Southern East Europe

Last week, a work colleague (Willi) and I did a small tour around the Southern part of Eastern Europe (if that makes sense). It was good timing for me - I quit my job on the Friday, then left work early to finish packing the bike and ride to the Autozug terminal in Cologne-Troisdorf.

And now a summary of the 6 days (with thoughts and observations) and some of the pictures…..

Day 1 (290 km):

Staggered off the Autozug in Munich, having not slept a wink, despite having a proper bed. It didn’t help that my travel “partners“ snored the whole night long. As we pulled away, the rain started, although thankfully it turned out to be only a light shower, which quickly gave way to sunshine. Over the border into Austria, the Grießenpass turned out to be a bit of a non-event. We eventually decided to ride the Großglockner Hochstrasse, although it’s ridiculously expensive at EUR 17 per bike (EUR 26 for cars). This allows you to ride the whole area for one day, so if you spend the whole day there, I guess it’s not so bad. The sticker that you get with the day ticket contributes to about 10 cents worth.

I think it’s the only road I’ve experienced where bikes outnumber cars by at least 5 to 1, although it was a Saturday. Nothing came past our two GS’s (Willi‘s 1100 and my 1150), but we passed lots. Snow melt on the corners was a bit of a problem on the Southern side. You come bombing downhill, only to find half a centimetre of water on the apex.

We stayed in a Pension in Iselsberg recommended by “Tourenfahrer“ magazine, which wasn’t brilliant, but was friendly and had a proper garage for the bikes. A journalist turned up on the new naked K1200R, but didn’t want to spend much time talking to the likes of us.

In the evening, we decided we should probably start planning where to go next. After poring over the free maps I got from the ADAC, we decided it might be fun to see how many countries we could visit over the coming days, and that we should take a picture of the bikes at each border.

On the Großglockner Hochstrasse....

Still on the Großglockner Hochstrasse....

Day 2 (535 km):

Started off at 08:00 and rode over the Plöckenpass into Italy, later returning into Austria, then over the Wurzenpass into Slovenia. A miserable border guard checked the passports, then off towards the Vrsic Pass. If ever there was a road designed specifically for GS’s, then this is it. It’s really tight and twisty, with an awful road surface. All of the hairpins are cobbled. It was great fun to see the sports bikes pottering along, unable to go fast for fear of damaging something permanently, while we blasted past, often standing on the pegs due to the rough surface.

The road surface was much better in the various valleys, the roads still being full of curves, winding their way along various rivers. In Ilirska Bistrica, we took the unmade/gravel track to Mašun, which lies in the middle of nowhere in the forest. The road was surprisingly well used, but again, no sports bikes in site! After returning to tarmac, we headed for the Croatian border, then rode to the coast at Rijeka to start our Hotel/Pension hunt, which continued until Omišalj on the Krk island, which is reached by a toll bridge (EUR 2.50 per bike). Came across the “Hotel Adriatic“, which was a typical tourist hotel, right next to the sea with good, clean single rooms available for EUR 27 including breakfast.

On the Plöckenpass...

Between Mašun and Ilirska Bistrica..

Day 3 (420 km):

We set off at 08:00 again, following the coast road until Senj. The road offers good riding and superb views over the sea, but is full of traffic and rather low speed limits/no overtaking areas. The trucks here aren’t using Euro diesel, therefore constantly belch out a stinking black mixture from their exhausts. Rode over the Vratnik Pass, which isn’t very high, but still entertaining, especially with the “interesting“ road surface. We rode through several villages where every house was pockmarked with bullet holes from the war.

After seeing signs to Bihaæ in Bosnia, decided to ride there to see what it was like. A friendly guard at the border crossing (currently a dirt crossing, but a new modern one is being built) was interested in the bikes, especially what they cost. Once in Bosnia, mosques replace churches and the roads deteriorate, although the people are really friendly and the driving style excellent, with many drivers giving us room when overtaking and stopping at junctions to allow us to continue travelling together. At the head of a roadworks queue, a helmetless bike rider in the other direction waved cheerfully at us. As he went past, we saw he was in police uniform, on his white 2 stroke MZ police bike – not quite the tearaway we imagined.

After a cup of coffee in Bihaæ, we returned to Croatia to visit Plitvièka Jezera, Croatia’s most famous national park, with crystal clear water everywhere, and more waterfalls than I’ve ever seen. We spend a couple of hours walking around, then decided that we should try and make Belgrade as our overnight stop.

At about 4:30 in the afternoon, shortly after riding past Karlovac, the GPS indicated that we still had another 450 km to go before reaching Belgrade. Disappointed, we decided that it would be too much, and headed to the centre of Zagreb instead. Being rush hour when we arrived, it was hot, dusty, polluted and full of traffic. After finding that the average hotel price was way above our budget, we decided to at least see some of the town, then try and find somewhere outside to stay.

The town itself is OK, but as rain was threatening and we were by now rather tired, we left to search for accommodation. The value of GPS cannot be stated at this time, since the only map we had showed Zagreb as a dot (Scale of 1: 1,750,000). Following the built-in map soon had us on the ring road heading North-East. We eventually spotted a new-looking Pension by the roadside near a village called Sv. Ivan Zelina. This cost only EUR 25 per new, clean, room. The owner moved one of his cars out of the garage to let us park the bikes under cover, and about 5 minutes later, the heavens opened – talk about good timing. Good food and good beer soon had us asleep.

Modern high-tech border crossing between Croatia and Bosnia..

In the Plitvièka Jezera national park.

In the centre of Zagreb.

Day 4 (690 km):


Since the thoughtful owner had given us rooms at the back of the hotel, we awoke to bird song, rather than traffic noise. Since we didn’t make Belgrade, we decided that at least we should ride into the South-West tip of Serbia and Montenegro, so the next 4 - 5 hours was spent riding almost the entire width of North Croatia. Arriving at the border crossing at Erdut, (yet another) friendly border guard waved us to the front of the queue, then stamped me out of the country. At this point, he warned us that Willi might not be allowed into Serbia, since he only had his Identity card with him, not a full passport.

We rode over the no-man’s land bridge across the Danube to the checkpoint. The many guards here were really friendly, with one of them speaking perfect English. All of them were interested in the bikes and had many questions, during which time our documents went backwards and forwards between huts (obviously each time to someone higher in authority), but in the end the message was clear – no passport, no entry. At this point, we realised that we’d have to turn round and ride back through Croatia to reach Hungary – our next destination. The positive side was that we hadn’t tried to reach Belgrade the day before, only to be turned back!

One of the border guards suggested that we split up – me to ride through Serbia, and my colleague to ride back about 50 km, then take a small ferry over the river into Hungary, then meet at the border crossing at Hercegszántó after another comparatively short ride.

A crowd surrounded me whilst I input the town “Hercegszántó“ into the GPS, with all the many questions (“What does that do? What’s this reading? How much does it cost?“), then I gave my maps and my remaining Croatian currency (not accepted in Serbia – Euro also not, for the first time) to Willi. The GPS calculated 66 km to the border with Hungary and I reckoned on having enough fuel for another 100 km.

The roads in this part of Serbia were in a relatively poor condition, and very flat and very straight. As in Bosnia, the drivers were really courteous, as soon as I came up behind a car / bus / truck, they pulled straight over to let me pass, although I was riding quite sedately to conserve fuel. I stopped in the small town of Sombor for a quick look round. It came obvious that there is no apparent helmet law in Serbia, so I then rode the last 20km or so to the border at Baèki Breg without, since the weather was perfect at this point.

After crossing the border into Hungary, I rode past the first fuel station and decided to ride a bit further to see if I could find a better meeting point to meet Willi. Thoughts started going through my head – will we end up min completely different places? What if…..etc., etc.? Only 1 or 2 minutes later, I saw a bike headlamp coming in the other direction, and sure enough, it was Willi, having made good time on Croatia and not stopped at all, apart from fuel.

We then rode toward Lake Balaton. The roads in Hungary were in excellent condition, but very boring, being flat and straight. Saw more Trabants here than I’ve ever seen in East Germany. A really strong head / side wind gave us neck ache after a couple of hours, but we pressed on. Arriving at Balaton, the Hotels / Pensions were either non-existent or looked pretty rough. One nice hotel had rooms available, but at exorbitant prices. We decided to head for Veszprém, only to find that all hotels there were fully booked. We then decided to ride towards Székesfehérvár. Stopping at several roadside places, each time we were told that all rooms were fully booked. We started to wonder whether this was only because we were on bikes. Arriving in Székesfehérvár, the only hotel that would give us rooms was even more expensive than that at Balaton, so we decided to turn round and go back. It was now 8:45 pm and the light was fading and we were absolutely shattered from riding into the strong headwinds all the time.

Stopping at one last roadside Pension proved fruitful – two single rooms available at EUR 25 per room. The rooms were large, which is about the only positive thing about the place, but the food was actually quite good. For some strange reason, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands visited the place in 1996, which I think was possibly the last time they cleaned the bathroom. I wonder if she slept in the same bed as me?

Finally reached Serbia....

Pit stop in a Serbian village.

Day 5 (567 km):

We decided to get the hell out of Hungary as quickly as possible, so we rode North into strong head / side winds on fast, straight, flat roads to the Slovakian border at Komárom / Komárno. The Slovakian driving style again very courteous to bikes, but the constant wind on the flat, straight roads for the next 2 hours was hard work,

We decided to take an early lunch break in the centre of Bratislava, a city I’ve visited many times and always enjoy (mainly due to the incredibly high number of beautiful women there!). The local bike riders are really friendly, shouting hello as well as waving.

After an ice-cream in the main square, we headed towards Austria, and after some more interesting good-quality roads, rode into the Czech Republic. The road condition deteriorated rapidly, but still with plenty of curves. Again, the GS was the perfect bike for these conditions.

Between Tøeboò and Èeské Budìjovice, we spotted a new-looking Pension from the side of the road, which turned out to be a fully restored farmhouse, originally built in 1368. The rooms were modern, large and clean and cost only EUR 30 including breakfast. Whilst checking in, someone came into the kitchen with a huge carp that he’d just caught from the pond in front of the building.

After a quick shower and change of clothes, we were told the kitchen was officially closed, but that the chef would happily cook the carp that had just been caught. This was washed down with a surprisingly good local wine.

The by-now regular planning session in the evening got us deciding that we could probably make home the following day. We both of the opinion that stopping somewhere in Germany on the way home would probably be an anticlimax now.

Slovakia.

In Bratislava.

On route in the Czech Republic.

Day 6 (901 km):

After chatting with the Pension owner and a walk around part of the farm, we eventually headed off just after 09:00. Following the advice of the Pension owner, we cut across country over some very small roads to the old walled town of Èeské Krumlov. We walked through the old town up to the castle and watched the bear being fed, before heading towards the large vod. Nádrž Lipro lake. The roads around here are superb, except for the gravel on many of the sharper corners.

After a drink stop at Domažlice, we headed back into Germany, which involved a hot and slow ride in full sunshine over the border/customs post. From here, we rode over the “A” road to Regensburg, then took the A3 motorway towards home. After averaging 150 km/h for the time in Germany (although I did get flashed twice – thankfully the cameras here photograph the front), I finally arrived home at 9:00 pm, after a total of 3476km in the 6 days.

The only problem now is “where next?”. I still have a valid multiple entry visa for Russia in my passport, and the cogs are already turning…..

Still in the Czech Republic.

The entrance to the old town of Èeské Krumlov.