Not Dark Yet

In August 1985, during that endless summer between the end of university and the beginning of work, I went on a European camping and caravanning holiday with my housemate and his family. Over two weeks, we journeyed down Germany’s Romantische Straße to the farthest south-eastern corner of the Fatherland near Salzburg. Then through Austria and into Italy winding up near Pisa after visiting Padua and Venice, hence the photograph above, taken on that trip.

Having previously visited only specific, European destinations on family holidays, the combination of travelling ‘through’ rather than ‘to’ countries was a revelation. The scenery, food, civilised towns and friendly people were in sharp relief to the seething mass of humanity of London, where I’d spent the last four years.

Fast forward nearly twenty years and the first time I’d ridden a motorcycle outside the UK, I suggested some of the destinations from 1985 that had made an impact that the three of us might visit. So the mediaeval gem that is Rothenburg oder Tauber and the alpine splendour of the Obersalzburg region made it onto the list, along with a couple of locations driven by personal interest: a visit to the Porsche Museum at the Zuffenhausen plant, and the location described in a favourite book.

Now, after a working career has flashed by, it seems the right time for a brief, reflective glimpse in the rearview mirror of these destinations, following much the same route that bisects this forty year period.

Click ‘Europe 2024’ below for the articles.