In 2022 we rented a BMW motorcycle from our favorite rental shop in Bucharest, Romania, and had him for about 5 months. We named him Max. He was only 310 CC, but for a single cylinder motorcycle he was full of spunk, which is how he got that name! I rode him down from Romania to Antalya, Turkey, where we were living at that time, and during that spring we used Max to check out some of the local places along the coast. Then in July we started an 88 day 4900 km trip North through all of Turkey and into Greece.

The following summer we upsized into a F750 GS BMW and started in Hungary, rode west through Slovenia, then south through much of Croatia, several Islands, Bosnia, Serbia, and finally finished up in Romania once again. That one was almost the same time period, 87 days, but less miles (3600 km) and since we were not under a time constraint of being anywhere during any particular time, it was nice to go at our own pace. We named him Aragon (like the dragon) since he was solid, much more comfortable, and had a lot more storage capacity so we didn’t have to tie stuff on.

Last year I proposed to Kathleen that we do one more motorcycle ride through Europe, only 5 months this time… Let’s just say she was not overjoyed at that idea… We had been in Asia for about a year and I told her I was compelled to return to Europe so I could truly do a side-by-side comparison between how I felt about Southeast Asia, and how I felt about Eastern Europe. She was not enthused to go back through the same route that we had taken the year before, but when she came up with the the idea of taking the ferry over to Italy and going south into Sicily, well, then she got excited. And that’s what we’re doing.

Hermes is similar in size, another 750, with about the same amount of storage capacity, and believe it or not, we have 5 months worth of everything we need in four containers. I know, surprises us too! We’ve been on the road about 3 weeks and so far it’s been great. We limit our daily milege as best we can, take frequent breaks, and have enough “downtime” between rides to allow us time to recover.

We went through other dragon names, as well as Lord of the RIngs characters (Gandalf), plus a few random gods of mythology. Why Hermes? Because he was the Greek god of travel, hospitality, and trade, and Zeus’s personal messenger, so that all fits.

That remains to be seen. Kat reminds me that neither one of us, including me! Is not getting any younger, and as time goes on, handling these big bikes will become more cumbersome. I grudgingly agree. But for as long as I can ride on two wheels, I will continue to do just that