My work colleague, Martin Nelhams (an occassional visitor to UKGSer as he rides a KTM990) had for a while been hatching a plan to ride to Istanbul. Short of a <strike>mug</strike> companion to ride with him, I offered up.
We debated which route to take and decided to travel through Romania in both directions. In the event, we didn't do that but took a return route via Italy.
Here's approximately where we went:
Day 1 (Weds 19th May 2010):
We both left work at midday and had arranged to meet at EuroTunnel. We were quickly loaded and headed south through France towards Strasbourg and stopped the night in Saint Avold.
Day 2
Destination: The Eagle's Nest
With the Zumos set for Berchtesgaden, we rode through some fairly miserable weather to get to Bavaria.
Finding a bed for the night, we explored this pretty town in the evening.
Day 3
On the bikes up to the car park of The Eagle's Nest.
Then the mandatory bus-ride to the house. Regrettably, the weather was poor so we didn't get the good views.
Back on the bikes, we headed towards Hungary and some really heavy rain before pitching up at Kecskemet in Hungary - hometown of composer Zoltan Kodaly.
Day 4
Martin's Autocom 3.5mm jack connection to his ear-monitors had been giving trouble and finally gave up the ghost. So we decided to find somewhere to either fit a new jack-socket or to remove the jack and simply solder the connections together. Luckily there was a KTM dealer just a few yards from our hotel who lent us their workshop and soldering iron. Job done.
Back on the road, we headed for Romania but found a few pleasant places for coffee breaks....
... and some bloody great birds and bird's nests ...
Once into Romania, things slowed down considerably. No major motorways and villages with 50kph limits (or lower) that we seemed to ride into after only a minute or so on the open roads. There were Police everywhere - clearly out to inflate the coffers from unwary motorists. General driving standards were pretty appalling. Within an hour we had seen two major smashes. Late in the day we arrived on the scene on an accident that clearly hadn't long occurred. It was hard to see exactly what had happened, but an artic had left the road and ended up across a railway track. Luckily an approaching passenger train had stopped about 100m short of the lorry wreck. Less fortunate was the occupant of a car that may have been hit by the lorry. As I rode past, he was still in the car but very clearly brown bread.
We found a hotel shortly afterwards.
Day 5
As we were in Transylvania, we headed for Dracula's Castle and the TransFagarasan Pass. The quickest way on the map was via a green lane (we'll it would have been rude not to):
Unfortunately, the locals told us that an essential bridge had been washed away and that we would have to take the main road - a 60 mile detour.
But we made it up the TransFagarasan as far as we could - snow eventually blocking our way just before the summit:
So we rode down again:
The road up to the TransFagaran was pretty rough. The KTM surprisingly suffered and left Martin with a dead bike.
A loose battery terminal was soon fettled...
... and we headed south and to the Friendship Bridge which crosses the Danube and into Bulgaria:
This bridge was bumper-to-bumper with heavy trucks and only one lane in each direction. Queue-jumping cars caused massive problems when a vehicle came the other way!!
Shortly after the border, we checked into this motel - about £15 for a room!!
Day 6
The border into Turkey was nothing but faff - well over an hour to buy insurance; tourist visas, show V5s and get all the stamps into the passports. But we were rewarded with some decent roads and warm weather (although we narrowly avoided a heavy thunderstorm).
Timolgra's words were ringing in my ears - Istanbul is a massive sprawling city of 12.8m people.
Roads were chaotic - every car diving for any free square metre of tarmac; every driver on their mobile phone; nobody indicates anything and nobody uses their mirrors. Turkish Police use GS1200s in T-shirts!!
Day 7
We hacked our way into Istanbul and joined the queue to cross the Bosphorus into Asia. Somewhat warm in our biking gear and with the traffic not really moving, we opted to use the auto-toll intended for those with pre-paid transducers. Unfortunately, we set off all the alarms but didn't stop to sort out what we had done!!
We found our way to the prosperous waterfront on the Asian side and had a quick Coke:
Then we headed home.
The border between Turkey and Greece was an interesting affair - armed solders in tin-hats in the sweltering head. Clearly no love between these two nations.
We dropped off the motorway to find a rather pleasant hotel in the middle of nowhere on the beach of the Med.
Day 8
Staying off the motorways for a while, we headed west intent on catching a ferry to Italy. Some beautiful roads:
We met up with a couple of Greek bikers who were riding back to Athens having also been to Istanbul. They fully agreed that riding in Istanbul is crazy!!
The Egnatia Odos motorway to Igoumenitsa is something else:
Built at a cost of €6.77bn - it cuts a real swathe through western Greece and has some great biking bends!
At Igoumenitsa we met up with Sam - the first Brit biker we had seen since leaving the UK. Sam was riding a rather tired Honda 600 into which an equally tired 650 Dominator engine had been fitted. He was on an 8-week trip to/from Iran.
Later that evening we left Sam and took the ferry to Italy.
Day 9
Off the ferry at Ancona, we headed for the Alps but ended the day about 30 miles south of Milan.
A trade of texts with BHT and we found that our intended route of the Stevio was closed, so we replanned.
Day 10
We set out for France via a couple of lower passes.
The first was the Col d'Arpy into La Thuile - a narrow road with many tight hairpins but some lovely sights:
Then the Petit Col St Bernard between La Thuile and La Rosiere:
before heading north by the RN routes to Calais. We got as far as this pleasant hotel in Le Parcey
Day 11
An easy run to Calais and home.
Job's a good 'un!
Greg
We debated which route to take and decided to travel through Romania in both directions. In the event, we didn't do that but took a return route via Italy.
Here's approximately where we went:
Day 1 (Weds 19th May 2010):
We both left work at midday and had arranged to meet at EuroTunnel. We were quickly loaded and headed south through France towards Strasbourg and stopped the night in Saint Avold.
Day 2
Destination: The Eagle's Nest
With the Zumos set for Berchtesgaden, we rode through some fairly miserable weather to get to Bavaria.
Finding a bed for the night, we explored this pretty town in the evening.
Day 3
On the bikes up to the car park of The Eagle's Nest.
Then the mandatory bus-ride to the house. Regrettably, the weather was poor so we didn't get the good views.
Back on the bikes, we headed towards Hungary and some really heavy rain before pitching up at Kecskemet in Hungary - hometown of composer Zoltan Kodaly.
Day 4
Martin's Autocom 3.5mm jack connection to his ear-monitors had been giving trouble and finally gave up the ghost. So we decided to find somewhere to either fit a new jack-socket or to remove the jack and simply solder the connections together. Luckily there was a KTM dealer just a few yards from our hotel who lent us their workshop and soldering iron. Job done.
Back on the road, we headed for Romania but found a few pleasant places for coffee breaks....
... and some bloody great birds and bird's nests ...
Once into Romania, things slowed down considerably. No major motorways and villages with 50kph limits (or lower) that we seemed to ride into after only a minute or so on the open roads. There were Police everywhere - clearly out to inflate the coffers from unwary motorists. General driving standards were pretty appalling. Within an hour we had seen two major smashes. Late in the day we arrived on the scene on an accident that clearly hadn't long occurred. It was hard to see exactly what had happened, but an artic had left the road and ended up across a railway track. Luckily an approaching passenger train had stopped about 100m short of the lorry wreck. Less fortunate was the occupant of a car that may have been hit by the lorry. As I rode past, he was still in the car but very clearly brown bread.
We found a hotel shortly afterwards.
Day 5
As we were in Transylvania, we headed for Dracula's Castle and the TransFagarasan Pass. The quickest way on the map was via a green lane (we'll it would have been rude not to):
Unfortunately, the locals told us that an essential bridge had been washed away and that we would have to take the main road - a 60 mile detour.
But we made it up the TransFagarasan as far as we could - snow eventually blocking our way just before the summit:
So we rode down again:
The road up to the TransFagaran was pretty rough. The KTM surprisingly suffered and left Martin with a dead bike.
A loose battery terminal was soon fettled...
... and we headed south and to the Friendship Bridge which crosses the Danube and into Bulgaria:
This bridge was bumper-to-bumper with heavy trucks and only one lane in each direction. Queue-jumping cars caused massive problems when a vehicle came the other way!!
Shortly after the border, we checked into this motel - about £15 for a room!!
Day 6
The border into Turkey was nothing but faff - well over an hour to buy insurance; tourist visas, show V5s and get all the stamps into the passports. But we were rewarded with some decent roads and warm weather (although we narrowly avoided a heavy thunderstorm).
Timolgra's words were ringing in my ears - Istanbul is a massive sprawling city of 12.8m people.
Roads were chaotic - every car diving for any free square metre of tarmac; every driver on their mobile phone; nobody indicates anything and nobody uses their mirrors. Turkish Police use GS1200s in T-shirts!!
Day 7
We hacked our way into Istanbul and joined the queue to cross the Bosphorus into Asia. Somewhat warm in our biking gear and with the traffic not really moving, we opted to use the auto-toll intended for those with pre-paid transducers. Unfortunately, we set off all the alarms but didn't stop to sort out what we had done!!
We found our way to the prosperous waterfront on the Asian side and had a quick Coke:
Then we headed home.
The border between Turkey and Greece was an interesting affair - armed solders in tin-hats in the sweltering head. Clearly no love between these two nations.
We dropped off the motorway to find a rather pleasant hotel in the middle of nowhere on the beach of the Med.
Day 8
Staying off the motorways for a while, we headed west intent on catching a ferry to Italy. Some beautiful roads:
We met up with a couple of Greek bikers who were riding back to Athens having also been to Istanbul. They fully agreed that riding in Istanbul is crazy!!
The Egnatia Odos motorway to Igoumenitsa is something else:
Built at a cost of €6.77bn - it cuts a real swathe through western Greece and has some great biking bends!
At Igoumenitsa we met up with Sam - the first Brit biker we had seen since leaving the UK. Sam was riding a rather tired Honda 600 into which an equally tired 650 Dominator engine had been fitted. He was on an 8-week trip to/from Iran.
Later that evening we left Sam and took the ferry to Italy.
Day 9
Off the ferry at Ancona, we headed for the Alps but ended the day about 30 miles south of Milan.
A trade of texts with BHT and we found that our intended route of the Stevio was closed, so we replanned.
Day 10
We set out for France via a couple of lower passes.
The first was the Col d'Arpy into La Thuile - a narrow road with many tight hairpins but some lovely sights:
Then the Petit Col St Bernard between La Thuile and La Rosiere:
before heading north by the RN routes to Calais. We got as far as this pleasant hotel in Le Parcey
Day 11
An easy run to Calais and home.
Job's a good 'un!
Greg
apart from no holiday booked till next month
