Dresden is a city that we have talked about visiting for many years. We first rode passed in 2007 - our first European motorcycle trip (sorry no blog for this one). We said then that we would come back one day. Well, this is the day! We arrived at our hotel early in the afternoon to discover that we were only about 500m from the Elbe River that flows through the city. We also discovered, much to our delight, that this was the weekend that the city held its festi...

First stop after Imola was Riva del Garda. We had stayed here in 2013 with Chris on our way to the MotoGP at Mugello. We remembered what a beautiful spot it had been so we decided it was worth another night's stay on our way north. Our memory served us well as the mountains melting in to Largo Garda are a sight you don't easily forget - a great view for a cold beer after a day of riding. We stayed about 100m from the hotel we stayed in last time, so the area felt...

Overnight on the way to Assen. This was one of those towns, that if you walked the wrong way when you came out of your hotel, you could have a very different opinion of the town. Luckily, we walked the right way - avoiding the KFC and McDonalds at the bottom of the hill. The town looked a bit tired in places with many building empty or deserted but then we found some beautifully restored buildings that were well preserved and cared for. There were even quirky st...

We left Hradec Kralove in full wet weather gear - yes, the rain had set in overnight. With a wet day ahead of us and a 440km ride to Berlin for 2 nights, it was on the freeway for the whole day. This is not a bad thing when the weather is wet as the road surface is usually better than some of the more scenic routes. No photos of the ride - sorry! BUT when we stopped about 90km from Berlin we came across some other bikers from Germany and UK. After exchanging rid...

21st May to 25th May – the overnight vehicular ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam was uneventful. You had to tie down your own bike as the crew wouldn't do it – don’t know why? Anyway the crossing was smooth, the food average and the cabins small. Kerrie drew the short straw and slept in the top bunk. We arrived in Amsterdam about 9.30 am and were off loaded. We got in a line of fellow bikers and had a female customs officer who was only intere...