The western and northern coasts of France are areas that I had never before visited. I was particularly excited about meeting up with friends in northern France that I first met in Montenegro and visiting the D-Day locations in Normandy. This is an area of France that I really enjoyed.

Well I have never been to England when the weather has been nice so right on cue, as I crossed the English Channel from France to Ireland the weather turned bad and pretty much stayed bad the whole time in Ireland & the United Kingdom. That did not dampen my enjoyment of the areas I rode through (for the most part).

To round out my 42 country, 6 month, 35,000 kilometers trip around Europe I headed back to Heidelberg, Germany where it all started to park my motorcycle for the winter. I had just enough time to take a quick trip to Switzerland to see some great friends.

Back home to Olympia, Washington for Christmas and New Year’s. One year ago I was in Columbia and Ecuador so missed the holidays with my family so I made a point of making it back this year.