Loooong Euro Trip - Dribblers on Tour

[MartinK]

The evening we arrived in Sibiu, we went to a steak restaurant my girlfriend had taken me to about 4 years earlier. I remembered fabulous steaks and great prices. It's called the Benjamin Steak Bar. This time it was a bit variable, not helped by a snotty waiter. My steak dinner was awesome tho, lovely T Bone, fries, and creamed spinach with a fried egg.

I had remembered pricing - 4 years ago - being surprisingly reasonable (about £15 for a big steak meal like the one above) but inflation has hit and prices seemed to have trebled. Still pretty good value but not the bargain price of 4 years ago!

The next day, we had the rest day in Sibiu. Once the bikes had been washed, and the clothing through the washing machine it was time to check out the delights of Sibiu.

Of course we started with a beer!


And we can thoroughly recommend "Ribs & Beer" - they have their own brewery, and served great beer, and good portions of decent food at good prices



To finish off, we had to have a local dessert called Papanasi (pronounced Papanache). It's like a doughnut base, freshly made, and covered in a fruit puree and local cheese (don't think cheese in the UK sense of the word, it's more like a yoghurt or creme freche)... delicious

 

[MartinK]

It was now Monday 9th May. We had enjoyed our time off in Sibiu, but we needed to crack-on. The Ferry was on Sunday, so only 6 days left.

We headed West in the general direction of Lake Balaton (in Hungary), but that was too far for one day's riding, so we decided to break the journey in Timisoara. It turned out to be a lovely choice. Timisoara has a beautiful centre to the old town, many squares and pretty streets.

Some lovely street "art"



Pretty squares:


Nice bars:


And wonderful architecture:


We used the "Hotel Central" ( https://www.hotel-central.ro/ ) which was well located, and good value.

 

[MartinK]

Leaving Timisoara the next morning, it was about an hour's ride to the Border with Hungary. As we're crossing back into the Schengen area, it's a full-check at the border, including Passport and V5... We crossed on a fairly quiet crossing, so it was pretty quick. Obligatory border photo:


Our destination was to be Lake Balaton. It's the largest lake in Central Europe. It is huge, and takes ages to ride around it's Eastern and Southern shores to Keszthely - our chosen destination for the evening. We booked into the Abbazia Hotel https://abbazia-clubhotel.hu/en

and went for a mooch around like tourists:


There had been a stage of the Tour de Hungary which was finishing as we arrived. There were presentations going on in this lovely large building (borrowed pic). We watched for a while, and then went and found a traditional Hungarian restaurant to test out the local food...

 

[Orinoco]

Leaving Timisoara the next morning, it was about an hour's ride to the Border with Hungary. As we're crossing back into the Schengen area, it's a full-check at the border, including Passport and V5... We crossed on a fairly quiet crossing, so it was pretty quick. Obligatory border photo:
View attachment 263944

Our destination was to be Lake Balaton. It's the largest lake in Central Europe. It is huge, and takes ages to ride around it's Eastern and Southern shores to Keszthely - our chosen destination for the evening. We booked into the Abbazia Hotel https://abbazia-clubhotel.hu/en

and went for a mooch around like tourists:
View attachment 263948

There had been a stage of the Tour de Hungary which was finishing as we arrived. There were presentations going on in this lovely large building (borrowed pic). We watched for a while, and then went and found a traditional Hungarian restaurant to test out the local food...

Goulash?
Enjoying the photos and trip log, carry on

 

[MartinK]

The initial plan now was to head over the Alps into Austria, and then North back through Germany, with one more planned "rest day".

This was the route we planned for the day, it included the "Mariazell Pass" through the Alps which is one of the "best biking roads":


...and it was a "best biking road" - some really good tarmac, and lovely scenery.

However. The weather changed late in the day, and the descent after Mariazell was often damp. Rain came on.

We had made a decision during lunch though. Forget the day off the bikes...let's do some more exploring and head for Czech Republic! So we did.

Before leaving UK, I had seen a suggested route through Czech Republic by a youtuber called Saffy Sprocket. We had briefly considered this option over a beer whilst still in UK, and I put the route on the memory card of my NAV6 "just in case".

As the weather was rubbish, we headed off route just before Steyr, and headed North towards Czech republic.

After a few soakings, we stopped in a tiny town called Gutau, still in Austria. We were getting tired and it was late in the day. We found a hotel called Gasthof Oyrer. The rooms were OK, the beer good so we settled in. The food was excellent. All of a sudden, the manager smashed a glass and refused to serve us more! Somehow we must have inadvertently upset him. It cast a shadow over the evening, but we found another bar over the road instead.

 

[MartinK]

Goulash?
Enjoying the photos and trip log, carry on

Thanks - I'm getting there

 

[MartinK]

So... welcome back to the trip report...

It was now Thursday 11th May. The ferry home was on the Sunday afternoon (from Amsterdam), so just 3 1/2 days of riding left. Our pre-planned route looked like this:


None of us knew much about Czech Republic apart from the usual Prague city break experiences...

It was a dampish start after the previous afternoon's rain. We had left Gutau promptly after our unpleasant experience of the glass throwing the previous evening. Quite quickly we were over the border into Czech republic, and onto dry tarmac.

Probably less than 2 hours after leaving Gutau, we arrived in Cesky Krumlov. It was fabulous! We snapped a few pics:

1. This lovely multi-level bridge...


2. Pretty River and weir


3. Nice architecture


It would be a lovely place to re-visit. Plenty to see. It was a bit of a tourist trap tho, and we found a place service a "full English" breakfast, which of course we had to sample

Moving on, we had a real mix of roads. Some minor, some over hills, some through forests, but overall it was a fabulous ride.

We arrived in Karlovy Vary that evening. Another very pretty town. I didn't take any pics, so here's a borrowed one off t'internet...

 

[MartinK]

So we were now (at Karlovy Vary) around 550 miles away (on our chosen route) from the Ferry Terminal. We wanted to see the Harz Forest area. Ideally we would do ~200 miles today (Friday), ~200 miles tomorrow (Saturday) leaving a fairly easy ride to get into Amsterdam (Felison) ferry terminal for 2pm on Sunday.

We had decided our last night would be in Munster.

That meant we would aim to do at least 200 miles today. This was the route...


We made good time leaving Karlovy Vary. Good weather (we had been very lucky the whole trip!) again.

After a couple of hours, we rose into the "Landschaftsschutzgebiet Harz und südliches Harzvorland" - the Harz Nature reserve. Wow! Amazing! The tarmac was stunning, the views terrific. In fairness we barely managed to see the views, we were too busy annihilating the chicken strips from the sidewalls of our tyres! Bend after bend on stunning tarmac.

I can see why many motorcycle tour companies use the Harz area as a holiday destination! Only a days ride from the ferry terminals - it would be a great short-trip destination!

We were so carried away, we barely stopped. Late in the day we had achieved well over 200 miles, and drew into the town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld.

The usual phones-out, search for hotels revealed nothing, but we set off searching, and soon found a lovely hotel - the Golden Crown I guess is the translation!

The proprietors were very bike-friendly, having a bike themselves. They had good parking at the rear. There were a few other (non-British) bikers staying at the hotel. German prices were a bit of a shock having been in CZ, H, RO etc the last few days!

We showered off, and headed out to find beers and food. A pretty little town, we enjoyed a lovely Italian meal (in Germany!!! )

 

[MartinK]

And so it was. Our penultimate day. The Golden Crown was probably the best breakfast of the tour. The first hour of the motorcycling day was as good as ever, still enjoying the Harz roads, but sadly all good things come to an end, and we were soon on flat, straight roads heading to Munster.

We had pre-booked the hotel in Munster the previous evening. Looking at the usual booking sites, there had been little choice in accommodation options, and we ended up in an Ibis hotel. It was clean and well-located, but the bikes were parked on the street. Munster is a bit of a party-town on a Saturday night, although we didn't stay up late enough to join the party!

It's quite a pretty city though!

Shunning the Ibis breakfast we went for a walk in the morning, looking for an eatery, we witnessed the signs of the previous nights party! Some were still out, looking for a way home.

 

[MartinK]

And sadly, that was it for us! A quick ride for the ferry, and we were soon at the Felison Terminal, here we are queuing to board:



All in all, a spectacular trip. Our biggest yet. The bikes behaved (almost) perfectly. We all had new tyres for the trip, so it was interesting to compare notes (general view was that Tourance Next 2 and CTA3 performed better than PR6). I think I averaged about 64mpg according to my screen (we seldom used motorways) and 4730 miles...


Some of the main highlights for me:
1. Germany has great roads, well surfaced and great fun!
2. Cochem and Fussen were gorgeous and deserve another visit.
3. The Route from Fussen to Riva was stunning
4. Riva del Garda is lovely!
5. The Italian National Parks East of Rome were fabulous!
6. Greece! Hospitality was the best!
7. Greece, the route we used from Igoumenitsa to Thessolonica was a true adventure
8. The Buzludzha and the Shipka Pass
9. Transylvania! Worthy of a holiday on it's own. Lots more to explore
10. Czech - a wonderful surprise. Some great roads, some jaw-dropping pretty towns.
11. Harz - motorcycle heaven (possibly even more so than the Picos!!!)

My bike has probably done more miles on European roads than UK roads! I tend to use my V85TT travelling round Britain!

 

[MartinK]

Next? 2024 will probably be a short one, to maintain relationships and prevent divorces. Probably the Pyrenees...

2025... Hmm...already discussing Scandinavia and the Nordcapp, ... or maybe even North Africa...

 

[Headtester]

A thoroughly enjoyable read, very envious!

 

[kevof]

Really enjoyed that it brought back a lot of memories of a ride i did to Turkey pre covid good job.

 

[ymfb]

Great report and some ideas for a future trip, thanks

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Thank you for taking the time to add this report which, along with a few others recently posted on here, has focussed my mind on what trip to do next year, inshAllah.

 

[Wildfowler]

Great reading and thanks for sharing

 

[Guru Gora]

Great stuff, thanks for taking the time

 

[Khulu]

Enjoyed your story.

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[timeandtide]

Enjoyed your story.

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Me too.
Cheers!

 

[fatbob99]

looks like a great trip
thanks for sharing