Athens and Back - the Trip Report

It was fine and the best thing is the bike's still here!

I should've paid extra for the sea view though.
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Day 27 Folkstone to Grantham 174 miles

Not a lot to say really. The heavy traffic predicted by the doom and gloom press/news wasn't there and it was a pleasant enough 3 hours home. I've handed over my dirty washing and am having a relaxing afternoon in the sunshine. I'll post some stats and other stuff later.
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Enjoyed your trip report Kev, thanks. Did you spot the alternative Mr M in the end? Glad that worked out, could have been awkward.
 
A couple of suspects but nothing definitive!

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The Blau Ecke in Adenau, a lovely spot. And only the Germans could somehow combine a 1500s building with a brand new extention...down to walking along a nice level, straight corridor and to feel it alter to slightly uneven...'ah, I'm in the old bit now.
A good read, thanks.
 
The numbers are in.

Remember I had two breaks of three and 12 days that aren't counted here. These are just the days I was riding.

Riding days 15
Total miles 4143, average 276, high 472, low 150

Fuel used@50mpg 83 gallons
Fuel cost at £9/gallon £747
Hotel costs 11 nights total £488 average £44
Ferry Ancona-Patras £215
Eurotunnel return £155
Tolls/vignettes £90

Fuel used is calculated; life is too short to trawl through bank statements:). I think 50mpg is pretty close to what I got and is based on the trip computer.. Motorway tolls are from France, Italy and Greece. Vignettes are Switzerland and Austria. Everywhere else is free for motorcycles.

Hotels were budget-midrange. All were OK or better. I limited my choice to ones that had off street parking and food within walking distance. Once I got off the bike at the end the day I wasn't getting on again.

On the mileage, some might think it's a lot/too much. Some days I was riding for 9-10 hours and on a couple of days I never left motorways. But not the same days; 470 miles on French toll motorways goes surprisingly quickly and 9 hours in the Romanian Alps is not a chore!

The one thing that shocked me when I added it up was the petrol cost. That's a big chunk of the total. The most expensive I saw was Greece at 2.43 euro and the cheapest about 1.20 in Hungary (and we all know where that comes from). BTW there seem to be a lot more petrol stations than the UK everywhere else, with every town seemingly having one or more. I think the supermarkets have destroyed independent petrol retailing in the UK.

I think that's all the useful stats. I haven't included food/drink but as a guide, the places formerly known as Eastern Europe are about half the price of the UK to eat and drink out.
 
Thanks for posting reports - very enjoyable.

Surprised to see fuel costs at 50 % more than hotel costs - sign of the times indeed.
 
The one thing that shocked me when I added it up was the petrol cost. That's a big chunk of the total.

Thanks for the RR. WE started our European riding holidays in 1994 and had a month away every summer for years - when budgeting we never worried about the fuel cost as it was such a small percentage of the budget. Over the years this percentage has grown to equal that of camping and food/drink combined.
 
What a great write-up Kevm, well done! 👍

Much about the same as us, started touring in the late 80’s but for some years we only traveled around France, Finally in 2010 we used the Autoslaap train on which you could load the bike and be taken in glorious comfort from D’en Bosch in Holland to Livorno.
From there we rode down through Italy to Bari and took the ferry to Igoumenitsa. Stayed in Lefkada for a couple of days then went up through Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany France and home. 4700 miles and 4.5 weeks.

Finding Lefkada and Greece suited us best for our annual month holidays we’d explore Italy on the way, spending 12 days in Mikros Gialos before wending our way home.

Over the years and particularly after COVID we noticed that Lefkada had become increasingly popular, so this year (like the OP) we went across to the Peloponnese on an exploratory visit staying at Ancient Epidavros for a couple of days before returning to our base at Paleros. Our trip was largely on motorways because of time restraints, I’d eventually bought a ULYS toll tag which worked well on the French and Italian tolls and saved the time and frustration of fishing for change or dropping my credit card (guaranteed at least twice).
 
Excellent report :thumby:

Thoroughly enjoyed ...

Thank you ...
:beerjug:
 


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