If you had a month to ride between Frankfurt and Athens, which route do you think you would find the most interesting?

1. The islands and across. Corsica – Sardinia – Sicily – Athens

2. Via Claudia Augusta and the Baltic states. Venice – Trieste – Split – Dubrovnik – Athens

3. Via Claudia Augusta, down through italy and across to Greece from the heel.

Bearing in mind I’ll have to cross the Alps in February.

option 2 for me.
someone I used to work with spent a month riding that area, the coast line is stunning.
that would be my choice.

a month? that’d take me several.
#2 sounds more interesting.
#1 with extensive use of ferries might see me fit that in 1 month.

February Alpencross will be fun, although could be done mostly in valleys. Peak snow at that point. If I had a spare month then, I’d spend it in the Alps/Dolomites skiing 😉

Not really a skier. Option 2 is a go. Starting in about 34 minutes.

Definitely option 4, spend a month in the alps then fly to Athens. From your list, option 2 for a bit of cultural variety.

I assume you mean Balkans rather than baltic. Going via the baltic states would be a long way round.

Balkan coast indeed. Didn’t quite start this morning as planned due to some last minute faffing. Bike is fully loaded by the door, shoes and kit laid out, ready to roll come 0700 tomorrow. Next stop, that alps!

Ready to roll

Best of luck, Oli!.

Jealous – good on you. Lots of pics please. 🙂

Option 5, up the Rhine, across to the Donau, downstream to Belgrade, south to Greece.

Very jealous! Looking forward to hearing about your set up and how it performs. Give Putin a tweak on the nose from us as you pass thru the Baltics! (Yes I know that you mean the Balkans 😉 )

A good breakfast followed by a tough day.
Strava and I disagree about the definition of a road route. Frankfurt can be a pig to get out of on a bike, but 2 hours of muddy forest tracks saw only 30km covered.

It rained the full day. I’m using a Supernova Plug for charging my iPhone, running Motion-X gps app. It worked well until it filled with water and shorted out. The USB port is angled upwards, not well thought out. Within 5km of noticing my navigation system wasn’t charging, luck directed me to a garage. He may not have been able to fix my fancy stainless Vaya with a blowtorch, but a Piagio dealer knows electrics. Mechanic Stephano was straight on the case with the contact cleaner. Top bloke.

Motion-X GPS is an absolute bargain. If you don’t have it, buy it. It does eat battery but work very well. Hitting Odenwald hills towards the end of a long, wet day, saw speeds drop below the critical 12km/h. That combined with the earlier short circuit and my nav dropped to 45%. I’m a bit concerned about the alps, but I think Via Cladio Augusta is well signed.

Picked up a bit of tan today. Roll on the med!

keep us posted on your progress mate.

you lucky lucky man…….. 😀

Good work fella!

Well, I’ve had some tough times with some really really crazy strong wind in northern Croatia and a lovely week of sun and beer as I’ve moved south. In Montenegro right now, about to leave for Albania. If I get back I’ll post some pictures!