Today was the day we would finally get to Croatia! On leaving Villach we retraced part of the same route we had ridden the day before during our ride through the Julian Alps and the Slovenian countryside. During our morning tea stop we discovered we should have a vignette for Slovenia to ride on the motorways. Considering the vignette was only 8 Euro and the fine for not having one was 200 Euro we quickly purchased one and attached it to the bike before riding ...

After leaving Fussen we passed by the isolated St Coloman Church on flat farmland surrounded by a few trees only. On stopping to photograph the church we discovered we could see King Ludwig's (called Mad King Ludwig) Neuschwanstein castle perched atop of a small peak about 1km away. The castle was selected by Walt Disney as the model for the Disneyland castle and in the Disney movie of Sleeping Beauty. Having visited before we decided to take a couple of photos o...

Riding in the rain is every rider's nightmare but we think we have come up with a solution to this problem. Are you intrigued? We were not quite finished with the Moselle River when we left Cochem as we still had an hour of riding before we got to Koblenz. After that however it was pretty much freeway all day. It was also really cold - had everything on that we could fit under our jackets - with wind chill from riding it was only 2 degrees for most of the day. ...

Meandering stream or bubbling brook? This is an unanswered question! The last few days of riding unfortunately have shed no light on this question. We have however, been near water for the whole time. Read on and all will be revealed. After collecting the bike we rode to Harwich to catch the ferry to the Hook of Holland. We were pleasantly surprised when we were allocated a 5 berth family cabin instead of the 2 berth we had booked - got to be lucky sometimes. Af...

Leaving London behind we headed south to Golden Cross, not a very touristy area but very important to us. We were visiting Nellie and Eric Davis, the 91 and 94-year-old aunt and uncle of our brother-in-law, Michael Reilly. We have been visiting them each time we come to the UK since 1982, this is our 9th visit! We always spend our time with them talking about family and our travels, drinking wine and generally catching up. This visit was no exception. Next was...