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Thanassis
It so enjoyable to follow your trip with these pictures and commentary.

Thank you for sharing this with us all. Looking forward to the next chapter.

Great pictures. Well documented bike adventure!

Thanassis and Kathy
THANKS for the great pictures. You are making my Carolina rides, well, somewhat boring now. How can my Saturday ride tomorrow even begin to compare.

Just kidding, the pictures are most definitely inspiring. Thank you for the great pictures.

Uh, we are waiting on the next batch? Remember to think about us!!!

Thanks all for your encouragement!

I will be uploading the pictures from Gdansk/Poland in a few minutes:

Currently (yesterday and today) in Wroclaw in the south of Poland after 2 days in Gdansk (north of Poland - where, according to the original plan, we were supposed to be 12 days ago).

Here's a map of the route and our current location:




The pictures are from Gdnask, taken 2 days ago:


Finally coming into Gdansk/Poland from Vilnius/Lithuania - we had 4 hours of this crapola, riding at 30-50 kph (picture taken at dawn ... night-time was even worse!)






Under the Solidarity Monument in Gdansk ... along with Kathy, fellow member Pawel and wife Beata and Chris, a friend of Pawel's on his Standard Bonneville (the first one to be imported into Poland)




The 3 bikes. After this shot we took a ride north to Sopot and Gdynia. Very cool feeling for me to ride around with the local Triumph boys ... in their home town!




Outside a restaurant in Sopot (between Gdansk and Gdynia further north)
The restaurant entrance has a story to it, but I'll cover that in the write-up.



The bikes on the pier in Gdynia (north of Gdansk)...





The Trio ...





Kathy really liked Chris' Standard Bonneville. I think she wants one now.
I really admired her balancing ability ...





The 'flag on mudguard' ceremony. Thank you Pawel/Beata ... I am honoured and again ... thank you for everything.





The end product (Lithuania is missing).




Near the Old Town's entrance gate ...





Just outside the Old Town's entrance gate ... should I go for it?





Even closer to the gate ... ready to invade?





My new Polish friends.
These two gentlemen (both somewhat drunk) helped me push the bike into the square (engine off).
Stealth tactics!





Right on the square.
The police station is located in the next street.
Pawel, I bet you didn't think we would do it.









The statue of Neptune ...




This building has 2 stories to it, but I'll also get into them in the write-up.




Right in the middle of the square ... for all (police?) to see:










That's it for now. Like I said, we are in Wroclaw now heading south to Prague in the Czech Republic tomorrow.

staggeringly beautiful images, thank you.

Brilliant and such fantastic photography work from Kathy, also some beautiful scenery on route Thanassis. Makes me want to jump on the bike and ride.

Excellant photos once again Thanassis, you and kathy must be having a brilliant time. Any sign of Gregorz in poland..
Regards Dave

I didnt know Thanassis such nice city we are living
Very nice memories indeed.

Wow!
I don't know how you have the time to cover all the miles
you do with all the picture taking! Please keep 'em coming!
Uncle Charlie

Great pictures Thanassis, more please.

Thanks again for sharing! Beautiful pictures and - what a ride...

Great ride Thanassis!
Thanks for making such an effort to share all this with us. Some of your shots are amazing! I'm pretty sure not all of them were easy to take as it looks like you 'bent' a few laws in the process.

Once again, some amazing pictures.

Interesting tower in one picture. Metal construction with some observation boxes on it maybe.

Thank you for allowing me to experience this through vicariously you.

humbly,
bryan

Semi-off topic: A lot of these pictures give me Half-Life2 vibes and flashbacks, since much of the architecture in the game is modeled after European cities. Kinda freaks me out a little. I half expect to see a head crab or Combine soldier.

(I'm not afraid to fly my Nerd Flag...)

FJ,

I have a little surprise for you that will make you laugh, but it will be in the next update.

I finally found some time to put some more pictures together.
This update covers Vienna/Austria and Bratislava/Slovakia:


Vienna/Austria:
===========









































Bratislava/Slovakia:
==============















The next one will cover Hungary and Romania leaving one last one covering Bulgaria and our ride south from the north of Greece down to Athens (home) and you'll finally be rid of me.

Holy CRAP, suddenly Munich seems pale compared to Prague!!!! The tilework on those cathedral roofs is incredible!!! You should send this in to Triumph magazine. They'd probably just "file" it, but your positioning of their tank badge in so many photos might actually get some of these posted in their mag! Great job and yep, I'm still OOZING envy!

(just movin' this back up to the top so Thanassis can easily find it for his next installment of that great road trip he and Kathy are on )

bump

Has Thanassis got back to Greece yet or is he still on the road....
dave

Finally home!
We got home after 42 days (six weeks) and 9,910 kms on the odometer.
We would have exceeded 10.000 kms had we not left out Bucharest (although we did cross Romania from north to south), but a previous engagement precluded a visit there as we were already cutting it very fine time-wise.

This will be the final update with pictures (until the actual write-up) to include Budapest/Hungary, Timisoara/Romania and Sofia/Bulgaria.

I will add (later) one more image (map) to indicate the whole route (final).


Ok here goes ...

Budapest/Hungary:
===============







































Timisoara/Romania:
================











True horse-power!







Sofia/Bulgaria:
============

Coming into Montana I started looking for John and John here (FJ and Freedom) but they ... just weren't to be found.
What a disappointment!
Actually, this is a big town in the north-west of Bulgaria.


















The final leg/run from Sofia/Bulgaria to Athens (just over 800km) was yet another "all-nighter".

It is well after midnight and we are on the outskirts of Thessaloniki (aka Salonica) 120 kms from the Bulgarian border (300kms from Sofia) ... about to turn onto the final highway (A2-E90) to Athens (Athina).
Just another 520 kms to go!




That brings us to my last picture of the bike in "unusual places" idea.
There will be many more pictures along with the story/ies in the actual write-up.

As I said, I will be adding a map of the whole route travelled along with my closing note soon.

What a beautiful trip, Thanassis! Glad to hear you two are now back home, safe and sound. Can't wait to read the full writeup.

Now...rest up for that Route 66 ride next year, Dude!

(BTW...I've heard recently that marauding bands of wild norwegians are out there on that famed american highway causing much havoc...so be prepared my friend!)

just cant begin to tell you how much i have ENJOYED your trip!!! thank you for takeing the time to post all the pics and the updates along the way. i really like seeing pics of places i probably will never have the chance to see up close. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!! so very glad you made it home safe and had no troubles along the way

What a great trip with great pitures as well. Though its been said before, i will say it again.

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS WITH US ALL.

Thank you again, Thanassis and Cathy. Great trip and photographs. I would think a motorcycle touring magazine would pay you for such a writeup. Wouldn't that be great to take a trip and maybe makes some money on it. This would make an excellent story in "Road Runner". Road Runner .

Dave

Great Pics Thanassis, but the looks you were getting from those 2 ladies (by the Lion) in Sofia... Let's just say they did NOT seem to enjoy being on the other end of the lens!! Along with others, your photos top many touring mag articles I have seen.

This has been an amazing trip! Thanks for the guided tour Thanassis

As promised, my closing note and a map of the final route we covered.

Without wishing to sound "mushy" (as I believe our British friends call it), just a few words of thanks that I deem necessary ...

Firstly, to Bengt (Piper) and Johann (Gooseman), for being part of this group and whose existence inspired both the rally and subsequently this trip to be a reality, without which, I suspect I would probably never have wandered so far north (a total of 53 or 54 fuel stops there and back ).
Again, a seperate thanks to Johann and Bengt, Johann who confirmed the necessity to go further north to visit Stockholm (on a bike) and Bengt, whose mishap supplied the reason (or excuse? ) to go even further north to his beautiful home town of Uppsala.
I will never know if you two conspired together on this , but either way, thank you for making us feel so comfortable and welcome, in your country.
Thanks go to Martyn who suggested (read: planted the idea ) that since I was going further north to Stockholm, to cross over and see Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (a route he covered/pioneered a couple of years ago).
I initially said "no" but then the idea grew on me (it doesn't take much ).
Going even further north to Finland (before coming back down again to Estonia) was my own idea but was nevertheless a derivative of Martyn's suggestion.
So, thank you Martyn ... it was well worth it!

Also a special thanks to Pawel and Beata who took time off to show me their city (Gdansk/Poland) and also for the ride we took around Gdansk, Sobot and Gdynia (along with Krzystof).
A true highlight of the trip!
I hope I will one day be able to reciprocate your kindness.

A word of thanks to my brother Lefteris, who covered my a$$ while I was away and who initially suggested I go to Sorrento in the southwest of Italy instead of directly north once reaching Bari in Italy. This inspired my including the island of Capri, Naples, Pompei, Rome and Florence on this trip, places not originally planned.

A big thank you to Kathy who shared (and in some cases - lived through) all the small adventures with me and made it so much fun and memorable.
Also for her endless efforts in taking literally thousands of pictures (many of which are truly spectacular), some of which made their way onto this thread. Many other pictures I will include in the write-up.
The words "Jump off!" (later shortened to just "Jump") and "hop on!" (the bike ...that is ) will always remind us of this trip.


To all the friends who posted on this thread (and who PM'ed me) many thanks for your kind words, they were truly appreciated.
I am glad you (and hopefully others who just viewed them) enjoyed the pictures from this ride.
To those who posted from across the Atlantic, I hope to soon have the opportunity to do the same kind of ride in your country (and visit the other, famous Montana - not the Bulgarian one I mentioned and pictured in my previous post )

Greg/Bayern, thanks for your suggestions (Odeonplatz and Thyringen Wald sp? area).
The first I covered and the second I had planned (and was going to surprise you with pictures) but the heavy rain after Nuremberg precluded our venturing into this area, on the specific day.
It is duly noted for another time .

The final route:






Last but not least , a small mention and a little gratitude to the fellow in the top-right corner of the next (and last) picture (taken shortly after we crossed the Romania to Bulgaria border), who, on the numerous "longer" rides over the last nearly 30 years, has watched over me (including on the last all-nighter from Sofia/Bulgaria to Athens) and who, in this case as a "full moon" ... brought me home .