But we are fortunate in that we met people along the way, both on this trip and on our previous trip in 2000, who were kind enough to take in a couple of stray bikers and thus make being in Europe a possibility whereas otherwise it would not have been. The first couple we wrote about in our first “Europe” entry in this website a few weeks ago. Without Patrick and Veerle we never could have experience life in Belgium. They took us in for 2 weeks while we fixed the motorcycle and waited for the weather to get warmer. This is no small feat especially when you consider that they have 2 young children to take care of as well as us (OK, we tried to take care of ourselves but Veerle is a mother at heart as could not help herself in making us as happy and comfortable as possible!).

Another couple who took us in is Aaron and Eva. You read about them about a year ago when we met them in Ecuador and again a few weeks ago when we visited them for an afternoon while our ship was in port in England. It turned out that the sponsor for our clothing, L’Écuyer Designer, wanted to send us some new gear so we had some unexpected extra time on our hands. So we got in touch with Aaron and Eva and a few days later we were back in England, this time with the newly repaired motorcycle. We ended up spending 5 days with them and had a fantastic time. They showed us Windsor Castle, wined and dined us, then wined us some more and then pisco soured us until we couldn’t help but have fond memories of the time we spent there (truth be told the excessive booze wasn’t necessary to have a good time with them in London!). Heck, we even had a birthday celebration for their roomate Jules! We can only hope that they, like Patrick and Veerle, will also visit us in Canada someday so that we can return the favor and have them visit some of the sights back home. OK, maybe we don’t have 11 century old castles and fancy restaurants (does McDonalds count?) but we do have maple syrup and lots of it!

Here are a few pics of our time (the second time that is) in England…

After spending almost 4 weeks with our friends we decided that it was time to head south towards Turkey. Our goal was to get to Istanbul as quickly and economically as possible. Basically we had 2 options. The first was to go through Germany then into the Balkans and eventually Istanbul and the second option was to go south through France then cut across Italy into the Balkans and Istanbul. The advantage with the Germany route is that the highways are not tolled whereas those in France are. But the route through France would have us be in warmer climates quicker (or so we thought at the time). Being wimps when it comes to hypothermia we opted for taking a route which would have us in the south of Europe as quickly as possible, we went through France. But to avoid paying excessive tolls we opted for using secondary highways known as Route National. This turned out to be a great decision as it allowed us to see sights which we otherwise would never have seen by zipping down the major highway that runs from the north of the country to the south. Here are a few pictures typical of the ride south…

After two days of this we ended up in Lyon where, once again, we stayed with friends we met on the road. The first evening we stayed with Philippe and Laurence and the next two with Arnaud and Betty, two couples we met in Bolivia last year. Once again it was great seeing the “home turf” of friends through their eyes. Lyon was a big surprise for us as we did not expect a city so steeped in history and rich in architecture. Here are just a few pictures of a night tour we did of the city with Arnaud and Betty…

The next few days after Lyon were a blur of overpriced campgrounds, lots of highways and more than a few anxious moments about where we were going and where we would sleep. It started the day we left Lyon when we spent far longer than anticipated looking for the one campground we knew would be opened in the town of Cassis in the south of France. We were more than a little disappointed when we saw what 20 Euros would get us in terms of a place to pitch the tent but the view was very good despite the dismal accommodations…

So the following day we headed to Nice where we got hopelessly lost trying to find the one open campground in that area. But when we did we were happy to find it more reasonably priced and took advantage of the spot to do some maintenance on the bike. First up was a check of the gear oil which required us to lay the bike down in order to refill without the use of a funnel…

And we also needed to change a worn brake line…

After 2 days in Nice we took to the toll roads, determined to get out of Europe as quickly as possible. 42 Euros in tolls later (!!!) we were in Trieste near the Croatian border. We arrived after dark and without any clue as to where we could sleep for the night. So after driving in circles for a while Marie went off with instructions to “lay out the charm” in order to garner sympathy for our cause. Minutes later I saw her across the street from where I was parked talking to 2 policemen who seemed very intent on helping this damsel in distress. It worked because fifteen minutes later we were in a comfortable room on the outskirts of town resting. Which was a good thing because the following day we needed to take a snap decision which would completely alter our route for the coming week, but more on that later.

Brian