bike is packed

[wideparting]

can you see garls trangia steaming away on the veranda

day 3.off to germany today,thats if the bloody satnav stops pissing about.doesnt seem to work to well in germany.kept saying searching for signal or something,mine had packed up the week before,this was garls spare one.£69 from lidl or somewhere so perhaps we shoudnt expect too much.some lovely roads apart from one that said it was closed,but as we had lost enough time,we decided to try and get through the closed road.well we made it but had to get the ladies to walk for a while[they werent too pleased]neither me nor garl are any good off road but with a bit of careful negociation and some strange looks from the workmen we were through.as we crossed into germany there was an almighty traffic jam[what happened to this german efficiency]any way after a while the road was clear and into the black forest area and down to seebach and pension williams,and the sun still shone. .within five minutes of arriving cold beers were firmly esconced in our hands,bikes parked up and in our rooms.then a few more cold beers and a walk into the village for some scran.wiener snitzel was the order of the day,and fine it was too.back to the digs and another chin wag and more beers with a couple who were on 800 gses and were on their way back to blighty.dave who is the proprietor of pension williams has a good system.a type of honesty box,you jot down what you have drunk in the evening and settle up the next day.quite an early bedtime for us this night as the b500 was on the list for the next day.

 

[wideparting]

view from our hotel balcony stanzach

day 4. austria here we come. down the b500,the sweepie end and on to some of the most spectacular scenery weve ever seen.i think we all agreed that this was by far the best roads and scenery up till now.although i dont know what the authorities thought one strand of barbed wire would do if a fully laden gs were to decide to career over the edge,lucky for us none of ours did and we arrived safely at our destination,stanzach.we had a recommend for a b and b but unfortunately it had closed for the season so we left the girls drinking coffee in town and went in search of digs.while we were away the girls had found a nice hotel in the middle of town,for 27 euros each for the night not bad.unfortuneately the woman who ran the hotel said it was her day off the next day and couldnt be arsed to get up and give us breakfast,but did offer her friends hotel just down the road for the same price.the girls jumped in the husbands car and we dutifully rode behind on the bikes to the next hotel.garl said perhaps the girls will be taken and sold as sex slaves,not wishing to put too finer point on this,but as both of our wives are the wrong side of a half century,we thought this unlikely.got to the hotel,really nice place,lovely food,and to top it all a big log fire plenty of alcohol and for the smokers amongst us you could smoke whilst sitting next to the log fire,cognac in one hand and a nice cigar in the other,sheer bliss.[f-ck you tony bliar]

 

[dakarDude]

Feckin brilliant!

Keep 'em coming mate....

 

[gzpainter]

Keep on bringing jim....Have a nice ride!!!!

 

[Pathologic]

we want oysters

me,garl of this parish,and the memsahbs,are pootling down to croatia for a couple of weeks.play nice while were away,and we may bring you all back a stick of rock. j
ps ,do they have rock in croatia

They have plenty of rock, just not the blackpool type. The oysters ar to die for (if you like that sort of thing).

regards,

Path.

 

[wideparting]

slovenia or bust

day 6.on to slovenia[again].the su n still shone,more nice roads and again we lost our bearings.this may sound funny,but i can honestly say.i have found some of the nicest places,when i havent a clue were i am.anyway through a small village and we saw a sign for the wurzen pass.[or the wurzel pass as val likes to call it].on to the pass and there is a yellow sign blocking the road.it looks like the road is closed says garl,nah,bikes can always get through says i.and off we tootled up the hill,with more yellow barriers trying to block our way.[damned inconsiderate these austrians,or were they italians]anyway up one of the steepest straight roads i have ever been up,a little scary at first and then a yeehaa and a big smile on our faces.all was going well until another mile or two and then,oh ooh,the road was missing.just a load of road workers staring at us.one of them came over and said something in italian or was it austrian,anyway it didnt matter because neither garl nor myself could speak either. i pointed at my bike and said something on the lines of this is a gs,unstoppable.he just shrugged his shoulders and let us go through.as mentioned earlier neither garl nor myself are exactly your ewan/boorman/charlie/macgegor daredevil off road types,and garl spends a week cleaning his bike if he rides through a puddle,but wed lost more time and couldnt be bothered to retrace our steps.decamp the girls off the bikes and go for it.after a feww hundred yards of offroading we we safe up the hill on the other side.did i mention it was rather warm and the girls were not best pleased at having to walk up what amounted to the north face of the eiger.so by the time they reached us at the top of the hill neither of them had enough puff left to bollock us.down the other side and time for another trangia stop,were we were flagged down by two germans.one on a ducati multisrada,and one on a harley.they asked us if we thought they would make it and if there were any polizei up there.no police just workmen says i.they asked us if we thought we would make it.i coulnt resist this,i think the ducati will but not sure about the harley[im a mean bastard but hey ho]anyway we didnt see them again so they must have made it..either that or they fell down that eight foot hole that i forgot to tell them about.next on to lake bled into slovenia and a town called kocevje were we had planned to stay the night.unfortunately both the hotel recommends we had were both full,so stopped at a bikers bar,were a chap rang another hotel,and escorted us there on his bike.now this place looked like an old soviet gulag but beggars cant be chooses and we booked in.put the bikes in the boilerhouse and had something to eat,we still dont know what it was but we were hungry and eat it.after a few more beers our glasses were nearly empty so i went to the bar for more.the time was 21-55.no more beer says the landlady and you must go to bed,i kid you not.we were all astounded[i think i was about 12 the last time some told me to go to bed at that time]but as there was no more beer forthcoming we dutifully obliged and went to bed.next morning we paid the bill and made a quick escape,not even bothering with the breakfast.

 

[wideparting]

the gulag,sorry hotel

the gulag

 

[wideparting]

day 7.very misty start and we thought we were in for some bad weather,but the further south we got. the brighter it became. through a little village and we came to what we thought was a peage.nobody bothered to come out so i rode on.then all of a sudden garl is screaming something and i turned around to see two differently dressed border guards rushing out of the little huts.oops i think i should have stopped there,anyway pushes the bike backwards and apologised to these chaps about not stopping.always smile i was told at border crossings and it seemed to work.after a few miutes they must have realised we werent drug smugglers or international terrorists and let us go.after another fifty yards another border post,manned and i use the term loosely by a cross between a east german shot putter and a lifer from prisoner cell block h. now i dont mind getting on the wrong side of two armed border guards,but there was no way i was going to upset this little sweetie.she grunted something to us,the only thing i could think of was passports,thank god i was right.a quick stamp in the passports another grunt a we were in croatia,hooray.through a little place called delnice,juice and coffee and away.we had planned to ride the inland road the e71 on my map an a road ,but it turned out to be a bloody great motorway with hardly any traffic on it.[note to self,buy an up to date mape,a lot of roads change in 7 years]took a ticket from the toll box thingy and we were away.weather getting hotter now lovely. an unventful long motorway journey,quite boring but the occasional stop for a brew.we had arranged to stay in brela on the adriatic,and arrived there late afternoon.i had called maja our hostess for the weekend,she was great texted me directions to the hotel.got to brela but couldnt find majas place,so rang her again and she said were are you.we are outside the apartman sobe i said.she seemed a little puzzled but said head for the middle of brela and she would find us so we did.met up with maja and followed her in her car back to the hotel.[it was only later she told me apartman sobe,means apartment to rent,and as this was out of season every feckin apartment for miles around had apartman sobe on there signs outside.[must learn a foreign language].temparature mucho hotto now,we parked the bikes walked up the steps onto the patio and four very large ice cold beers awaited us.valhalla.a few more beers and off for a crackin meal just up the road and more liquid refreshment.i have thought long and hard about whether i should tell my fellow tossers about this place,more info in my next episode.