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Category: Travel
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Nando Italian Bistro

As has now become at least a habit, we were off to ride our motorcycle in Europe for the summer months of 2025. In June, we traveled back to Heidelberg Germany where our motorcycle, a Kawasaki Versys 1000, is stored to begin our trip. This year, our third in a row traveling Europe, was focused on (1) visiting the Anne Frank house, (2) exploring south-eastern England with long stays, and (3) brief visits to villages and museums of the former east Germany headed to the city of Dresden.

On previous trips, we've learned that visiting the Anne Frank house requires advanced planning. Tickets are very limited (it is a small space) and sell out as soon as they become available. So, months in advance, I set an alarm for the minute they became available for the dates we would be visiting. Success! We purchased two spots to tour the house starting at 11 am on the day we would be near it in downtown Amsterdam in the Netherlands. We rode from Heidelberg through the country area along the Moselle River, staying overnight right on the river. Then rode north past the cities of Nijmegan and Arnhem (famous from Operation Market Garden in WWII) to Amsterdam. Our overnight in Amsterdam was at Nando, a unique and perfect hotel. Just 1 mile from the Anne Frank house, Nando is a restaurant in a city park with a few rooms upstairs. It is a pleasant and quiet oasis in a otherwise busy city. Our room was big with a sitting area, balcony, and large tub separate from the bathroom, which also had a shower. The Anne Frank house was a very impactful visit. It is very hard to describe the feelings standing in the rooms the Frank family lived in for two years. We have no pictures to share as they are not allowed in the house. I recommend that you visit. On our way back to our motorcycle we came across a wedding couple on paddle-boards in the Amsterdam canals. Something you don't see everyday.

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1365 wooden foot bridge over the Reuss river in Lucerne

We enjoyed riding around Europe for about four months again this summer. Our trip started in Heidelberg, where we store our Kawasaki Versys 1000 motorcycle, then focused on three areas that were new to us—the east (Poland, Baltic, Balkans), France, and Ireland. We finished by riding to Munich (or München) Germany to participate in d'Wiesn.

Pictures from the trip and the ride route.

Here's a brief summary of the trip highlights.

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Category: Travel
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All the bikes at the Voortrekker monument near Pretoria

We completed our 2023 summer ride through Europe (read about that trip Europe for Four Months in 2023) by flying directly to South Africa for a 20-day tour. This was a "bucket list" destination for us. The motorcycle tour company that we had chosen for the trip some years before was offering a discount for trips booked early in 2023, so we took advantage.

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Category: Travel
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Knopf (Motorcycle) BnB

The Summer of 2023 will forever be remembered as our first extensive European motorcycle trip. Maybe the most extensive motorcycle trip of any kind so far in our riding history.

In May we flew to Germany to meet up with our Kawasaki Versys 1000 motorcycle, which we shipped from California in Feb 2023. We used it to ride 10,000 miles through 12 countries on roads ranging from 1,960 feet below to 9,092 feet above sea level over the next four months. See our route on a map.

Such a fantastic experience. We visited historic sites, museums and major cities like London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, York, Oslo, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Munich. Such a trip includes so many places, people and experiences that I could not possibly write about it all so I'll keep this as short as possible with a summary of a few stops described in the order we visited each.

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Category: Motorcycle
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Peggy's Point Lighthouse
Peggy's Cove NS

In August 2022, we completed a motorcycle ride around the perimeter of the USA and Canada. The trip included many roads, museums and destinations that have been on my “motorcycle must do” list for many years. In particular,

  1. I’ve always wanted to ride to Key West (so we did),
  2. Three states had been missing from my "ridden there" list—Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana (not any more),
  3. Debbie has never been to the Americade motorcycle rally (been there, done that),
  4. and I wanted to return to the Canadian Maritime since visiting on my Suzuki 750 in the mid-1980s (did, better than ever).

The trip statistics:

  • 17,656 miles / 28,414 kilometers (16,982 route miles excluding local travel)
  • 130 nights on the road, mostly in hotels
  • 23 US States and 9 Canadian Provinces visited

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Category: Motorcycle
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Once again off to Mexico on our Triumph Tiger 800 XC. This time we combined attending the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, a ride through northern mainland Mexico, a train through the Copper Canyon (or Barrancas del Cobre) with a lengthy two month stay in La Paz Baja California Sur. La Paz felt like home after such a long stay!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

glamping tents and balloons

First up was Albuquerque and the Balloon Fiesta. We've been here before in late 1980's and again in 2014. But, this trip was different in that we went on a motorcycle and stayed in "Glamping Tents" within the park where all the action takes place. It was a great way to participate. Walking over to the launch field was rather easy so we could head over early in the morning for launch and back late at night for the balloon glow. We saved on high parking fees and avoided long waits getting the car into the area each day.

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Category: Motorcycle
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Cauca River cable ferry

We have been wanting to ride motorcycles in South America for many years now. Finally the time has come! Colombia will be the first country to visit.

A number of fellow motorcyclists that have ridden in South America reported a fantastic experience in Colombia. In fact, the majority cited it as their favorite place to ride in South America due to the natural beauty, friendliness of the people, culture, and food. Apparently they have a very strong motorcycle culture as well with clubs and groups welcoming foreign visitors.

In a country with about 50 million people, there are 9 million registered motorcycles. About 1 in 5 people has a bike!

So, why are we going on an extended visit to Colombia now during the COVID pandemic?

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Category: Motorcycle
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Hotel Seven Crown Centro in La Paz

Another moto trip to Baja. This time the focus was on La Paz, where we spent five days enjoying the city and exploring.

We traveled on the Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT as a last second selection. Our Triumph Tiger 800 XC was carefully prepared and packed in the week leading up to the trip only to find, much to our surprise, the counter-shaft sprocket nut gone when we climbed on to leave. No idea how this happened. But, no time to fix. About 30 minutes later we re-packed onto the Versys and were off. One of the benefits of multiple bikes in the garage!

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Category: Motorcycle
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For more than 25 years, together with a few friends and family members, I hosted a motorcycle weekend in the Paso Robles California area. These started as a weekend event under the auspices of the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association (MSTA) in California but in the later years became a personal event not associated with the MSTA. Finally in 2016 I hosted my last event. One result of hosting all these events is a collection of attractive ride routes around the Paso area.

I have collected GPS tracks from many of these weekend ride events and created map pages. Each link below is one of these routes. I've attempted to summarize each with the motorcycle related highlights. GPX files for each view is available to download on the map page menu located in the upper right corner. That same menu can display a track elevation profile.

Hopefully you find these routes useful to plan your own ride in the area. Come enjoy Paso and do some riding on the best collection of roads in California.

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Category: Motorcycle
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After the topic of hobbies, travel or motorcycles is introduced into a conversation, and I explain my habit of riding to far off places, the next question I'm asked is, "Where have you ridden?"

The answer is a long list. Many roads, destinations and experiences. I believe a better answer is to show the places I've been.

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Category: Travel
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Listed below are GPS map pages for previous motorcycle rides and trips. Clicking the "Name" link will open the map on this page. Right click and choose either "New Window" or "New Tab" to get the map in a page without the remainder of this page. Enjoy these motorcycle routes as I certainly have while riding them!

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