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My European motorbike odysseyMy European motorbike odyssey
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My European motorbike odyssey

juli - oktober 2016
Et 81-dagers eventyr av MF's travel blog Les mer
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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey
    1

    Prague - should have been 4 nights

    26. august 2016, Tsjekkisk Republikk ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    I did a selfie.

    Wow, what a beautiful, lively and very historic city - just incredible. Rode down from Teplice, again staying on back roads. Stopped at a village for lunch and asked for a cup of tea. Got a very quizzical look and ended up with a large glass of lukewarm water, a tea bag and a couple of satchels of milk - ahh well, it was ok.

    I was actually a bit apprehensive about going into Prague but a guy at a motorbike shop in in Dresden said I was crazy if I didn't. Him - "You go to Prague ya?" Me - "probably not". Him - "ya you go to Prague , if no you a #€$&@#%*&&@£€¥%^#¥ crazy Aussie". Some of it was in English, some in German and some from every language he knew a swear word from. Then he turned to another guy in the shop, and I'm guessing, told him "this $&@$ dumb Aussie is riding into the Czech Republic and not going to Prague". Well, I thought I'd already learnt a few new words I probably wouldn't get to use very often, but this guy was a linguist without compare, and a very good mime as well (maybe Italian?). Anyway, that's pretty much how I ended up coming to Prague.

    And they were right... what fabulous place. Cathederals, jewish ghetto, statues and monuments, bridges, worlds biggest castle, riverside cafes, restaurants, clubs, high end stores, horse-drawn carts, hyper sports cars, cobble stone streets, sex shops and people, ordinary everday people, having beer with breakfast (not me obviously, and not beer for breakfast either). I did a walking tour the first day and used that to work out what to go back and see. You could easily fill a few weeks here.

    Stayed in a small studio apartment (centre of town) clean comfortable with satellite TV, kitchenette and private locked parking for about $80 a night - pretty cheap.

    I had heard about the "Lennon" wall without paying too much attention thinking with the Czech Republic's communist and Russian background it would be that "Lenin". (Lenin/Lennon - bloody Czech accent). Well it turns out it was the "John Lennon" wall. A place, during communist rule, where students and others used to write and paint images and words of peace and change mostly based on Beatles/Lennon lyrics. The previous communist regieme tried for ages to cover it over and there were many clashes and protests. In the end they gave up. When I visited there were heaps of people singing (mainly "imagine" like bad karaoke) and milling around - a peaceful spot that fits in with the city.

    I went for a walk about late one night and got a bit lost - not only a great city, but seems a safe one, I did go down a few dark alleys looking for a way out and no-one approached me. Hell I even got offered drugs in Nimbin on a Good Friday!!!!!

    Anyway one of the best places I've ever visited, thanks to a couple of world class swearers!!!!

    Next stop Brno, 3 days after the Motogp, hows that for timing.

    Cheers    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey
    1

    2 days in Brno - Czech Rep

    27. august 2016, Tsjekkisk Republikk ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Rode south to Brno, Czech Rep's 2nd largest city and another great place to visit. I missed the Czech Motogp by 4 days, not such a bad thing as I wouldn't have been able to afford to stay. The hotel told me the price was over 4 x as much last week!!!!.

    Lots of places in walking distance within the city - the usual cathedrals, museums etc. To be honest it can almost become overload.. my highlight was the local fire fighters had a huge display closing down part of the city. Then a fireworks display later that night. There were a couple of really nice roads on the way down.

    My inability to order a drinkable chai latte has meant I've been drinking hot chocolate, but even this isn't as easy as it sounds (although "chocolate" seems to be one of those multi-lingual words common to most languages, a bit like pizza and spagetti, also among my favourite of words). Anyway I've had some hot and misses even with hot chocolate. There's a pic of one I ordered here in Brno. It was literally a cup of hot very very melted chocolate and a smaller cup brimming with whipped cream. Not sure what to do, I slowly mixed the cream into the chocolate. And........you know what..it was great👍

    Tomorrow....Slovakia    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey
    1

    Bratislava / Slovakia (who knew)

    29. august 2016, Slovakia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    For a very long time I wanted to to a motorbike trip around Europe but if you had of asked me, even 12 months ago, "do you think you will be in the Slovakian' capital in August 2016" I don't know if I even new what city is the capital of Slovakia. Not too long a day riding, but when you only travel back roads and stay away from motorways and toll ways, it takes a while to cover kms.

    The city is quite bit smaller than Prague so you get to see more of it which means the disparities within the city are more obvious. Parts are fantastic, well maintained and impressive. Parts are really quite depressive.

    There is a small park opposite a cafe (where I managed to get a "normal" hot chocolate) just a few metres down from the hotel I stayed at. I noticed what I gathered was an older homeless man lying unmoving, in relatively long grass, behind a park bench. A few hours later he was still there not having moved an arm or leg. I got a bit worried he might be in trouble do I gingerly went over and couldn't see any sign of life. I thought about letting some authority know but decided to shake his shoulder in case he was just asleep. A little shake elicited no response so I gave him a bigger one. Well, I think I found the guy who taught the two guys in Dresden how to swear in at least 5 languages. I'm not sure what he said but he was still going off at me as I walked/ran back past the cafe (where the crowd had gathered to see the fun - his swearing was replaced by their laughter as I passed). Sort of funny, but sad to see, homelessness seems to be everywhere, including at home.

    Lets go to Hungary next.    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey
    1

    Budapest - wow

    30. august 2016, Ungarn ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Headed into Hungary with a hotel booking in the capital Budapest. Wasn't sure what to expect,but certainly not something in the vein of Prague.

    A couple of things first. The road down ftom Slovakia is pretty flat and boring with nothing really to write home about. I had seen on the road one particular warning sign heaps of times...see below. I had seen lots of tractors (almost always in towns/villages for some reason) and pushbikes but didn't really expect to see many horse and carts. Well I was proven wrong and took the photo below as proof!!!!! Lots of reindeer warning signs too, but haven't seen any of them yet. To drive/ride in many Europen countries you gave to buy a road vignette (some countries exempt motorcycles). This is basically toll, although sometimes you also have to pay additional tolls for some particular roads ir bridges. If you're caught without one the on-spot fines can be huge (over $1,000). Some you can buy online (see my Hungarian one below) but some you pick up at the birder or services stations etc.

    Budapest took me by compete surprise, fantastic buildings, beautiful squares, hundreds of bistros, cafes & restaurants, beautiful bridges, monuments and statues. I walked almost 20 kms in one day, mostly with my eyes looking up with my jaw hanging down. There are a couple of places I'd love to revisit with Anne and this is definately one of them. When I thought about historic and beautiful European cities I used to think about Paris, London and Rome - but there is so much more.

    I'm heading to Szeged (still in Hungary) close to the border with Romania. Next stop will be Romania actually have yo stop at the border to seek entry permission. Not sure how long it will take to cross to want to have some time up my sleeve.

    Talk soon.    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey

    Szeged (still in Hungary)

    1. september 2016, Ungarn ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Decided to treat myself (mainly because I deserve it) and stayed in a Novotel in the middle of the city...might sound extravagant but was only about a 1/3 of what you would pay in Brisbane or Sydney and it included breakfast and parking. I picked this city because it's close to the Romanian border and am not sure how long it might take me to cross as it isn't a schengen country, so actually have to stop at the border post to show passport and bike papers. The ride here wax fine, nothing special but enjoyable...lots of flat area in Hungary!!!

    I got a bit lost trying to find the hotel but made it in the end but it was worth it...nice room

    Just overnight so a quick walk around and dinner at an outside bistro.

    Romania next    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey

    Romania - Timisaora

    2. september 2016, Romania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Crossed the border into Romania without a hitch. I went through a very quiet border crossing without any waiting at all. The border guards were so viligent I offered to take my helmet off, so they could make sure the passport was mine, but no need...stamped my passport and just waived me through.....didn't take my helmet off so couldn't even say it was my good looks or honest face.

    Stopped at a cute little town (Sinnicolai-Mare) and sat down for lunch, at the town square with the locsls, who ordered for me when they saw me struggling with the menu just how did they know I wanted a meat (beef?) skewer and a bottle of mineral water. Sat and ate with an older couple (well older than me) and we had a pleasant conversation (with plenty of miming) that I'm sure none of us understood.

    I stayed at the hotel Perla (damn good hotels are cheap in some parts of Europe). Perla by name and a Perla by nature, huge room with a sitting area/couch, minibar and a spa bath...yep I had a good long soak probably needed it, had a feeling I might have been a bit on the nose (ask me one day and I'll tell you how many days you can really go with one set of clothes).

    Tomorrow riding onto Craiova - still in Romania    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey

    Craiova - I'm still in Romania

    3. september 2016, Romania ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Most of the ride down from Timisoara was fairly flat, straight and predictable. Predictable that is until you come over a rise, around a corner and a beautiful lake, bordered by a cute little town) comes into view - not something I was expecting (see the pic below). Well, as it turns out, wasn't actually a lake, apparently that reasonably famous river, the DANUBE runs down this way!!! I took a pic of a statue at a pull-off on the river, the statue is kewl, but it also seems as if there are some in Europe welcoming of refugees 👍.

    Stayed at a Ramada in Craiova, I'm starting to enjoy the luxury.

    Beautiful city with the obligatory large square where the local families gather to eat and drink.......I think we could do with one at Eatons Hill.

    I'm off the Serbi    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey

    2 days in Belgrade

    4. september 2016, Serbia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    MADE IT TO serbia (just). I've purposely stayed off toL roads and motorways just so I could see more of the country, villages, people etc. It often takes twice as long to go from place to place because your constantly slowing down for villages, the roads are as good, you have to do more distance,and there is any manner of farm machinery and animals on the road. Country roads in Romania are country roads!!!!I I passed through villages where families spend their Sunday drying and husking hand picked corn cobs, manually cutting and stacking hay and moving it all around with a horse and dray.

    Something that is exciting is coming around a corner, at reasonable speed, to find a slow moving horse cart on your side of the road and 2 or 3 of the biggest softest freshest cow pads you have ever seen on the other side. I now know for a fact that fresh cow shit is slippperier than oil on a road. I went around the dray more than slightly sideways when the rear wheel let go. The farmer's surprised look was nothing compared to mine. For the next 2 or 3 kms all I could smell was fresh shit, I didn't want to stop and check under the bike in case it was clean and the smell was coming from somewhere else 😨.

    Crossing into Serbia was something else. Bridge across the DANUBE, through the border check post ("welcome to Serbia, we don't get many Australians coming through on a motorbike - good luck!!!, hey, what's that smell?"). Then follow the Daube for about 40 kms of absolutely beautiful motorbike roads. The river cuts deep through valleys and the road follows it, sometime at river level, sometimes what seems a coiple of hundred meters higher. Best bit of road so far.....

    I had put the hotel address into my GPS and was expecting to get to Belgrade around 3.30pm. Was staying in the middle of the city so wanted to miss the rush hour. My navigation skills have always been a bit suspect and I ended up 65 kms from Belgrade in a small broken down village in front of a dilapidated hay shed - about $75 a night, you gotta be kidding. As I was riding in I kept thinking, Belgrade pretty small for the capital of Serbia.

    Got to the hotel at 5.30 pm in the middle of rush hour (and there is no rush hour like a Serbian rush hour!!!) To find the hotel was on a one way street and it and all the surrounding streets had been blocked of by police (had the farmer rung ahead to say that an idiot on a motorbike had killed his horse by scaring it to death?). After an hour of trying to get to the hotel I did what L the Serb drivers were doing - I rode around the barricade, upon to the footpath and then the wrong way down a one way street. I checked into the hotel (receptionist asked how I got through as no one had been able to book in for the last 3 hours) and asked if there was somewhere I could hide my motorbike - mission accomplished.

    Belgrade is a big fairly Industrial town with a bit of greenery - I saw a chipmunk, or rat..one or the other.

    Ok, had a rest, I'm off to Croatia    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey
    1
    2

    Croatia - Slavonski Brod

    6. september 2016, Kroatia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Packed and headed off with my trusty GPS showing me the way to my next stop in Croatia.Stopped at a petrol station to fill up and have a hot chocolate. No hot chocolate!!!! I'm forced to drink a herbal tea - primrose or something, just horrible. That will teach you to go to Europe and not drink coffee or alcohol😢.

    A guy struck up a conversation....so where are you off to? Croatia I say, staying overnight at Slavonski Brod. Ohh, I'm a truck driver and know the roads well, you'll be crossing into Bosnia & Herzegovina the border comes up close to Slavonski Brod and the road goes through there. Are you sure? (Up very close to me, gets right face to face, but friendly) Yes, have driven many times before....2 border crossings for you my new Australian friend. Okay thanks, you don't happen to have any more garlic sandwiches by chance? Or have you just eaten them all? I have a look at the map and the border is pretty close, now I'm not really sure any more.

    Hope on bike and head-off. Get to a border crossing, leave Serbia and enter another country. The border crossing says welcome to "Republic of Hrvatska". Great now there's a 3rd country thrown into the mix. Where am I? Did I head in the wrong direction (pretty sure I never saw that on a map!!! Now I've been lost before, wrong house, wrong street, even wrong town, but have never been in the wrong country 😲. I look at my passport...yep the stamp says Hrvatska, is that how they say/spell Herzegovina? It doesn't look remotely like the word Croatia!!! I say to the crossing guard (pretty stern looking guy with tazer and gun) - this might sound funny, but what country am I in? He looks at me, then laughs and says "2nd Australia today making same joke - go people waiting behind you". Great, well at least there's another dumb Aussie wandering around whatever country this is, maybe we can meet up and be lost together. I head off and then stop out of the guard's sight and have a look at Google maps (am a bit worried now, if this is B & H my vodafone roaming won't cover me and this might cost a fortune!!!). Well it says I'm in Croatia...whew, Croatia is called Republica of Hrvatska. It's their country, guess they can call it what they want.

    Got to Slavonski Brod, found the hotel car park, and put the bike up on the side stand. Am still thinking, "the border was the first time language and really given me any issue". Spot the hotel and see three women come out of a hotel room door and walk up towards the reception area. Quick as a flash I'm across the road up the stairs and follow them in and close the door behind me. It didn't look like a normal reception, but it had a bar/counter and a lounge so after shutting the door I just sat and waited my turn. The women then realised I'd followed them in and shut the door behind me. First there were 3 blank stares with jaws sorta hanging loose, then a bit of talking between themselves rising in crescendo, a bit of backing away, then a bit of shouting. I offered to wait my turn to book in, then, hmm, took me a few long seconds to work out that this isn't a hotel. Actually, it's someone's house (that happens to be opposite the hotel car park) and these three women (I'd guess grandmother, mother and daughter) had a bearded bike sitting in the lounge room between them and a closed door leading to safety. Eventually we all managed to work out what had happened, we had a bit of a laugh, and I was on my way to the hotel about 40 or 60 metres up the road. True story - I took a pick of the house (first pic), it looks like a hotel doesn't it? Remember some of the hotels are converted houses - you could have easily you made the same mistake.

    The hotel (Garten) turned out to be a quirky little place with room extensions running off everywhere, a restaurant full of old "stuff" and an exceptionally nice owner who, despite my protestations, gave me a home collected jar of her own honey when I left. She even put up a shade umberella to park my bike under in case it rained. Even the three women waived me good bye in the morning 😆

    Okay..Zargreb next hopefully without any navigation problems.    Les mer

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  • ReisendeMy European motorbike odyssey

    3 nights in Zargreb

    9. september 2016, Kroatia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    The ride here from SlavonskI Brod was uneventful, pleasant country side and towns/villages to pass through. All anyone seems to do here is eat and drink - was trying to work out how they seem to stay relatively fit looking and not overweight. I finally worked out absolutely everyone smokes, and I mean chain smokes (not many restrictions s here you can pretty much smoke where you like). If it wasn't for the side effects of smoking it would be perfect for weight control !!!!

    Nice city, and the centrum (middle) is pretty compact. They have amazing pedestrian crossing here, at T intersection there are 3 crossings that lead to the middle of the intersection, you simply walk there, wait in the missing middle as cars, trucks and bikes etc cross and then when there is a gap in traffic you just walk though to the side you want to get to. No traffic lights and 2-way tram lines. Seems to work but I'm not sure what the casualty rate is. First time I tried it I got stuck in the middle for a while!!!

    Got a mini-service on the bike while I could. BMW fitted me in because I was travelling through - normally a 2 week wait.

    After picking up the bike I took a ride up the mountain range behind the city - only about 10 kms fromm the Centrum. Have a look at the pic from Google maps (that's only a small section that I could fit in a pic) it's just very steep switchbacks one after another. It was hard work going up (climb about 1000 metres in a short space) and it was only on the way back I realised a good part of it is one-way. Was stuffed by the time I got back.

    Food continues to be great and cheap. Deboned stuffed pork cutlet, bread, salad litre bottle of mineral water for under $20 !!!

    Nice relaxing 3 days.

    Next stop Slovenia    Les mer

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