In a couple of days I'll be catching a ferry to the Greek island, Rhodes, and it will only be a few more weeks until I'm back in Ireland, where I need to be no later than the end of April. I feel the need to do another Europe based cycle tour, as my original wish was to reach Morocco once I got this far south. As well as that, when cycling through the Balkans in the depth of Winter, I was restricted to main routes unaffected by the possibility of snow and ice, so I feel it would be a good idea to return there in Summer. It would be nice to see a bit more of Southern Italy too, which I won't see this time because of time restrains.

UPDATE JUNE 12: The route I've plotted on the map will change of course once I'm out on the road. For a start I'm thinking of avoiding Germany, as free WiFi is close to non-existent, and besides, I much prefer to ride south through France. It will mean crossing the Alps into Italy from the west, north of the Mediterranean coast. Then once I've cycled through the Balkans and return to Italy, there are many possibilities west which may or may not include taking a ferry. There is a ferry from Civilavecchia near Rome to Barcelona for instants, but I'm against substituting cycling with long ferry routes, I was thinking, to avoid the Alps a second time, taking a ferry to Corsica and then a ferry to Nice, from where it will be a straight run west to Santiago in North-Western Spain, then south to Morocco. I'll only know for sure which route once I've done it.