Self-employed father-of-two Nick Cunningham has managed to fulfil his passion for classic machinery and Christopher Lee films this Hallowe’en after dressing up as the Prince of Darkness on a bike tour around Transylvania. In true Hammer-film-style, friend Nick Jackson rode alongside him in a coffin-shaped sidecar while dressed as Frankenstein’s monster.
The 3-day trip, which started last week, took in some of the landmarks made famous by Bram Stoker’s classic novel, including Dracula’s legendary Bran Castle in Brasov. The duo also visited the medieval Saxon city of Sibiu on the edge of the Transylvanian Alps and passed through soaring mountains and splashing rivers before hitting the Transfagarasan Highway – described by Top Gear as the best road in the world.
The opportunity for Cunningham to fulfil his dream was as remarkable as the trip itself. Although an avid biker since he was 15-years old, it was only recently, when he came to renew his bike insurance with motorcycle specialist Bennetts, that he noticed the invitation from Bennetts Biking Dreams to submit his idea.
The bizarre dream was described by Cunningham as the perfect coping mechanism for what felt like a mid-life crisis. The married 47-year old owner of a marketing agency in London, said: “My life had become a routine of childcare, work and more childcare. I hit the crisis moment where I just needed to break out of a routine and do something completely off the wall!
“It has been brilliant to escape the humdrum of London and to motorcycle into the mystical world of Transylvania. My wife thinks I’m nuts but was only too happy to let me go and live out my dream.
“Learning how to ride with a coffin-shaped sidecar which has been a little bit challenging and it’s no surprise that we have received some pretty odd looks from the locals. For a memorable experience it doesn’t get much better than this.”
Bennetts Biking Dreams invites anyone to submit a biking-related dream online. One dream is picked to be fulfilled by Bennetts each month and over 15,000 dreams have been submitted since the campaign launched.