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The IOW has a castle.

I have a vague memory he unblocked me but dont think we’re quite ready for a first date yet

That was grim and unexpected, a lesson learnt. But we were on a mission that day to get from A to B as fast as possible and it seemed easier to keep going than to stop. I won’t do that again. It’s easy enough to stop and add a layer if there is no rush and there shouldn’t be. We’ll have a full day on the Glockner. Maybe do the full length non stop and bookmark stopping places. Then do it again in reverse, stop for lunch. And then do it again with lots of stops to ooh and aah at the views and take photos. It’s a remarkable road. One to be savoured. Coffee and cake. And end the day by doing part of the southern loop or take in the Pustertaler high road on the way back to base camp. Top up with fuel (ready for the next day and grab some beers and supper from the Aldi. last time I was there was middle of May. I remember the temperature was 3c, Did that spoil it? Absolutely not. The scenery was stunning. The road was perfect. The sun was warm.. when it appeared. The cloud level was very high. Had we (me and jack) not been dressed for the conditions it would have been horrible, but as it was. It was great and Jack, to this day will wax lyrical about our day on the tops,

WOW....so many awesome shots this month!

Any wider angle and you would see the van.

imagine if he'd told a joke about Alex Baldwins wife

Chris Rock feels the hand of correction from Will Smith after being rude about his Harley, mocking him that he rode a Tractor.

@Pedro would be loving this shit if he hadn’t blocked you.

I would

Just spoke to my boy and it looks like they're going to receive the ID for the youngest one tomorrow. Once they've got that then it's book flights!

Bitch, you need to spend more time on your natural function in the kitchen and less time on the internet.

In the sea i pee, and you want me to eat what?

I choose this one because I'm proud of my bike and its bull terrier attitude of stopping for nothing!! Must tell Pirelli the Supercorsa can have less thread...

I went looking for famous people today but misread the names, instead of finding Blackadder I ended up at Whiteadder Reservoir. To get there I headed to the Lammermuir Hills. Instead of taking the route I know well I headed east to the reservoir, I had seen it from a distance but wanted to see it up close, it’s a huge body of water, I was surprised just how big the reservoir was. From here I decided to head to North Berwick, I had two options, a conventional road out of the hills or a single track road, the single track looked okay so I headed that way. I saw plenty of Petes girlfriends although a lot of them looked like they could defend themselves from his advances. After about three miles the road turned into more of a track as it went through a forest, in a lot of places it was washed out completely and trees were laying on the edge, there was even this one over the track. The Glide took it all in its stride of course and eventually the track opened up and I could see the coastline of Dunbar and beyond in the distance. I headed down through Dunbar and onto the coast road towards North Berwick, on the way I passed Tantallon Castle and could see the Bass Rock in the distance. I headed down into North Berwick to my favourite chip shop and had a fish supper sat on the bike before heading back to Edinburgh.

should,nt you be out buying fridges and sofas and shit..

The local beach was a scene of devastation after the recent rain and storms. Had a nice hour or two sitting watching the fishermen catching fuck all!

Openreach might have got to the van by then.

i'll say it for you ..except bucksters

and an old mk1 TDM at the back

Still there although we didn't get to see it.

I've spoken to the ISP......it appears they only need a week's notice to get the fibre optic connection installed.

I really like the Ötztal Valley, the climb up to the pass quickly loses sight of it though. But the ride along it’s length is very nice and should be fairly quiet with it being a normal working week. The pass is a restricted road so much better than the stelvio. The 2nd highest paved road in Europe is just off it. Though it’s a bit of an anticlimax. Last time I managed to avoid the museum and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to manage that same feat of self sacrifice this time too. Of course this all assumes we will use that pass, it would be nice. But there are others and I think it’s a mistake to get too excited about a specific goal until it is happening. It’s not all about me, once we get to Austria on the Sunday night I’ll have great fun putting rob on the spot with a few choices of what to do…. As we’re there. “There” being the western end, in Voralberg, not far from the Silvretta hochalpenstrasse for example. Or we might just have to leg it into Italy asap and get to our basecamp as the weather looks very promising over that way. There is also the Umbrail pass which avoids the worst of the Stelvio and allows a quick visit to the summit, without the tedium. Followed by Gavia. Decisions Decisions. Umbrail.

This is making me want to go back to Austria! Had a look for photos and even though Ive been there a few times I dont seem to have any pics of the beautiful mountains mainly because it was so cold I didn’t fancy taking my gloves off to take them. Found this one though. Such a lovely place. This was a late lunch in Sölden. On one occasion we ski’d down to the Timmelsjoch road in Hochgurgl and much to my surprise theres a motorcycle museum there with a very pleasant restaurant. Im sure you already know all about it but just in case heres the link- https://www.gurgl.com/winter/winteractivities/top-mountain-motorcycle-museum.html Dont know what its like now, a friend told me its been reopened after being razed to the ground and is good (for a motorcycle museum on the top of a mountain).

Superb castle Dave, have they still got the donkey turning the millstone in one of buildings? I expect it’s been banned now

Hehehe poor ol’ Buck

Down with war! Release the peacenicks!

I'm already prepared. The closest I've been to changing temps was when Tony and I rode through the Jura in 2017. Earlier in the day it was warm and pleasant but by time we had reached the higher levels of the Jura I was shivering and miserable. Sod that again.

Whats going on in this photo, Is there something your not telling us Pete, are you riding to all these abandoned places looking for Orson? Nanu nanu

Here in wales its called a defensive female

As much as i like eating dead animals i draw the line at heads hove's and genitalia everything else is on the menu though oh except cockerel nope you can keep that as well

Have a gander at this grossness (content not compatible with vegetarians, vegans or people who think meat grows in vacuum packs in supermarket warehouses). I was preparing a supermarket shop and the Spanish are not squeamish on the food front, which I like (new things to try) but I’ve finally found something I won’t be buying. I’d try it if someone else served it up but yer it’s not for me. It’s suckling lambs head (ie it’s such a baby it’s not weaned and is only drinking it’s mothers milk - or it was You can see the brains hanging out the back. I then googled recipes for lambs head curious about how you’d cook the different textures at the same time squelchy brain, muscle, rubbery tongue, eyeballs and still get a good result. Mistake. The first recipe that springs up is this pic- Followed by this cooked version replete with burst eyeball. Yum yum. It’s cheap though £2.46 so as Petes going to be paying through the nose to keep his daughter in law in a style she does not wish to become accustomed to I thought it would make an excellent welcome dish for her arrival? Just a thought

Buck has never posted so many pics ever before, and nice ones to boot, my best guess is the russsians hacked his account.

Here's mine......there were only two pics this month and the other one has got sludge on the floor around it.

Its a Holiday, not an exercise in masochism. It really has to be a matter of chasing the sun in the Alps, to my mind there's little point in riding the mountains if the view is obscured by low cloud. or the ride is ruined by rain. Another month and the snow ploughs will be clearing the Grossglockner. its pretty bad up there right now.. but should be fine when we arrive. below are photos of the conditions today and mid June last year. Obviously at that height... low cloud would make it a total waste of time, but.. there's no need to take a risk. we can simple look at the web cam and make a decision whether to go or not. I imagine we will be staying close by for about 5 days and the Glockner will be on one of those, otherwise we will be riding to the south in the Dolomites. And as I previously mentioned we can always drop south and east into Slovenia if necessary to escape any adverse weather. Though hopefully that won't be necessary and we can stay in Austria, there is more than enough there to keep us occupied for the time we have, in fact the worst of it is, a fortnight just isn't long enough. but hey ho. Below Ive marked our base with an arrow... The Dolomites are not shown as they are south and west of that. But, if weather forces us further east as you can see there is plenty.

Mine, on a perfect dirt road in Alentejo

I thought i only had the one photo but i have two been out on 3 of the bikes this month but both photos are the same bike And @Pedro no additional noise from the new sump guard at all

Puncture included …. a first ? and originality.

In the high alps June isn't really summer. The winter lag means its about a month behind the valleys. The sun may be very warm but the air is still quite cold. Ive warned Rob that he will almost certainly need his thermals while we are in the Austrian Alps and above 2000m. whereas down in the valleys it can quite easily be very warm if not hot. The further south we go the warmer the air. Though it will still be cold on the tops. cold air I mean.