantastic roads! really good, twisty opening bends with amazing vistas. I was surprised how dry the area is. I passed numerous dry lakes and rivers. Has it not rained this winter in Europe? Sisteron is a lovely little town. I had arranged to meet to French bikers who live here, but it all when a little pear shaped. I forgot to ask for a telephone number and when I got there my only way of contacting them was email. So i went to a cafe which was closing and sent an email. Then the threw me out as they were closing so had no way to wait for a reply, so instead of thinking and waiting for a few hours I had a look around the town and left.

The weather in France was a definite improvement with sun all the way. In no time at all I was outside Marseille, and not liking cities too much I kept going on country roads to Montpellier and eventually into Spain.. (or Catalunya.. depending on who you talk to). Again I am avoiding the highways here, much preferring the country roads. More to follow with fotos.