AFTERMATH
"Atlantic Sea to Baltic Sea" - Europe
Post-Journey | 2022
I am not sure what you in particular would like to know, but these would be facts I would like to know. However, bear in mind that everybody is different and has different expectations or ideas for such a journey.
Our journey was planned to be a test run for our RTW, to find out, if we like it, what needs to be changed, if we can make it, etc. This is why we opted for Europe as it would be the easiest to drive home in the worst case. Also to have a soft start as no hassle of border crossings yet in the way of Carnets or Visas.
We also have to remember, that James will be only able to join the journey for 3-4 months/year, so it was also for me, Steffi, a test to cope on my own: with a daily routine, navigating, picking up the bike, etc. and most important to be on my own most of the time.
For us, once the rough route is decided, it is important to just take it easy and be flexible. Guess, with all the changes within this leg of the RTW trip, we can be very flexible as there is, so far, no time limit. Only at the end, Steffi had the money limit as accommodation got really expensive.
SO HERE WE GO:
We both started on 22.2.22 and James went back to Portugal after 90 days. By that time we had driven over 12.000km together. Steffi then drove another 140 days on her own and returned on 15.10.2022. Within these 8 months Schimmelchen had driven a total of over 31.000km.
COUNTRIES:
We have visited the following places/countries together:
Spain (crossing through)
Cote d'Azur, France
Monaco
Italy (nearly all around the "boot" including Sicily; also ACT Italy done)
Albania
Montenegro
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Slovenia (2 days of TET)
Steffi has then visited the following places/countries on her own:
Venice, Italy
Slovenia
Hungary
Siebenbürgen, Romania
Czech Republic
Poland (south until Krakow)
Slovakia (mainly the High Tatra area)
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estland along the border of Belarussia and Russia
Estland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland along the Baltic Sea
Germany
Czech Republic (north along the border of Germany)
Holland
Belgium (just crossing through)
Normandie and Bretagne, France
Spain (crossing through)
That leads to a total of 20 countries (if you are not counting the 10km in Austria I did ;-) )
Which ones we liked the most is really difficult to say as weather, offroad, people can very much influence that. However, we liked very much Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. Steffi on her own additional liked very much the part of Romania she visited and Bretagne in France. Positively surprised by Poland and the Baltic countries as no imagination at all of these countries. However, each country of its own was interesting; hopefully, we can get back again to discover more.
Here comes now the bit more technical part, but in case you would like to know more in depth or specific, please do not hesitate to CONTACT us.
TYRES:
Steffi:
1 set of Michelin Anakee Wild in Italy (lasted about 14.000km)
1 rear of Michelin Anakee Wild and 1 front Heidenau K60 Ranger in Budapest (still in use after return with about 16.000km)
James:
1 set of Bridgestone Battlax AX41 in Italy (lasted all the way back home)
Schimmelchen:
3x oil exchange (as the one in Montenegro didn´t go by plan)
Other parts, like rear wheel bearings, brake pads and air filter were wear & tear.
MISC.:
Together we had a good mixture of camping and hotels, which was very helpful for the travel budget. Also, we mainly made something for lunch, like salad or sandwiches.
Steffi alone had a higher percentage of accommodation but at Balticum a lot of camping again due to possibilities and weather conditions; from Germany onwards only accommodation due to weather and closed camping places. This was the reason to decide to head home after visiting Bretagne, France.
Mainly used apps: iOverlander, booking.com, Airbnb and sometimes Google to scan areas for wild camping spots.
We were extremely lucky with the weather, in general. However, in Calabria, Italy we had really bad weather that we decided to change the "side of Italy" as there was good weather.
If there was rain otherwise, it was just partial during the day, not pleasant, but has to be. Also, Steffi was a lot of times so lucky that it panned out with her accommodation (booking.com or private) to stay an extra day. Thank you to all these private people, like Bunk-a-Biker, that I could stay another night due to the rain!
Petrol is quite expensive; the average is probably about €1.80-€1.90/l of 95Octane or 98 octanes (E5 or E10), depending on the country. We got really shocked when we first entered Italy at the beginning of our journey as it was there already €2.20/l!
Steffi was in love with the Baltic Petrol stations as you could get anything there, especially for lunch (not the healthiest, but the easiest option for her by decision). Also, the (female) washrooms were 90% clean there. Then in France, on the return, it was hard to find a serviced petrol station, let alone with a shop to even buy a water.
For navigation, we used when travelling street James TomTom or his little Garmin Etrex 30 (also used for tracking). Later on, we started using OsmAnd, which Steffi used all the time for navigation and tracking. It failed really only once in France when there was a problem with the app in general. We tried mapy.cz but the free version doesn't provide all the useful gadgets we were used to from OsmAnd. We kept Sygic as a backup but never needed to use it. For rough planning, we used google maps, also to pinpoint locations we were planning to visit.
PLAN FOR 2023:
Steffi shipping Schimmelchen to the USA to travel all over North America. Start, inshallah, February/March 2023.
James shipping his SuperTenere to Canada end of June. We will then travel together to Canada and Alaska.
We hope you liked the summary of "Atlantic to Baltic Sea" and stay tuned for more adventures in 2023.
We will keep you posted on the preparation for the adventure "North America" once things are a bit more concrete (B2 Visa for Steffi, shipping, bike preparation, etc.).