What makes a successful city center?

Camping on the edge of a Dutch lake this week, a night in Amsterdam and today touring Huskvarna in Sweden, I came to a realisation that city life only works when housing and retail are jointly combined and inter developed. In Amsterdam for example, all the shops and supermarkets are within housing complexes and flats – no real out of town centers and yet the city center thrives, the same has to be said for the beautiful town of Huskvarna… I got chatting tonight with Ingrid from Israel, now settled in Sweden ‘for love’ she tells me, she was fascinated by my shoes (5 Fingers) so much so that she nearly got run over watching my glossy black toes – she said I looked like I should be going for a swim…what could I say, ‘packing light’ loses a lot in translation.

Dutch Waterways

Final Preparation

Today is the final preparation day before I leave the UK – back end of August with a rough itinerary and a small handful of cash. Have to say the bike looks a lot better than this now after 2 months of total refurbishment by Mike, couple of minor niggles to get sorted today and after a Sunday panic had the frame section welded on Tuesday… bit last minute for me but learning to just go with the flow… and there are not many MOT stations where you can strip down bits of your own bike and rebuild before they do the test… many thanks to Castle Garage. R1150 GSA March 2013

Fauno Bar

An ice cold beer and a bowel of green and black olives would refresh most travellers. Over the last weeks I have spent many happy evenings in Fauno Bar, simply watching other travellers cascade past or admiring classic motorcycles as their effortlessly cool owners stop for engaging conversations and socialisation.