Start point 1: Saint Raphaël in Provence. The ride will take you over the highest road in Europe: the Route des Grandes Alpes. Passes like the Bonnette, Izoard, Lautaret and Galibier are on the plate for this superb stage (part of the Alpine passes tour!). Overnight in Annecy.

Start point 2 : Annecy in Savoie. To make that long ride possible the tour will mainly take the highway/autoroute (cost non included in package price) to get to northern France. Overnight in Arras.

Start point 3 : Leaving Arras for a short ride to the Channel coast we will catch the Euro Tunnel shuttle for a 30 minutes ride to England. Once you get out of the shuttle make sure you drive on the left side of the road!

The tour will ride around London to go north and enjoy the english green landscape until it reaches Newcastle for a good night of rest. Overnight in Newcastle.

A long day throught Scotland as the objective is to reach Srabster at the norther tip of scotland. Overnight in Scrabster.

Start point 4 : After all those kilomteres and a very early start from the hotel to catch the ferry here comes a long day of rest on the sea towards iceland.

Arrival in Island is scheduled around noon at the port of Seydisfjördur. The ride in Iceland starts here, after seeing some waterfalls, it goes through Egilsstadir towards the south and the coast. The coastal road follows the various fjords like the Berufjördur, Hamasfjördur and Alftafjördur ones. The day will end in Höfn, the most important town (2.000 people) around. The view on the Vatnajökull glacier is breath taking.

Leaving Höfn westwards the road takes the tour to one of the most famous places in the country: the Jökursarlon lake. This lake is where the huge ice blocs from the Breidamerkurjökull glacier fall, giving a polar atmosphere to the place. It is expected that in a near future the lake will open itself to the sea. The road will then go around Oraefajökull glacier (2119m high) before riding along the dark sand stretch of Skeidararsandur. Some more waterfalls on the way and another stretch of dark sand (Myrdalssandur) later will take the tour through Vik, from where it will be possible to ride to the Dyrholaey cliffs and do some bird watching. On the way to Hella the Seljalandfoss waterfall allows to walk around it (rain suit is a must). Hella and its 600 inhabitants will welcome the tour for the night.

Leaving the coast and the circular road some of the highlights of Iceland will be visited. On the right hand side the Hekla volcano (still active - 2000 is the last recorded eruption). One of the most visited natural sites in Iceland comes next: the Gullfoss waterfall, also called the "Golden fall". Falling from a height of 32m the water hits the basaltic "organs". Right after comes the Geysir site famous for its geysers (by the way the word geyser comes from this place). The Big Geysir is no more that active but his "little" brother (up to 20m) "Strokkur" springs every 5 minutes or so.

Before reaching Reykjavik the tour will ride through the town of Pingvellir where the Viking set the first parliament in the world, the Alfling, in 930 A.D.

The rest of the day is free to pay Reykjavik a first visit.

Rest day in Reykjavik. Enjoy the city, go for a swim in the Blue Lagoon or get on a whale sighting boat ride or just chill out!

Time to go north! Passing by the Hrnaufossar (coming out of a lava field) and Barnafoss "the kids fall") waterfalls and the sea town of Borgarnes before reaching Stykkisholmur at the entry of the Hvammsfjördur fjord.

With the fjord on the left hand the road follows the coast until it goes inland at the feet of the west fjords to reach the town of Brù entry point to one of the most fertile parts of the country. In Blönduos, important fishing place (1.000 inhabitants), a sulphur smell signals the presence of a warm water spring (used to warm the school's swimming pool). The Skagi peninsula has a special ambiance thanks to its lonely scenery made of high cliffs. On the east side of the peninsula the road follows the Skagafjördur fjord before it gets inland and rides by the most famous farm in Iceland: Glaumbear (now a museum for local culture). After riding through the impressive Oksnadalsheidi pass (550m) the tour will re ach the town of Akureiry. Second biggest town in Iceland (15.000 inhabitants) will welcome the tour for the night.

On the way to the east the Godafoss (The gods waterfall) waterfall, made of three falls in a semi-circle will help to wake up before getting on the road 87 and its moon like scenery (the NASA sent the Apollo 11 astronauts there to get them trained for the moon flight!) reaching lake Myvatn. Only 2m average and max 4.5m deep this lake called after the many gnats fling around when there is no wind is made of two basin connected together by a canal. Due to its geographical position between America and Europe many birds stop over to breed.

In Grimsstadir the tour will go north close to the Jökulsarglijufur national park where one can see the Dettifoss, Selfoss and Hafragilsfoss waterfalls. But time to let the touristy places and ride north along the coast towards the small village (184 inhabitants) of Kospaker. The most northern point of Iceland (only 2,5 km from the artic circle) is on the Hraunhafnartangi flatland (easy to see thanks to the lighthouse). If the wind feels cold is is quite normal: it comes directly from the north pole area.

Finally going south the road gets to Vopnafjördur where, most of the time the weather helps to give the town that joyful ambiance, especially after the quiet and cold Nordic places the tour went through. A short ride and here comes Egilsstadir and a good night of rest!

No hurry in the morning, a good late breakfast and a short ride to Seydisfjördur to catch the ferry.

The Boat will arrive in the morning in the port of Thorshaven on the Faroe Island for a short stop to pick-up passengers. By noon it will be sailing towards the danish coast.

The ferry will reach the Danish coast by the evening. A short ride eastwards towards Aalborg and it is time to get a good dinner before catching some sleep and dream about Iceland and the last week of adventures.

Day 16

June 28

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