Europe

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(The text below was written before we left in March, '06.)

Based on our research of others who have taken their motorcycles from the west coast of North America we will probably land in Frankfurt, Germany.  That city is a huge airfreight terminal.  We will shop for the tickets in January and will know for sure after we pick a shipper.  We want to fly on or near March 1st.

Assuming we start in Frankfurt, we will spend a few days there to take care of paperwork and get over any jet lag.  Then we will head south toward Valencia, Spain.  We want to attend the Las Fallas celebration there starting on March 15th.  We will have enough time to spend some days in Barcelona along the way.  After Las Fallas we will head toward Gibraltar and the ferries to Morocco. 

We want to be on the edge of the Sahara for the eclipse on March 29th.  The eclipse will cross Africa from the Gold Coast toward Turkey.  We will not be under the totality but still should have a good show.

After a couple of weeks in Morocco we will cross back to Spain and head for Lisbon, Portugal where we will catch a plane to the Azores Islands and visit some friends for a few days.  After exploring Portugal we want to run back to Spain for the Feria Abril (April Fair) in Seville.

It is now the start of May.  We plan to work our way north thru western France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.  If things work out right we will be in Nordkapp, Norway for the Summer Solstice, and watch the sun go around in a circle.  Nordkapp is a far north as one drive in this world on a paved road.

Next is south (the only way we can go!) thru Finland to Helsinki.  We want to take a train tour to St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, leaving the bike in Helsinki.  Upon returning to Helsinki we will take the ferry to Estonia and work our way south thru the Baltic States, Poland, Czech Republic and on to the British Isles for the month of August.

In early September we will cross back to the mainland and head for Munich, Germany.  We will base there for day trips into the Alps, Austria, Switzerland and southern Germany, as well as Oktoberfest (which is held in the end of September).  At the start of October we will head for Cologne and Intermot with a stop for a boat trip and fireworks on the Rhine River.

We have decided not to sell our house to pay for this, we are taking it out of our investments and saving the house for later.  A relative will be babysitting the house while we are gone to keep it from appearing abandoned.  If we really like this traveling style we may well sell at a later date and continue on around the world, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and South and Central America before returning to the USA after 3-5 years.  (Right now that sounds like fun to us, but we have never traveled for more than one month at a time and don't know how we will feel after long term travel.)  We'll know a lot more by this time next year (in December, 2006).