Featured Europe Down

Looks like a pretty good stretch. I've added it to the route.

 

Right, got that one on the map as well. It means a trip up the Stelvio Pass and then back again (what a shame) so perhaps a stop for a espresso at Prato allo Stelvio will be in order.

 

Ooh, thanks for posting that. I'll have a look at it after work.

 

Started watching these this evening. Won't get through them all today but already enjoying having a similar journey to the one I'm plannng brought to life.

 

Today I realised that the grand idea of travelling down through mainland Europe top to bottom, from Nordkapp in the Arctic Circle to the southernmost point in Gibraltar, has a fundamental problem. Namely, Gibraltar isn't at the bottom! Gah! How did I miss that? Our destination actually needs to be Tarifa in Spain.

 

Just watched the video. That's very useful, thanks!

 

It will - that 50% discount is well worth having. Shame about having to stump nearly £300 up for the Autopass but we'll get refunded for what we don't use, so that'll be our beer money for when we get back home.

 

I've got a full, end-to-end route on the map now from Nordkapp to Tarifa, if anyone's interested. I think you have to register for MyRoute-app to see it, which is free. I'll try to find an easier way to share but it'll take some messing about because of the length of the route.

https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/social/route/5517078?mode=share

This won't be the final version as I'm still looking for more good roads in Germany, France and Spain. Other than recommendations from people on the forum, I'm looking at places like the Myroute-app library and Motorcycle Diaries; the latter seems to have loads.

For reference, pink waypoints are where we're hoping to meet up with people, green/red waypoints mark the start and end of a route pulled from some source other then the forum. The source is added as a note on the waypoint. Yellow ones are significant places. I've added notes and pictures to some of those important waypoints.

 

Yeah, Tarifa is just a little push onwards from Gibraltar if we do, as you say, keep the sea to our left. We're entering Spain to the east and I've got a mate who lives in Murcia so the route is all down that side of the country. Not finalised yet but I can't see any reason to stray too far towards the middle.
Going back up to Santander or Bilbao for the ride home takes up straight up the western side (but not Portugal) and I'm told that's a nice route through Spain as well. I've tried to avoid doubling-back on ourselves if at all possible. Apart from Lakselv (Norway) to Nordkapp and a little detour at Stelvio, it's all different roads.

We set out parameters of 250 miles per day and a total 'away from home' time of a month. So far we're withing that budget, which I'm quite pleasead about. That shouldn't be a problem on the ol' derriere but I'll keep the seat offer in mind. We're planning to do a few test runs this year.

I'm using a TomTom map in MRA for planning so it should be ok. Bear in mind I haven't tweaked all the waypoints yet to make sure they're sitting precisely on the road. I'll do that at the end.

 

I'm not especially but my riding buddy is. He used to do battle re-enactments years ago. At least that was his excuse for the German uniform. Send of the info and I'll pass it on.

 

Not unless Harry has lost a lot of hair, dyed the rest , and turned in to a cantankerous Yorkshireman.

 

Blimey, that's very close. Might be worth a stop off either way.

 

Brilliant - cheers Alan. I've been meaning to tap you for your geographical knowledge of Spain. I'll translate that to the map later, after work. Obviously we don't want to travel on motorways more than absolutely necessary. Let me know if you have any other thoughts. As I've said, this route is still very much a work-in-progress.